10 Star Trek Captains Who Broke The Rules
7. Donald Tracey
As often is the case with captains who break their oaths, Donald Tracey started out from a duty of care. The crew of the Exeter were infected with a deadly disease that, at least in his mind, was curable via the nearby planet's atmosphere.
While he discovered that the Cohms did not, in fact, find a cure via their environment, Tracey did find a people to rule over. With his crew dead, he was unburdened, and set about establishing himself as a warlord on the planet.
The arrival of Captain Kirk and company derailed his plans, and displayed his insanity, which was too much for the captain to bear. His little stint of rule breaking had also further aided in prolonging a local conflict, something expressly forbidden by the Federation, in direct violation of the Prime Directive. There is, alas, no recourse for Tracey here.
He may have set out with the best of intentions, but his ambitions quickly overcame them. At the time of his death, he was a raving mad man, and will almost certainly be forever remembered as such.