Star Trek's Replacement For Kirk & Picard Is The Franchise's Best Captain In Years

Published Oct 9, 2026, 6:15 AM EDT

Mary Kassel is a Senior Writer & Critic who joined the Screen Rant team in 2023. 

After graduating from Emerson College with a degree in Media Arts Production, Kassel started at Screen Rant with a focus on the critical analysis side of movies and television while continuing to work on set in film production. 

At Screen Rant, Kassel primarily writes for the Classic TV section, mining their encyclopedic knowledge of television history for content. However, they also contribute to the Books team and review both film and television as a critic. 

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With every new addition to the Star Trek franchise, there comes a new captain to shake things up and be compared to legends like Captains Kirk and Picard. One of the biggest challenges new Star Trek TV shows face is creating unique but effective captains and crews, knowing they'll always be held up against the best of the sci-fi universe. Kirk and Picard remain the benchmarks for the best captains because of their complex character development and importance to the series.

However, this doesn't mean that Star Trek hasn't tried, and sometimes succeeded, in finding worthy successors for Kirk and Picard. While Star Trek is at its best when the chemistry between the entire crew works properly, it takes a strong and compelling captain to inspire that loyalty and cohesion. Star Trek's top-tier captains aren't infallible, but they learn from their mistakes and let them make them better leaders. Every Star Trek captain is part of what makes the franchise enduring.

In Star Trek: Picard, one of the more recent spinoffs, the character Seven of Nine returned and took on the new challenge of being Captain in season 3 of the series. Jeri Ryan's work as Seven of Nine was a key piece of what made Star Trek: Voyager​​​​​​, the first series she joined, successful after a rocky first few seasons. Seven of Nine was the most important Star Trek character of the 1990s. It's no wonder that when Ryan returned to reprise her role, she stood out as a captain to be remembered.

Seven Of Nine Is The Best Star Trek Captain In Years

After being introduced in Star Trek: Voyager, Seven immediately stood out as the shakeup the cast needed to make the series work. Due to her past as part of the Borg, Seven fit into the Star Trek archetype of being the more analytical character who served as a foil to the more emotional, human crew. However, as time progressed, Seven learned more about her humanity, and this was seen when she returned for Star Trek: Picard.

Decades of living among humans changed Seven, and this paved the way for her to become a captain worthy of Starfleet. It's only at the end of Star Trek: Picard that Seven is given command of the Enterprise, ready to guide the ship into the unknown, but it took the first two seasons to prepare Seven for this undertaking. Seven had to work alongside Picard and witness what her life would've been like if she hadn't been assimilated by the Borg to fully understand her place in the world.

Seven of Nine's Star Trek timeline is long and winding, but it's what she needed. Experience is a large part of what takes a captain from good to great in Star Trek, and Seven has seen a lot of the universe. Incredibly smart, skilled, and analytical, Seven was also intellectually capable of helming the Enterprise. However, thanks to the events of Star Trek: Picard, she has the emotional and moral capacity as well.

Seven Of Nine Deserves A Series To Prove She's The Perfect Enterprise Captain

Image courtesy of MovieStillsDb

While it wouldn't have made sense for Seven to take command of the Enterprise before the end of Star Trek: Picard season 3, it's a shame we haven't had the chance to watch her as captain. Star Trek: Picard serves almost as an origin story for Seven's ascension to the captain's chair, but her adventures aboard the Enterprise would make for an even better series. In the years since Star Trek: Picard went off the air, the need for Seven's return has only increased.

All the Star Trek shows are unafraid to jump back and forth in the overall timeline of the show, so there's no reason why the franchise couldn't come back with the Seven of Nine spinoff audiences have been waiting for. Seven of Nine has always been an underrated favorite within the story's world, and now is the perfect time to revisit her story and bring the Enterprise back to our screens. As of now, in the canon, her actual ability as captain is untested.

Captains like Kirk and Picard got seasons of television, and even some spinoff movies, to test their mettle, and Seven of Nine deserves no less. As Star Trek transitions into the next phase of the franchise, it wouldn't be surprising if familiar faces like Seven of Nine appear, as her character arc has already aged so well. Even if Seven of Nine doesn't get a dedicated series chronicling her work as captain, she'll be remembered by audiences for years to come.

Star Trek is one of pop culture's biggest multimedia franchises, spanning multiple movies, TV shows, books, comics, video games, and various other media. The franchise was created by Gene Roddenberry and started with the 1960s TV series starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Over the decades, several equally popular series have come out since as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Discovery.