10 Worst Ever Captains In Star Trek

Though only seen in a photograph in Broken Pieces, Captain Alonzo Vandermeer commanded the USS Ibn Majid, Cristóbal Rios's previous posting. When the ship encountered a pair of androids in the Vayt Sector, Vandermeer was ordered to destroy them immediately by Commodore Oh, or face the destruction of the Ibn Majid with all hands.

Not only did Vandermeer comply, but he then took his own life afterwards - all of this without a word of explanation to his crew. The confusion and terror that tore through the ship is embodied in Rios, who left the service, unable to reconcile with what he had seen.

History loves to judge the actions of those who can't defend themselves, but it is rather difficult to fathom Vandermeer not taking a bare second to question this order of execution. If it affected him so deeply that he felt suicide was his only course of action, then this belies Rios's belief that Vandermeer hid behind the pair's android nature to justify his actions. 

Vandermeer, sadly, now has the legacy of a man in such a rush to obey orders that he couldn't stop to think about these orders. This cost him his life, the lives of Beautiful Flower and Jada, and almost cost the sanity of Rios as well.