Star Trek: Every Captain Ranked Worst To Best (2023)

In 2256, Michael Burnham was on track to become a captain, but her career was set back when she attempted a mutiny against her commanding officer, Philippa Georgiou, to fire preemptively on a Klingon ship. The battle following Burnham's mutiny led to a war with the Klingons, and left an undeniable stain on her service record.

She was, however, able to redeem herself throughout the first three seasons of Discovery by helping to end the war, defeating Lorca and Control, and solving the mystery of The Burn. These accomplishments, along with her role in retaking the ship from the Emerald Chain, resulted in Burnham becoming the captain of Discovery when Saru left for Kaminar at the end of the show's third season.

So far, we've only seen one season of Burnham as a captain, but she's already managed to save the Federation yet again by leading the mission to find Species 10-C and put a stop to their planet-consuming dark matter anomalies. This was one of the most sensitive diplomatic missions in human history, and Burnham performed it excellently, successfully convincing Species 10-C that humanoid life should be valued.

Burnham has only been the captain of Discovery for a short time, but she has already shown herself to be a skilled diplomat. She sometimes makes snap-decisions that don't work out, but these decisions are always grounded in her own sense of Vulcan logic.