10 Worst Ever Captains In Star Trek
1. Captain J. T. Esteban - USS Grissom
Captain J. T. Esteban was the quintessential 'by the book' commander of the USS Grissom. Assigned to study the newly created Genesis Planet, he was a man so utterly suited to desk work that it is a wonder he ever achieved the rank of captain at all. Perhaps he would be the poster child for 'dot every I and cross every T' - as it is clear he never had an original thought in his head.
When Saavik and David Marcus discover a life-sign on the planet, they immediately request that the Grissom beam it up. Esteban flatly refuses, citing Starfleet regulations preventing him from doing so. To be fair - it is less that he refused to beam the potentially hostile life-form aboard that stands against him but rather the fact he couldn't see passed the book he clung to so dearly.
His actions would probably feed debate for some time to come - did he, technically, do anything wrong on the Grissom's final voyage? Was he merely a man who was less an individual and more an amalgamation of regulations stuffed into a Starfleet uniform?
Whatever the more accurate label, he may end up a footnote in history as the captain who didn't even order his shields raised when a Klingon Bird-of-Prey de-cloaked directly to aft.