Star Trek’s First Officers, Ranked From Worst To Greatest

Everybody has their favourite “Star Trek” captain. Ever because the ’90s, debates have raged as as to if Kirk might beat Picard, and as soon as Sisko got here alongside, all bets have been off. Simply as each Klingon warrior wants a cha’Dich, even the perfect captain wants a stable second behind them. Over time, many have tried to observe within the footsteps of Starfleet greatness, typically even exceeding it. As nice because the limelight is, nonetheless, the place of dependable backup might be even more durable. 

It is time for the primary officers to shine. Who’re the best seconds-in-command? Like asking what makes a fantastic vp, that may be powerful. Do we wish somebody who can and can take over or simply the easiest at finishing up their orders?

For the needs of equal rating, we have not included completely each most important crew within the franchise — the musical chairs of the primary few seasons of “Discovery” make it powerful to think about these first officers who typically simply used the place as a stepping stone, the youngsters of “Prodigy” took some time to change into official in any manner, and the crew initially employed by Picard in “Picard” do not actually have formal ranks. It is a rating of the perfect “Star Trek” first officers who made it for the period, or within the case of 1 honorable point out, in all probability would have.

Decker (Stephen Collins) would have been the primary officer on the prematurely canceled “Star Trek: Section II” TV sequence, largely on account of Leonard Nimoy’s reluctance to return. As an alternative, when the entire thing was scrapped and reconfigured as “Star Trek: The Movement Image,” he and his ex, the gorgeous and bald Ilia, carried over to the massive display alongside the traditional authentic crew. Nimoy did return for the film, however Decker stayed commander beneath Kirk.

Making the perfect of a nasty scenario, having been changed by Kirk last-minute within the face of a large alien menace, Decker serves honorably. At one level, he even blatantly disobeys Kirk as a way to cease him from by chance blowing up the Enterprise. He additionally provides himself up as a ultimate sacrifice, merging with the alien V’Ger that has already merged with Ilia, making a model new lifeform within the course of. (Non-canonical novels have steered this turns into the beginning of the Borg.)

Sadly, actor Stephen Collins turned out to be significantly much less heroic than his character, to place it mildly. After “Star Trek,” and 10 seasons as a pastor on “seventh Heaven,” Collins confessed to inappropriate sexual contact with three teenage ladies. He has since retired from appearing.

A Native American former Starfleet officer-turned-terrorist is pressured to make good along with his former allies on the far finish of the universe, so each can survive. In idea, that ought to make for an fascinating character, however as an alternative, we acquired Chakotay, the delicate, stoic stereotype of “Star Trek: Voyager.”

As an alternative of being resentful at having to change into a reasonable in a uniform moderately than a radical separatist, Chakotay fairly instantly fell in line, understanding his colleagues’ harm emotions and patiently counseling them to be good. In the meantime, in his designated function as a “House Indian,” he would go on imaginative and prescient quests, assign crew members their spirit animals, and start each different sentence with, “My folks imagine…” In one of many “Star Trek” storylines that turned unwatchable with age, his tribe even turned out to be a fictional one whose distinctive tattoos have been created by aliens. No person concerned was Native both: Actor Robert Beltran was Mexican-American, and the present’s advisor on Indian points was “Jamake Highwater,” a.ok.a. Jackie Marks, a Jewish man with Japanese European ancestry who pretended to be Cherokee. Yikes.

Although the present often teased more-than-friendship prospects with Captain Janeway, Chakotay acquired awkwardly shoehorned right into a romance with Seven of 9 in direction of the tip of the sequence. It made so little sense that Beltran regrets it. Seven’s return in “Picard,” exhibiting her in a same-sex relationship with Raffi (Michelle Hurd), appeared like a reasonably definitive approach to inform viewers that Chako-9, or no matter followers would possibly name it, was useless and buried.

Objectively talking, one might make a case that Ransom, from “Decrease Decks,” is the worst first officer. In spite of everything, the entire level of the present is that not like each live-action “Trek,” which tends to depict the perfect ship in Starfleet on the time, the usS. Cerritos is decidedly not a kind of. Ransom additionally often performs like a parody of James T. Kirk and Will Riker at their most spoof-worthy, getting shirtless on the drop of a tricorder and bragging about his adventures to anybody who’ll pay attention.

It seems that there is a methodology to his seeming macho insanity, although. In the current “Higher Decks” episode, he revealed that he solely pretends to be a braggart and a doofus as a way to unite and encourage his rebellious ensigns in proving themselves. When promoted to Captain within the sequence finale, he made it clear he would command equally, pitting Boimler and Mariner in opposition to one another as rivals for the brand new First Officer spot. That is a tactic that works on actuality TV, however is not essentially the simplest approach to construct crew cohesion.

Since we’ve got a frontrunner in actual life who comes from actuality TV and makes use of comparable ways, nonetheless, it’s a well timed allegory. That is not sufficient to get Ransom to the highest of this record, however he nonetheless beats Chakotay.

“Enterprise” got here out at a time when a “Star Trek” present was not thought-about a assured hit, a lot in order that it initially did not even have “Star Trek” in its title. A prequel sequence that gave the impression to be ignoring canon — a sample “Discovery” would observe years later — the present tried to depend on extra standard promoting factors, like sexuality. Characters would normally strip to their underwear and rub decontamination gel on one another, and the feminine Vulcan character needed to be, in line with present co-creator Brannon Braga, “stunningly stunning [who] might act,” one thing he discovered very troublesome to forged. Jeri Ryan’s casting as Seven of 9 in a decent bodysuit was broadly perceived to have saved “Voyager” from cancellation, so the template of “sext logician” was adopted to a tee.

