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They're meant to be the steadfast leader of the crew. So, what happens when the captains lose it?
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00:00There are times in a captain's career when the pressure of command can become too much.
00:04When, then, should the line be drawn on what they should and should not do?
00:07In the name of peace, how much war can they wage?
00:10The captains in Star Trek have faced this question on many occasions.
00:14Those wars may be external, involving several ships and a lot of firepower.
00:18They may also be internal wars, raging in the soul.
00:21In the many years of Star Trek's history, the times that captains have really lost control tended to be few.
00:26The point of commanding a starship is to be the calm head on what could be a chaotic body.
00:31Those in command need to be able to weather the most difficult of times and steer their crews to safety.
00:36However, sometimes that does mean wading into murky waters.
00:39The things that they teach in captain school do not always apply to the events in space.
00:43They may think that they are trained for every eventuality,
00:45but what is a captain to do when the ship is dead in space and the mission must be completed, by any means necessary?
00:51Some captains, with their position and power, choose to wage a private little war.
00:55While it is up to history to condone or condemn, it happens with a surprising frequency in Starfleet.
01:01So, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture, and here are 10 times captains lost control.
01:06Number 10. Picard won't let them leave the Devron system.
01:10In the series finale, Picard is bounced backwards and forwards in time by Q,
01:14trying to figure out the mystery of the anomaly in the Devron system as he does.
01:18In each different time period, Jean-Luc is portrayed with all the control that he would muster at that time in his life.
01:24In the scenes set in the past, he is the newly appointed captain of the Enterprise,
01:28though barely seven years younger than his present-day self.
01:31Both versions of Picard are controlled and keep a cool head.
01:34The same cannot be said for the future version of Picard.
01:37In what has become something of a prophecy depicted by his portrayal in Star Trek Picard,
01:42Jean-Luc is shown to have far less patience with the universe and other people around him.
01:46He pushes his way through situations, insisting on resolutions while others may hold back.
01:51Never is this more evident than his determination to remain in place and continue the scans in the Devron system,
01:57despite the threat of attack by the Klingons.
01:59He overrides Beverly, insults Worf, and impatiently waits for the Pasteur to scan the area.
02:04This is exacerbated once the Klingons finally launch their assault,
02:08resulting in the destruction of the ship and the death of several crew members.
02:11Though saved by the Enterprise, he implores Admiral Riker to the point of hysteria to remain where they are,
02:17citing their departure as a danger to all of humanity.
02:19Despite the later outcome, the crew watch in sadness as the once-great captain goes to pieces in front of them.
02:25Number 9. Commodore Dekker takes on the Planet Killer
02:29The Doomsday Machine remains one of the best episodes of the original series,
02:34mixing drama with action in a way that few of the other episodes ever really did.
02:38The threat of the Planet Killer is akin to the threat of the shark from Jaws.
02:41It is seemingly unstoppable, simply devouring what it can.
02:44The USS Constellation engages the machine and is almost blasted to pieces by the far superior entity.
02:50Commodore Matt Dekker, in a bid to save his crew, beams them down to a planet's surface,
02:55intending to simply risk his own life by attacking with the damaged Constellation.
02:59He then watches in horror as his crew are consumed while the machine destroys the world he set them down on,
03:05snapping his grasp on reality.
03:07He is lost aboard the wreck of his once-pronounced ship, only to be later rescued by the USS Enterprise.
03:12In the Enterprise, he sees the one thing he wants more than anything else, revenge.
03:17The Enterprise is fully powered, and he feels that he can engage the machine in a matched fight,
03:21though quickly discovers he has hopelessly underestimated it, narrowly avoiding destruction yet again.
03:27As a desperate final act, he stakes a shuttle and flies directly towards the gaping mouth of the machine.
03:33Kirk tries to convince him to return back, but it is useless.
03:36With a final scream of terror, Dekker is consumed by the Planet Killer as the shuttle explodes within.
03:40While he made the ultimate sacrifice, it was enough to give the Enterprise the clues it needed to destroy the machine.
03:47Number 8. Captain Maxwell takes on the Cardassian Empire
03:50While most of the Starfleet action in The Next Generation would be contained to the Enterprise,
03:55on occasion the universe widened to include other officers and other starships.
04:00One such event involved the hunt for O'Brien's former CEO, Captain Benjamin Maxwell of the USS Phoenix.
04:06A survivor of the Cardassian Wars, Maxwell is convinced that the Cardassians are arming for another conflict.
04:11While later years would prove his theory, at the time there is no evidence and so he resolves to find some.
04:18Maxwell comes across as a very reasonable, affable man.
04:21He engages with Picard and O'Brien, seemingly oblivious to the seriousness of his infractions.
04:26The very fact that the Enterprise has been sent to hunt him seems to simply slide off in the beginning.
04:30Picard brings him down to Earth with a bang.
04:33Quickly assured that he does not have the support of the Federation,
04:36Maxwell returns to his ship with the promise of coming along quietly.
04:40With that, he takes the ship away, ending his career in a heartbeat.
04:43He both attacks and destroys several Cardassian ships, straining relations with the Union even further.
