Mirror Lorca might straight-up be the best villain in all of Trek And that reveal? Chills, every time.
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Who is the worst Star Trek Captain?
- Thread starter Lightning Count
- Start date
Besides being incompetent, Archer just seemed so unpleasant to be around, like someone you have to walk on eggshells around.
Better than actual TOS where they end the series with an episode about how women flat out can't be Captains because they're too emotional.
What's weird is that Saru wasn't just the first alien Captain on the show's main ship, he's one of the first alien Starfleet captains we've ever seen. There have been a few Vulcan captains, but across all the shows there's pretty much nothing else. Lower Decks has given us one Tellarite captain, and DS9 mentioned, but never showed Captain Boday, a Gallamite.
I noticed that a couple of you accidentally voted for Picard. Misclicks happen, so I'm just letting you know!
It's Burnham. Technically not the captain until recently but it doesn't matter as she always acts like one. She is directly responsible for starting a war with the Klingons that nearly destroyed the Federation.
I voted Burnham, I don't get the telling on themselves comment. It's not her leading the show I have issues with, but the showrunners made the show about her and her only which isn't the point of Star Trek. I liked it well enough in the beginning but each season is the same roller coaster ride of escalating doomsday issues and Burnham making odd choices.
1) You can't judge her for anything she did before becoming captain, just like you can't judge Sisko on seasons 1-3.
2) She wasn't responsible for starting that war at all, people just thought that because they didn't have access to the Klingon POV like the audience did. The Klingons were explicitly luring the Federation into a conflict to start a war.
I gave up on Discovery after season 2 so I don't know how Burnham is playing out actually as the captain but I'd be surprised if she was worse than Archer.
Also sort of a tangent but I never quite understood why Sisko cared about Starfleet to point that he was seemingly fundamentally against the Maquis.
Also sort of a tangent but I never quite understood why Sisko cared about Starfleet to point that he was seemingly fundamentally against the Maquis.
I'm not a big fan of Discovery as a Star Trek or even as a sci-fi series, its better than no Star Trek I guess. The plot could be so much better at times especially with the Universe they have setup. Maybe it's just I was expecting more out of it and it just continually disappoints me. But I don't know if it's fair to rank Burham the worst Captain so far when others have done worse things in their series.
It's Archer btw.
It's Archer btw.
Hear me out tho.
Janeway got her crew home and pretty much obliterated the borg.
Sisko won the dominion war and is more or less a god.
Kirk saved the Khitomer accords, the most important agreement in federation history.
Archer the reason the federation exists more or less.
Picard... got kidnapped by the cardassians and borg? I guess? Good whistle player, maybe? Tea aficionado? Q's best friend?
See what I'm getting at here.
Janeway got her crew home and pretty much obliterated the borg.
Sisko won the dominion war and is more or less a god.
Kirk saved the Khitomer accords, the most important agreement in federation history.
Archer the reason the federation exists more or less.
Picard... got kidnapped by the cardassians and borg? I guess? Good whistle player, maybe? Tea aficionado? Q's best friend?
See what I'm getting at here.
Picard saved past Earth and thus also the existence of the Federation in First Contact. More importantly, he was the most moral of the bunch, in the TNG era at least.
OP
OP
I'm sure this was a problem of budget more than anything else, just not wanting to spend the extra time and money to make someone an alien if they're only going to show up as a Starfleet captain in one episode.
The sheer number of humans is Starfleet is annoying, but understandable that it just wasn't a high priority when it came to the budgets of TOS, TNG and DS9 episodes.
To me that's mostly a factor of the quality of their overall show—my ranking of captains would be the same as my rankings of the series. I haven't seen enough of Enterprise or Discovery to judge, and I found Voyager by far the worst of the remaining shows, so I'd have to pick Janeway.
Burnham incapacitates her captain and then strolls onto the Bridge saying "hey everyone I'm the Acting Captain now fire on the Klingons"
She is absolutely Captain for the purposes of the command structure until Georgiou regains consciousness and puts down her mutiny
Burnham started an interstellar war with the Klingons, but she wasn't a captain yet so she gets a pass.
Archer is by far the worst.
Meh, her mutiny puts her in the running for worst starfleet officer but it doesn't make her a captain. Discovery's pilot is still my least favorite thing about the show but it's clearly intended to show her at her lowest so that her arc for the season can be becoming a more responsible and less reactionary officer (which season 2 almost immediately goes back on and she takes another 2 seasons learning how to be captain material).
It's not true though? From what we see from the Klingon point of view they always intended to start a war and it would've happened whether Burnham was there or not.
Sorry but Saru questions her and she lies and says attacking the Klingons is what the Captain wants (meaning her, not Georgiou, but she's telling a lie by omission there).
Unquestionably she has assumed the mantle of Captain for herself there (by definition that's what a mutiny is), so it's to be considered.
The fact she did so much damage in her few moments of command is, in my opinion, not exculpatory.
Eh, true, they probably would have started it anyway. Still, she mutinied and that's bad enough. She regretted it all though at least. Archer never learned shit in comparison.
The main Klingon dude (can't remember his name) definitely wanted a war no matter what but the rest of the Klingons were more circumspect.
Absent Burnham's "we have to attack first it's how they respect you" behaviour, the war might not have happened.
Certainly seems to me more egregious behaviour than Archer bringing his dog along on a first contact lol
Absent Burnham's "we have to attack first it's how they respect you" behaviour, the war might not have happened.
Certainly seems to me more egregious behaviour than Archer bringing his dog along on a first contact lol
Janeway had to navigate through bad writing and her irritating voice but you knew she was a Federation Captain from minute one.
Archer had some same level of bad writing and always felt like a yacht skipper that suffers from severe sea sickness but he doesn't know it.
Burnham ( haven't seen the last season) is the brainy nerdy classmate that thought she did something cool before the teacher grounded her so she tries to stay in shadows ever since.
Kirk suffered of Shatner's overacting but survived because he often had good writers and faced and beat good villains. Also he was Spock's friend.
Picard had to battle with his uniform and mostly bad movie plots but he was the best commander Federation ever had.
Sisko was a chief badass among badasses allies and enemies and was as capable as Picard.
It is Archer.
Archer had some same level of bad writing and always felt like a yacht skipper that suffers from severe sea sickness but he doesn't know it.
Burnham ( haven't seen the last season) is the brainy nerdy classmate that thought she did something cool before the teacher grounded her so she tries to stay in shadows ever since.
Kirk suffered of Shatner's overacting but survived because he often had good writers and faced and beat good villains. Also he was Spock's friend.
Picard had to battle with his uniform and mostly bad movie plots but he was the best commander Federation ever had.
Sisko was a chief badass among badasses allies and enemies and was as capable as Picard.
It is Archer.
Not really, but (and I say this as someone who likes Discovery!) the writing would have been a lot more interesting if it were actually the case.
This board's trekkies are legit problematic and always wanting the show to be cancelled, they don't call her a Black Mary Sue because they don't wanna make their deal too blatant.
Picard saved the entire galaxy from an anti-time anomaly that would have prevented life from even occurring in our galaxy.
He also got Kirk killed in a meaningless way... So it evens out I guess.
If we judged all the other captains based on the dumb shit they did before they became captain thent his discussion would be completely different.
It's unfair to judge Burnham when she literally just became captain. If anything the worst captain is Saru.
I am proud of Era! I must admit I jumped in expecting Sisko the best captain to have more votes and to blast everyone, but it seems I have underestimated everyone.