Actress Jolene Blalock was possible forged primarily for being a mannequin, however she turned out to care very deeply about “Trek” lore, often arguing for the character’s writing to be extra constant. Although the scripts did not all the time serve her nicely, T’Pol nonetheless got here away as a memorable character with extra of an arc than most first officers. Starting as an brazenly hostile observer, she slowly realized to first respect people, and finally even fell for one in engineer Journey Tucker. She finally left the Vulcan Excessive Command to hitch Starfleet, setting the metaphorical desk for the franchise’s most well-known character.

Opposite to the favored perception of informal viewers, Captain Picard did not give you the time period “Quantity One” for his second in command — it was initially the moniker for Captain Christopher Pike’s powerful, logical first officer within the authentic “Star Trek” pilot, “The Cage,” as performed by Gene Roddenberry’s future spouse Majel Barrett. She would not get the title Una till many years later in a 2016 non-canonical novel, and she or he solely lastly acquired a surname after showing on “Star Trek: Discovery.” (Certain, it could be certainly one of the 5 worst character names on “Star Trek” ever, however at the least it is a title.) 

NBC executives within the Sixties weren’t eager on a hard-edged feminine first officer, nonetheless, and the character, like everybody else within the pilot besides Spock, was dropped. As an alternative, a few of her traits got to Spock, and Barrett would reappear on the unique sequence as Nurse Chapel.

As embodied by Rebecca Romijn, Chin-Riley now has much more in frequent with Spock than we as soon as knew — she’s an Ilyrian, passing as a human, which is super-controversial, as a result of her species genetically augments themselves for survival on different worlds. The Federation, traumatized by Khan, has one thing of a blanket ban on that. Nonetheless, when uncovered, she fought the legislation, and the legislation did not win. The unique Quantity One continues to boldly go within the “Unusual New Worlds” timeline, consuming spicy meals and paving the way in which for the also-augmented Dr. Julian Bashir within the century to return.

When assessing the indignant Bajoran Main from “Deep House 9,” it helps to give you an identical human scenario for her background. Think about being a Holocaust survivor who joined the Mossad, solely to need to change into subservient to the United Nations, working straight beneath a person who’s a literal Messiah determine in your faith however doesn’t himself imagine it. Are you able to blame Kira Nerys (Nana Customer) for being a bit cranky typically? She additionally noticed one boyfriend principally get lobotomized, and one other turned out to be from a species that allies along with her previous space-Nazi foes to declare conflict on the Federation. 

Most individuals in that place would have a nervous breakdown. Kira would not imagine in such issues. Nevertheless, taking part in Kira Nerys modified Nana Customer, serving to her to simply accept her personal flaws and self-examine, to not point out having a toddler with costar Alexander Siddig.

As a primary officer not formally a part of the Federation, Kira might typically be hostile to Captain Sisko’s method and concepts, however she was all the time open about it and took on their variations head on, which was precisely the way in which he appreciated it… more often than not. As “the Emissary” of the alien Prophets, worshipped by the Bajorans and a big man with a really deep voice, Sisko might shout her down if it ever actually turned needed. One might additionally argue that her versatile wartime ethics rubbed off on him, to his profit.

If we have been strictly rating “Star Trek” characters general, Spock would in all probability win. He caught on in popular culture virtually instantly, yielding “I Grok Spock” bumper stickers, and permitting Leonard Nimoy to pursue a singing profession that, let’s face it, he by no means would have achieved on musical benefit alone. He is been portrayed in live-action by two actors since Nimoy, each of whom managed to keep away from embarrassing themselves and drew new followers to our favourite half-human Vulcan. So why is not he on the prime of this record?

Allow us to stipulate first that we’re speaking about Authentic Collection Spock particularly, as a result of the “Unusual New Worlds” model of Spock is not first officer but. We additionally concede that he’s a tremendous first officer. He is good, he is logical, and but his human facet acknowledges that logic is merely the start of knowledge. He is fiercely loyal, good in a combat, and often able to realizing when he is been compromised. 

Nonetheless, a part of his effectiveness comes from him being a part of a triangle with Kirk and McCoy. Collectively, they’re id, ego, and superego, and provides their ship (and the present) its power. With out the precise foils, Spock can go adrift. Additionally, on the uncommon events he does go rogue, his superior power and nerve pinch make him an unacceptable menace. Heck, within the midst of being in Vulcan warmth, he really tried to kill Kirk in a ritual and thought he had succeeded. That alone ought to in all probability preserve him from the very prime spot.

Finally, “Star Trek” needed to give him his personal ship, however frankly, Will Riker is the proper second-in-command. He is likable when he must be, bossy when it is referred to as for, and he can straddle a chair like no one else. Riker’s not the man to all of a sudden do indignant, impulsive issues — when you want proof of that, think about that he acquired again along with Deanna Troi even after she had a fling with Worf. He might need been reckless in one other life, as we noticed when his transporter clone, unburdened by the identical sense of obligation, joined the terrorist Maquis. On the entire, although, Riker is at his most comfy finishing up orders and happening the away missions that Starfleet solely simply determined Captains ought to keep away from. (Most likely due to Kirk, if we’re being sincere.)

Years after “The Subsequent Era,” as we see in “Picard,” Riker has endured the tragic loss of a kid, but he is nonetheless the reliable finest good friend with a twinkle in his eye, whilst we sense he in all probability hasn’t referred to as Picard shortly. When you’ll be able to see an previous colleague once more and decide up precisely the place you left off in each enterprise and friendship, that is reliability and belief. And it isn’t due to cranky, reclusive, child-hating Picard that it occurs, clearly. The previous man nonetheless has points, however Riker confronted his, stored his marriage collectively, and by no means misplaced a step. “Quantity One,” eternally and all the time, is primary.