Which Star Trek Captain is your favorite? Perhaps you like the directness and charisma of James Tiberius Kirk? Maybe you're drawn to the diplomacy and style of Jean-Luc Picard? Picking a favorite Captain is like saying who's your favorite President: it's a hard choice because these people are products of their times. Would Janeway have been a good Captain of the NX-01 USS Enterprise? Would Captain Archer have been a good commander of the USS Defiant? These great Captains have their reputations proceed them, but let's not forget that space is vast, and there are tons of other Captains out there commanding many other vessels. Sure, we have the famous folk like Sisko and Pike, but what about the other Captains that are just as important, but not as well known? Let's also not forget that for every good Captain, there's a really bad one flying around space at Warp speed without a seat belt.

Can you name the Captain that brought peace between the Tamarians and the Federation? Of all of the people to have ever skippered the Enterprise, which Captain was the doofiest? One Captain should be celebrated for refusing to obey commands from their superior officer, whereas another Captain should be demoted down to Ensign for following orders. Harry Kim never achieved a rank higher than Ensign while on Star Trek: Voyager, but when he did he become the Captain of an alien vessel? Which Captain in the Star Trek films was so bad, they didn't know what planet they beamed down to? Our list collects 10 of the Captains we admire and look up to, as well as 10 Captains that we're shocked are still alive and walking around on the bridge.

20 STELLAR: HIKARU SULU (USS EXCELSIOR)

Hey, crew of the USS Excelsior, we don't want to embarrass your Captain, but if you go on YouTube, there's footage of Hikaru Sulu, shirtless, running around the Enterprise with a foil thinking he was a swashbuckler. Oh, it was that footage that got him the Captain's Chair? Never mind then.

Sulu went from helping sabotage the Excelsior in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock to commanding the same ship in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. We love how his character has evolved over the years from helmsman to Captain, and he even made an appearance in Star Trek: Voyager!

19 WARP CORE BREACH: JOHN HARRIMAN (USS ENTERPRISE-B)

Hey, Johnny, sit up straight in that Captain's Chair. You're the Captain of the Enterprise! You didn't win that in a lottery, did you? It takes smarts to be the Captain of a starship, but you obviously have to know about the legacy and weight the name Enterprise brings, no?

In Star Trek Generations, Harriman took the Enterprise-B out for a maiden voyage and discovered a distress call. Suspiciously they've left Spacedock with no weapons or tractor beam installed, and after two failed rescue attempts immediately asks Kirk for help. Don't you have a ship filled with other people that can help you?

18 STELLAR: DATHON (TAMARIAN CAPTAIN)

If you thought learning a second language was hard, try learning Tamarian. The Children of Tama speak in metaphors, so unless you know their cultural references, their entire language is going to go over your head. It was one brave Tamarian Captain named Dathon that tried to bridge the gap.

Dathon beamed himself and Picard down to a planet in order for each Captain to figure out how the other's language worked. They had to do this while fighting a savage creature that could make itself invisible. Although Dathon didn't survive, his efforts united the Tamarians with the Federation for the first time.

17 WARP CORE BREACH: BALTHAZAR EDISON (USS FRANKLIN)

Star Trek Beyond was a fun adventure but featured a strange adversary. Krall was a villain that wanted revenge on the Federation, but eventually Kirk and crew find out that Krall used to be Balthazar Edison, Captain of the USS Franklin! Why so angry?

Edison hated the Federation because he felt abandoned by them. Admittedly, his ship was displaced after encountering a wormhole... it's not like the Federation stopped returning his subspace hails! His jumping to conclusions and mutating into Krall makes us regret he didn't retire after the MACOs were disbanded.

16 STELLAR: ERIKA BENTEEN (U.S.S. LAKOTA)

Good soldiers follow orders, but great soldiers know when an order should not be obeyed. Erika Benteen, who was in command of the USS Lakota, was ordered by Admiral Leyton to prevent the USS Defiant from returning to Earth. A firefight broke out between both vessels.

The Defiant and Excelsior-class vessels held their own against each other, but both ships were careful in their aggression. When Leyton ordered the Lakota use their complement of quantum torpedoes against the Defiant, Benteen knew at that point to defy her orders. She ceased her attack and let the Defiant get back on course.

