I'm not having this slander of Terrell. Kirk consistently beamed down with his entire senior staff, and Terrell was of the same era. He also clearly had a much smaller ship and crew than Kirk. He was going to a planet that was initially believed to be completely lifeless, and Starfleet had never bothered to check on the status of Khan or alert ships that he was presumed dead but unaccounted for in that system. Khan took over the Enterprise without the benefit of a mind-controlling ear roach, so to expect more from Terrell, who was assigned to run errands for scientists not command the flagship on expected-to-be-dangerous missions, is just absurd.
1,000,000,000% agree. Captain Terrell should not have been on this list. E.T.A. During this part of the 23rd century, if all of Captain Kirk's actions were any indicator, pretty much ALL captains beamed down on away missions without any reconnaissance or threat assessment. Captain Terrell beamed down to a planet that was supposed to be devoid of all life, to investigate a mysterious sign of life is definitely the same thing Kirk would do, though in Kirk's case, he was beaming down in hopes of beaming into the lap of some hot alien babe with that "itch" that he loves to "scratch". Granted, Captain Terrell should have done a survey of the Seti Alpha system to make sure ALL the planets were there and where they should have be. However, this one instance, even though it led to Captain Terrell's death did not make him a bad captain. It was just a series of unfortunate events.
Dr. McCoy dropped the ball this time. Checkov warned everyone that Kahn had put things in their bodies. Did McCoy bust out his tricorder and perform a scan? Nope. Even the biofilters on the transporters didn't detect the eels.
At least his reincarnation got to save the day with "Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel" (Paul Winfield as Terrell & Dathon) and didn't even need any help from the Metrons (Ref: "Arena", TOS Gorn episode)
@@robertenyart9982In such situations, I imagine several writers around a table, drinking too much coffee (or beer), sputtering “Damn common sense and continuity! We don’t have a choice, we need to move the story along!” 🤷🏻🧐
Why do they keep coming for Captain Terrell? There are 1000 examples of a captain beaming down to the surface and about half of them take their first officers with them. Dude was on a planetary survey during a scientific exploration and wasn't expecting to encounter a revenge plot against Admiral Kirk. When he was truly up against it, he reflected the highest ideals of Starfleet and sacrificed himself instead of doing further harm to those around him.
Admiral Pressman, when captain of the Pegasus, abandoning his ship because the crew turned on him when they knew they were committing an illegal experiment, he let them all die horrific deaths all because of that phasing-cloaking device...
Pressman should have definitely taken Shelbys place IMO. I mean yeah she was ceremonially commanding the Enterprise when it went down but that wasn't a bad captain move.
Decker is a great example of "It's possible to make no mistakes and still lose" He made the correct choice when trying to save his crew. It only turned into the wrong choice in the face of the planet killer. Sadly it was his last moments, when he went full Captain Ahab that we saw in the show.
I guess Maxwell had no ships' counselor? The hell of it is, he was right. Had he captured the ships in lieu of destroying them the situation would have been way different.
PTSD is NOT as easy to recognize & treat as you seem to think. I know because I suffer from PTSD & obviously, judging by your comments, you don't 🤷🏻♂️ ~~Live Long & Prosper 🖖🏻 👽 🛸 ✨️ 🌌🔭
@@scottmcintosh4397 3 decades in law enforcement and close relatives with severe PTSD from recent mid east deployments. I do know a few things about PTSD. But this is ST, 400 years in the future and with telepathic species who are federation members. Plus, we are talking about Starship commanders with known PTSD triggers. I would hope they would be closely monitored and treated.
I won't tolerate Harriman slander. The Man was handed a less than half working ship do to a publicity stunt and went to save lives because it was the right thing to do. He showed extreme poise considering he was under the microscope of the press...something no other Captain that we had seen has had to deal with. He did his ship and crew proud.
@@BabyMakR And He did. Thanks to Him 37 people survived when it would have been an all hands lost scenario. Despite having a ship that was so new they hadn't even taken the plastic wrap off yet.
At the time the episode was filmed, Windom was known as "Willie the Weeper" for his ability to break down and cry on cue. He was the perfect actor to portray Decker. 🖖😎👍
@@brianhanson5110 I'd say that, and when he flew the shuttle into the mouth of the Doomsday Device, were his two finest scenes. Absolutely 100% believable this was a man suffering from PTSD and unimaginable grief.
Eric Pressman -violated interstellar law -had his crew killed after mutinying -lied to an inquiry board -endangered the Federation flagship Trek Culture "OK, sure, but at least he didn't go by the book!"
The guy who runs this channel needs to bone up on his Star Trek lore. In the TOS episode “The Doomsday Machine,” when Captain Kirk first finds Commodore Decker he goes through his logs to find out what happened. As he listened he realized that Decker did everything HE would have done! The implication being, if Kirk had first encountered the planet killer, THAT would have been his fate! When criticizing the actions of others, always remember that hindsight is 20/20. He also conveniently left out the fact that by sacrificing himself, Decker showed Kirk how to destroy the Doomsday Machine, thus saving untold billions of lives. Far from being one of the worst captains in Star Fleet, he was actually one of its better ones. Kirk himself made note of that in his captain’s log.
Yeah, Decker had been given a raw deal. He didn't initiate hostilities with the weapon and his crew likely would've died anyway if they all stayed on board, because it's easier to have air left for one person over dozens to hundreds
I don't see how Harriman, Decker, and Terrell even make the list when Merrick, Pressman, Braxton, and Keogh are out there. Especially Braxton. You've got full control of a TIMESHIP and you can't come up with a better plan than: "Voyager was near a catastrophe! I better go explode them!"
Captain Keogh's mistake was underestimating a new enemy. I mean, Picard did that in "Q Who?" The script gives an animosity bias against Keogh because the audience is inclined to side with Jadzia Dax in their exchanges.
Nog was already a commissioned officer by the time he was on the Valiant... a Lieutenant if I recall correctly. Those cadets should've relinquished the ship the moment he was onboard.
And by the same token, Nog should have insisted on taking command when they didn't. In his defense, when most of your training and experience has centered around following someone else's orders, the transition may take a bit.
Nog was an Ensign, but yes, the crew should have relinquished command, but Nog wanted to be in Red Squad when he was at the Academy and was kind of love bombed into the Red Squad cult when he was aboard. And as said before Nog wasn't use to command he served as an engineer and had been use to taking orders.
Maybe...maybe not. The command of a ship is determined by captain and that person will stand until relieved. Nog officially has no direct authority to relieve Valiant's commander. Think of the TNG episode when the engineer is trying to press LaForge into giving up command when Picard can't be reached. Rank alone is insufficient to determine the command structure on a ship.
@@MrJerks93 You are correct when it comes to Commissioned Officers within the Star Trek Universe. But that's not the case here. Its cadets vs a graduated, commissioned officer. Rodenberry did model Starfleet off of the US Navy. So the moment a fully commissioned officer stepped on board, the cadets should've deferred to them. It would be like a group of Annapolis cadets being out on a training cruise today and all of their US Navy personnel onboard suddenly died. The moment a commissioned line officer steps on board, those cadets have a new leader because none of those cadets are commissioned.
I thought Commedore Decker was unaware that the device he encountered was, in fact, going to destroy the planet. He made the logical choice, given the damage to his ship, and only after learned that the device was a 'planet killer'. I will also give Terril a pass, as, for puposes of plot, it was all out of his hands.
He said that when they first encountered the machine, it was in the process of slicing out chunks of a planet. Also, the destroyed solar systems should've been a clue as well.
True, but he also said it was leaving the system after the battle. If the ship was in such a state that it was going to become uninhabitable for a large number of the crew, the safer course of action seems to be the planet. Regardless, in the moment there probably wasn’t a “right” answer as much as “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.
@@stewartmcminn7773 Kirk also didn't raise shields, the only difference being that Kruge was in front of the Enterprise and so Kirk and crew spotted the distortion of the cloaking device
@@Marcsharp82 Kirk didn't raise shields for a reason - he wanted to lure the Klingons into a false sense of security, acting like the Klingon ship hadn't been spotted under the cloaking device. Raising shields would have alarmed the Klingons and changed their tactics, so Kirk just waited for the right moment to fire point blank and damage the ship.
Oh, yeah. He had no field experience whatsoever, violated the Romulan Neutral Zone, and whined about them attacking because he didn't know what to do. What a loser!
"increasing number of Captains who ruined their career in their last mission" .. considering that ruining your career usually ends up with the Captain in question being killed or fired afterwards, that tracks. Ruining your career usually ends it.
It's like when people find something they lost and say " it's always in the last place you look"... Of course it is! You don't lose something, find it and then keep on looking!!
Being also just a science vessel, Oberths normally are not so suited for combat. Kirk was on alert got blindsided by the same Klingon vessel, but a Constitution class starship, even with skeleton crew and battle damage, is still a much more tougher vessel. Compare a WWII Navy warship vs a modern science ship (basically a Yacht)
Of all the officers on the list, Tim Watters has the least excuse. He disobeyed standing orders by keeping Valiant on patrol after her captain was killed (after a combat encounter that involved the ship taking significant damage, he absolutely should have put in for repairs), he did so not for good reasons but to keep from losing his special position as acting captain of a Starship.
His overconfidence and inexperience prevented him seeing how stupid it was to take on a Jem’Hadar ship that was way larger and more powerful than his ship. He acted more like a cult leader than a Starfleet officer.
Capt.Ransom should be much higher on the list, given the laws he broke, the lives he lost and took made him top 3 in my books for worst StarFleet captains.
@@vic5015 I'm honestly kinda surprised we never got even a reference to them having the same last name. Not even one person who's like "Ransom, as in the guy Janeway ran into in the Delta Quadrant?" "No relation"
In fairness to Esteban, his insistence on going "by the book" probably saved Spock and the landing party's lives. His hesitation to beam them up immediately prevented them being destroyed with the Grissom, although Marcus does end up dead anyway.
Another thing to consider, Esteban is in command of a science ship, and rigidly by the book might normally be a good thing. No, you can't do something that can get everyone killed or blow the ship up seems to be a good response. On the plus side, having dealt with researchers and such, quoting policy (AKA the regulations) is more effective than trying to reason with them, as they've probably already justified to themselves why doing something stupid doesn't have any risk.
Also the Oberth is a science vessel, and directly in geosynchronous orbit over the planet. They have no room for evasive maneuvers. For all we know the shields couldn't be raised that quickly (or they were and had just punched through). And regulations (like quarantine) exist for a reason. Sure, they could have done something like beam down science or medical supplies but they didn't have that much time. They probably hadn't the slightest clue of -what- to do at finding a living being down there and going by regulations was probably the sanest option while they figured out what was going on. As the captain of a science vessel Esteban might very well be a civilian and a pure scientist. He probably has never undergone tactical training, and most of the personnel are probably civilians and specialists rather than regular Starfleet officers. Also look at it from an in-universe time based perspective. They probably had under thirty seconds before the Bird of Prey decloaked and attacked. During that Esteban is in a conversation with the crew down on the planet. This deep in Federation space on a project so classified that probably only a few hundred people knew about it having an enemy ship come out of nowhere is worth totally breaking down over. Give the man minimal credit for gonig to red alert, telling the ground team what's up, and then trying to get out of there in a science vessel when the Klingon ship is probably a few hundred kilometers away, tops, and they're in orbit over the planet on thrusters. Or they get shields up and the ship dies in two volleys instead of one to disrupter fire.
Now, if he had been the captain of the Nostromo in the movie Alien, *that* would have likely led to a much happier ending for one and all. Well, except for John Hurt's already-doomed character, anyway.
Yeah, not sure why the man qualifies as 'worst captain' for a bad ninety seconds call. He makes a reasonable judgement call in WTF circumstances (someone being found alive on Genesis, completely isolated/highly classified planet in Federation space) that they need to be kept isolated on planet to prevent something from being brought up to ship. Then a Klingon ship decloaks a few hundred kilometers away from him (maybe less) while the ship is in tight orbit. He (very likely) has a crew of almost entirely civilians and science personnel. His instinct is to.. Get away, which is pretty reasonable. Maybe he orders shields raised (maybe they re automatically). Maybe he doesn't. Doesn't really matter either way - he's in an Oberth facing a Klingon bird of prey at point blank range. So he dies in two volleys instead of one, or the ship is crippled and the survivors are taken aboard to be interrogated by Klingons (we mean tortured). He's the captain of a science vessel deep within Federation space who's mostly playing herd over the scientists onboard on a mission that's highly classified, and only has one person involved in the actual Genesis program itself on the ship (David Marcus) with none of the actual developmetn data on the Genesis Project available (since Khan deleted it and had everyone else but Carol Marcus executed). I think you can cut the guy more slack than the one who gets sympathy points for a breakdown on a virus killing his crew who then beams down to a planet and uses advanced technology to try and enslave their society!
