Including Riker, Who’s Been Through Some Shit
Frakes and Sirtis’ Will Riker and Deanna Troi already previously appeared in Picard, giving us some important insight into their lives after TNG. It established that Riker himself is still a commanding officer in Starfleet, having returned to duty after a period of retirement, while Deanna herself was fully retired from service, raising a family with Will on the planet Nepenthe.
Riker and Troi had two children, Thaddeus and Kestra, but tragedy struck the family when Thad was diagnosed with a rare disease—usually curable, but rendered terminal after a ban on android and synthetic research in the Federation. Thaddeus died as a teenager, a tragedy that’s still haunting both of his parents.