04:49Picard sends O'Brien in to attempt to calm the situation, as the next option is to engage and destroy the Phoenix.
04:55Maxwell is not lost beyond hope.
04:57O'Brien talks him down, sympathising with the man's position, but ultimately reminding him that the wars can't destroy their future as well as their past.
05:04The Phoenix stands down, and Maxwell is taken into custody.
05:08Number 7.
05:09Archer orders the creation and then execution of Trip's clone.
05:13Archer's resolve to stop the Zindi War is seen in its most frightening aspect here.
05:17With the grave injury of Trip during a test to make the engines more stable at higher speeds, the ship is stuck.
05:23Phlox suggests a radical option, creating a short-lived clone of Trip as a neurological donor.
05:29It sounds like something from a H.P. Lovecraft novel, science and horror combined in one.
05:33What makes the idea more disturbing is that Archer accepts with relatively little deliberation.
05:38His obsession to stop the disaster that is coming is driving him to greater lengths than he has ever thought possible.
05:44Sim, as he is dubbed, grows quickly, showing all of the signs of full sentience.
05:48He doesn't want to die, though the procedure will be fatal.
05:51He researches ways to extend his lifespan, though Phlox reveals he was aware of them.
05:55They are unresearched, and in the centre of the expanse is certainly not the place to begin.
06:00Archer speaks to Sim, telling him he would much rather Sim volunteer for the procedure,
06:04but leaving it very clear that there is no choice either way.
06:07Sim will be going through with it, even if that means Archer escort him with security personnel to the medical bay.
06:13Even with this, Sim tries to escape, though in the end it is for naught.
06:17Archer rewards him with a funeral service, though there is a little shading the fact that this man was born to die,
06:23and Archer not only allowed it, but sped his passing.
06:26Number 6. Picard and Robert Fight
06:28Captain Picard has, in his long history with Starfleet, maintained control over emotion wherever possible.
06:34His most recent years are marked by more and more incidents of this control slipping,
06:38though for the first three seasons of The Next Generation, he rarely lost his cool.
06:42Then the Borg came, and with them came the destruction of 39 Starfleet ships, with the loss of 11,000 lives.
06:48Through his abduction and assimilation by the Borg, Picard led the assault as Locutus,
06:53fully aware of what was happening with no power to stop it.
06:56Once the threat has been taken care of, the Enterprise is granted some much-needed sure leave, returning to Earth to do so.
07:03Picard takes the opportunity to visit his brother Robert's family in France,
07:06enjoying the time with his nephew and sister-in-law, though immediately butting heads with his brother.
07:11This continues, while the old-school Robert seems to scoff at the notions that Jean-Luc has about technology and advancement.
07:18Their bickering intensifies until, in a very un-Picard manner, the two of them erupt into a fistfight in the middle of their vineyard.
07:24While they stop the fight within moments, even going so far as to laugh about the state of their mud-covered bodies,
07:29Jean-Luc's laughter turns to tears as he finally breaks down, spilling the trauma he feels about his inability to stop the Borg.
07:36His brother, listening with empathy, manages to get the last word in.
07:39The great Jean-Luc Picard is human, after all.
07:41They help each other up, and their relationship is stronger for it.
07:45Number 5. Sisko sinks further and further into the Romulan plot.
07:49In the Pale Moonlight stands as both one of the strongest episodes of Deep Space Nine,
07:53and one of the darkest moments in Star Trek up to that point.
07:57A Starfleet captain knowingly commits crimes to con an Empire into going to war.
08:01Roddenberry would most likely have had quite a few things to say about that.
08:05When the story picks up, the action has already happened.
08:08The audience watches Sisko attempt to come to terms with the fallout.
08:11He details his initial plot, and it was his idea, to bring the Romulans into the war.
08:16There are many people that he could have chosen to work with, but he goes straight to Garak.
08:20Garak is one of the most enigmatic characters in Star Trek.
08:23What is known about him is shaded in layers of grey, never quite rising to the brighter colours.
08:28Sisko approaches him because this is what he needs.
08:30Starfleet, with the exception of Section 31, has not trained him for this level of duplicity.
08:35The resulting forgeries, murders, and declarations of war all serve to ensure that Sisko's plan is a success.
08:41The Romulans are going to help the Federation.
08:44However, where Sisko devolved from his original intentions to becoming embroiled in Garak's darkness
08:49is lost in the murky shades of grey that he must now live with.
08:52Though, as he tells the audience, he can live with it.
08:55Number 4. Archer steals a warp coil.
08:58Enterprise got dark.
09:00In several reviews of the show, its relative light nature has been expounded upon.
09:05However, as the show sank deeper and deeper into the Zindi arc, the crew began to face challenges
09:10that few of the series had depicted before.
09:12Left without a safety net, they were forced to fend very much for themselves.
09:16In the episode Damage, Archer struggles hard with the decision to do what is necessary to save his crew.
09:21There are echoes of Captain Ransom here, certainly allowing the audience to have a deeper understanding of the other Captain.
09:27Archer sends an armed away team to steal the warp coil of an alien vessel they encounter.
