3 of the truly worst captains in all of Star Trek history

Captain Liam Shaw of Star Trek: Picard is far from a bad captain.

Star Trek: Picard went out with a bang with its final season, and fans loved it. The overabundance of nostalgia really gripped the fandom and propelled the series’ final season to new heights for the show. For a short time, it was trending nearly as well as Strange New Worlds, arguably the best all-around Star Trek show of the Nu Trek generation.

One of the reasons that fans liked the show, beyond the nostalgia of it all, was due to Captain Liam Shaw. Shaw, played by Todd Stashwick, quickly became one of the best new additions to the Star Trek universe with Picard, and his death was a wound many have yet to recover from.

That said, some have called Stashwick a bad captain for how he handled some things. Others thought he was being bigoted against the Borg, even though he was right about them all along. This has led to some fans calling him one of the worst captains in Star Trek, but he’s far from that.

In fact, we found three captains that redefine the term “bad captains” and make Shaw look like a prime Jean-Luc Picard.

Three of the worst captains in Star Trek history

Balthazar Edison

Captain Balthazar Edison crash-landed on a foreign planet that Starfleet could not find. Thinking they’d been abandoned, they began to hate Starfleet and used alien technology to murder scores of aliens, all to sustain themselves long-term. In doing so, Edison lost his humanity and eventually morphed into the alien tyrant Krall.

Rudolph Ransom

While his intentions were well intended, save his crew and get them home, Captain Rudolph Ransom did this by capturing and killing aliens to power his ship. In doing so, he made deadly enemies with the aliens and eventually would run afoul with Captain Kathryn Janeway, the hero of the Delta Quadrant.

Matt Decker

Matt Decker got his crew killed by the Planet Destroyer, and after being removed from command of the Enterprise, a move he initially resisted despite his declining mental state. He would eventually steal a shuttle and flew it into the Planet Killer’s maw, killing himself.