- 6 minutes ago
Star Trek's Captains.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00It can be very frustrating being a captain in Starfleet, I mean there's so many regulations
00:05to follow, so many lines you need to walk, oh one wonders how they don't all have back
00:11problems, unless of course it was those season one season two uniforms in the next generation
00:16in which case they absolutely had back problems. Slightly different reasons though, you might
00:21think that that would be enough to encourage any of them to be a little bit naughty, with that in
00:26mind, I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are 10 Star Trek Captains Who Broke The Rules.
00:32Number 10, Eric Pressman. Yes, yes, we may know our friend Eric slightly better by his admiral's rank,
00:39yet he was a mere captain once. He commanded the USS Pegasus which, among other interesting accolades,
00:45boasted the honour of being William T. Riker's first posting after graduating from Starfleet Academy.
00:49Eric was an affable, thoroughly personable man. He inspired an upbeat atmosphere around him even
00:54as the years passed and his neck was weighed down with extra pips, but as the audience discovered
00:59in his past, he had broken a fairly major rule in the Starfleet Handbook, one that got a lot of
01:04people
01:04killed. Aboard the Pegasus, Pressman had been experimenting with a secret interphasic cloaking
01:09device, an action that was directly in opposition to the Treaty of Algeron. This treaty was drawn up to
01:14end hostilities, at least at that point in history, between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire.
01:19Without it, the wars that would surely have broken out could have been devastating to the landscapes of the Alpha
01:24and
01:24Beta Quadrants. Now, we understand wanting to make a quick quiet exit sometimes, I'm Irish,
01:30we mastered the goodbye, but there was simply too much at stake here. Eric, that's detention for you sir.
01:37Number 9, Benjamin Maxwell. Ben Maxwell's story of disobedience is a tragic one. Here was a man
01:43haunted by the horrors of the Cardassian Wars, unable to come to terms with what he's lost. Though that
01:48should make him a pitiable man, here instead it makes him a dangerous one. Taking the USS Phoenix
01:54into Cardassian territory and attacking their bases and ships without provocation, Maxwell threatens to
01:59plunge Starfleet into conflicts anew with their tenuous allies. Though history may have vindicated
02:04at least some of his beliefs, the fact is that in Starfleet there's no room for a rogue officer.
02:10The scene in Maxwell's ready room, quiet and reflective, is a powerful image detailing the costs of
02:14war on those that are forced to fight them. O'Brien does talk him down, but Maxwell has broken so
02:19many
02:19rules and violated protocols that his career will forever be remembered for his final acts. It's
02:24unclear if he was ever drafted to fight in the Dominion War, though it's unlikely. Therefore,
02:29Maxwell's rule breaking cost him everything that he had left.
02:32Number 8, Rudy Ransom. Were it not for another name on this list, Rudy Ransom would have been in the
02:39most unique position of all. The Equinox was dragged across space by the Caretaker and deposited in the
02:44Delta Quadrant. There he was doubly unlucky as the Caretaker often sent ships home when finished with
02:50them. Ransom's ship was left stranded. History will judge Ransom as a captain who betrayed the
02:54Prime Directive and then actively engaged in the murder of innocent alien beings, all for the chance
02:59to get home faster. Perhaps history is correct, but spare some sympathy for the position he was in.
03:04All alone in a Nova-class ship that wasn't designed for deep space,
03:08then relentlessly attacked day after day. Ransom still had to try and get his crew home,
03:12that was without question. His methods were ghastly, though even he knew that, as in his final
03:17acts he sought a measure of redemption. He broke all the rules and he paid dearly for it, but what
03:22will they say about the man, his career and his attempts to put things right?
03:26Number 7, Donald Tracy. As often is the case with captains who break their oaths, Donald Tracy
03:32started out from a duty of care. The crew of the Exeter were infected with a deadly disease that,
03:36at least in his mind, was curable via the nearby planet's atmosphere. While he discovered that the
03:41Combs did not, in fact, find a cure via their environment, Tracy did find a people to rule over.
03:47With his crew dead, he was unburdened and set about establishing himself as a warlord on the planet.
