Star Trek fans are looking forward to the upcoming Season 3 finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks as well as the final season of Star Trek: Picard in 2023 (which will, at last, reunite Picard with his former crew). One of the franchise’s signature aspects is its episodic nature of wrapping things up by hour’s end, barring serialized storylines in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Dominion War and Star Trek: Voyager‘s Delta Quadrant adventures.
Led by their intrepid captain, the Star Trek crews regularly make the right call at the right time and save the day once again. Yet while the captains of Star Trek are often depicted as stellar examples of Prime Directive morality, they’re all too human, leading to some making truly bad decisions with egregious consequences.
Picard Lets Hugh Return To The Collective (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
The quandary of whether Captain Picard should or shouldn’t have let Hugh, the LaForge-named Borg who managed to find his individuality again, return to the Borg Collective unharmed or armed with a deadly nanovirus that would wipe out the Federation’s most mortal enemy, is a well-known debate among Star Trek: The Next Generation fans.
The season 5 episode “I Borg” issued a fantastic examination of an existential conflict facing the normally unambiguous Picard. The decision ends up having dire repercussions both for Hugh and for Picard’s standing among Starfleet Command, as well as a missed opportunity to rid Starfleet of their worst adversary. As Picard himself states in the episode, it may be the case that sometimes the moral thing to do isn’t always the right one.
Archer Raids A Civilian Ship (Star Trek: Enterprise)
Jonathan Archer was depicted by the always stellar Scott Bakula as a fair and straight shooter, with very little gray in his black-and-white views of how the bourgeoning federation of planets ought to behave. Yet, in the Star Trek: Enterprise season 3 episode, ‘Damage,’ Archer goes against his usual grain when trade negotiations with an Illyrian ship go awry.
Archer’s Enterprise is in sore need of a warp coil to rendezvous with Degra (one of their few allies in the ongoing issues with the Xindi), yet the commander of the Illyrian ship refuses, noting it would take his crew over three years to get home if they gave up their one coil. Archer nonetheless attacks the ship and take the coil by force (a ruthless and unpopular action within the ranks of Star Trek – as evidenced by his first officer T’Pol’s reaction).
Kirk Doesn’t Initially Surrender To Kruge (Star Trek III: The Search For Spock)
Some original crew diehard supporters might insist that Captain Kirk’s refusal to kowtow to Commander Kruge’s order to surrender was keeping faithful to the overall tone of the character, being an ardent and longtime opponent of the Klingon Empire. Nonetheless, the repercussions for Kirk’s stance were dire indeed. The Klingons had captured Kirk’s son David Marcus, Vulcan Commander Saavik, and a young Spock down on the Genesis planet surface.
To show his resolve, Kruge (played by Christopher Lloyd) orders one of his men to kill one of the hostages. Naturally, David ends up trying to avert the execution by tackling the guard about to kill Saavik, but doesn’t survive the encounter. Kirk ends up surrendering a self-destructing Enterprise anyway to save his crew, but pays a high price beforehand.
Admiral Janeway Travels Back In Time To Bump Up Voyager’s ETA (Star Trek: Voyager)
It’s understandable why Janeway wants to break virtually every Starfleet rule about time travel since she feels her crew deserved to get home a lot earlier (and in the process perhaps save the lives of her two favorite prodigal subordinates). It turns out in the two part season 7 finale of Star Trek: Voyager, in a future two decades from Voyager’s continued journey in the Delta Quadrant, Seven of Nine died en route to Earth and Chakotay ended up dying of a broken heart accordingly.
It’d be fine if Janeway had been trying to save the universe, or the human race, but it really is just about her one ship. It all worked out of course, especially since because of her efforts the Borg transwarp hub network was severely compromised. However, it also resulted in the Borg being exposed to future technology, which is never a good thing in the long run.
Sisko Punches Q (Star Trek: Deep Space 9)
While Q’s encounters with the more stoic Jean Luc Picard and the all business Kathryn Janeway tended to run more comical than aggressive, it was on the promenade of Deep Space 9 where Q met a less patient approach from the Commander of the infamous space station. Avery Brooks was still figuring out how to define his character of Benjamin Sisko, and it shows in this seventh episode of season 1 of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, where Sisko, much like the rest of his first year on television screens, is a bit more brash and confrontational.
