CAPTAIN (STAR TREK)

'Captain' is a commissioned Starfleet officer rank in the fictional Star Trek universe. According to dialog in "Behind the Lines", "Captain" is also the label given to the master of a starship, regardless of his or her actual rank. The rank first appears in ''Star Trek'''s initial pilot, "The Cage", and is held by Christopher Pike, who commands the USS ''Enterprise''. Dozens of captains, both seen and unseen, have played minor and major roles throughout Star Trek's various incarnations.

Captain Jonathan Archer commands '''s titular ship one hundred years before Captains Pike and James T. Kirk command a starship of the same name.
'' states that Captain Robert April preceded Pike as commander of the ''Enterprise''. However, while April's tenure as commander of the ''Enterprise'' is generally accepted by fans, Star Trek's producers have never made this canon.^[1]
Pike wears a single rank stripe, the same as all other officers aboard the USS ''Enterprise''. Kirk, however, wears distinct captain insignia.
Other captains who appear in the original ''Star Trek'' series include the captain of a merchant commander in "Charlie X", two captains on Kirk's court-martial board in "Court Martial", Captain Ronald Tracey of the USS ''Exeter'' in "The Omega Glory", and the dead captain of the USS ''Defiant'' in "The Tholian Web".¹
The Star Trek feature films include multiple captains, starting with Willard Decker in '' and continuing with Spock's promotion to captain at some point before the beginning of ''.¹ Spock becomes captain of the ''Enterprise'', although he eventually returns to serving as Kirk's first officer. Montgomery Scott is promoted to captain in '', but, after a brief assignment to the USS ''Excelsior'', continues to serve as chief engineer under Kirk.¹ ''Star Trek III'' also includes Captain Styles, commanding officer of the USS ''Excelsior''.¹ '' includes the first appearance of a female Starfleet captain, in command of the USS ''Saratoga''.¹ Hikaru Sulu is promoted to captain and becomes master of the USS ''Excelsior'' a few years before the events of ''¹ (a scene mentioning Sulu's promotion to captain and assignment as commander of the ''Excelsior'' was scripted but cut from ''Star Trek II''^[2]). William Riker is promoted to captain in '' and is given the command of the .^[3]
Other Star Trek captains include Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the ''Enterprise''-D and ''Enterprise''-E, Captain Benjamin Sisko of the space station Deep Space Nine and the starship USS ''Defiant'', and Captain Kathryn Janeway of the USS ''Voyager''.¹
In one episode of Star Trek: Voyager, Captain Geordi La Forge is in command of the USS Challenger. This is during an episode in which Harry Kim and Chakotay are attempting to save the Voyager from being destroyed in the past after a failed test of a new propulsion system. The USS Challenger under Captain La Forge is dispatched to capture the Harry and Chakotay on the Delta Flyer. La Forge was shown with the same four rank pips as Captains from TNG, DS9, and VOY.
In TNG, DS9 and VOY, the insignia for a captain is four pips on the collar.

Contents

References

External link

References

1. The Star Trek Encyclopedia, Okuda, Michael & Denise, , , Pocket Books, 1994,1997,1999, ISBN 0-671-03475-8
2. To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek's Mr. Sulu, Takei, George, , , Pocket Books, 1995, ISBN 0-671-89009-3
3.

External link