09:32This is so far removed from everything that Starfleet stands for that it is something that tests the man to his core.
09:38He asks Flox how he has dealt with crisis of ethics and conscience before.
09:42Flox tells him to do what he thinks is right.
09:45In this case, to be wrong is to be right.
09:47There is no question of Enterprise abandoning her search for the Zindi, yet doing so will condemn these kind aliens who offered everything but the warp coil as aid.
09:55Archer informs Flox that there may be more casualties coming his way.
09:58Though Flox at this point does not know why, he says that he will be ready.
10:02The two men share a moment and Archer sinks further into this hell he finds himself in, desperate to do anything to save humanity at the cost of his soul.
10:10Number 3. Janeway hunts down the Equinox
10:13One thing that was a constant for Captain Janeway in all of the years that Voyager spent lost in the Delta Quadrant was her steadfast resolution to get her crew home.
10:22She would show strength on countless occasions, overcoming the challenges of their situation.
10:27She was a reliable and inspirational commander.
10:30In some ways, Captain Ransom of the Equinox was a mirror version of Janeway.
10:34He too was willing to go above and beyond to get his crew home, though he quickly fell to abandoning the Prime Directive to do it.
10:40This led not just to inciting the rage of the aliens he had been harvesting, but also into attacking and stealing from Voyager herself.
10:47Janeway, putting it mildly, was not pleased.
10:50This was a betrayal on two fronts.
10:51First, the obvious betrayal that left Voyager in a dangerous position with the aliens, but second was the betrayal of Starfleet's values by Ransom.
10:59Her anger began to cloud her judgement.
11:01She began a hunt for the Equinox, ostensibly with the goal of rescuing Seven of Nine, though serving to allow Janeway her revenge on Ransom.
11:09This was most evident in her continued attacking of the vessel, torpedoes and all, regardless of the casualties.
11:14In a way, Janeway is brought back from the brink by Ransom himself, sacrificing his life to move the Equinox away from Voyager before the core explodes.
11:23As Chakotay and Janeway reflect at the end of the episode, this is the closest Janeway has ever come to going over the edge.
11:29Number 2. The line will be drawn here.
11:32This was the moment when First Contact really hammered home the seriousness of Picard's struggle with the Borg.
11:38For years, the experiences inside the Collective had haunted him, but with some exceptions, these had simmered well under control.
11:45He battles the Borg aboard the Enterprise-E in what seems like a hopeless fight.
11:48They lose deck after deck, continually having to retreat.
11:52He advocates euthanising any crew member who'd been assimilated.
11:55He fires without regard, unwilling to pause to mourn.
11:58The Borg are an evil entity, a plague and disease.
12:01He becomes more and more resolute to stop them, no matter the cost.
12:05So when he almost comes to blows with Worf on the bridge, it seems as though he can't be saved.
12:09He didn't reckon, of course, with Lily Sloan.
12:11With no regard for his position or his reaction, she corners him in the observation lounge and calls him out as only she can.
12:18He begins calmly, trying to make her see that his viewpoint is the only viewpoint, while she simply calls it revenge.
12:24He disagrees.
12:25She shouts at him to evacuate and destroy the ship.
12:27In a scene that has become infamous, he roars that he won't, and just to channel his anger, swings his rifle in an arc, shattering the glass of the display cabinet and breaking apart several of the models.
12:38He finally voices his deepest intention.
12:41He will stop the Borg.
12:42Number 1. Sisko Poisons a Planet
12:45Sisko seems to have had the least control over his temper out of all of the Star Trek captains.
12:50While it's true that Kirk was quite expressive of his emotions, and Picard, Janeway and Archer slipped along the way, none of them poisoned an entire planet in pursuit of one man.
12:59Sisko's obsession with Michael Eddington could very well have led to his undoing in the fifth season of Deep Space Nine.
13:05Eddington's betrayal stung him bitterly, dominating his thoughts.
13:09It grows to a point where Starfleet actually takes him off the hunt for the Marquis leader, owing to several failed attempts at capture.
13:16However, he puts himself back on the case once Eddington makes the mistake of attacking another Starfleet ship.
13:21Things devolve quickly.
13:23Sisko threatens to poison the atmosphere of a Marquis colony, mimicking the same action that the Marquis themselves had pulled against a Cardassian colony.
13:30Eddington naturally thinks he's bluffing, as do, for the most part, the crew of the USS Defiant.
13:35Even Worf has to ask for clarification once Sisko gives the order to fire.
13:39The explosives ensure that the planet will not be able to sustain life for 50 years, with much of the Marquis already at refugee status.
13:47In his hunt for Eddington, Sisko has racked up a high price.
13:50Added to this, this was not cleared by Starfleet in advance.
13:54For the uniform leaves the viewer with the question, do the ends justify the means?
13:58Considering what happens to the Marquis later in the season, that becomes an even more difficult question to answer.
14:04And that concludes our list.
14:06If you can think of any other examples, then do let us know in the comments below.
14:09And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
14:13Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
14:19I've been Ellie with Trek Culture.
14:20I hope you have a wonderful day, and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.
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