Defiant

Stardate 48467.3: DS9’s crew welcomes Commander Riker aboard, stopping off at the station en route to Risa. He gets a tour of the station from Kira, ending up at the Defiant – which he hijacks, with Kira as his prisoner. This “commander” is Thomas Riker, now a member of the Maquis on the run from Starfleet. His target is a secret Cardassian installation which, as Gul Dukat and Sisko find when they go to Cardassia to coordinate the search for the Defiant, is apparently an operation of the Obsidian Order, Cardassia’s widely-feared secret police and intelligence wing. Kira doubts that Riker’s motives are the same as those of the Maquis, but are instead sparked by an obsession to dinstinguish himself in the annals of history from the Enterprise’s first officer. In the meantime, Riker’s discoveries in the secret depths of Cardassian space surprise everyone, including Dukat.

written by Ronald D. Moore
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat), Tricia O’Neil (Korinas), Shannon Cochran (Kalita), Robert Kerbeck (Cardassian Soldier), Michael Canavan (Tamal)

Notes: “Thomas” Riker, a clone of the Enterprise’s Will Riker created in a freak transporter accident, was introduced in Next Generation’s Second Chances episode during the sixth season of that show; Kalita was seen in Next Generation as well, in the penultimate episode Preemptive Strike, in which she was a member of the Maquis cell which Ro Laren joined. Though many ideas were floated for following up on Thomas Riker’s story, including story outlines which explored both his fate and that of Next Generation’s Ensign Sito Jaxa (The First Duty, Lower Decks), the character never appeared again.