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

Everybody has their favourite “Star Trek” captain. Ever for the reason that ’90s, debates have raged as as to whether 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 one of the best captain wants a stable second behind them. Through the years, many have tried to comply with within the footsteps of Starfleet greatness, generally even exceeding it. As nice because the limelight is, nevertheless, the place of dependable backup will be even tougher. 

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

For the needs of equal rating, we’ve not included completely each foremost crew within the franchise — the musical chairs of the primary few seasons of “Discovery” make it robust to contemplate these first officers who usually simply used the place as a stepping stone, the youngsters of “Prodigy” took some time to turn out to be official in any means, and the crew initially employed by Picard in “Picard” do not actually have formal ranks. It is a rating of one of the best “Star Trek” first officers who made it for the period, or within the case of 1 honorable point out, most likely would have.

Decker (Stephen Collins) would have been the primary officer on the prematurely canceled “Star Trek: Part II” TV collection, largely resulting from 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 attractive and bald Ilia, carried over to the large display screen alongside the basic authentic crew. Nimoy did return for the film, however Decker stayed commander underneath Kirk.

Making one of the best of a foul 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 with a purpose to cease him from by chance blowing up the Enterprise. He additionally affords himself up as a remaining 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 start 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 women. 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 principle, that ought to make for an fascinating character, however as an alternative, we obtained Chakotay, the delicate, stoic stereotype of “Star Trek: Voyager.”

As an alternative of being resentful at having to turn out to be a average in a uniform somewhat 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 position as a “Area Indian,” he would go on imaginative and prescient quests, assign crew members their spirit animals, and start each different sentence with, “My folks consider…” 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 one concerned was Native both: Actor Robert Beltran was Mexican-American, and the present’s advisor on Indian points was “Jamake Highwater,” a.okay.a. Jackie Marks, a Jewish man with Japanese European ancestry who pretended to be Cherokee. Yikes.

Although the present sometimes teased more-than-friendship potentialities with Captain Janeway, Chakotay obtained awkwardly shoehorned right into a romance with Seven of 9 in the direction of the top of the collection. It made so little sense that Beltran regrets it. Seven’s return in “Picard,” displaying her in a same-sex relationship with Raffi (Michelle Hurd), appeared like a reasonably definitive method to inform viewers that Chako-9, or no matter followers may name it, was lifeless 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 one of the best ship in Starfleet on the time, the united statesS. Cerritos is decidedly not a kind of. Ransom additionally regularly 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 hear.

It seems that there is a technique to his seeming macho insanity, although. In the latest “Higher Decks” episode, he revealed that he solely pretends to be a braggart and a doofus with a purpose to unite and encourage his rebellious ensigns in proving themselves. When promoted to Captain within the collection finale, he made it clear he would command equally, pitting Boimler and Mariner towards 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 best method to construct crew cohesion.

Since we’ve a frontrunner in actual life who comes from actuality TV and makes use of related techniques, nevertheless, it’s a well timed allegory. That is not sufficient to get Ransom to the highest of this listing, 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 collection that appeared to be ignoring canon — a sample “Discovery” would comply with 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 response to present co-creator Brannon Braga, “stunningly stunning [who] might act,” one thing he discovered very tough to solid. Jeri Ryan’s casting as Seven of 9 in a good 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 probably solid primarily for being a mannequin, however she turned out to care very deeply about “Trek” lore, regularly arguing for the character’s writing to be extra constant. Although the scripts did not all the time serve her properly, 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 discovered to first respect people, and ultimately even fell for one in engineer Journey Tucker. She in the end 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 robust, 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 a long time later in a 2016 non-canonical novel, and he or she solely lastly obtained a surname after showing on “Star Trek: Discovery.” (Certain, it could be one among 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, nevertheless, 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 collection 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 regulation, and the regulation did not win. The unique Quantity One continues to boldly go within the “Unusual New Worlds” timeline, consuming spicy meals and paving the best way for the also-augmented Dr. Julian Bashir within the century to return.

When assessing the indignant Bajoran Main from “Deep Area 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 must turn out to be subservient to the United Nations, working straight underneath a person who’s a literal Messiah determine in your faith however doesn’t himself consider it. Are you able to blame Kira Nerys (Nana Customer) for being just a little cranky generally? She additionally noticed one boyfriend principally get lobotomized, and one other turned out to be from a species that allies together with her previous space-Nazi foes to declare struggle on the Federation. 

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

As a primary officer not formally a part of the Federation, Kira might usually be hostile to Captain Sisko’s strategy and concepts, however she was all the time open about it and took on their variations head on, which was precisely the best way he favored 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 crucial. 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 total, Spock would most likely 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 listing?

Allow us to stipulate first that we’re speaking about Authentic Sequence Spock particularly, as a result of the “Unusual New Worlds” model of Spock is not first officer but. We additionally concede that he’s an incredible first officer. He is sensible, he is logical, and but his human aspect acknowledges that logic is merely the start of knowledge. He is fiercely loyal, good in a combat, and normally 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 energy. With out the best foils, Spock can go adrift. Additionally, on the uncommon events he does go rogue, his superior energy and nerve pinch make him an unacceptable menace. Heck, within the midst of being in Vulcan warmth, he truly tried to kill Kirk in a ritual and thought he had succeeded. That alone ought to most likely hold him from the very prime spot.

Finally, “Star Trek” needed to give him his personal ship, however frankly, Will Riker is the right 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 person else. Riker’s not the man to all of a sudden do indignant, impulsive issues — in case you want proof of that, think about that he obtained 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 responsibility, joined the terrorist Maquis. On the entire, although, Riker is at his most snug finishing up orders and occurring the away missions that Starfleet solely simply determined Captains ought to keep away from. (Most likely due to Kirk, if we’re being trustworthy.)

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 greatest good friend with a twinkle in his eye, at the same time as we sense he most likely hasn’t referred to as Picard shortly. When you may see an previous colleague once more and choose up precisely the place you left off in each enterprise and friendship, that is reliability and belief. And it is not due to cranky, reclusive, child-hating Picard that it occurs, clearly. The previous man nonetheless has points, however Riker confronted his, saved his marriage collectively, and by no means misplaced a step. “Quantity One,” without end and all the time, is primary.