Star Trek: EVERY Chief Of Security Ranked From WORST To BEST
4. Malcolm Reed - Enterprise NX-01
The officer who began it all, it's fair to say that Reed ended up having to learn on the job. Quickly. And that resilience and versatility were exactly what the Enterprise NX-01 needed. As the senior armory officer, Reed proved to be cool, calm and collected in a crisis. His tactical mind was always a step ahead, even with the ship's limited capability when compared to future generations.
Of course, no security lead's backstory is complete without a suitably dark and gritty chapter. Reed's came courtesy of his past with the notorious Section 31. But the less said about their tomfoolery, the better. Suffice to say, he saw the error of his ways and moved swiftly on.
Reed's innate sense of decorum may well have been shaped by his family's dedication to naval service. It was only his fear of water that saw him join Starfleet instead, but the Royal Navy's loss was definitely Captain Archer's gain. Reed always seemed to have just the right amount of cynicism to keep his ship and crew safe, but without tipping over into outright aggression.
Time and again he proved equally accomplished in maintaining and improving the ship's systems; exactly the hands-on approach Enterprise needed. Although when radiation spurred him into overdrive to design a whole new tactical alert protocol, we barely noticed the difference...that's just how focused Reed was when it came to his work.
And to think, he didn't even get a fully working set of phaser cannons until halfway through Season 1. Impressive.