Would TNG Have Lasted Minus Picard?

[CMWaters]

So a random discussion with a friend of mine got us thinking:

Best of Both Worlds...rumors are going around that Patrick Stewart might not renew his contract for Season 4 save for the end of the two parter. In this timeline, he did, and would finish up his run on the series, as well as 4 movies and the new 3 season show that's going on now.

But had he not renewed, and they shifted Riker into the Captain role on the show, could it have continued on to a Season 7 and 4 movies? Obviously either way the show would be vastly different (Q's attentions and interactions sans "Mon Capitan" for example, and a "First Contact" in this universe would be much different with no Picard/Borg connection), but would the lack of Patrick Stewart and his strong presence have hurt them? And would that have hurt the future spin-offs of DS9 and Voyager (the latter wouldn't have had Janeway being able to refer to Picard's past logs for the Borg, as well as the events of "First Contact" being different. All assuming that the show is still successful enough with no Picard.

My friend doesn't think that things would have continued as strong as they did, but I wanted to see what you guys think.

[Frustration]

No disrespect to Jonathan Frakes, but Patrick Stewart is a very good actor. Some of the best TNG episodes relied on Stewart's Picard carrying the main story, and I don't think Frakes could have replaced him.

Losing even just "Chain of Command Part II" would be a massive blow.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Holy shit Sisko's carnation as a character makes so much more sense now.

Anyway, yeah given DS9's commander's characterization and Riker's successful transition after the first 2 seasons of TNG, there's not much in the way of saying that it wouldn't have worked.

Riker is arguably more enjoyable to watch, but Stewart effortlessly steals the scene.

[hammerofglass]

It definitely would have been very different, to the point of basically being a different show. Picard gradually became more and more The Main Character as things went on, especially in the movies.

[Winter]

I think it would have been good BUT I don't think it would be as good. Frakes is a great actor and could carry the show but Riker, IMO, is to much like Kirk. I think Frakes even called him a Kirk in training and you see that throughout the series as even though he is his own character he feels like Kirk just more green. But Picard is Picard. There's a reason the whole Kirk vs. Picard debate is a thing even to this day because he's so different from the OG Captain that kicked this series off and so many episodes in the later seasons work BECAUSE OF Picard.

Tapestry, Family, The Inner Light, Chain of Command and of course All Good Things are seen as some of the best episodes in the series and all either have Picard as the focus or play a key role. And First Contact, IMO, works as well as it does because of Picard's unique relationship with the Borg and the same goes for his relationship with Q throughout the series. As good as the show might have been, I think that Riker as the lead would have resulted in TNG losing what made it unique and likely would never have been as iconic as it is.

I love Riker and I do find it annoying how Best of Both Worlds kinda renders his arc throughout the first three seasons pointless but he still has several great episodes and his presents in TNG helped to make it unique from TOS.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Picard does remind me of a mixture between Spock and McCoy, at least for the first two seasons before his mind meld with Serek.

[McAvoy]

Riker couldn't carry the show like Picard did. Season 4 probably woukd have started out like that but I bet later on writers would start using the other characters more.

I bet it would end at Season 6 then 7.

Then again if you think about at that time at the end of season 3 and beginning of season 4, we only got to see Picard as we know him for one season. The other two, he was insufferable and arrogant.

So we may be doing this with benefit of knowing how Picard is over four more seasons of TNG. Instead of just seeing him three, two of which were bad seasons overall.

Though having four seasons of Shelby as First Officer would be very interesting.

[Mabus]

TNG would have to change pretty significantly if Riker was to replace Picard.
I don't think it would have worked honestly.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I think the Enterprise with Riker as captain in Parallels was probably where the show was supposed to end up, as that Picard died after being captured by the Borg around Wolf 359.

[McAvoy]

I think the Enterprise with Riker as captain in Parallels was probably where the show was supposed to end up, as that Picard died after being captured by the Borg around Wolf 359.

I am sure that was brought up in the writers meeting for that episode. Or probably alreasy thought up.