10 Captains Who Broke The Rules | Star Trek
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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,
00:40yet he was a mere captain once. He commanded the USS Pegasus which, among other interesting accolades,
00:44boasted 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 in
00:59his past, he had broken a fairly major rule in the Starfleet Handbook, one that got a lot of people
01:04killed. Aboard the Pegasus, Pressman had been experimenting with a secret interphasic cloaking
01:08device, 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
01:22landscapes of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Now, we understand wanting to make a quick quiet exit
01:28sometimes, I'm Irish, we mastered the goodbye, but there was simply too much at stake here. Eric,
01:35that's detention for you sir. Number 9, Benjamin Maxwell. Ben Maxwell's story of disobedience is
01:41a tragic one. Here was a man haunted by the horrors of the Cardassian Wars, unable to come to terms with
01:46what he's lost. Though that should make him a pitiable man, here instead it makes him a dangerous one.
01:53Taking the USS Phoenix into Cardassian territory and attacking their bases and ships without
01:57provocation, Maxwell threatens to plunge Starfleet into conflicts anew with their tenuous allies.
02:02Though history may have vindicated at least some of his beliefs, the fact is that in Starfleet there's
02:08no room for a rogue officer. The scene in Maxwell's ready room, quiet and reflective, is a powerful image
02:13detailing the costs of war on those that are forced to fight them. O'Brien does talk him down, but
02:18Maxwell has broken so many rules and violated protocols that his career will forever be
02:22remembered for his final acts. It's unclear if he was ever drafted to fight in the Dominion War,
02:27though it's unlikely. Therefore, Maxwell'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
02:39the most unique position of all. The Equinox was dragged across space by the Caretaker and deposited
02:44in the Delta Quadrant. There he was doubly unlucky as the Caretaker often sent ships home when finished
02:49with them. 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, then relentlessly attacked day after
03:10day, Ransom still had to try and get his crew home, that was without question. His methods were ghastly,
03:15though even he knew that, as in his final acts he sought a measure of redemption. He broke all the
03:20rules and he paid dearly for it, but what will they say about the man, his career and his attempts to
03:25put things right? Number 7, Donald Tracy. As often is the case with captains who break their oaths,
03:31Donald Tracy started out from a duty of care. The crew of the Exeter were infected with a deadly
03:36disease that, at least in his mind, was curable via the nearby planet's atmosphere. While he
03:40discovered that the Combs did not in fact find a cure via their environment, Tracy did find a people
03:46to rule over. With his crew dead, he was unburdened and set about establishing himself as a warlord on
03:51the planet. The arrival of Captain Kirk and company derailed his plans and displayed his insanity,
03:56which was too much for the Captain to bear. His little stint of rule breaking had also further
04:01aided in prolonging a local conflict, something expressly forbidden by the Federation and in direct
04:06violation of the Prime Directive. There is, alas, no recourse for Tracy here. He may have set out with
04:12the best of intentions, but his ambitions quickly overcame them. At the time of his death, he was a
04:17raving madman and will almost certainly be forever remembered as such. Number 6, James T Kirk.
04:23Honestly, where do we even begin? Let's be a little fair and look at the contemporary situation. Kirk
04:29existed at a time when space was still vastly unexplored. He commanded a starship that often
04:34found itself in combat situations, so unorthodox thinking was usually required. However, Kirk swung
04:40for the fences, there's no argument about that. There's the time he armed Tyree's people in a private
04:45little war, though one could argue he was simply evening the playing field. Then there was the time
04:49he destroyed the computer on a Mini R7, thus forcing Zendikar to seek peace. A gamble that paid off.
04:55Wonderful news. The thing is, either of these examples could just as easily have gone the other
04:59way. It's certain that he prolonged at least one conflict. Then there's the frequent bumps against
05:04the Prime Directive, while he treated the temporal Prime Directive like only so much toilet paper.
05:08Kirk was a captain who got things done. However, when it came to a performance review,
05:13the manner in which he gets these things done can be just as important. Kirk's report card may be
05:19looking at a few red marks. Number 5. Hikaru Sulu. Sulu first appears in Where No Man Has Gone
05:26Before, the second pilot of Star Trek, but it would take 25 years for the man to finally achieve the
05:31rank of captain. That is, if you ignore those original scripts for Star Trek II, but let's not
05:35worry about that right now. In Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country, Hikaru Sulu has taken command of the
05:40USS Excelsior, having already completed two years of scientific research in the Beta Quadrant when
05:45Praxis explodes. This sets off a chain of commands that leads to Sulu breaking all of the rules to
05:50come to the aid of the renegade Enterprise A. Having rescued Kirk, that ship needs to know the location
05:55of the peace talks between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Sulu is only too happy to oblige.
