Utanför universum
Enligt Jonathan Frakes (skådespelaren som skildrar Riker) var skägget ett resultat av hans personliga hat att raka i kombination med 1988 författarens strejk vilket innebär att han hade mer tid mellan show än normalt. När han deltog i ett manuskript efter strejken avslutade Roddenberry att han tyckte om sin " nautiska " -konnotationer och det fastnade bara.
Q: The beard, was it just a thing you did?
Frakes: What happened was there was a strike, there was a writer's strike after the first season, then we had a meeting with the cast and the late, great Gene Roddenberry, Berman and others. I had grown a beard because I hated to shave, and Roddeberry 'in his vision' said "Jonathan, I love the beard. It'll be nautical. But we'll shape it, and that way it'll be decorative".
Jonathan Frakes: Why Roddenberry wanted Riker to have a beard
I-universum
I TNG: The Pegasus , förklarar Riker att han var sjuk att höra människor kommentera hans ungdomliga utseende.
PRESSMAN: How long have you had the beard?
RIKER: About four years. I think I just got tired of hearing how "young" I looked.
Även om detta vanligen kallas en retcon, finns det minst en förekomst av Riker som kallas "ung" under den första säsongen, av Troi på TNG: Haven . Han kan helt enkelt ha brutit på denna händelse en stund.
RIKER: Have you discussed this with Wyatt? I think you should. It's also damned unfair to me.
TROI: I understand. I should have realised. Humans, young human males particularly, have difficulty separating platonic love and physical love.
RIKER: The problem is, Imzadi, I couldn't. Not now. Call it an old Earth tradition, habit of the beasts, whatever.