Ranking every lead character from the Nu Trek era of Star Trek characters
By Chad Porto
Two things define Star Trek's shows more than anything else; the lead and the ship. Those are the dynamics that truly brought each show its own identity. That's always been the case dating back to the 1960s with William Shatner's James Kirk and the U.S.S. Enterprise. It's the foundation for all great Star Trek shows.
That principle remains true even with the Nu Trek era of shows. Starting in 2017, Star Trek: Discovery launched, creating a new era of Trek shows we've seen on our television screens. After that, we got Picard, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, and Prodigy, all of which were main-series shows that featured a captain, a ship, and shenanigans.
Each show wavered in quality and fan excitement but those were the five shows that have made up the Nu Trek era of Star Trek programming. As with the past eras of Star Trek television, we're looking to answer the age-old question; what captain was better? Now, not every character in this new era is a captain, so we'll be looking at the series' lead instead.
While most of these shows have an ensemble cast, we're specifically looking at the characters that drive most of the plot forward. For Discovery that's Michael Burnham, for Picard it's Jean-Luc Picard, for Lower Decks it's Mariner Beckett, for Prodiy it's Dal R'El and for Strange New Worlds it's Christopher Pike.
You may disagree with the specific characters, but these are the five we're focusing on. To have a more streamlined approach to the debate, we're going to grade the five leads on a series of five metrics.
Character design, acting performances, overall personality, interpersonal dynamics, and how they help or hinder the show. For character design, we're going off of the style of the character, which includes the Starfleet design of their uniform, or the uniform of the show. The performances are pretty self-explanatory, though, beyond that, it'll also account for the quality of the show and the scripts themselves. Good performances with bad scripts will be very helpful for some of these stars. The personality of the character is pretty obvious; are they likable, do fans want to watch them, etc? How they react and deal with other characters is the fourth grading point. We love a character who does well with others and isn't callous and cruel. Lastly, whether or not they have drawing power and entice fans to watch the show.
These will get a score from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest. The character with the highest points wins. The breakdown will look like this;
Design -
Performance -
Personality -
Dynamics -
Show Affect -