Star Trek’s Newest Captains Prove Fans Tired Of Classic Heroes

While the characters of Star Trek: The Original Series rarely clashed outside of extenuating circumstances (like Spock undergoing pon farr in “Amok Time”), Roddenberry became adamant about his rule against personal conflicts when creating The Next Generation. Some of the writers sarcastically dubbed this “the Roddenberry Box” because it was very difficult to tell great stories involving complex characters when they were never allowed to argue or even stridently disagree with one another. 

That’s why Star Trek: The Next Generation mostly had captains who were paragons of virtue like Picard, and if we got someone who was rougher around the edges (Captain Jellico is the best example of this), it’s because he is meant to be someone the audience can jeer at. While the failing health and eventual death of Roddenberry allowed more conflict, this tradition continued, and more antagonistic admirals (like Admiral Marcus in Star Trek Into Darkness) almost always ended up being explicit bad guys.

In fact, it wasn’t until the third season of Star Trek: Picard that we got a Captain who broke this mold. Captain Shaw is introduced to us as a character with a major chip on his shoulder when it comes to both Picard and Seven of Nine. Fans hated him at first, but after he revealed his tragic Borg backstory, praised Seven as Captain material, and gave his life saving our heroes, this complicated character became a true fan fave.

For this Star Trek captain, “complicated” Is the perfect description: Shaw wasn’t some mustache-twirling evil officer bent on dominating the galaxy. Instead, he was an essentially good guy with bad communication skills who understandably holds a grudge against Picard for the more than 11,000 Starfleet officers lost at the Battle of Wolf 359. He was the most realistic Star Trek character we’ve gotten in decades, and the overwhelmingly positive fan response shows how much audiences related to him.

Shaw is no longer with us (RIP, cranky king), but Star Trek: Discovery has delivered his spiritual successor in the form of Captain Rayner. He’s a grizzled captain who isn’t afraid to make hard calls when the mission is important, and this wartime veteran inevitably clashes with Starfleet admirals who prefer squeaky-clean officers like Tilly. It’s only fitting that he reluctantly becomes first officer to Michael Burnham, a captain who understands more than anyone why someone has to make the hard decisions.

Star Trek fans have been quick to embrace Rayner just as they did Shaw, and for precisely the same reason: these captains are flawed heroes who nonetheless work to better themselves and the world around them. They aren’t evil characters in search of a redemption arc so much as they are cynical characters fighting to see the best in themselves. Frankly, that’s how it feels to be a fan of this optimistic franchise in these pessimistic times, so it’s no wonder the fandom has embraced these characters so wholeheartedly over “can never do anything wrong” characters like Picard.

Now that Star Trek: Discovery is wrapping up, Paramount needs to learn from the popularity of these captains before launching another new show. Fans are frankly tired of characters who are one-dimensionally perfect and crave characters who are compelling not in spite of, but because of their flaws. If Paramount can’t manage to deliver, then it will prove that not only is the Roddenberry Box alive and well but it is as implacable and inescapable as a Borg Cube.