15 WARP CORE BREACH: EDWARD JELLICO (USS ENTERPRISE-D)

Picard, Worf and Crusher were dispatched on a top secret mission, and instead of giving a field promotion to Commander Riker, a replacement Captain was assigned. Edward Jellico may have been a good Captain, but he wasn't a good fit with the crew of the Enterprise.

Jellico constantly butted heads with Riker, and lacked the smooth jazz diplomacy that Picard often displayed. Sure, he got the job done, but it resulted in Jelly Belly making everyone on the Enterprise-D obey his orders, opposed to him trying to blend in with the culture of the ship. We won't be seeing Captain Jellico Day anytime soon.

14 STELLAR: WILL DECKER (USS ENTERPRISE-A)

In the 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the Enterprise-A was about to launch with Captain Decker at the helm, but Kirk returned and literally stole the ship from him. Can Decker stand up to Kirk, even though Spock and McCoy have tried and failed in the past?

Because of the Enterprise's 18 month redesign, the ship was unfamiliar to Kirk, and his attempts to fire phasers while trapped in a wormhole almost destroyed the ship if not for Decker's last minute intervention. Decker saved the ship and at the end of the movie merged with V'ger.

13 WARP CORE BREACH: RON TRACEY (USS EXETER)

One of the most important values of the Federation is the Prime Directive, in which the Federation vows to not interfere in the customs and developments of lesser-developed cultures. The biggest rule Starfleet has to offer was abandoned by Captain Ronald Tracey.

In the Original Series episode "The Omega Glory," Captain Tracey violated the Prime Directive by becoming directly involved in a conflict on the planet Omega IV between the Kohms and the Yangs. Tracey sided with the Kohms and provided them with phasers, which was way beyond their technological level at the time.

12 STELLAR: WORF (USS DEFIANT)

Although Sisko was the commander of Deep Space Nine, the USS Defiant was Captained by Worf on numerous occasions. One such occasion was against the Borg during the opening battle of Star Trek: First Contact. After all, the Defiant was built as a Borg-busting ship from the start.

It made sense for Worf to be in command of the Defiant. Whereas the Enterprise was a vessel of exploration, the Defiant was built specifically for combat (and so was Worf). As much as we love seeing Worf swinging a bat'leth, we love him in the Captain's chair even more.

11 WARP CORE BREACH: RICHARD ROBAU (USS KELVIN)

Here's the thing: we love how George Kirk goes out while defending the USS Kelvin. However, that would never have happened if Captain Robau showed a little more diplomacy when dealing with Nero in the opening scenes of the 2009 reboot of Star Trek.

The film begins with the massive ship Narada appearing and attacking the Kelvin. The Captain was forced to shuttle over to the Narada to answer questions. Instead of the Captain being able to reach a compromise or bargain, moments later he is stabbed by Nero and the Kelvin has to be saved by the God of Thunder... we mean Kirk's dad. Hey, wait, they're the same person!

10 STELLAR: MONTGOMERY SCOTT (CAPTAIN OF ENGINEERING)

Montgomery Scott was such a good Engineer, he was often referred to as a "miracle worker." Scotty was also was an equally good commander. Besides preventing the ship from exploding from time to time, he also had to sit in the Captain's chair and did a great job. Did you know he also had the rank of Captain?

In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Scott was assigned as the new Chief Engineer of the Excelsior, but he's also promoted to Captain. When he's assigned to the Enterprise-A, Kirk is still in command but Scotty is considered the Captain of Engineering.

9 WARP CORE BREACH: J.T. ESTEBAN (USS GRISSOM)

You knew this guy was in trouble when you looked at his ship. Have you seen the USS Grissom? The saucer section isn't attached to the main hull! They forgot the ship's neck back at Utopia Planitia! Well, a chump ship belongs to a chump Captain, and Esteban was the chumpiest of them all.

In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, a Klingon Bird of Prey decloaked in front of the Grissom. Do they open fire? No. Do they call Starfleet for help? No. Do they raise shields? NO! What do they do? Explode after one torpedo hit from the Klingon ship. Wow, that escalated quickly.

8 STELLAR: DATA (USS SUTHERLAND)

Data fires a phaser

The Federation was planning to expose a Romulan plot to influence the Klingon Civil War. Picard was assigning members of his crew to Captain other vessels but neglected to give Data his own command. Data said "Can I has?" and was assigned to be Captain of the USS Sutherland.

Data took command and found out immediately his First Officer was racist towards androids. Not only did he deal with the dude, Data single-handedly discovered the cloaked Romulan vessels, saving both the Federation and Klingons. Remind us again why he didn't stay Captain of the Sutherland?

