Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series)

The Masterpiece Society (1992)

Jonathan Frakes: Commander William Thomas 'Will' Riker

Photos 

Quotes 

• Commander William T. Riker : We've got a problem. Our core fragment is going to pass by Moab IV in six days.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Isn't that exactly what we anticipated?

  Commander William T. Riker : We didn't anticipate there would be someone living there.

• Aaron Conor : We grow up knowing exactly what our society needs from us, what we are expected to do.

  Commander William T. Riker : That must take some of the fun out of it.

  Aaron Conor : Not at all. My entire psychological makeup tells me that I was born to lead. I am exactly what I would choose to be. Think of it another way: are there still people in your society who have not yet discovered who they really are or what they were meant to do with their lives? They may be in the wrong job, they may be writing bad poetry or, worse yet, they may be great poets working as laborers, never to be discovered. That does not happen here.

• [last lines] 

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : If ever we needed reminding of the importance of the Prime Directive, it is now.

  Commander William T. Riker : The Prime Directive doesn't apply. They're Human.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Doesn't it? Our very presence may have damaged, even destroyed their way of life. Now, whether or not we agree with that way of life, whether they're Human or not, is irrelevant, Number One. We are responsible.

  Commander William T. Riker : We had to respond to the threat of the core fragment, didn't we?

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Of course we did, but in the end, we may have proved just as dangerous to that colony as any core fragment could ever have been.