@@illam9500 Oh no, no no. Pressman was captain of the Pegasus when the were testing the cloaking device. It was only when he was in the position of Admiral that his part in the conspiracy came to light. Many of the people on the list are dubious inclusions, but Pressman deserves a seat near the top of the list.
@@illam9500 Shelby was never captain of anything on screen, but she still made the list. We know the name of the ship Pressman was captain of and know something about what happened while he was captain. We can't say that for Shelby.
Of all the lists you guys have put out, this is one of them. One your number 10 spot you have Maxwell, who threw out the book so to speak. Clearly his crew supported him, and even Picard acknowledged he was probably right about his claims. As someone else said in the comments, he did the wrong thing for the right reasons. How many times have the "good" captains ignored orders to "do the right thing". He saw a risk to the Federation and took the pre-emptive to try and stop it. With that being said, he was breaking treaties, so I get why he was on the list, but it should speak volumes that both his former and current crew vouched for him so fervently. But then also on the list you Esteban whom you criticize for following the book to closely. So you have one captain we are dinging for ignoring orders, while dinging another one for listening to orders. Then you have Maxwell and Ransom both above Harriman who was just kind of green? Like yeah I would probably hesitate to act too if I knew my ship was missing all sorts of vital systems and wasn't actually prepared to conduct missions. Ransom was trying to save his crew, but he was committing genocide to do that, certainly that has to be worse than Harriman? You guys have some captains that were just a bit incompetent or made a small mistake that had massive consequences on this list. While leaving out Captain's who were knowingly breaking treaties or worse not on the list at all, or very low on the list. Or you have someone like Shaw who while becoming a fairly well liked character gave up command of his ship to people he disliked and didn't trust, putting his crews fates in their hands. Or someone like Pressman who should be at the number 2 or 3 spot probably. Like the absurd convoluted plot needed for Harriman to be a bad captain should disqualify him from this list. Like the ship is missing all these vital systems, no other ships were around to respond despite them being basically on Earth's doorstep, I guess no nameless crew member was working in that section or who knew it could get to that section Kirk went to. Given how green he was and all the things working against him Harriman went above and beyond what should have been expected of him. And Terrell, I mean as you guys pointed out he isn't the first captain to beam down to the planet, so why is he on the list at all, let alone number 3?
Sometimes they're lists make me wonder if the writer has watched and considered the shows/movies mentioned or simply asked ChatGPT or read Memory Alpha articles.
@@edwardrhoades6957 Maybe, I could certainly see an ensign or lieutenant falling in line if a CO were to come out and say hey we doing something odd. But like the 1st or 2nd officer, a lot of the senior staff for that matter? I feel like if Picard just suddenly comes out of his ready room and is like, hey we are going into Romulan territory and we are going to start attacking any Romulan stuff on site, that would elicit a lot of questions. And the Federation relationship with the Cardassians was a bit better, but very similar at this point.
Garth of Izar's rank was Fleet Captain. He was a captain. He had a psychotic break and made a mental institution dedicated to rehabilitation into his own personal playground. HOW IS HE NOT ON THIS LIST AT ALL, LET ALONE NOT AT NUMBER ONE????
and if you have read the DC comics series (which was canon at one time) he escaped from that mental institution killed a Starfleet officer to impersonate her and infiltrate the Enterprise and stabbed Kirk while impersonating another officer and then tried to finish Kirk off before being finally stopped .
Maxwell was a good captain struggling with a very real problem. He also was basically proven to be right in the end. Randsom was a guy who was trying to keep his crew alive (the #1 duty of a Captain), he also didn't have the luxury of plot armor where the ship is 100% fine and operational at the end of each episode.
Gul Macet knew Picard believed Maxwell was right abd asks him why he didn't board the Cardassian vessels as Maxwell suggested. Picard more or less says that his orders were to preserve the peace pretty much at any cost.
I would simply say by the events of 'ensign ro' 'chain of command' 'DS9 The Circle' a half dozen others even before the Maquis starts up. Honestly the Federation made a mistake not sterilizing the surface of Cardassia prime. Or at least let the Klingons do it.
As much as I hated Tim Waters and the entire Red Squad...squad. They were set up for failure from the start. Already pushing their egos thinking they know more than experience can teach. They drink their own Kool-Aid into thinking time spent in a class room or training fields equates to experience. Failure in itself is a powerful learning tool but these cadets never tasted that so they felt like they can do no wrong.
@@jameslevy8347 You can be assigned the roll of Captain without having the rank of Captain. F red squad, they should have been smart enough to know the mission was to get the Valiant and fellow cadets back home.
3:20 - I don't think Harriman is a fair addition to this list. Without having gotten into the beta-canon stuff, only what we have on screen, the deployment of the Enterprise-B was obviously a commissioning cruise, not even a true shake-down cruise. In the real US Navy, these commands often walk the line between being ceremonial and being led by officers with engineer backgrounds to figure out what's working and what needs to be worked on. That's the way I understood Harriman's role. He was not, as I saw it, intended to be the -B's frontline commander. And it certainly wasn't on him that Starfleet put a rush on getting the -B out into service before construction was completed. He was a captain, meaning he still had those above him he had to answer to, and when they said go, he went.
@@travisbishop782 Not many people would have survived that initial attack by the Pakleds. The Cerritos might have made the same mistake if not for the Captain recognizing that that approach is what destroyed Dayton's ship.
Captain Keogh Of The U.S.S. Odyssey Should Be On This List He Expected The Dominion To Have "Sharper Teeth" Compared To The Maquis And If It Weren't For Jadzia Dax Reminding Him To Leave The Ship's Nonessential Personnel At DS9 Whole Families Most Likely Would Have Died When The Odyssey Was Destroyed
He should have left the entire saucer section. Separating the stardrive section to face known hostile encounters was a core design feature of the Galaxy class. This was literally the situation the feature existed for. The ship would have been substantially more nimble, with a smaller target profile, had he done so. There isn't even a "production" excuse for the mistake, since there was no need for an actual separation sequence, merely dialog to establish that it was going to happen.
@@dajonaneisnoah8714 As stated by Riker in "The Best of Both World" the saucer was a useful thing to have for the power. saucer separation was for getting nonessential people away from combat. Probably why the Galaxy's in the Dominion war went in to combat with the saucers.
@@davidlewis5312 They knew? how? when? Here is the dialog from the episode. Keogh: Keogh to runabouts Kira: Go ahead Keogh: They're using some kind of phased polaron beam to penetrate our shields. Dax: Have you tried altering your harmonics to compensate? Keogh: We've run though the entire spectrum but none of the frequencies were effective. Divert shield power to weapons. It does not sound like they knew to me.
He made all the good calls. He listened to senior staff, he adjusted tactics in battle, he bought the team valuable minutes in battle and commanded the field. He couldn’t foresee the kamikaze attack. Without it, the mission would have been a success, partly thanks to him.
Harriman, Terrell, and Esteban, insofar as they’re placed on this list at all, should not be so high up. In the case of Harriman and Esteban, they fall under the category of “do everything right and still lose” and “no-win scenario.” Other commenters have mentioned Admiral Pressman. Where is Calvin Hudson who served as a Maquis spy in uniform? Or Captain Solok who very clearly has a bigoted view of non-Vulcans? And if you’re rating on the “consequences” only, then why aren’t Captains Varley and Keough here since they managed to lose Galaxy-class ships with all hands?
Hudson was one of my initial thoughts too, but I don't know if he was a full captain (at least not until after he joined the Maquis). Starfleet attaché to the Federation colonies in the demilitarized zone seems like more of a political role than a command position. Pressman should definitely make the list though.
is Varley the Yamato's commander? I mean, the only reason the Enterprise survived is they took the virus from Yamato's logs and lucked into a solution via Data. If the solution is 'data does something only Data can do' then the point is moot.
Keough didn't lose a Galaxy with full hands. The Odyssey offloaded the nonessential personel during the preparations afterall (atleast I interpreted his jab toward Dax as "stating the obvious").
Wait - some of your heroic captains didn't do so great either, * Kirk stole a starship * Picard led an enemy force, wiping out 39 starships (if Terrell doesn't get the brain slug defence, there's none for Picard) * Janeway killed Tuvix * Sisko lied, cheated, bribed men to cover up crimes, was an accessory to murder
Y'all reaming Captain Terrell out but didn't even mention Captain Merik. He broke the Prime Directive, ordered his entire crew into the gladiatorial arena on planet 892-IV, and bent the knee to the local government to save his own life. Then he tried to force Captain Kirk to do the same things and acted surprised when Kirk showed integrity. I suppose he wasn't technically a STARFLEET captain, but nevertheless he was a captain and a poor one.
Sorry, I can't hate Ransom, The mass murder is unforgivable sure, but the Equinox didn't have the technology Voyager had, it was a short range science vessel with a smaller inexperienced crew. As Ransom himself says "It's easy to cling to principles when you're standing on a vessel with its bulkheads intact, manned by a crew that's not starving." And let's be honest, Janeway did worse
if he did it once sure, but he went so far he had to rewrite his medical computers morality circuits. That should have been a red flag he was going the wrong way about this.
Decker was a man suffering from PTSD and survivor's guilt knowing that the very efforts he took to save those under his command ended up killing them. I'd probably go a bit Ahab myself. Kirk has a similar reaction when encountering the "vampire cloud" entity in the episode "Obsession".
I didn't see Captain Pressman in this video. The now Admiral Pressman responsible for the initial loss of his crew and ship the U.S.S. Pegasus with it's prototype cloaking device. Anyhow, even though he was another "bad" captain, William Windom as Commodore Matt Decker was totally awesome in the Doomsday Machine. Loved his acting in this role. As well as John Savage as Captain Ransom of the U.S.S. Equinox from Star Trek: Voyager. Another great acting bad captain. But in the bitter end, both of these individuals ended up redeeming themselves their own way. Four of my favorite episodes of the Star Trek universe. 👍😎.
Maxwell was an excellent Captain. He correctly deduced that the Cardassians were secretly shipping weapons. If Starfleet had more captains like him they’d have been better prepared for things like Wolf 359 and the Dominion War.
To Be Fair Captain Maxwell Was Ultimately Proved Right When The Cardassians Showed Their True Colors When They Joined The Dominion Which Allowed Them To Gain A Foothold On The Alpha Quadrant
@@maddslothii2532 No one said that his claims were wrong, it was his actions that were wrong. Also, they weren't running with sensor jammers, they were using strong subspace energy fields that acted as sensor jammers.
I know I'm going to take some heat for this but I submit Picard, after all he got Kirk killed because he couldn't fight. Maybe he should have been in the holodeck using one of Worf's combat programs instead of playing that detective sim.
4:50 "unable to see the wood for the trees." Never heard that saying before. Looked it up and apparently has the same meaning as "unable to see the forest for the trees," except that saying "wood" makes no sense, since you see wood when you look at trees, so you'd definitely be able to see the wood.
Besides which he said it wrong. It's supposed to be "see the *woods* (plural) for the trees", woods in this context having the identical meaning as forest. As in "over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go." Saying it singular instead of plural like that makes the expression meaningless, just as you said.
@@jasontoddman7265 Technically they used the right expression (as in, "see the wood" is the known expression), but I fully agree, it not being plural is nonsense. If it was "woods" (and they said "wood" instead of "woods"), then that'd be somewhat better. I guess someone who didn't know English too well came up with it, and others just went with it without using their brains to say, "Wait, it should be 'woods' since there are multiple trees." Hold up... Apparently, and this is a comment from one person so I don't know how reliable it is... It originated from someone named John Wood building houses, and there would be a tree in front of each house that would grow quite large, so people would say that you can't see the Wood (name) for the tree. Again, not sure if that's actually true or not. Still, you'd think that with the meaning it has now, people would be saying "woods."
@ As far as *I* ever heard, it always was either 'woods' or forest; usually forest, actually. I have never once in my life heard the expression with wood used without the 's' at the end; at least as near as I can recall. Don't know what else I can tell you. I can only go by my own experiences, after all. So near as I know everyone I ever knew to say it said it right. lol
@@jasontoddman7265 Same here. That last bit was because I was researching it while making the comment. I had just come across that, which is why I said "Hold up..." So it was something new at that moment. Assuming it's correct (the information I found), then original context has it correct, but the intent/meaning now, "woods" would be appropriate vs "wood." (Or forest, as is said here in the USA.)
You beat me to it, pal. I know he wasn't Starfleet per se. But the video is titled worst captains in Star Trek. This dude sent his own crew in to the arena.
Agreed. Maxwell is a casualty of war, and Starfleet should have been there to adress his issues, but Starfleet doesn't really give a you know what about the Mental health of it's personal.
@travisbishop782 I was thinking about that. Clearly his Counselor dropped the ball. Any competent mental health expert would have advised against his having a command of a ship. The curious thing is: if he hadn't have been there, how long would it have taken for Starfleet to become aware of what the Cardassians were really up too.🤔
@@martineyles "Canon" is decided by the present rights holders decided which things they want to sell you, so technically yes. Also technically no if you want, because it's all fiction, and you can decide what to care about and acknowledge.
