10 Worst Ever Captains In Star Trek

The events that led to the death of Spock and the creation of the Genesis Planet reached a boiling point as Captain Clark Terrell commanded the USS Reliant. The ship was ordered to scout testing sites for Carol Marcus's Project Genesis, leading Terrell into the clutches of one Khan Noonian Singh. 

When the ship arrives in orbit of supposedly Ceti Alpha VI, Chekov tells him that there is life down there. Terrell opts to beam down, with Chekov - the first officer - to check. Though Terrell is not the only captain in the fleet to make the bizarre decision to send the two highest ranking officers down to an uncharted world, his actions have such immediate and dire consequences that it's difficult not to judge him too harshly.

He is directly responsible, however inadvertently, for Khan's escape. One small measure of mercy is that his crew aren't killed as punishment, though they are marooned on Ceti Alpha V. Terrell pays for his mistake with his life, so it will remain up to the judgement of history as to whether this was deserved or not.