Star Trek: 10 Times Starfleet Officers Crossed The Line

6. Tim Waters Didn't Know When To Quit - Valiant

Cadet-turned-Captain Tim Waters may have seemed like the perfect candidate for command but his actions aboard the USS Valiant put paid to that. He rose to the big chair in the heat of battle and, for a time, kept his ship of cadets safe while behind enemy lines. 

His sense of duty was gradually clouded by a rising need for stimulants, a need to prove himself, and an inability to accept defeat. When seemingly given the opportunity to deal a devastating blow to the Dominion, he gave an order that should never have materialised.

He orders the USS Valiant, a Defiant-class vessel of limited size, to attack a Dominion Battlecruiser - a ship described as twice the size of a Galaxy-class starship, and five times as powerful. 

There is a time for seeking glory, or proving oneself, but that wasn't it. Waters not only gets himself killed, but all but one of his crew as well. Only Chief Petty Officer Collins, along with Jake Sisko and Nog, escape the doomed ship. As Nog sadly reflects after being rescued:

He may have been a hero. He may even have been a great man. But in the end, he was a bad captain.

For Waters, and for his crew, there was no opportunity to learn from this decision. At least, nearly a millennium later, several of the Valiant's crew's names would adorn a commemorative wall at Starfleet Academy.