Waters was by far the worst captain. He and that arrogant and combative first officer of his lacked any kind of command style. Out of all the starship captains on this list, Waters should top the list.
I find it hard to blame Rios's captian for what he did. He was forced to chose between killing two people he didn't know or losing his whole ship. He shud have went back to Earth and told Starfleet what happened but Picards writers decided he should kill himself for being put a position where he had no choice but to kill people.
Whoever wrote this has never seen the episodes or films that they are talking about, most of these choices are just because someone's seen some post somewhere bitching about these characters. I can defend the vast majority of these because they had reasons for what happened, one or two might be indefensible but the rest are fine. As for the end there about Estaban? What happened when Kirk didn't follow the regs in the film before? A crippled ship, dozens of dead and injured and a madman with a weapon of mass destruction on the loose. Estaban did exactly what he should have done, if he had beamed them all up then Marcus, Saavik and Spock would also be very dead. A minimally armed science ship deep in Federation space was ambushed by a cloaked ship, its shields were up or at least being raised, which again from Wrath of Khan we know takes time at this point. Do some damned research before posting this kind of crap.
I think you were harsh on Ransom. He didn't and shouldn't have washed out. He was put in a impossible position. he said the Quadrant was hostile the moment he arrived. His ship was not a long range exploratory vessel.
@@TheWallyTirado I think he said it happened in the first week, the (something) guard. The Nova is the Oberth mark 2. Slow, under armed, and under crewed. They were in way over their head and in the type of position that forces people to become cannibalism to survive. Did they do wrong and should they have been punished? yeah, but until you are in that situation you have no idea how you would act.
Capt Styles in place of J.T. Esteban. Styles let Scotty completely make his precious Excelsior transwarp look utterly inept. Also allowed the Enterprise to be stolen right out of spacedock. Plus Styles just comes off as a massive douche canoe. Esteban was a good science ship Captain doing what you are supposed to do on a survey of a completely new planet. Science ship Captains are not expected to be combat experts. No one was thinking the Klingons would invade Federation space and ambush a Federation ship. And if there was a concern, they should have sent a heavy-cruiser escort with the Grissom to handle any security issues.
It boggles my mind that Ransom is constantly "the bad captain" of the Voyager series when JANEWAY a) could have gotten her crew home immediately but the "cost was too high" then b) in the far future decides to destroy an entire TIMELINE worth of lives just to save ONE member of her crew... but sure Ransom is THE bad captain for doing whatever it takes
Janeway destroyed the Caretaker's Array to keep the technology from falling into the hands of the Kazon, who would have at best used it to expand their raiding, or blown up themselves and every nearby planet. And I get the feeling that Admiral Janeway's Federation was slowly losing ground to the Borg, who had adapted to her strategies and technological advances.
@Janoha17 again... a few planets. MAYBE... versus an entire TIMELINE in every quadrant... and I'm unaware of any evidence that the Borg were an existential threat in that future given the literal party the "reunion" cast was casually throwing
@@Janoha17Regarding the caretaker array, she could have set the Tri-cobalt device to explode after it was used to send Voyager home, but apparently attaching a timer to an explosive has never been done before
@@tigerbread78as _many_ others have pointed out over the years, even if there was some plot contrivance that prevented the use of a timer, she (or a volunteer) could have stayed behind to manually detonate it.
Saying Ransom got half his crew killed crossing borders. How many times did Janeyway face similar either willingly or by accident? The race that hated telepaths. The aliens pissed she used the Vadwaaur's old warp tunnels even though it was an accident. I mean, Janeway also nearly lost everything to the Kazon. THE KAZON.
With the Tim Watters entry, he shouldn’t have been in command once Nog was onboard. Even though Nog was an ensign, he still outranked Watters and everyone else on the ship. Red Squad may have been made of elite cadets, but they were still cadets. Also, I’m genuinely surprised that Red Squad wasn’t disbanded due to their involvement in the insurrection launched by Admiral Leyton.
I nominate Captain Merik of TOS S2E25 "Bread and Circuses", that's the episode with the Roman gladiators on TV, like 20th Earth but if Roman Empire never fell... He forced his crew to either assimilate or become slaves. Then he influenced the flow of the empire.
When you think about how jayneway got her well equipped ship, and what was left of the crew home after 40 years. Then was like nah and went back in time to change literally the entire future, ending, or erasing endless lives that would have or could have been, just because she missed her friends. It makes ransom killing subspace aliens to get his ill equiped ship and little crew home look like nothing in comparison. Weather it was right or not.
Commodore Stocker from TOS The Deadly Years. In a big hurry to get to Starbase 10 and assume command (for no other reason than because he was a whiny little brat), so he takes command of the Enterprise, and takes a shortcut through the neutral zone, violating the treaty and almost destroying the ship. I hate that guy!
In Stocker's defense, his actions were because he was trying to save Kirk and the others who were quickly aging and even he realized how much of an utter failure of a captain he was, mostly because he never was an actual captain - if he got the rank, it was probably through desk work, so he had no real experience.
@@AshuraH Even Kirk said "The man's a chair-bound paper pusher," and you have to wonder how he fared in his position of commanding a starbase after they got him to his destination. Great performance by Charles Drake.
I would argue that Janeway is NOT a good example of a "great" captain. Picard asked for Q's help to escape the Borg the first time, swallowing his pride to benefit his crew. Janeway flat out refused Q, condemning her crew to stay in the Delta Quadrant for years. In Equinox, she TORTURED another starfleet officer, while Chakotay begs for her stop. He tries to intervene, but she overrides his attempts with her Command Authority. I forget which episode it was, but she risked the lives of the entire crew because she wanted a cup of coffee. Let's be honest, upon return to Federation space, she would of been court-martialed for her abhorrent decisions in the Delta Quadrant.
Sisko was worse. He was fine with Garak murdering that criminal and several Romulans and tricked the Romulan Empire into a war, killing a lot of Romulans in the process. "I can live with it."
I demand that you retract EVERYTHING you said about Capt. Maxwell. He acted without authorization, but his actions uncovered a Cardasian plot that could have cost the Federation millions of lives. In the end he was willing to sacrifice his career to bring to light what he found. He just went about it the wrong way. If Star Fleet was aware of what he knew, then they are the threat to peace. You can condemn him for his actions but he is NOT a bad Captain. Picard found out the hard way how treacherous the Cardasians were. Decker shouldn't be on this list because he had been rendered incapable of command and was not mentally accountable for his actions. I hold Spock responsible for allowing him to take command although technically he had no choice. And to top it off you missed the #1 WORST CAPTAIN in Starfleet. Capt. Jellico. This fool was a one trick pony. Said trick was being able to read Cardasians and deal with them. Because he was just as vile as they were. Other than that, he stunk like a backed up toilet. He had zero personal skills and the ability to make a crew mutiny by merely stepping on board the ship. He was a rusty gun that Starfleet vomited up for one special occasion. And got tossed right back in the trash bin as soon as he completed his task.
Janeway is the worst Captain, there is no question.... she committed more war crimes than anyone else which is amazing when you consider the things Sisko did when he became a Captain
I strongly disagree with putting Decker and Terrell on the list. Decker lost his ship and crew, which led to losing a major portion of his sanity, because he didn't realize what he was dealing with until it was too late. Beaming his crew down to a planet when his ship was disabled was a completely reasonable decision in the absence of knowledge that he was fighting something that was more interested in destroying planets than in destroying disabled ships. Looking at the decisions he made in the context of what he knew at the time, the only clearly and unequivocally bad major decision that I recall us knowing of him making was that while in a state of seriously diminished sanity, he couldn't accept that having Enterprise fight the doomsday machine was futile. At the end, he sacrificed his life doing something that might have stopped the doomsday machine if it were weaker, and that revealed a way to destroy it. There was a relatively brief period when he was a terrible captain because of his mental state. But judging a captain by a single brief period of seriously diminished mental capacity is egregiously unfair. Terrell was a victim of bad luck. He presumably served during an era when it was normal, or at least completely acceptable, for captains to lead landing parties. Taking Chekhov with him was completely reasonable because Reliant was within explored Federation territory and there was no reason to think anything might happen while he was away that the ship's second officer couldn't handle. In the end, Terrell was able to fight the mind control parasite more effectively than Khan thought would be possible, and when he felt that he would ultimately lose, he killed himself rather than carry out the command to kill Kirk. Condemning him as a bad captain based on 20/20 hindsight is outrageously unfair.
Hey trek culture team- was wondering if you have a way to ask Denise crosby if her family needs any help from the community. I saw that they lost their home in the fires in socal going on right now. Thanks ❤
Maxwell gets a decent follow up in the novel “Force and Motion” by Jeffrey Lang. After serving his sentence he gets a job as a maintenance man on an almost empty deep space research station and basically want to be forgotten. That is until Nog and O’Brien stop by for a visit, and then Maxwell has the opportunity to redeem himself when an incident occurs. Coolest part of the books is there are these arachnid creatures, and in order to brace everyone aboard a shuttle for a crash, web everything and everyone inside in order to keep them secure. Not to eat them. But imagine a shuttlecraft full of people trapped in spiderweb.
I’m sorry, Ransom’s actions by entrapping, torturing, and eventually murdering sentient beings to power his ship are so utterly reprehensible. I can’t find it credible that he ranks so low on this list.
When your watching your crew starve and patching your ship together with duct tape...yeah you do reprehensible shit. Other ships don't have the luxury of Plot armor like Voyager has (Year of hell also saw Janeway rapidly lose it when put into a similar situation)
@@TheSilverPhoenix100 No, you DON'T do reprehensible shit as a Starfleet officer to save your crew. Janeway never once considered catching aliens and grinding them up for fuel even in the darkest timeline. Get outta here with that.
@posindustries no she just stranded her crew 60 years from home to protect a species that has the life span of a fish...this holier than thou attitude of Janeway fans is really misplaced.
@@posindustries Comparing a Nova to an Intrepid is laughable. Janeway had so many advantages over the Equinox it is not even funny. The Nova was a Modern Oberth, short ranged, slow, under gunned, and lightly staffed. Voyager was an Super FAST, well armed, and decently staffed long range explorer. As Sisko said "It is easy to be a saint in paradise." Don't even pretend you know what you would be willing to do if put in Ransom's position. People put in that type situation have turned to murder and cannibalism, the drive to live is strong. Having said that I am not excusing their actions but I also can't find anything saying they were actually 'sentient' or any more intelligent then dolphins, they did seem to understand Janeways intent, but lots of animals can figure out intent. So would you kill Dolphins to get the people you are entrusted to lead and keep safe home?
10. Maxwell was proven right in the end, however, the way he went about it was wrong. 9. Ransom was understandably trying to survive. But, by sacrificing sentient life-forms to get home quicker was immoral. He should be higher on the list even with him trying to redeem himself. 8. Beta-Canon or not, there was no reason why he was so under-prepared. He should be higher too. 7. I'm convinced that Shelby was actually a changeling. There is zero reason why she would choose to have Fleet Formation, something so incredibly Borg-like. It makes no sense. 6. Watters should be number 1. All he had to do was patrol, as he was ordered to do. But, he wanted glory and to keep his position, leading to him and his crew to die. 5. I don't think this is entirely deserved. 4. Decker tried to save his crew. He didn't know at the time that the Doomsday Machine could destroy planets. He was under madness when he took Enterprise to destroy the Machine. 3. Oh come on! Terrell had no idea Khan was down there. Chekov didn't even know! And you're telling me that they never heard of Ceti Alpha VI exploding? 2. Like Decker, Tracy accidentally killed his entire crew. He also had gone mad, but had no medical technology to see if the disease is being handled. However, killing a red shirt and violating the Prime Directive brings him up on the list. 1. J.T Esteban does not deserve this spot. He followed regulations. He doesn't know what's actually down on Genesis. It could've pulled an Exeter and killed everyone. He learned from the history of Kirk. He also could've killed Spock and Saavik and Star Trek IV not happening! Also, Grissom's shields were up at Red Alert. The torpedo was just too strong.
You will never convince me that Rudy "let's grind up sentient aliens for fuel" Ransom is somehow a better Starfleet captain than any of the people above him on this list aside from probably Tracey, and even then it's a question of Tracey's staggering body count vs the sheer depravity of the medical torture chamber Ransom had his sickbay turned into. But putting Esteban above both? Yeah, you did it, lads. You got me. I'm commenting. You got me to engage in the comments. Way to go.
Shelby's character assassination is one of a dozen reasons why I consider _Picard_ S3 (even more so than 1 & 2) to be some of the worst Star Trek ever filmed, up there with _Star Trek V_ , that _TNG_ S2 clip-show episode, and most of _Enterprise_ .
