Space is an unforgiving medium . Out there , in the tractless depths , the slightest mistake can be fatal for everybody . And that goes a hundredfold for mistakes by command officers . A single misapprehension can mean the death of hundreds , if not millions , of masses . And there are plenty of commanders and senior pilot who ’ve failed , dramatically , when they attempt to sit in the Big Chair .
Here are 10 of the most tragically unskilled quad senior pilot in science fiction .
I ’ve got a flaccid spot in my heart for Commander Salamar . Maybe it ’s the way he sputter when the Doctor tells him , “ Salamar , you ’re wrong again , ” when he makes the 1000th stupefied decision in a words . In any causa , Salamar is whole out of his deepness throughout the news report , even by the standards of authority figures in seventies Doctor Who stories . He ’s a young raging - principal who got advance too fast , and feels insecure about the fact that his second in command is more experient and less of a lunkhead than he is — so he oppose by making dumb , kneejerk decisions , sending his people to sure death against the anti - matter creature and later on on prove to habituate a superweapon against it , which wind up only pretend it crowing . He ’s the rare person who never set forth listening to the Doctor , ever .
In the first season of Farscape , Crais makes slews of questionable decisions , seeking to revenge his brother ’s expiry — notably chasing Moya all over space and ignoring gild . To quote from one forum post atSpeculative Friction , “ can we imagine a U.S. Aircraft flattop or Battleship commanding officer witnessing his brother ’s expiry , then ordering his ship to race off across the Pacific , the Indian Ocean , the Atlantic , in hobby of revenge against the killer ? Of course not . It is stupid . ” AddsMadeline Ashby , “ His pursuit of his comrade ’s killer ends in both vocation and personal self-annihilation . ”
True , Captain E.O. is saddled with the worst crew in space — especially Hooter — but he does n’t really do much to amend the situation . As Captain E.O. says , in passably much his first line of dialog , “ The Command considers us a bunch of loser . But we ’re going to do it right this meter , because we ’re the upright . If we do n’t , we ’ll be grind away out of the Corps . ” And that ’s E.O. ’s first mistake — his work party are not the best . They are not even in the midsection of the bottom twentieth percentile . They prove this , shortly afterwards , by crashing on a major planet while Captain E.O. assay vainly to keep it together . And later , his diplomatic mission to instruct dance moves to Anjelica Huston goes completely tits up , partially due to his gang ’s lack of discipline and partially due to Captain E.O. ’s own fecklessness . It ’s only when he reveals the hitherto unseen might of turning evil minions into his own backup dancers that he pulls this fiasco out of the ardor .
He was sent on a mission to survey the Minbari forces but not to wage them . But when he get a line a Minbari ship approaching with its gunports open , he lost his shit and decided to launch an all - out attack . The ensue devastation cause the Earth - Minbari state of war , lead to unnumbered casualty . He ’s sort of synonymous with deadly levels of dazed .
Does Vader have to force - choke a bitch ? Yes . Yes , he does . The catalogue of Ozzel and Needa ’s mistakes in Empire Strikes Back is fairly legendary — among other thing , the Imperial Fleet drops out of hyperspace too skinny to Hoth , alerting the Rebels to the royal flak too before long and turn a loss the element of surprise . afterwards , Needa lets Han Solo take him a merry chase , and falls prey to a slew of old smuggler ’s tricks , most of which swear on Needa to overlook the obvious .
His name essentially says it all . He ’s a inept vernal hombre who does n’t really have any particular ambitions , military or otherwise . He joins the United Planets Space Force because he thinks it ’ll offer a cushy being , possibly with a nice desk business somewhere . But then when warfare break out and he accidentally helps to pull through some hostage , he gets given the command of his own ship , the Soyokaze . But he ’s not concerned in keeping order or discipline on his own ship — much like Captain E.O. — and he fundamentally just survives due to double-dyed dumb luck .
Poor Garner — he ’s essentially an applied scientist who gets promoted beyond his level of power , and winds up commanding a battlestar . When he takes over the Pegasus , he goes the polar way of life from Tylor and E.O. : he tries to impose too much bailiwick , keep an ultra - tight clutches and terrorizing his subordinates , especially Starbuck . But his real incompetence come when he disobey orders and sends the Pegasus on a scouting mission rather of just sending some raptors — and when the Pegasus comes under flaming , he deserts the CIC to try and fix the FTL beat back himself . A moon curser up , though , is Lee Adama , whose angsting causes him to dither too long , so that when the Pegasus finally get to deliver the Galactica , it ’s practically too late . Unlike Barry Garner , Lee Adama actually does bring home the bacon in ruin the Pegasus .
Matt Decker about manages to wipe out two spaceship crews . First he beam his own work party down to a planet — which turn over out to be in the path of the satellite - destroying weapon . Oops . Then , with his own ship a shattered wreck , he comes aboard the Enterprise and tries to take command of it , so he can chair the Enterprise bunch to their own deaths in the hole of the major planet - crusher . True , Decker has the right idea about how to toss off that affair in the death , but he would n’t have gotten it to shape . He would have just sacrificed the Enterprise for no cause , if Kirk had n’t intervened . Trek is also full of other incompetent captains , notably Captain Varley of the Yamato , who goes into the Neutral Zone and gets his ship infect with a computer computer virus , Captain Ransom of the Equinox , who thinks torturing alien is a dapper theme , and the meter - traveling Captain Braxton . And too many others to name .
on-key , Dallas is saddled with an android who desire to make for a Xenomorph specimen back for Weyland - Yutani to study and profit from . But his own decisions make things way , way worse — when Ripley keeps point out that they are profane quarantine procedure by make for the facehuggered Kane aboard , Dallas snub her . Later , he also dismisses the eminently sensitive advice to put Kane into cold computer memory . And his ideas for dealing with the Xenomorph once it ’s amply grown and on the rampage are also not the best . At every turn , Dallas is whole ferment an already defective place into an epical jailor - up . By contrast , Prometheus sacrifice us almost the diametrical scenario : the captain is sanely intelligent and competent . It ’s just the entire respite of the gang that ’s fatally ludicrous .
And finally , there ’s the guy rope who embodies courage , fearless leading and wise command decisions . Zapp Brannigan essentially belongs to the “ carom fodder ” schoolhouse of tactics — his approach to any situation is just to throw spendable people at it until the dead body pile up so high the opposition receive disordered . He ’s been make love to try and clog the foe ’s death carom with the wreckage of his own ship . He ’s sort of a takeoff of Captain Kirk , among other swaggering “ lady man ” captains — but he ’s actually more like the various stupid captains whose messes Kirk had to clean up .
Thanks to Madeline Ashby , Benjamin Louis Wilson , Angela Cooper , Dr. Dave Goldberg , Christina DiEdoardo , Vivid Scribe , John R. Fultz , Joe Kinkopf , Adam Whitehead , Shaun Andrews , Joris Meijer , Ken Applebaum , Gregory Taylor , Helene Wecker , Rus McLaughlin , Tom O’Daighre , Brian Ted Jones , Andrew Liptak , David D. Levine , Matthew Simpson , Chris Holly , Chris Farnell , John Scalzi , Ferrett Steinmetz , Ian ‘ Cat ’ Vincent , Damien Walter , Karan , E.C. Myers , Rowan Kaiser , The Divine Miss M. , Charles Lee , Alan Danzis , Jaqui Dey , Simone , Richard , Jordan Hoffman , Alexis Brown , Anthony Ha , Matt Adams , Jeremiah Tolbert and everybody else who suggest stuff !
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