Since its creation in the late 1960s, Star Trek has become a staple of science fiction TV. It dwindled slightly over the years, but it's back again now with what seems like more content than ever. The franchise boasts a massive universe full to the brim with stories, characters, complex alien races, and some of the best sci-fi technology ever seen on the small screen (some of which even influenced real world inventions).
However, it’s no surprise that the writers of Star Trek have also created a huge amount of disliked characters. There are those made specifically to hate, like the Borg or the Cardassians. But a lot of the time, characters that were expected to be loved had the opposite effect, like Wesley Crusher or Dr. Palalski. Starfleet captains are potentially the best examples of this. They are expected to be pillars of hope and salvation for all, but often end up rubbing audiences up the wrong way. Here are some of the worst captains from the franchise, ignoring those were actually villains with malicious intent.
Captain Styles
A Captain that many might not know, Lawrence H Styles of the USS Excelsior goes down in history as the captain that was too busy giving himself a manicure to notice his ship was being sabotaged. Right from the start of his appearance in The Search For Spock, viewers could see he was arrogant captain, with a huge superiority complex. This made it all the more satisfying to watch Kirk steal the iconic USS Enterprise right out from under his nose, disabling Styles’ warp drive in the process.
The film centered around Kirk and his crew going on a mission to a forbidden planet to bring Spock back from the dead, a storyline that very much spoke to the era it was made in. The whole sabotage and stealing of the Enterprise sequence was deliberately designed to show how useless Styles was. Scenes of Kirk and company committing grand theft auto were interspersed with those of Styles sitting relaxed on a sofa, filing his nails. While it's fair to say that he was not particularly a good person, arrogant and pompous, he was also not a good captain. He let Kirk slip through his fingers easily. It would be an awkward conversation for him to have with his superiors.
Styles is not just a terrible captain. He also sums up a large issue with Starfleet and the Federation, sowing the seed for a large part of the TNG era narrative with Q and the Borg. As that storyline shows, the Federation have grown complacent, thinking themselves superior in the galaxy without match. They had defeated or made peace with the majority of the big players, the rest posing little threat to them. Like Styles, they relax into a false sense of security, inadvertently letting things slip through the cracks.
Captain J.T. Esteban
Esteban was in many ways the ideal Starfleet captain, which is an odd thing to say when discussing the worst. He was ideal in the sense that he was incredibly by-the-book, following Starfleet rules and regulations almost religiously. Most other captains see these rules as guidelines to bend when the need arises, like breaking the prime directive when the reasons are justifiable. However, J.T. Esteban of the USS Grissom would never dream of such insubordination. The man’s most famous quote is literally: ‘Let’s do it by the book.’
This might not be a factor for making him a bad captain, more so just incredibly boring. Yet, his strict rule-following ultimately led the deaths of himself and his entire crew The Search for Spock, a film packed with bad Captains. His reliance on following rules is comes down to him being an incredibly indecisive character. He waits on orders before doing anything, even when the situation calls for an immediate answer. Starfleet captains are required to make these split second decisions in order to save lives, something Picard, Kirk, and even the morally ambiguous Janeway are excellent at.
In the film, Esteban on the Grissom is confronted suddenly by a Klingon Bird of Prey. Despite the Grissom being one of the most technologically advanced ships the Federation had at this time, he panics and says ‘Stand by for evasive.’ His ship is fitted with advanced shield technology, but instead of making a concrete decision, he issues a vague command to simply prepare. With no red alert or even raising of the shields, he was put on the spot and got flustered by his own indecisiveness. This led to the Klingon ship firing and destroying him and his crew.
Esteban is the perfect captain for this film, showing how following the orders and regulations of Starfleet blindly is a recipe for disaster. This serves as all more justification for Kirk to break these rules and steal back the USS Enterprise. Everything of course works out in the end. The captains along the way are reminders of the consequences of indecisiveness and rule following; meanwhile, Kirk’s actions are proven justifiable. The message of Esteban's actions is that to be a great leader, a captain has to have confidence in their decisions. They have to make choices for themselves and trust that they are doing it for good reasons.