They managed to take a character who I spent decades wanting to see again and turned her into someone I never want to see again. Sadly, she's probably still alive because in new Trek nobody ever stays dead.
@@maddslothii2532 The script of Picard has Riker or someone say something like "I can't believe she'd do something so Borg-like" which implies everything is her fault. However, that show is incoherent and silly.
@@kirvanp Yes, Android Picard says it, which is why this videos says that exact phrase. But it was not. It is no more Borg like then self driving cars being linked so they can communicate to prevent accidents and traffic jams. I guess by their logic all automation is 'Borg like' The Borg have a collective consciousness, they did not need 'fleet formation' to coordinate an attack. And they literally assimilated the people at the controlled of the ships, That is not hacking. One could argue Prefix codes are hacking or at least close enough as they are basically back doors in to the system so if anyone 'hacked' it was Seven. Also Android Picard somehow hacked into the Borg collective, even though he is an .... Android. God I love how season 3 totally ignored the whole Android Picard crap.
Obviously not a "worst ever", but not long after Captain Terrell got into trouble, the Enterprise was approached by an uncommunicative ship, and the CO failed to heed a warning about regulations given to him by one of his junior officers, resulting in unnecessary loss of life. Inasmuch as the First Officer could scold the junior officer, he did -- he was also a captain, *the* captain before the admiral took over -- and sitting nearby was a helmsman who was being promoted to captain in a deleted scene. Wouldn't have been much drama here, though! One brief exchange still bugs me after all these years, and maybe it just boils down to his being angry with himself and lashing out. OK, one of the movie's themes is Kirk's coming to terms with getting older. After the hostilities, the ships part ways for awhile, and Sulu says "You did it". Kirk snaps, "I did nothing ... except get caught with my britches down." He mutters to himself about getting senile, but then he rounds on Saavik and makes the comment about quoting regulations, with Saavik having something of a chastened look about her. Of course, her doing that comes up again later when Kirk and Spock are a little more tuned to her frequency regarding hours seeming like days. Well, Admiral, she was *right*, and maybe he was just so out of touch with things (like in TMP) that he couldn't have smiled at Saavik, nodded, and told her to keep on quoting the book. Bonding moment, bringing her into the established crew in Spock's place, etc, etc. "I should really just relax."
I see some people saying Maxwell was right, but they miss the entire point of the ending, which even miles realized, he did what he did simply for revenge. He says as much to miles himself. His PTSD should have been recognized and treated the instant the trauma occurred, instead, star fleet used and aimed his anger towards the active enemy. It was a lesson for Picard on what not to be with the Borg.
Sorry Kirk should be on here as #1. The Results do not justify the means. Disregarding Starfleet regulations: Kirk often disregarded or bent the rules to achieve his goals, sometimes putting his crew or diplomatic relations at risk. Impulsive decision-making: He frequently made quick, sometimes rash decisions without fully considering the consequences, leading to potentially dangerous situations. Physical confrontation: Kirk often resorted to violence or physical altercations to solve problems, even when diplomacy might have been more appropriate. Exploiting alien cultures: In some instances, Kirk was accused of taking advantage of alien cultures or individuals for personal gain or to further the mission. Irresponsible relationships: His reputation as a "womanizer" with fleeting encounters with various alien females could be seen as disrespectful and lacking commitment. "The Kobayashi Maru" incident: While not directly a negative action, Kirk is the only known person to "cheat" on the Kobayashi Maru test, a simulated no-win scenario, by altering the parameters to ensure his "victory," highlighting a potential tendency to manipulate situations to his advantage.
Oh nonsense. She was a questionable first officer, but once she made captain she did well. Or, maybe I'm wrong. What did she do that you think makes her worse than any of the people on this list?
Everything said about Esteban, except for the didn't raise shields part, is subject to context. This was literally a technology that created planets that, ostensibly, had Federation support behind it. It was already a controversy among other governments according to the Starfleet Commander and the Klingon ambassador would later call out the Federation for it (this as a bargaining chip to get Kirk extradited, but we'll let that slide). Genesis was a big oopsie. Dotting every "i" and crossing every "t" would be the *bare minimum* expected of a captain during this mission.
I would like to defend Commadore Decker, the man only broke after doing everything he was supposed too. Was rewarded by being forced to listen to his entire crew die as they begged him to beam them back up to their dead ship as the Planet Killer murdered them and the planet they escaped too. Kirk is at first mad at Decker for his collapse at this and mad again at him over compensating for his what was not his failure. But realizing at the end that Decker behaver could have easily been him given the right circumstances. I too will defend Captain Terrell. The Reliant's sensors according to Chekov showed nothing living on the what they thought was Ceti Alpha VI. He said was a blip on one dinoscan. The best their scans got was possibly a single celled lifeform no more. As for not checking up on Khan, as far as anyone new Khan was dead. The planets of the Ceti Alpha system were destroyed, in what the book said was a rouge naked black hole that barreled through the system appearing to destroy most of inner the planets with what appeared to be Ceti Alpha VI surviving. When in reality Ceti Alpha V survived but in a massively shifted orbit. When Reliant arrived in the Ceti Alpha system they found only one inner planet in massive debris field in general orbit of Ceti Alpha VI. That planet was suffering from a massive climate shift and geomagnetic storms. That only later was discovered disrupted the ships sensors ability to scan for life.
Also....why is Esteban blamed for Grissom? She was a science vessel completely outclassed and outmatched by the bird of prey that decloaked to ambush her. She took a single torpedo hit and exploded, even with the shields up. He barely had time to call evasive action before they were all blown away.
My opinions of these captains: 10. What Maxwell did was wrong. But I totally get why he did it. So much suffering during the Cardassian Border War now seemed in vain due to the favorable peace the Federation signed with them. As has been pointed out in the past, he doesn't want to restart the war or for it to continue. He wants it to end. But in victory, so all that suffering wasn't for nothing. And, even Picard agrees with Maxwell that the cardassians were violating the treaty. 9. I understand that he was in a very bad situation. But still, that explanation only gets you so far. It does not justify his deeds. He forgot that, even in extreme situations, there are some lines that you do not cross. 8. I don't blame Harriman for what happened. He got sent out in a ship that clearly wasn't fully operational yet. But I do blame him for nepotising his way into a position he clearly wasn't qualified for. He should have done what he was good at, even if it is less prestigious. 7. Shelby seems to have fallen victim to those "Gaze not into the Abyss" and "He who fights monsters" sayings. She was so focussed on fighting the Borg that became very much like them. 6. I cut Watters a lot of slack due to how bad his situation was. But again, that excuse only gets you so far. His bad judgment caused a lot of casualties, and it should have been blindingly obvious that it was the wrong choice. 5. Never follow orders blindly. Always think about what you are told to do. People died because this man blindly obeyed. 4. Decker was an excellent captain. But his judgment was clouded by how traumatized he was. 3. It is not Terrell's fault that he was brainwashed. 2. Like Decker, his trauma has clouded his otherwise good judgment, arguably to an even greater degree. 1. In the same way that you shouldn't follow orders blindly, you also shouldn't follow rules blindly.
I'm not having this slander of Terrell. Kirk consistently beamed down with his entire senior staff, and Terrell was of the same era. He also clearly had a much smaller ship and crew than Kirk. He was going to a planet that was initially believed to be completely lifeless, and Starfleet had never bothered to check on the status of Khan or alert ships that he was presumed dead but unaccounted for in that system. Khan took over the Enterprise without the benefit of a mind-controlling ear roach, so to expect more from Terrell, who was assigned to run errands for scientists not command the flagship on expected-to-be-dangerous missions, is just absurd.
1,000,000,000% agree. Captain Terrell should not have been on this list.
E.T.A. During this part of the 23rd century, if all of Captain Kirk's actions were any indicator, pretty much ALL captains beamed down on away missions without any reconnaissance or threat assessment. Captain Terrell beamed down to a planet that was supposed to be devoid of all life, to investigate a mysterious sign of life is definitely the same thing Kirk would do, though in Kirk's case, he was beaming down in hopes of beaming into the lap of some hot alien babe with that "itch" that he loves to "scratch". Granted, Captain Terrell should have done a survey of the Seti Alpha system to make sure ALL the planets were there and where they should have be. However, this one instance, even though it led to Captain Terrell's death did not make him a bad captain. It was just a series of unfortunate events.
Dr. McCoy dropped the ball this time. Checkov warned everyone that Kahn had put things in their bodies. Did McCoy bust out his tricorder and perform a scan? Nope.
Even the biofilters on the transporters didn't detect the eels.
Dude was being mind controlled, how many times did that happen to Kirk in TOS ?
At least his reincarnation got to save the day with "Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel" (Paul Winfield as Terrell & Dathon) and didn't even need any help from the Metrons (Ref: "Arena", TOS Gorn episode)
@@robertenyart9982In such situations, I imagine several writers around a table, drinking too much coffee (or beer), sputtering “Damn common sense and continuity! We don’t have a choice, we need to move the story along!” 🤷🏻🧐
Why do they keep coming for Captain Terrell? There are 1000 examples of a captain beaming down to the surface and about half of them take their first officers with them. Dude was on a planetary survey during a scientific exploration and wasn't expecting to encounter a revenge plot against Admiral Kirk. When he was truly up against it, he reflected the highest ideals of Starfleet and sacrificed himself instead of doing further harm to those around him.
Yes thank you
I never even thought of him as a bad captain. Just a tragic one.
Let's be honest, it's a dogshit list.
Admiral Pressman, when captain of the Pegasus, abandoning his ship because the crew turned on him when they knew they were committing an illegal experiment, he let them all die horrific deaths all because of that phasing-cloaking device...
Good one.
Came here to post the same thing.
Pressman should have definitely taken Shelbys place IMO. I mean yeah she was ceremonially commanding the Enterprise when it went down but that wasn't a bad captain move.
Surprised that he wasn't on there.
@@ShunsuiHitsugaya Same! In fact, I was expecting him to be No. 1.
Decker is a great example of "It's possible to make no mistakes and still lose"
He made the correct choice when trying to save his crew. It only turned into the wrong choice in the face of the planet killer. Sadly it was his last moments, when he went full Captain Ahab that we saw in the show.
Maxwell had severe PTSD. It should have been recognized and treated.
Hard to treat someone who isn't convince something is wrong
I guess Maxwell had no ships' counselor? The hell of it is, he was right. Had he captured the ships in lieu of destroying them the situation would have been way different.
PTSD is NOT as easy to recognize & treat as you seem to think. I know because I suffer from PTSD & obviously, judging by your comments, you don't 🤷🏻♂️
~~Live Long & Prosper 🖖🏻 👽 🛸 ✨️
🌌🔭
Starfleet isn't good at handling PTSD. Just ask Picard, Sisko, and Shaw.
ETA: It seems like Mariner may have it too.
@@scottmcintosh4397 3 decades in law enforcement and close relatives with severe PTSD from recent mid east deployments. I do know a few things about PTSD. But this is ST, 400 years in the future and with telepathic species who are federation members. Plus, we are talking about Starship commanders with known PTSD triggers. I would hope they would be closely monitored and treated.
I won't tolerate Harriman slander. The Man was handed a less than half working ship do to a publicity stunt and went to save lives because it was the right thing to do. He showed extreme poise considering he was under the microscope of the press...something no other Captain that we had seen has had to deal with. He did his ship and crew proud.
I agree! Harriman was thrown in a totally unexpected situation in a test drive of a new starship. Not his fault.
I always thought Harriman got a bum rap. He was sent out on a ship not operationally ready to meet some arbitrary timeline for media purposes.
@@kylemcfarlan If the disaster happened on Wednesday, he'd have been fine.
But surely, the first job of a captain is to deal with the unexpected. No?
@@BabyMakR And He did. Thanks to Him 37 people survived when it would have been an all hands lost scenario. Despite having a ship that was so new they hadn't even taken the plastic wrap off yet.
William Windom's acting as Commodore Decker made this episode really great.
They say there's no devil Jim, but I've seen it!
At the time the episode was filmed, Windom was known as "Willie the Weeper" for his ability to break down and cry on cue. He was the perfect actor to portray Decker. 🖖😎👍
"Don't you think I know that???!!! There was, but not anymore!!!!" Loved him in that role.
@@brianhanson5110 I'd say that, and when he flew the shuttle into the mouth of the Doomsday Device, were his two finest scenes. Absolutely 100% believable this was a man suffering from PTSD and unimaginable grief.
it was acting like his that made Star Trek what we know and love today. Actors like him SOLD the story. Well done Mr. Windom,
Clark Terrell doesn’t belong on this list at all. He wasn’t a bad captain in the slightest. He was just the victim of a terrible misfortune.
I agree.
I would have placed captain Merick on that list from the SS Beagle who sold out his crew to the Romans
Eric Pressman
-violated interstellar law
-had his crew killed after mutinying
-lied to an inquiry board
-endangered the Federation flagship
Trek Culture "OK, sure, but at least he didn't go by the book!"