03:52The arrival of Captain Kirk and Company derailed his plans and displayed his insanity, which was too
03:57much for the captain to bear. His little stint of rule breaking had also further aided in prolonging a
04:02local conflict, something expressly forbidden by the Federation and in direct violation of
04:07the Prime Directive. There is, alas, no recourse for Tracy here. He may have set out with the best
04:12of intentions, but his ambitions quickly overcame them. At the time of his death, he was a raving
04:17madman and will almost certainly be forever remembered as such.
04:21Number 6, James T. Kirk. Honestly, where do we even begin? Let's be a little fair and look at the
04:28contemporary situation. Kirk existed at a time when space was still vastly unexplored. He commanded
04:33a starship that often found itself in combat situations, so unorthodox thinking was usually
04:38required. However, Kirk swung for the fences, there's no argument about that. There's the time
04:43he armed Tyree's people in a private little war, though one could argue he was simply evening the
04:48playing field. Then there was the time he destroyed the computer on a Mini R7, thus forcing Vendikar to
04:53seek peace. A gamble that paid off. Wonderful news. The thing is, either of these examples could just
04:58as easily have gone the other way. It's certain that he prolonged at least one conflict. Then
05:03there's the frequent bumps against the Prime Directive, while he treated the temporal Prime
05:06Directive like only so much toilet paper. Kirk was a captain who got things done, however,
05:12when it came to a performance review, the manner in which he gets these things done can be just as
05:17important. Kirk's report card may be looking at a few red marks.
05:20Number 5. Hikaru Sulu
05:24Sulu first appears in Where No Man Has Gone Before, the second pilot of Star Trek, but it would take
05:2825 years for the man to finally achieve the rank of captain. That is, if you ignore those original
05:33scripts for Star Trek II, but let's not worry about that right now. In Star Trek VI The Undiscovered
05:38Country, Hikaru Sulu has taken command of the USS Excelsior, having already completed two years of
05:43scientific research in the Beta Quadrant when Praxis explodes. This sets off a chain of commands that
05:48leads to Sulu breaking all of the rules to come to the aid of the renegade Enterprise A. Having
05:53rescued Kirk, that ship needs to know the location of the peace talks between the Federation and the
05:57Klingon Empire. Sulu is only too happy to oblige. There's no argument at all that the man wasn't
06:01fully aware of his actions. Kirk even reminds him that by accepting his communication from the
06:05Enterprise he risks a court-martial. Sulu sardonically says their transmission is breaking up and he
06:10cannot hear a thing the captain is saying. Whatever is to be said about Shatner and Takei's long-term
06:14feud, they truly play very well off each other on screen, one rule breaker to another. Number 4. Spock.
06:21Spock is perhaps the best example to those unfamiliar with Vulcans that yes, they very much do feel and
06:27yes, they very much do act on those feelings when they want to. After the arrest of Kirk and McCoy
06:32for the
06:32assassination of Gorkhan, Spock not only ignores orders to return to space dock but then takes the
06:37Enterprise A deep into Klingon territory on a rescue mission. Though undoubtedly a logical decision,
06:42as Kirk and McCoy may be instrumental in identifying the true killers, there is no question that this is
06:47an action stemming from an emotional response. There was no chance that Spock of all people was going to
06:52abandon his friends, yes even McCoy, to freezing conditions and probably execution on Roropenthe.
