WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2, Episode 1 "Strange Energies," streaming now on Paramount+.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 ended with the timely appearance of the USS Titan, commanded by Star Trek: The Next Generation alum Captain William Riker with his wife and the ship's counselor Deanna Troi by his side on the bridge. After successfully saving the USS Cerritos from the attacking Pakleds, Ensign Brad Boimler finally gets the Starfleet job he always wanted, becoming bridge officer on the Titan after suitably impressing Riker enough for the transfer. And with the Lower Decks Season 2 premiere offering another glimpse at the Titan and Boimler under Riker's command, both Riker's approach to the captaincy and the types of adventures the Titan gets into are revealed.
Across all seven seasons and four films featuring The Next Generation cast, Riker was the first person to step up and sit in the USS Enterprise's captain's chair whenever Captain Jean-Luc Picard was otherwise indisposed. His commitment to the job as the Enterprise's first officer led Riker to turn down captaincies on smaller vessels within Starfleet.
However, Riker repeatedly proved himself more than capable of the job, including a memorable encounter against the Borg Collective while Picard was temporarily converted into a drone. The 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis concluded with Riker and Troi leaving the Enterprise for good, with Riker accepting a promotion to captain the Titan, a position he continued to hold by the start of Lower Decks.
Lower Decks reveals the Titan is well-accustomed to engaging in combat-heavy missions, with cinematography normally reserved for Star Trek films. Riker revels in saving the day, expertly driving back the Pakleds while Troi and the rest of his bridge crew are amusedly annoyed by their captain's penchant for making jazz references in another nod to Riker's time in The Next Generation. And though Boimler always longed to serve on high-stakes missions on a ship like the Titan, he quickly learns it's not all it's cracked up to be.
Still battling the Pakleds across Federation space, Boimler finds the whole situation incredibly stressful, with the stakes constantly elevated to life-and-death in sharp contrast to the maintenance and clerical missions undertaken by the Cerritos. What's more, Boimler is similarly concerned by Riker's cavalier attitude and jazz metaphors. If the Cerritos showed the thankless side of working in Starfleet, it's the Titan that showed the action-packed sensibilities that the recent films and Star Trek: Discovery have leaned more into.
Often presented as a more action-ready contrast to the more contemplative Picard, Riker's command on the Titan allows his natural strengths to shine. He is thrilled by the epic space battles and pursuits throughout the cosmos in defense of the Federation. And while this type of captaincy is right in Riker's wheelhouse, Boimler finds himself perhaps longing for the more low stakes level of engagement on the Cerritos in the company of his best friends -- he just has to survive long enough to put in a transfer back to the Cerritos as the Pakleds continue to press their attack on the Titan across the stars.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 streams on Paramount+, with new episodes released on Thursdays.