The guy who runs this channel needs to bone up on his Star Trek lore.
In the TOS episode “The Doomsday Machine,” when Captain Kirk first finds Commodore Decker he goes through his logs to find out what happened.
As he listened he realized that Decker did everything HE would have done! The implication being, if Kirk had first encountered the planet killer, THAT would have been his fate! When criticizing the actions of others, always remember that hindsight is 20/20.
He also conveniently left out the fact that by sacrificing himself, Decker showed Kirk how to destroy the Doomsday Machine, thus saving untold billions of lives.
Far from being one of the worst captains in Star Fleet, he was actually one of its better ones. Kirk himself made note of that in his captain’s log.
Yeah, Decker had been given a raw deal. He didn't initiate hostilities with the weapon and his crew likely would've died anyway if they all stayed on board, because it's easier to have air left for one person over dozens to hundreds
Kirk: "Risk is part of the game if you want to sit in that chair."
I don't see how Harriman, Decker, and Terrell even make the list when Merrick, Pressman, Braxton, and Keogh are out there. Especially Braxton. You've got full control of a TIMESHIP and you can't come up with a better plan than: "Voyager was near a catastrophe! I better go explode them!"
@@mikemcdevitt9570 they could do another top 10 and include them, plus Jellico.
Captain Keogh's mistake was underestimating a new enemy. I mean, Picard did that in "Q Who?"
The script gives an animosity bias against Keogh because the audience is inclined to side with Jadzia Dax in their exchanges.
@@thedragonauthority Jellico was fine, his only crime was not being Picard and the Enterprise crew acting like spoiled children.
@@thedragonauthority Jellico was not wrong.
Merrick was captain of a freighter. He failed his psyco simulator test @ the academy. He was not starship material.
Nog was already a commissioned officer by the time he was on the Valiant... a Lieutenant if I recall correctly. Those cadets should've relinquished the ship the moment he was onboard.
Nog was an Ensign at the time (was promote to Lt JG in the finale episode) however I agree that they should have relinquished command.
And by the same token, Nog should have insisted on taking command when they didn't. In his defense, when most of your training and experience has centered around following someone else's orders, the transition may take a bit.
Nog was an Ensign, but yes, the crew should have relinquished command, but Nog wanted to be in Red Squad when he was at the Academy and was kind of love bombed into the Red Squad cult when he was aboard. And as said before Nog wasn't use to command he served as an engineer and had been use to taking orders.
Maybe...maybe not. The command of a ship is determined by captain and that person will stand until relieved. Nog officially has no direct authority to relieve Valiant's commander. Think of the TNG episode when the engineer is trying to press LaForge into giving up command when Picard can't be reached. Rank alone is insufficient to determine the command structure on a ship.
@@MrJerks93 You are correct when it comes to Commissioned Officers within the Star Trek Universe. But that's not the case here. Its cadets vs a graduated, commissioned officer. Rodenberry did model Starfleet off of the US Navy. So the moment a fully commissioned officer stepped on board, the cadets should've deferred to them.
It would be like a group of Annapolis cadets being out on a training cruise today and all of their US Navy personnel onboard suddenly died. The moment a commissioned line officer steps on board, those cadets have a new leader because none of those cadets are commissioned.
I thought Commedore Decker was unaware that the device he encountered was, in fact, going to destroy the planet. He made the logical choice, given the damage to his ship, and only after learned that the device was a 'planet killer'.
I will also give Terril a pass, as, for puposes of plot, it was all out of his hands.
He said that when they first encountered the machine, it was in the process of slicing out chunks of a planet. Also, the destroyed solar systems should've been a clue as well.
@@rsine100 Ah, well, my faulty human memory must have re-written that bit to make it make more sense.
True, but he also said it was leaving the system after the battle. If the ship was in such a state that it was going to become uninhabitable for a large number of the crew, the safer course of action seems to be the planet. Regardless, in the moment there probably wasn’t a “right” answer as much as “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.
If Esteban had beamed everyone up, they’d all be dead. He saved Spock and Saavik… by the book! Hero.
I was going to say if Esteban had beamed them up, Spock would have been young, but if didn't raise the shields I guess they would have be all killed.
"were under attack "STAND BY FOR EVASIVE"... Why stand by for anything it should've been raise shields, red alert, leave system to warn Starfleet.
@@stewartmcminn7773 Kirk also didn't raise shields, the only difference being that Kruge was in front of the Enterprise and so Kirk and crew spotted the distortion of the cloaking device
@@Marcsharp82 Kirk didn't raise shields for a reason - he wanted to lure the Klingons into a false sense of security, acting like the Klingon ship hadn't been spotted under the cloaking device. Raising shields would have alarmed the Klingons and changed their tactics, so Kirk just waited for the right moment to fire point blank and damage the ship.
@@stewartmcminn7773 Oberth shields probably wouldn't have helped much. But yeah, he should have taken evasive action immediately.
My nomination would be Commodore Stocker who took over after Kirk, Spock & McCoy aged in 'The Deadly Years'.
Oh, yeah. He had no field experience whatsoever, violated the Romulan Neutral Zone, and whined about them attacking because he didn't know what to do. What a loser!
"increasing number of Captains who ruined their career in their last mission" .. considering that ruining your career usually ends up with the Captain in question being killed or fired afterwards, that tracks. Ruining your career usually ends it.
Unless you're a klingon, then one of subordinates just ups and deletes you.
Or you get sent to Starbase 80...
@@Baffled_King no! Not Starbase 80! Please no!
It's like when people find something they lost and say " it's always in the last place you look"... Of course it is! You don't lose something, find it and then keep on looking!!
USS Grissom was clearly on red alert when destroyed, so her shields were in fact up. Can't blaim Esteban for that.
it was...a lucky shot!
Nah. It's triggered the ship's stores of explodium and oberthium.
The Grissom was an Oberth. Those things explode if you look at them funny.
Being also just a science vessel, Oberths normally are not so suited for combat. Kirk was on alert got blindsided by the same Klingon vessel, but a Constitution class starship, even with skeleton crew and battle damage, is still a much more tougher vessel.
Compare a WWII Navy warship vs a modern science ship (basically a Yacht)
Beats me... it might have been a "lucky shot." I still can't believe that a single torpedo would take out a vessel with shields up. Possible, though.
Of all the officers on the list, Tim Watters has the least excuse. He disobeyed standing orders by keeping Valiant on patrol after her captain was killed (after a combat encounter that involved the ship taking significant damage, he absolutely should have put in for repairs), he did so not for good reasons but to keep from losing his special position as acting captain of a Starship.
His overconfidence and inexperience prevented him seeing how stupid it was to take on a Jem’Hadar ship that was way larger and more powerful than his ship. He acted more like a cult leader than a Starfleet officer.
He was terrible and was an addict. Reminds me of the meth fuelled young Nazi soldiers.
His first offcer was a Sarah Michelle Gellar knock-off, too. LOL
Plus he would've had to relinquish command to Nog, an actually commissioned officer. He outranked them all, by experience as well.
@@techsilver7761 In fact, Nog was lucky he wasn't court martialled for NOT taking command.
Capt.Ransom should be much higher on the list, given the laws he broke, the lives he lost and took made him top 3 in my books for worst StarFleet captains.
Capt Ransom of the Cerritos is an exemplary leader!
I'm surprised Admiral Pressman was absent considering his actions as Captain of the Pegasus.
Captain Ransom of the Cerritos is a different guy. Apparently.
@@TheInselaffen ENGAGE THE CORE
@@vic5015 I'm honestly kinda surprised we never got even a reference to them having the same last name. Not even one person who's like "Ransom, as in the guy Janeway ran into in the Delta Quadrant?" "No relation"
In fairness to Esteban, his insistence on going "by the book" probably saved Spock and the landing party's lives. His hesitation to beam them up immediately prevented them being destroyed with the Grissom, although Marcus does end up dead anyway.
Another thing to consider, Esteban is in command of a science ship, and rigidly by the book might normally be a good thing.
No, you can't do something that can get everyone killed or blow the ship up seems to be a good response.
On the plus side, having dealt with researchers and such, quoting policy (AKA the regulations) is more effective than trying to reason with them, as they've probably already justified to themselves why doing something stupid doesn't have any risk.
Esteban did exactly what he should have. When you putzing around in an Oberth full of explodium, you don't take chances.
Also the Oberth is a science vessel, and directly in geosynchronous orbit over the planet. They have no room for evasive maneuvers. For all we know the shields couldn't be raised that quickly (or they were and had just punched through).
And regulations (like quarantine) exist for a reason. Sure, they could have done something like beam down science or medical supplies but they didn't have that much time. They probably hadn't the slightest clue of -what- to do at finding a living being down there and going by regulations was probably the sanest option while they figured out what was going on.
As the captain of a science vessel Esteban might very well be a civilian and a pure scientist. He probably has never undergone tactical training, and most of the personnel are probably civilians and specialists rather than regular Starfleet officers.
Also look at it from an in-universe time based perspective. They probably had under thirty seconds before the Bird of Prey decloaked and attacked. During that Esteban is in a conversation with the crew down on the planet. This deep in Federation space on a project so classified that probably only a few hundred people knew about it having an enemy ship come out of nowhere is worth totally breaking down over. Give the man minimal credit for gonig to red alert, telling the ground team what's up, and then trying to get out of there in a science vessel when the Klingon ship is probably a few hundred kilometers away, tops, and they're in orbit over the planet on thrusters.
Or they get shields up and the ship dies in two volleys instead of one to disrupter fire.
Now, if he had been the captain of the Nostromo in the movie Alien, *that* would have likely led to a much happier ending for one and all. Well, except for John Hurt's already-doomed character, anyway.
Yeah, not sure why the man qualifies as 'worst captain' for a bad ninety seconds call. He makes a reasonable judgement call in WTF circumstances (someone being found alive on Genesis, completely isolated/highly classified planet in Federation space) that they need to be kept isolated on planet to prevent something from being brought up to ship.
Then a Klingon ship decloaks a few hundred kilometers away from him (maybe less) while the ship is in tight orbit. He (very likely) has a crew of almost entirely civilians and science personnel. His instinct is to.. Get away, which is pretty reasonable. Maybe he orders shields raised (maybe they re automatically). Maybe he doesn't. Doesn't really matter either way - he's in an Oberth facing a Klingon bird of prey at point blank range. So he dies in two volleys instead of one, or the ship is crippled and the survivors are taken aboard to be interrogated by Klingons (we mean tortured).
He's the captain of a science vessel deep within Federation space who's mostly playing herd over the scientists onboard on a mission that's highly classified, and only has one person involved in the actual Genesis program itself on the ship (David Marcus) with none of the actual developmetn data on the Genesis Project available (since Khan deleted it and had everyone else but Carol Marcus executed).
I think you can cut the guy more slack than the one who gets sympathy points for a breakdown on a virus killing his crew who then beams down to a planet and uses advanced technology to try and enslave their society!
What? No Admiral Pressman?
@@illam9500 Oh no, no no. Pressman was captain of the Pegasus when the were testing the cloaking device. It was only when he was in the position of Admiral that his part in the conspiracy came to light. Many of the people on the list are dubious inclusions, but Pressman deserves a seat near the top of the list.
He was a Captain at the time of the loss of the Pegasus.
@@quakeholio oh! I remember him now. For some reason his name wasn't quite clicking and I thought of someone else.
@@illam9500 Shelby was never captain of anything on screen, but she still made the list. We know the name of the ship Pressman was captain of and know something about what happened while he was captain. We can't say that for Shelby.
@rmdodsonbills yes yes point taken. I spoke before I thought
Of all the lists you guys have put out, this is one of them.
One your number 10 spot you have Maxwell, who threw out the book so to speak. Clearly his crew supported him, and even Picard acknowledged he was probably right about his claims. As someone else said in the comments, he did the wrong thing for the right reasons. How many times have the "good" captains ignored orders to "do the right thing". He saw a risk to the Federation and took the pre-emptive to try and stop it. With that being said, he was breaking treaties, so I get why he was on the list, but it should speak volumes that both his former and current crew vouched for him so fervently.
But then also on the list you Esteban whom you criticize for following the book to closely. So you have one captain we are dinging for ignoring orders, while dinging another one for listening to orders.
Then you have Maxwell and Ransom both above Harriman who was just kind of green? Like yeah I would probably hesitate to act too if I knew my ship was missing all sorts of vital systems and wasn't actually prepared to conduct missions. Ransom was trying to save his crew, but he was committing genocide to do that, certainly that has to be worse than Harriman?
You guys have some captains that were just a bit incompetent or made a small mistake that had massive consequences on this list. While leaving out Captain's who were knowingly breaking treaties or worse not on the list at all, or very low on the list. Or you have someone like Shaw who while becoming a fairly well liked character gave up command of his ship to people he disliked and didn't trust, putting his crews fates in their hands. Or someone like Pressman who should be at the number 2 or 3 spot probably.