7 WARP CORE BREACH: CLARK TERRELL (USS RELIANT)

Captain Terrell beamed down to a planet with Pavel Chekov, and we should know by now that no Captain should be leading a Landing Party. When he arrived at Ceti Alpha V, he was apprehended by Khan and his fellow Augments. We get how you can overpower the Captain, but what about what happened next?

We see a scene with Kirk exploring the Enterprise, but when we cut back, Khan has taken over Terrell's ship! How did that happen? When Terrell beamed back up, how did he justify the several dozen additional people he returned with? You don't have a Federation-issued whistle or anything like that to alert the crew something's wrong?

6 STELLAR: HARRY KIM (NIGHTINGALE)

Harry Kim was never promoted throughout all of Star Trek: Voyager.

You're telling me that after serving on USS Voyager for seven years, Ensign Harry Kim never received a promotion? Not cool, Janeway. However, an opportunity did arise when Voyager encountered Medical Transport 136. Kim took command of the ship and renamed it the Nightingale.

It was no secret that actor Garrett Wang was denied an opportunity to direct the show, and it was rumored that previous versions of the script had Kim staying as Captain of Nightingale and leaving Star Trek: Voyager. We're glad he stayed and got to sit in a Captain's chair for one episode.

5 WARP CORE BREACH: ERIK PRESSMAN (USS PEGASUS)

You know you're in trouble when the guy from Lost is your Captain! He's also the villain in the 1987 horror film The Stepfather! Why didn't anyone see the warning signs? Erik Pressman may have had good intentions, but there's a reason why he's on our naughty list.

While he was Captain of the Pegasus, he developed in secret a phase cloaking device, which would allow their ship to be invisible and intangible. The crew found out about the experiments and a mutiny happened aboard a Federation starship, something that rarely happens in Starfleet.

4 STELLAR: GABRIEL LORCA (USS DISCOVERY)

Captain Janeway described Starfleet Captains during the 23rd century as a different breed. Space in the 24th century may have been the final frontier, 100 years earlier it was more like the Wild West, with Starfleet Captains acting more like cowboys than commanders. This is what made Lorca so great.

Lorca was a great introduction to what it took to survive in the 23rd century. He was more likely to take out a phaser and shoot than he was to talk, and a lot of his villainy was due to him being from the Mirror Universe. He was not a character that Roddenberry would have envisioned, which is why he makes Discovery so cool.

3 WARP CORE BREACH: PHILIPPA GEORGIOU (USS SHENZHOU)

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Geogiou in Star Trek: Discovery.

Michelle Yeoh is as tough as they come. Not only was she a fierce fighter in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, she was also a Bond Girl, fighting alongside Pierce Brosnan in the 1997 film Tomorrow Never Dies. If Michelle is so awesome, why is Philippa Georgiou so lame?

Georgiou's first officer, Michael Burnham, warned the Captain about having a weak posture with the Klingons. Instead of doing what the Vulcans did (attacking first whenever they saw the Klingons), Georgiou asked the Klingons to be besties with the Federation. The result? The Battle of The Binary Stars and all out war between Klingons and Federation.

2 STELLAR: WILLIAM RIKER (USS TITAN)

The strange thing is: Riker was Captain way before he was officially promoted in Star Trek: Nemesis and assigned the USS Titan. He was promoted to Captain when Picard was assimilated by the Borg, and when Picard returned Riker... forgot he was Captain?

We get it, Will, between being your own Captain and being First Officer on the Flagship of the Federation, we'll take the latter. With Nemesis being the last Next Generation film, we're glad that the series ended with you getting command of your own vessel. In the Star Trek: Titan novels, Tuvok served on the ship as the Tactical Officer.

1 WARP CORE BREACH: RUDY RANSOM (USS EQUINOX)

In Roddenberry's futuristic vision of the Federation, he envisioned humans traveling through the stars at faster than light speeds, encountering new life and strange new worlds. With all of their interactions, challenges and adventures, humans would retain their curiosity as well as their morality.

Such was not the case with Rudy Ransom. Unbeknownst to Captain Janeway, her vessel wasn't the only ship pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker. After sustaining heavy casualties, Ransom decided to abandon Federation morality by using nucleogenic lifeforms as fuel for their ship. Janeway, and audiences, were shocked to see a Starfleet Captain justify such actions.