O’Brien recognizes Vash from his time on the Enterprise, Q engages in his usual tomfoolery and ends up challenging Sisko to an old-fashioned boxing match, whereupon Sisko smacks him. It’s a rather bold move considering Q’s notorious mood swings and omnipotent power.
Picard Chooses To Avoid His Nausicaan Brawl (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
In the TNG season 6 episode, ‘Tapestry,’ Captain Picard is mortally wounded in an away mission, and while Doctor Crusher works to save him, he undergoes an apparent ‘near-death’ experience (orchestrated by his frenemy adversary Q). His wounds have damaged his artificial heart and Q presents the opportunity for him to go back in time and avoid the fight with the aggressive aliens so that he could keep his original heart.
His future standing as the best captain in Starfleet is naturally compromised, having resulted in an alternate timeline where Picard has a lower rank and a much less interesting life. The episode ends up also being a stellar summary on how humans are the products of their experiences, both good and bad.
Janeway Forges An Alliance With The Borg (Star Trek: Voyager)
The legendary two-parter (the season 3 finale and season 4 opener) Voyager episode ‘Scorpion’ was notable for a number of reasons; not the least of which was the introduction of Jeri Ryan’s wildly popular character Seven of Nine. These two episodes finally bring the crew of Voyager to their long-awaited and much-anticipated destination – the Delta Quadrant’s Borg home territory.
Janeway decides the best course of action is to forge an alliance with the Borg after she learns they’re under attack from an even more dangerous force, Species 8472. Unfortunately, its determined at a later date that the residents of fluidic space were only responding to the Borg in a defensive fashion since the Borg had been trying to assimilate them. It would’ve behooved the occasionally impulsive captain to uncover more information before helping the Borg battle perhaps the one adversary capable of defeating them.
Georgiou Takes The High Road Against The Klingons (Star Trek: Discovery)
The truth is, Michelle Yeoh’s time as the upstanding Prime Universe Phillipa Georgiou was agonizingly short. Many Star Trek fans would’ve loved to have seen a full series based on the regal captain’s prior adventures. Unfortunately, in the debut season of Star Trek: Discovery, she meets an untimely end after refusing to listen to the disgraced Michael Burnham’s suggestion to fire on a Klingon ship during their first encounter, wherein Burnham insisted the Klingons would respect such a gesture.
Captain Georgiu opts for an attempt at diplomacy instead, which results first in the Battle at the Binary Stars and ultimately her own death when she engages in hand-to-hand combat with Klingon leader T’Kuvma, The good news was, one of the best characters from the Mirror Universe was her opposite counterpart Emperor Georgiou.
Sisko Drags The Romulans Into The Dominion War (Star Trek: Deep Space 9)
The Deep Space 9 season 6 episode, ‘In the Pale Moonlight,’ is widely considered one of the series’ best story arcs, but there’s a big catch. Captain Sisko, normally steadfast in his often by-the-book protocols, takes an uncharacteristically deep dive into the darker subterfuge aspects of the ongoing Dominion War. Working with notorious Kardassian ex-spy Garak,
Sisko initially resists Garak’s less scrupulous means of drawing the Romulans to their side of the war, but struggles with his tacit condoning of Garak’s methods including forgery, bribery, and murder for the greater good of the Alpha Quadrant. Ultimately, he decides it is all worth it to protect billions of lives, but takes a big hit in his personal character to accept the means justifying the ends.
Kirk Strands Kahn On Ceti Alpha V (Star Trek: The Original Series)
With the admitted benefit of hindsight, it was a colossal oversight on Captain Kirk’s part to maroon Kahn Noonien Singh on the wasteland planet of Ceti Alpha V. First off, the villain was known to be genetically enhanced and thus able to survive in such circumstances. Second, he had a temper and clearly showed signs of holding a grudge.
Third, Kirk would come to regret the ‘mercy’ he had extended during the events of Star Trek’s most well-regarded film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, which had perhaps the most seminal moment in Star Trek’s long history when Spock sacrificed himself to save the crew of the Enterprise. Kirk might’ve spared himself a world of pain had he taken Kahn into Federation custody back during the Original Series…or simply killed him outright.