Like the absurd convoluted plot needed for Harriman to be a bad captain should disqualify him from this list. Like the ship is missing all these vital systems, no other ships were around to respond despite them being basically on Earth's doorstep, I guess no nameless crew member was working in that section or who knew it could get to that section Kirk went to. Given how green he was and all the things working against him Harriman went above and beyond what should have been expected of him. And Terrell, I mean as you guys pointed out he isn't the first captain to beam down to the planet, so why is he on the list at all, let alone number 3?
Sometimes they're lists make me wonder if the writer has watched and considered the shows/movies mentioned or simply asked ChatGPT or read Memory Alpha articles.
Maxwell probably told his crew they were following Starfleet's orders. How many times has Picard come out of his ready room with new orders?
@@edwardrhoades6957 Maybe, I could certainly see an ensign or lieutenant falling in line if a CO were to come out and say hey we doing something odd.
But like the 1st or 2nd officer, a lot of the senior staff for that matter? I feel like if Picard just suddenly comes out of his ready room and is like, hey we are going into Romulan territory and we are going to start attacking any Romulan stuff on site, that would elicit a lot of questions. And the Federation relationship with the Cardassians was a bit better, but very similar at this point.
Yes. Maxwell was only wrong because the Federation was too naive.
Commodore Matt Decker!
That's still one of the most terrifying episodes of the entire franchise.
I recently found deleted scenes of when they found and talked with Decker in that episode. It's on TH-cam. Loved him in that role. Great episode. 👍😎.
Garth of Izar's rank was Fleet Captain. He was a captain. He had a psychotic break and made a mental institution dedicated to rehabilitation into his own personal playground. HOW IS HE NOT ON THIS LIST AT ALL, LET ALONE NOT AT NUMBER ONE????
And he killed Batgirl!!
Presumably due to his psychotic break being after his time as Captain.
and if you have read the DC comics series (which was canon at one time) he escaped from that mental institution killed a Starfleet officer to impersonate her and infiltrate the Enterprise and stabbed Kirk while impersonating another officer and then tried to finish Kirk off before being finally stopped .
Things done after you lose your rank probably don't count. Did they say in the episode what he had done before? I can't remember.
Maxwell was a good captain struggling with a very real problem. He also was basically proven to be right in the end.
Randsom was a guy who was trying to keep his crew alive (the #1 duty of a Captain), he also didn't have the luxury of plot armor where the ship is 100% fine and operational at the end of each episode.
Maxwell unilaterally committed numerous acts of war by massacring numerous Cardasian ships and facilities in their own territory.
Everything I end up hearing about characters returning in Picard involves them being done dirty in some way.
no that's not true the clear and obvious exception is... umm...hmm... spot?
Hey here’s a character you remember fondly. Cool, right? Hey let’s kill him in a very graphic way!
To be fair everything he said about Shelby was wrong.
Ben Maxwell was vindicated during the Dominion war 👽👍🏻
🌌🔭
At the end of that episode, Picard even admits he was right but he just went about solving the issue all wrong.
Gul Macet knew Picard believed Maxwell was right abd asks him why he didn't board the Cardassian vessels as Maxwell suggested. Picard more or less says that his orders were to preserve the peace pretty much at any cost.
I would simply say by the events of 'ensign ro' 'chain of command' 'DS9 The Circle' a half dozen others even before the Maquis starts up. Honestly the Federation made a mistake not sterilizing the surface of Cardassia prime. Or at least let the Klingons do it.
Agreed! I am once again disgusted by this self-righteous vlogger's inclusion of Maxwell in another of their "worst" videos.
@@vic5015 Yeah, at the time Starfleet was still smarting from Wolf 359. They were in no condition to fight in another huge war.
As much as I hated Tim Waters and the entire Red Squad...squad. They were set up for failure from the start. Already pushing their egos thinking they know more than experience can teach. They drink their own Kool-Aid into thinking time spent in a class room or training fields equates to experience. Failure in itself is a powerful learning tool but these cadets never tasted that so they felt like they can do no wrong.
Arguably a group that would benefit the most from the Kobayashi Maru.
I’m pretty sure it was people like Red Squad that are the reason why the Kobayashi Maru simulation in the first place
Then they should've realized they were in way over their heads and retreated to safety.
Agreed and Watters is not a Captain. He's a cadet a corrupted cadet and Red Squad should have been disbanded after the events of the Valiant episode.
@@jameslevy8347 You can be assigned the roll of Captain without having the rank of Captain. F red squad, they should have been smart enough to know the mission was to get the Valiant and fellow cadets back home.
3:20 - I don't think Harriman is a fair addition to this list. Without having gotten into the beta-canon stuff, only what we have on screen, the deployment of the Enterprise-B was obviously a commissioning cruise, not even a true shake-down cruise. In the real US Navy, these commands often walk the line between being ceremonial and being led by officers with engineer backgrounds to figure out what's working and what needs to be worked on.
That's the way I understood Harriman's role. He was not, as I saw it, intended to be the -B's frontline commander. And it certainly wasn't on him that Starfleet put a rush on getting the -B out into service before construction was completed. He was a captain, meaning he still had those above him he had to answer to, and when they said go, he went.
I like when Maxwell and Myles sing. Gives me the goose bumps
Maxwell was not a bad Captain, he just made a bad call
Captain Dayton in Lower Decks?! She not only got her ship destroyed by a crystalline entity but also got her entire crew killed by the Pakleds!
Not a bad captain, just an extremely unlucky one.
@@travisbishop782 Not many people would have survived that initial attack by the Pakleds. The Cerritos might have made the same mistake if not for the Captain recognizing that that approach is what destroyed Dayton's ship.
Loser Decks isn't Star Trek. It's a travesty
@@cgoodwin256 oh no! We have a hater here! Everyone, run!
@@cgoodwin256 hot take cheif.
Maxwell needed someone like Steve Rogers to remind him that "Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time."
Captain Keogh Of The U.S.S. Odyssey Should Be On This List He Expected The Dominion To Have "Sharper Teeth" Compared To The Maquis And If It Weren't For Jadzia Dax Reminding Him To Leave The Ship's Nonessential Personnel At DS9 Whole Families Most Likely Would Have Died When The Odyssey Was Destroyed
He should have left the entire saucer section. Separating the stardrive section to face known hostile encounters was a core design feature of the Galaxy class. This was literally the situation the feature existed for. The ship would have been substantially more nimble, with a smaller target profile, had he done so. There isn't even a "production" excuse for the mistake, since there was no need for an actual separation sequence, merely dialog to establish that it was going to happen.
@@dajonaneisnoah8714 As stated by Riker in "The Best of Both World" the saucer was a useful thing to have for the power. saucer separation was for getting nonessential people away from combat. Probably why the Galaxy's in the Dominion war went in to combat with the saucers.
point out where they already knew the dominion weapons completely bypassed shields before the Odyssey was getting shot at.
@@davidlewis5312 They knew? how? when? Here is the dialog from the episode.
Keogh: Keogh to runabouts
Kira: Go ahead
Keogh: They're using some kind of phased polaron beam to penetrate our shields.
Dax: Have you tried altering your harmonics to compensate?
Keogh: We've run though the entire spectrum but none of the frequencies were effective. Divert shield power to weapons.
It does not sound like they knew to me.
He made all the good calls. He listened to senior staff, he adjusted tactics in battle, he bought the team valuable minutes in battle and commanded the field. He couldn’t foresee the kamikaze attack. Without it, the mission would have been a success, partly thanks to him.
I love how much lore there is for star trek. One of my favorite parts about the setting!
Harriman, Terrell, and Esteban, insofar as they’re placed on this list at all, should not be so high up. In the case of Harriman and Esteban, they fall under the category of “do everything right and still lose” and “no-win scenario.”
Other commenters have mentioned Admiral Pressman. Where is Calvin Hudson who served as a Maquis spy in uniform? Or Captain Solok who very clearly has a bigoted view of non-Vulcans? And if you’re rating on the “consequences” only, then why aren’t Captains Varley and Keough here since they managed to lose Galaxy-class ships with all hands?
"I don't believe in a no win scenario."
Hudson was one of my initial thoughts too, but I don't know if he was a full captain (at least not until after he joined the Maquis). Starfleet attaché to the Federation colonies in the demilitarized zone seems like more of a political role than a command position. Pressman should definitely make the list though.
@@Simian-bz7zo three pips like Sisko, and also you are correct, he is serving as an envoy, no starship no crew, maybe a staff and a runabout.
is Varley the Yamato's commander? I mean, the only reason the Enterprise survived is they took the virus from Yamato's logs and lucked into a solution via Data. If the solution is 'data does something only Data can do' then the point is moot.
Keough didn't lose a Galaxy with full hands. The Odyssey offloaded the nonessential personel during the preparations afterall (atleast I interpreted his jab toward Dax as "stating the obvious").
Wait - some of your heroic captains didn't do so great either,
* Kirk stole a starship
* Picard led an enemy force, wiping out 39 starships (if Terrell doesn't get the brain slug defence, there's none for Picard)
* Janeway killed Tuvix
* Sisko lied, cheated, bribed men to cover up crimes, was an accessory to murder
Y'all reaming Captain Terrell out but didn't even mention Captain Merik. He broke the Prime Directive, ordered his entire crew into the gladiatorial arena on planet 892-IV, and bent the knee to the local government to save his own life. Then he tried to force Captain Kirk to do the same things and acted surprised when Kirk showed integrity. I suppose he wasn't technically a STARFLEET captain, but nevertheless he was a captain and a poor one.
A sad thing about a lot of these terrible captains were that they were victims of circumstance and, at times, hubris.
Sorry, I can't hate Ransom, The mass murder is unforgivable sure, but the Equinox didn't have the technology Voyager had, it was a short range science vessel with a smaller inexperienced crew.
As Ransom himself says "It's easy to cling to principles when you're standing on a vessel with its bulkheads intact, manned by a crew that's not starving."
And let's be honest, Janeway did worse
if he did it once sure, but he went so far he had to rewrite his medical computers morality circuits. That should have been a red flag he was going the wrong way about this.
I totally agree. He has been vilified unnecessarily.
Decker was a man suffering from PTSD and survivor's guilt knowing that the very efforts he took to save those under his command ended up killing them. I'd probably go a bit Ahab myself.
Kirk has a similar reaction when encountering the "vampire cloud" entity in the episode "Obsession".
I didn't see Captain Pressman in this video. The now Admiral Pressman responsible for the initial loss of his crew and ship the U.S.S. Pegasus with it's prototype cloaking device.
Anyhow, even though he was another "bad" captain, William Windom as Commodore Matt Decker was totally awesome in the Doomsday Machine. Loved his acting in this role. As well as John Savage as Captain Ransom of the U.S.S. Equinox from Star Trek: Voyager. Another great acting bad captain. But in the bitter end, both of these individuals ended up redeeming themselves their own way. Four of my favorite episodes of the Star Trek universe. 👍😎.
@5:52 why does that formation look like its supposed to *mean* something? is it spelling something? or am I just seeing things that aren't there?
Yeah, it seems like it must have some significance, either in canon or in real history, but darned if I can figure it out.
Picard showrunner Terry Matalas stated that the intent was to invoke the impression of Borg script.
Captain Maxwell was the same guy who tried to kick Patch Adams out of Medical School. He likes playing jerk roles. LOL
Also Shaw shank redemption
He also embezzled money and exploited prison labour while he was a prison governor and tried to blame it on an innocent man.
Also the same guy who was part of the team that stole the two nukes in Broken Arrow.
Maxwell was an excellent Captain. He correctly deduced that the Cardassians were secretly shipping weapons. If Starfleet had more captains like him they’d have been better prepared for things like Wolf 359 and the Dominion War.
He was indeed right, but the way he proved it cost him his career.
To Be Fair Captain Maxwell Was Ultimately Proved Right When The Cardassians Showed Their True Colors When They Joined The Dominion Which Allowed Them To Gain A Foothold On The Alpha Quadrant
Yes I agree !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Facts
To be fair, he still went about it the wrong way. Being right doesn't always justify what actions you decide to take.
He was proven correct by the end of that episode "The Wounded" The Cardassians were running supply ships with sensor jammers
@@maddslothii2532 No one said that his claims were wrong, it was his actions that were wrong. Also, they weren't running with sensor jammers, they were using strong subspace energy fields that acted as sensor jammers.
You missed Admiral, formerly Captain Pressman of the Pegasus.
huge omission, the bastard would be #1 canindate
I know I'm going to take some heat for this but I submit Picard, after all he got Kirk killed because he couldn't fight. Maybe he should have been in the holodeck using one of Worf's combat programs instead of playing that detective sim.
4:50 "unable to see the wood for the trees."
Never heard that saying before. Looked it up and apparently has the same meaning as "unable to see the forest for the trees," except that saying "wood" makes no sense, since you see wood when you look at trees, so you'd definitely be able to see the wood.