06:00There's no argument at all that the man wasn't fully aware of his actions. Kirk even reminds him that
06:04by accepting his communication from the Enterprise he risks a court-martial. Sulu sardonically says their
06:08transmission is breaking up and they cannot hear a thing the captain is saying. Whatever is to be said
06:12about Shatner and Takei's long-term feud, they truly play very well off each other on screen,
06:17one rule breaker to another. Number four, Spock. Spock is perhaps the best example to those unfamiliar
06:24with Vulcans that yes, they very much do feel and yes, they very much do act on those feelings when
06:30they want to. After the arrest of Kirk and McCoy for the assassination of Gorkhan, Spock not only ignores
06:35orders to return to space dock but then takes the Enterprise A deep into Klingon territory on a
06:39rescue mission. Though undoubtedly a logical decision, as Kirk and McCoy may be instrumental in
06:44identifying the true killers, there is no question that this is an action stemming from an emotional
06:49response. There was no chance that Spock of all people was going to abandon his friends, yes even
06:54McCoy, to freezing conditions and probably execution on Roropenthe. Having said that everyone was very lucky
07:00that the peace talks went well, after all Spock took a Starfleet ship behind enemy lines, liberated two
07:06maximum security prisoners and then engaged in battle with a Klingon ship in disguise above Kitomer.
07:11There's only so many, ah it's okay it's Spock's, that you can get away with it.
07:16Number three, Benjamin Sisko. Yes we're talking about the Poison Planet. One might assume that In the Pale
07:22Moonlight might be the easy option here, but one must remember that to a certain extent and with a
07:27healthy dose of plausible deniability, Sisko acted with Starfleet Command's blessing in those
07:31circumstances. No, we're not sure that Garrick's final actions are covered in that, but it's all
07:37very grey in that case isn't it? Where it isn't even remotely grey, not even a hint of dusky cream,
07:44is Sisko's decision to hunt for Michael Eddington. The Maquis' escalation to the use of biogenic weapons
07:50is all the excuse that Ben needs to get a little trigger happy himself, although that's hardly giving events
07:55their due. The Maquis, with Eddington as their leader, poison Cardassian worlds so that those
08:00settlers are forced to flee. Sisko, though acting behind the veneer of keeping the peace in the
08:04Demilitarized Zone, elects to return the favour to a Maquis-colonized world, all while Eddington
08:09looks on in horror. Eddington truly has the measure of the man here. His obsession with the former
08:14security officer has pushed Sisko beyond the limits of his duty, and as Sisko later admits, he never
08:20received clearance to fire chemical weapons in the pursuit of these people. We're fairly certain that
08:24poisoning a planet to flush out your quarry goes against at least some Starfleet regulations.
08:30Number 2, Catherine Janeway. Catherine Janeway is the angel to Rudy Ransom's Devil. Faced with
08:36similar conditions, she managed to keep her crew, her ship and her conscience in one piece, for the
08:41most part, all while facing uncharted space and unknown worlds. Her resolve to strictly adhere to
08:46Starfleet regulations was tested and ultimately broken when Voyager encountered Omega in the Delta
08:52Quadrant. A devastating Molecule that could, when detonated, obliterate subspace for light years,
08:57thus preventing any ship from establishing a stable warp field, it posed a direct threat to Voyager's
09:02journey home. The Omega Directive clearly stated that Janeway had to destroy the Molecule without
09:07aid from her crew and inform no one. The first chink in the armour was Seven of Nine, who already had
09:12knowledge of Omega. There was certainly wiggle room for argument in recruiting Seven to help.
09:16However, it is Chakotay who convinces her to break the big rule and share the existence of Omega with
09:22the rest of the senior staff. As she says herself, had Voyager encountered the Molecule in the Alpha
09:26Quadrant, there wouldn't have been any thought or debate. They would never have been informed. However,
09:31their unique position encouraged Janeway to break this rule and, in turn, entirely for the better,
09:37as the sheer amount of Omega discovered would have required far more resources than her original
09:42shuttle-based plan would have provided. Number 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 the actions of a certain Admiral Janeway, Harry Kim was, for a time, the Captain of the USS
09:58Rhode Island. This Nova-class vessel detected Janeway's adapted shuttle and was sent to intercept,
10:03with only Kim knowing that she intended to use experimental Klingon technology to travel through
10:07time and change the past. There is an irony here. In Timeless, an older Harry Kim breaks every rule
10:13he can to change the past, thus saving Voyager from destruction. Here, he is tasked with preventing
10:18Janeway from doing exactly that. However, anyone ever truly believed that the Forever Ensign wouldn't
10:23side with his old Captain? Their exchange may be brief, but Janeway and Kim understand how vital
10:28her mission is. As she reminds him, he was once an eager youth who was ready to fly headfirst into a
10:33Borg-infested nebula to get their ship home quicker. As he was always going to, Captain Kim relents,
10:39disobeyed his orders from Starfleet and violates the Temporal Prime Directive in one breath. Though
10:45he may never know it, history proved his actions to be correct. For that shining moment, Captain Kim
10:50helped save the lives of everyone on his old ship. Thanks so much everyone for watching along,
10:55we hope you enjoyed this and hope you enjoyed the original article which is available over on
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