06:58Having said that, everyone was very lucky that the peace talks went well. After all,
07:02Spock took a Starfleet ship behind enemy lines, liberated two maximum security prisoners and then
07:08engaged in battle with a Klingon ship in disguise above Khitomer. There's only so many, ah it's okay,
07:13it's Spock's, that you can get away with it. Number 3. Benjamin Sisko. Yes, we're talking about the
07:20Poisoned Planet. One might assume that In the Pale Moonlight might be the easy option here, but one must
07:24remember that to a certain extent, and with a healthy dose of plausible deniability, Sisko acted with
07:30Starfleet Command's blessing in those circumstances. No, we're not sure that Garak's final actions are
07:35covered in that, but it's all very grey in that case, isn't it? Where it isn't even remotely grey,
07:42not even a hint of dusky cream, is Sisko's decision to hunt for Michael Eddington. The Maquis's
07:48escalation to the use of biogenic weapons is all the excuse that Ben needs to get a little trigger
07:52happy himself, although that's hardly giving events their due. The Maquis, with Eddington as their
07:57leader, poisoned Cardassian worlds so that those settlers are forced to flee. Sisko, though acting
08:02behind the veneer of keeping the peace in the Demilitarized Zone, elects to return the favour
08:06to a Maquis-colonized world, all while Eddington looks on in horror. Eddington truly has the measure
08:12of the man here. His obsession with the former security officer has pushed Sisko beyond the limits of
08:17his duty, and as Sisko later admits, he never received clearance to fire chemical weapons in
08:22the pursuit of these people. We're fairly certain that poisoning a planet to flush out your quarry
08:26goes against at least some Starfleet regulations. Number 2, Catherine Janeway. Catherine Janeway is
08:34the angel to Rudy Ransom's Devil. Faced with similar conditions, she managed to keep her crew,
08:39her ship and her conscience in one piece, for the most part, all while facing uncharted space and
08:44unknown worlds. Her resolve to strictly adhere to Starfleet regulations was tested and ultimately
08:49broken when Voyager encountered Omega in the Delta Quadrant, a devastating molecule that could,
08:54when detonated, obliterate subspace for light years, thus preventing any ship from establishing
08:59a stable warp field, it posed a direct threat to Voyager's journey home. The Omega directive clearly
09:04stated that Janeway had to destroy the molecule without aid from her crew and inform no one.
09:09The first chink in the armour was Seven of Nine, who already had knowledge of Omega. There was
09:14certainly wiggle room for argument in recruiting Seven to help. However, it is Chakotay who convinces
09:19her to break the big rule and share the existence of Omega with the rest of the senior staff. As
09:24she
09:24says herself, had Voyager encountered the molecule in the Alpha Quadrant, there wouldn't have been any
09:28thought or debate, they would never have been informed. However, their unique position encouraged Janeway to
09:34break this rule and, in turn, entirely for the better, as the sheer amount of Omega discovered,
09:39would have required far more resources than her original shuttle based plan would have provided.
09:44Number 1. Harry Kim
09:47Let us here give the man his due. While it may have been in an alternate future that was then
09:52erased by
09:53the actions of a certain Admiral Janeway, Harry Kim was, for a time, the captain of the USS Rhode Island.
09:58This Nova-class vessel detected Janeway's adapted shuttle and was sent to intercept, with only Kim
10:04knowing that she intended to use experimental Klingon technology to travel through time and change
10:08the past. There is an irony here. In Timeless, an older Harry Kim breaks every rule he can to change
10:14the past, thus saving Voyager from destruction. Here he is tasked with preventing Janeway from doing
10:19exactly that. However, anyone ever truly believed that the Forever Ensign wouldn't side with his old
10:24captain. Their exchange may be brief, but Janeway and Kim understand how vital her mission is. As she
10:29reminds him, he was once an eager youth who was ready to fly headfirst into a Borg-infested nebula
10:34to get their ship home quicker. As he was always going to, Captain Kim relents, disobeyed his orders
10:40from Starfleet and violates the Temporal Prime Directive in one breath. Though he may never know it,
10:46history proved his actions to be correct. For that shining moment, Captain Kim helped save the lives of
10:51everyone on his old ship. Thanks so much everyone for watching along, we hope you enjoyed this and
10:56hope you enjoyed the original article which is available over on whatculture.com. You are awesome,
11:00you are wonderful. You can follow us on the various socials at TrekCulture, you can follow myself at
11:05Sean Ferrick as well. Look after yourselves though, talking to you again. The world is a bit of a manic
11:11place, so do your bit to just put some love and happiness out there in the world and put out
11:17what you
11:17would like to get back. That's all, you're awesome, you deserve the best, live long and prosper and I'll
11:23talk to you soon. Bye.
Comments