Besides which he said it wrong. It's supposed to be "see the *woods* (plural) for the trees", woods in this context having the identical meaning as forest. As in "over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go." Saying it singular instead of plural like that makes the expression meaningless, just as you said.
@@jasontoddman7265 Technically they used the right expression (as in, "see the wood" is the known expression), but I fully agree, it not being plural is nonsense. If it was "woods" (and they said "wood" instead of "woods"), then that'd be somewhat better. I guess someone who didn't know English too well came up with it, and others just went with it without using their brains to say, "Wait, it should be 'woods' since there are multiple trees."
Hold up... Apparently, and this is a comment from one person so I don't know how reliable it is... It originated from someone named John Wood building houses, and there would be a tree in front of each house that would grow quite large, so people would say that you can't see the Wood (name) for the tree. Again, not sure if that's actually true or not.
Still, you'd think that with the meaning it has now, people would be saying "woods."
@ As far as *I* ever heard, it always was either 'woods' or forest; usually forest, actually. I have never once in my life heard the expression with wood used without the 's' at the end; at least as near as I can recall. Don't know what else I can tell you. I can only go by my own experiences, after all. So near as I know everyone I ever knew to say it said it right. lol
@@jasontoddman7265 Same here. That last bit was because I was researching it while making the comment. I had just come across that, which is why I said "Hold up..." So it was something new at that moment. Assuming it's correct (the information I found), then original context has it correct, but the intent/meaning now, "woods" would be appropriate vs "wood." (Or forest, as is said here in the USA.)
No. 10 was also an awful prison warden.
Iswydt ...
Surprised no mention of Captain R.M. Merik
You beat me to it, pal. I know he wasn't Starfleet per se. But the video is titled worst captains in Star Trek. This dude sent his own crew in to the arena.
Was wondering when I would find him mentioned.
Agreed. Maxwell is a casualty of war, and Starfleet should have been there to adress his issues, but Starfleet doesn't really give a you know what about the Mental health of it's personal.
Which is weird, since most of the big ships have consulars on board.
@travisbishop782 I was thinking about that. Clearly his Counselor dropped the ball. Any competent mental health expert would have advised against his having a command of a ship. The curious thing is: if he hadn't have been there, how long would it have taken for Starfleet to become aware of what the Cardassians were really up too.🤔
I have to defend Shelby. In the New-Frontier-books she is quite a good officer - and later - good Captain.
Also not canon.
meh
@@vic5015 Is Picard canon?
@martineyles yes. Because it happened on screen.
@@martineyles "Canon" is decided by the present rights holders decided which things they want to sell you, so technically yes.
Also technically no if you want, because it's all fiction, and you can decide what to care about and acknowledge.
Waters was by far the worst captain. He and that arrogant and combative first officer of his lacked any kind of command style. Out of all the starship captains on this list, Waters should top the list.
Agreed and Watters is not a Captain. He's a cadet a corrupted cadet and Red Squad should have been disbanded after the events of the Valiant episode.
Captain Braxton blows up Voyager and doesn't even make Top 10
1. Michael Burnham. End of list.
I find it hard to blame Rios's captian for what he did. He was forced to chose between killing two people he didn't know or losing his whole ship. He shud have went back to Earth and told Starfleet what happened but Picards writers decided he should kill himself for being put a position where he had no choice but to kill people.
When Cameron lived in Egypt's Land... Let my Cameron gooooo!
ROTFLMAO! Too funny! I was actually thinking the same thing!
I could see him saying that in his quarters whenever his first officer calls him to the bridge.
Thank you so much to both of you who got the reference. I knew that one was gonna be hard to land.
Whoever wrote this has never seen the episodes or films that they are talking about, most of these choices are just because someone's seen some post somewhere bitching about these characters. I can defend the vast majority of these because they had reasons for what happened, one or two might be indefensible but the rest are fine.
As for the end there about Estaban? What happened when Kirk didn't follow the regs in the film before? A crippled ship, dozens of dead and injured and a madman with a weapon of mass destruction on the loose. Estaban did exactly what he should have done, if he had beamed them all up then Marcus, Saavik and Spock would also be very dead. A minimally armed science ship deep in Federation space was ambushed by a cloaked ship, its shields were up or at least being raised, which again from Wrath of Khan we know takes time at this point.
Do some damned research before posting this kind of crap.
I think you were harsh on Ransom. He didn't and shouldn't have washed out. He was put in a impossible position. he said the Quadrant was hostile the moment he arrived. His ship was not a long range exploratory vessel.
Nova = Oberth mark 2 He was in an impossible situation. No one knows what they would do in that situation. His job was to get his people home.
I rewatched the Equinox episodes last night. He had lost half his crew BEFORE even knowing about those lifeforms.
@@TheWallyTirado I think he said it happened in the first week, the (something) guard.
The Nova is the Oberth mark 2. Slow, under armed, and under crewed. They were in way over their head and in the type of position that forces people to become cannibalism to survive.
Did they do wrong and should they have been punished? yeah, but until you are in that situation you have no idea how you would act.
Capt Styles in place of J.T. Esteban. Styles let Scotty completely make his precious Excelsior transwarp look utterly inept. Also allowed the Enterprise to be stolen right out of spacedock. Plus Styles just comes off as a massive douche canoe. Esteban was a good science ship Captain doing what you are supposed to do on a survey of a completely new planet. Science ship Captains are not expected to be combat experts. No one was thinking the Klingons would invade Federation space and ambush a Federation ship. And if there was a concern, they should have sent a heavy-cruiser escort with the Grissom to handle any security issues.
It boggles my mind that Ransom is constantly "the bad captain" of the Voyager series when JANEWAY a) could have gotten her crew home immediately but the "cost was too high" then b) in the far future decides to destroy an entire TIMELINE worth of lives just to save ONE member of her crew... but sure Ransom is THE bad captain for doing whatever it takes
Janeway destroyed the Caretaker's Array to keep the technology from falling into the hands of the Kazon, who would have at best used it to expand their raiding, or blown up themselves and every nearby planet. And I get the feeling that Admiral Janeway's Federation was slowly losing ground to the Borg, who had adapted to her strategies and technological advances.
@Janoha17 again... a few planets. MAYBE... versus an entire TIMELINE in every quadrant... and I'm unaware of any evidence that the Borg were an existential threat in that future given the literal party the "reunion" cast was casually throwing
@@Janoha17Regarding the caretaker array, she could have set the Tri-cobalt device to explode after it was used to send Voyager home, but apparently attaching a timer to an explosive has never been done before
@@tigerbread78as _many_ others have pointed out over the years, even if there was some plot contrivance that prevented the use of a timer, she (or a volunteer) could have stayed behind to manually detonate it.
Saying Ransom got half his crew killed crossing borders. How many times did Janeyway face similar either willingly or by accident? The race that hated telepaths. The aliens pissed she used the Vadwaaur's old warp tunnels even though it was an accident. I mean, Janeway also nearly lost everything to the Kazon. THE KAZON.
With the Tim Watters entry, he shouldn’t have been in command once Nog was onboard. Even though Nog was an ensign, he still outranked Watters and everyone else on the ship. Red Squad may have been made of elite cadets, but they were still cadets. Also, I’m genuinely surprised that Red Squad wasn’t disbanded due to their involvement in the insurrection launched by Admiral Leyton.
Agreed and Watters is not a Captain. He's a cadet a corrupted cadet and Red Squad should have been disbanded after the events of the Valiant episode.
No Lorca? No Burnham?
Well, they removed Discovery from canon apparently from what I hear, so maybe that's why no one from that show is listed here.
I nominate Captain Merik of TOS S2E25 "Bread and Circuses", that's the episode with the Roman gladiators on TV, like 20th Earth but if Roman Empire never fell... He forced his crew to either assimilate or become slaves. Then he influenced the flow of the empire.
You dropped the ball without mentioning Adminrald Pressman.
Yep. I mentioned him in my reply. 👍😎.
When you think about how jayneway got her well equipped ship, and what was left of the crew home after 40 years. Then was like nah and went back in time to change literally the entire future, ending, or erasing endless lives that would have or could have been, just because she missed her friends. It makes ransom killing subspace aliens to get his ill equiped ship and little crew home look like nothing in comparison. Weather it was right or not.
Insaneway was not a great Captain
Commodore Stocker from TOS The Deadly Years. In a big hurry to get to Starbase 10 and assume command (for no other reason than because he was a whiny little brat), so he takes command of the Enterprise, and takes a shortcut through the neutral zone, violating the treaty and almost destroying the ship. I hate that guy!
In Stocker's defense, his actions were because he was trying to save Kirk and the others who were quickly aging and even he realized how much of an utter failure of a captain he was, mostly because he never was an actual captain - if he got the rank, it was probably through desk work, so he had no real experience.
@@AshuraH Even Kirk said "The man's a chair-bound paper pusher," and you have to wonder how he fared in his position of commanding a starbase after they got him to his destination. Great performance by Charles Drake.
As expected, there is no mention of Burnham.
yup should be #2 behind Esteban
Well be happy you weren't disappointed then.
Glass half empty kind of guy aren't you !
Who's an edgy boy with hot takes? Is it you? YES!
Probably because she was a bad first officer not a bad Captain
heh both you first and last name mean dick, appropriate
I would argue that Janeway is NOT a good example of a "great" captain. Picard asked for Q's help to escape the Borg the first time, swallowing his pride to benefit his crew. Janeway flat out refused Q, condemning her crew to stay in the Delta Quadrant for years. In Equinox, she TORTURED another starfleet officer, while Chakotay begs for her stop. He tries to intervene, but she overrides his attempts with her Command Authority. I forget which episode it was, but she risked the lives of the entire crew because she wanted a cup of coffee. Let's be honest, upon return to Federation space, she would of been court-martialed for her abhorrent decisions in the Delta Quadrant.
Sisko was worse. He was fine with Garak murdering that criminal and several Romulans and tricked the Romulan Empire into a war, killing a lot of Romulans in the process. "I can live with it."
I demand that you retract EVERYTHING you said about Capt. Maxwell. He acted without authorization, but his actions uncovered a Cardasian plot that could have cost the Federation millions of lives. In the end he was willing to sacrifice his career to bring to light what he found. He just went about it the wrong way. If Star Fleet was aware of what he knew, then they are the threat to peace. You can condemn him for his actions but he is NOT a bad Captain. Picard found out the hard way how treacherous the Cardasians were. Decker shouldn't be on this list because he had been rendered incapable of command and was not mentally accountable for his actions. I hold Spock responsible for allowing him to take command although technically he had no choice. And to top it off you missed the #1 WORST CAPTAIN in Starfleet. Capt. Jellico. This fool was a one trick pony. Said trick was being able to read Cardasians and deal with them. Because he was just as vile as they were. Other than that, he stunk like a backed up toilet. He had zero personal skills and the ability to make a crew mutiny by merely stepping on board the ship. He was a rusty gun that Starfleet vomited up for one special occasion. And got tossed right back in the trash bin as soon as he completed his task.
Janeway is the worst Captain, there is no question.... she committed more war crimes than anyone else which is amazing when you consider the things Sisko did when he became a Captain
The mountains of Romulan corpses would disagree with that.
I strongly disagree with putting Decker and Terrell on the list. Decker lost his ship and crew, which led to losing a major portion of his sanity, because he didn't realize what he was dealing with until it was too late. Beaming his crew down to a planet when his ship was disabled was a completely reasonable decision in the absence of knowledge that he was fighting something that was more interested in destroying planets than in destroying disabled ships. Looking at the decisions he made in the context of what he knew at the time, the only clearly and unequivocally bad major decision that I recall us knowing of him making was that while in a state of seriously diminished sanity, he couldn't accept that having Enterprise fight the doomsday machine was futile. At the end, he sacrificed his life doing something that might have stopped the doomsday machine if it were weaker, and that revealed a way to destroy it. There was a relatively brief period when he was a terrible captain because of his mental state. But judging a captain by a single brief period of seriously diminished mental capacity is egregiously unfair.
Terrell was a victim of bad luck. He presumably served during an era when it was normal, or at least completely acceptable, for captains to lead landing parties. Taking Chekhov with him was completely reasonable because Reliant was within explored Federation territory and there was no reason to think anything might happen while he was away that the ship's second officer couldn't handle. In the end, Terrell was able to fight the mind control parasite more effectively than Khan thought would be possible, and when he felt that he would ultimately lose, he killed himself rather than carry out the command to kill Kirk. Condemning him as a bad captain based on 20/20 hindsight is outrageously unfair.
