Opinion: Ranking the 5 original captains of Star Trek

Captain Archer falls to #4 really through no fault of his own, for he was more a product of his time in which he was a captain, rather then a reflection on his skills as a captain.

By the time the other four people on this list would sit in the captain’s chair, a clear template of being a captain had already been laid out, but for Captain Archer, he almost had to wing it and make it up as he went along, again, which wasn’t his fault.

There was no set of rules for Archer to abide by, such as the Prime Directive. He battled with his own prejudice towards the Vulcans who, while they were allies, offered little if any cooperation to Starfleet and indeed Archer himself, and the very delicate workings of inter-species relations had yet to be established and was all but an unknown to the young captain.

To put it another way, Archer was very inexperienced, but this should not be counted against him. For at the time of his captaincy, what we now know as Starfleet was very much in its infancy, an obstacle that the other four captains on this list did not have to deal with.

All those allowances being made, I’m afraid that because of the very nature of the list and the question being which captain would you feel the most comfortable putting your life and career in their hands, Captain Jonathan Archer must fall to #4.