Hey trek culture team- was wondering if you have a way to ask Denise crosby if her family needs any help from the community. I saw that they lost their home in the fires in socal going on right now. Thanks ❤
Maxwell gets a decent follow up in the novel “Force and Motion” by Jeffrey Lang. After serving his sentence he gets a job as a maintenance man on an almost empty deep space research station and basically want to be forgotten. That is until Nog and O’Brien stop by for a visit, and then Maxwell has the opportunity to redeem himself when an incident occurs. Coolest part of the books is there are these arachnid creatures, and in order to brace everyone aboard a shuttle for a crash, web everything and everyone inside in order to keep them secure. Not to eat them. But imagine a shuttlecraft full of people trapped in spiderweb.
I figured Starfleet would grab him after Dominion first contact and put him in a strategic thinktank asap.
@ No, he just had to sit by at the penal colony in New Zealand and knew that it was happening
I’m sorry, Ransom’s actions by entrapping, torturing, and eventually murdering sentient beings to power his ship are so utterly reprehensible. I can’t find it credible that he ranks so low on this list.
When your watching your crew starve and patching your ship together with duct tape...yeah you do reprehensible shit. Other ships don't have the luxury of Plot armor like Voyager has (Year of hell also saw Janeway rapidly lose it when put into a similar situation)
@@TheSilverPhoenix100 No, you DON'T do reprehensible shit as a Starfleet officer to save your crew. Janeway never once considered catching aliens and grinding them up for fuel even in the darkest timeline. Get outta here with that.
@posindustries no she just stranded her crew 60 years from home to protect a species that has the life span of a fish...this holier than thou attitude of Janeway fans is really misplaced.
@@posindustries Comparing a Nova to an Intrepid is laughable. Janeway had so many advantages over the Equinox it is not even funny. The Nova was a Modern Oberth, short ranged, slow, under gunned, and lightly staffed. Voyager was an Super FAST, well armed, and decently staffed long range explorer.
As Sisko said "It is easy to be a saint in paradise." Don't even pretend you know what you would be willing to do if put in Ransom's position. People put in that type situation have turned to murder and cannibalism, the drive to live is strong.
Having said that I am not excusing their actions but I also can't find anything saying they were actually 'sentient' or any more intelligent then dolphins, they did seem to understand Janeways intent, but lots of animals can figure out intent.
So would you kill Dolphins to get the people you are entrusted to lead and keep safe home?
@@maddslothii2532 so because you are in a smaller ship you can break every single law possible, is this why smaller cars drive so recklessly?
10. Maxwell was proven right in the end, however, the way he went about it was wrong.
9. Ransom was understandably trying to survive. But, by sacrificing sentient life-forms to get home quicker was immoral. He should be higher on the list even with him trying to redeem himself.
8. Beta-Canon or not, there was no reason why he was so under-prepared. He should be higher too.
7. I'm convinced that Shelby was actually a changeling. There is zero reason why she would choose to have Fleet Formation, something so incredibly Borg-like. It makes no sense.
6. Watters should be number 1. All he had to do was patrol, as he was ordered to do. But, he wanted glory and to keep his position, leading to him and his crew to die.
5. I don't think this is entirely deserved.
4. Decker tried to save his crew. He didn't know at the time that the Doomsday Machine could destroy planets. He was under madness when he took Enterprise to destroy the Machine.
3. Oh come on! Terrell had no idea Khan was down there. Chekov didn't even know! And you're telling me that they never heard of Ceti Alpha VI exploding?
2. Like Decker, Tracy accidentally killed his entire crew. He also had gone mad, but had no medical technology to see if the disease is being handled. However, killing a red shirt and violating the Prime Directive brings him up on the list.
1. J.T Esteban does not deserve this spot. He followed regulations. He doesn't know what's actually down on Genesis. It could've pulled an Exeter and killed everyone. He learned from the history of Kirk. He also could've killed Spock and Saavik and Star Trek IV not happening! Also, Grissom's shields were up at Red Alert. The torpedo was just too strong.
Not sure about Maxwell being on this list TBH. He took the only action he could after basically being ignored by his superiors.
and I think a very real argument could be made that his actions prevented a war the Cardassians were clearly gearing up for.
You will never convince me that Rudy "let's grind up sentient aliens for fuel" Ransom is somehow a better Starfleet captain than any of the people above him on this list aside from probably Tracey, and even then it's a question of Tracey's staggering body count vs the sheer depravity of the medical torture chamber Ransom had his sickbay turned into.
But putting Esteban above both? Yeah, you did it, lads. You got me. I'm commenting. You got me to engage in the comments. Way to go.
Shelby's character assassination is one of a dozen reasons why I consider _Picard_ S3 (even more so than 1 & 2) to be some of the worst Star Trek ever filmed, up there with _Star Trek V_ , that _TNG_ S2 clip-show episode, and most of _Enterprise_ .
They managed to take a character who I spent decades wanting to see again and turned her into someone I never want to see again. Sadly, she's probably still alive because in new Trek nobody ever stays dead.
What did she even do wrong? Nothing this video says about fleet formation is true.
@@maddslothii2532 The script of Picard has Riker or someone say something like "I can't believe she'd do something so Borg-like" which implies everything is her fault. However, that show is incoherent and silly.
@@kirvanp Yes, Android Picard says it, which is why this videos says that exact phrase. But it was not. It is no more Borg like then self driving cars being linked so they can communicate to prevent accidents and traffic jams. I guess by their logic all automation is 'Borg like'
The Borg have a collective consciousness, they did not need 'fleet formation' to coordinate an attack. And they literally assimilated the people at the controlled of the ships, That is not hacking.
One could argue Prefix codes are hacking or at least close enough as they are basically back doors in to the system so if anyone 'hacked' it was Seven. Also Android Picard somehow hacked into the Borg collective, even though he is an .... Android.
God I love how season 3 totally ignored the whole Android Picard crap.
Obviously not a "worst ever", but not long after Captain Terrell got into trouble, the Enterprise was approached by an uncommunicative ship, and the CO failed to heed a warning about regulations given to him by one of his junior officers, resulting in unnecessary loss of life. Inasmuch as the First Officer could scold the junior officer, he did -- he was also a captain, *the* captain before the admiral took over -- and sitting nearby was a helmsman who was being promoted to captain in a deleted scene. Wouldn't have been much drama here, though!
One brief exchange still bugs me after all these years, and maybe it just boils down to his being angry with himself and lashing out. OK, one of the movie's themes is Kirk's coming to terms with getting older. After the hostilities, the ships part ways for awhile, and Sulu says "You did it". Kirk snaps, "I did nothing ... except get caught with my britches down." He mutters to himself about getting senile, but then he rounds on Saavik and makes the comment about quoting regulations, with Saavik having something of a chastened look about her. Of course, her doing that comes up again later when Kirk and Spock are a little more tuned to her frequency regarding hours seeming like days. Well, Admiral, she was *right*, and maybe he was just so out of touch with things (like in TMP) that he couldn't have smiled at Saavik, nodded, and told her to keep on quoting the book. Bonding moment, bringing her into the established crew in Spock's place, etc, etc.
"I should really just relax."
I see some people saying Maxwell was right, but they miss the entire point of the ending, which even miles realized, he did what he did simply for revenge. He says as much to miles himself. His PTSD should have been recognized and treated the instant the trauma occurred, instead, star fleet used and aimed his anger towards the active enemy. It was a lesson for Picard on what not to be with the Borg.
At 5:17, I got all the jokes of the names of the ships. Priceless.
Sorry Kirk should be on here as #1. The Results do not justify the means.
Disregarding Starfleet regulations:
Kirk often disregarded or bent the rules to achieve his goals, sometimes putting his crew or diplomatic relations at risk.
Impulsive decision-making:
He frequently made quick, sometimes rash decisions without fully considering the consequences, leading to potentially dangerous situations.
Physical confrontation:
Kirk often resorted to violence or physical altercations to solve problems, even when diplomacy might have been more appropriate.
Exploiting alien cultures:
In some instances, Kirk was accused of taking advantage of alien cultures or individuals for personal gain or to further the mission.
Irresponsible relationships:
His reputation as a "womanizer" with fleeting encounters with various alien females could be seen as disrespectful and lacking commitment.
"The Kobayashi Maru" incident:
While not directly a negative action, Kirk is the only known person to "cheat" on the Kobayashi Maru test, a simulated no-win scenario, by altering the parameters to ensure his "victory," highlighting a potential tendency to manipulate situations to his advantage.
You must work for the Klingon propaganda agency.
Maxwell was a great captain- he was right that the Cardis were trying to rearm.
Sisko deserves to be on this list. He has done worse for civlizations than Ransom.
He also saved the Alpha Quadrant.
@@qasimmir7117And he can live with it, he CAN live with it
He almost burned it saving Dukat
The thing about Harriman, is that if you look at his grade pips at 4:05, he has 3 squeaks (commendations) and at least 10 years service, maybe 20.
Worst captain ever is captain Michael Burnham
Oh nonsense. She was a questionable first officer, but once she made captain she did well. Or, maybe I'm wrong. What did she do that you think makes her worse than any of the people on this list?
Not worst ever..but definitely worst top 5
why cuz she hugs too much?
Everything said about Esteban, except for the didn't raise shields part, is subject to context. This was literally a technology that created planets that, ostensibly, had Federation support behind it. It was already a controversy among other governments according to the Starfleet Commander and the Klingon ambassador would later call out the Federation for it (this as a bargaining chip to get Kirk extradited, but we'll let that slide). Genesis was a big oopsie. Dotting every "i" and crossing every "t" would be the *bare minimum* expected of a captain during this mission.
Where's Michael Burnham and Kathryn Janeway?
Janeway is defintely in the conversation.
and who? I don't think anyone by that name ever existed.😄🎆🍾🥳🎉
Does Shelby also qualify for the Badmirals list?
I don't see how...she got jumped by a Borg collective that they hadn't heard from in almost 30 years.
How can you be the "Darker side of Janeway's soul"? That woman was pure evil already.
I would like to defend Commadore Decker, the man only broke after doing everything he was supposed too. Was rewarded by being forced to listen to his entire crew die as they begged him to beam them back up to their dead ship as the Planet Killer murdered them and the planet they escaped too. Kirk is at first mad at Decker for his collapse at this and mad again at him over compensating for his what was not his failure. But realizing at the end that Decker behaver could have easily been him given the right circumstances.
I too will defend Captain Terrell. The Reliant's sensors according to Chekov showed nothing living on the what they thought was Ceti Alpha VI. He said was a blip on one dinoscan. The best their scans got was possibly a single celled lifeform no more. As for not checking up on Khan, as far as anyone new Khan was dead. The planets of the Ceti Alpha system were destroyed, in what the book said was a rouge naked black hole that barreled through the system appearing to destroy most of inner the planets with what appeared to be Ceti Alpha VI surviving. When in reality Ceti Alpha V survived but in a massively shifted orbit. When Reliant arrived in the Ceti Alpha system they found only one inner planet in massive debris field in general orbit of Ceti Alpha VI. That planet was suffering from a massive climate shift and geomagnetic storms. That only later was discovered disrupted the ships sensors ability to scan for life.
BURNHAM is the all time WORST
Word.
Also....why is Esteban blamed for Grissom? She was a science vessel completely outclassed and outmatched by the bird of prey that decloaked to ambush her.
She took a single torpedo hit and exploded, even with the shields up. He barely had time to call evasive action before they were all blown away.
My opinions of these captains:
10. What Maxwell did was wrong. But I totally get why he did it. So much suffering during the Cardassian Border War now seemed in vain due to the favorable peace the Federation signed with them. As has been pointed out in the past, he doesn't want to restart the war or for it to continue. He wants it to end. But in victory, so all that suffering wasn't for nothing. And, even Picard agrees with Maxwell that the cardassians were violating the treaty.
9. I understand that he was in a very bad situation. But still, that explanation only gets you so far. It does not justify his deeds. He forgot that, even in extreme situations, there are some lines that you do not cross.
8. I don't blame Harriman for what happened. He got sent out in a ship that clearly wasn't fully operational yet. But I do blame him for nepotising his way into a position he clearly wasn't qualified for. He should have done what he was good at, even if it is less prestigious.
7. Shelby seems to have fallen victim to those "Gaze not into the Abyss" and "He who fights monsters" sayings. She was so focussed on fighting the Borg that became very much like them.
6. I cut Watters a lot of slack due to how bad his situation was. But again, that excuse only gets you so far. His bad judgment caused a lot of casualties, and it should have been blindingly obvious that it was the wrong choice.
5. Never follow orders blindly. Always think about what you are told to do. People died because this man blindly obeyed.
4. Decker was an excellent captain. But his judgment was clouded by how traumatized he was.
3. It is not Terrell's fault that he was brainwashed.
2. Like Decker, his trauma has clouded his otherwise good judgment, arguably to an even greater degree.
1. In the same way that you shouldn't follow orders blindly, you also shouldn't follow rules blindly.
Man Ron Tracey sure loved to use that phaser!
What about that idiot who commanded the OS Enterprise to cross the Romulan neutral zone when Kirk and Spock fast aged? Ep- The Deadly Years.