Star Trek: Starfleet Academy adds a fourth member to Star Trek’s elite pantheon of female Captains who have led their own Star Trek TV series. As Star Trek celebrates its 60th anniversary, it’s been a long road from how there were no female starship Captains seen in Star Trek: The Original Series.
The first female Captain seen on-screen was in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Madge Sinclair played the Captain of the USS Saratoga, and her unnamed Starfleet Officer also doubled as the first Black female Captain in Star Trek. Sinclair would return as Captain Silva La Forge, the mother of Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
However, because Star Trek: Enterprise was a 22nd-century-set prequel, the first canonical female starship Captain in Star Trek‘s timeline was Captain Erika Hernandez (Ada Maris). Hernandez was Captain of the NX-02 Columbia, the starship that immediately followed Captain Jonathan Archer’s (Scott Bakula) NX-01 Enterprise.
Honorable mention also goes to Captain Gwyndala (Ella Purnell), who was named the Captain of the USS Prodigy at the end of Star Trek: Prodigy season 2. Sadly, since Netflix did not order more Star Trek: Prodigy, Gwyndala only warped to unseen adventures and didn’t actually get to lead her own series in Star Trek: Prodigy season 3.
Captain Kathryn Janeway
Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Prodigy
Nearing its 30th anniversary in the mid-1990s, Star Trek was finally ready for a female Captain to lead a Star Trek TV series. Following the quick departure of the original Janeway actress, Geneviève Bujold, Kate Mulgrew took command of Star Trek: Voyager as Captain Kathryn Janeway and changed Star Trek forever.
Captain Janeway’s mission in Star Trek: Voyager was a burden that would have broken other Starfleet Captains. With the USS Voyager stranded 70,000 light-years from Earth, Captain Janeway relied on her intelligence, sound judgment, daring, and she broke rules when necessary to escape the Delta Quadrant and return home in only seven years.
The influence and importance of Captain Janeway to Star Trek cannot be quantified.
The influence and importance of Captain Janeway to Star Trek cannot be quantified. Janeway and Mulgrew personally created a new generation of female Star Trek fans and inspired many to pursue careers in STEM. Admiral Janeway’s story continued in Star Trek: Prodigy, and there are hints that Kate Mulgrew may not be done playing Janeway yet.
Captain Carol Freeman
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Star Trek: Lower Decks proved that Star Trek could flourish in an animated half-hour comedy format, but creator Mike McMahan’s magnum opus also low-key made history by introducing the second female starship Captain to lead her own Star Trek series – and the first Black female Captain to do the same – Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis).
Star Trek: Lower Decks debuted in August 2020, and Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) wasn’t promoted to Captain until the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 3 in January 2021.
As the commanding officer of the USS Cerritos, Captain Freeman believed in her little California-class starship-that-could when the rest of Starfleet doubted them. Freeman was dedicated to proving the worth of the Cerritos and her crew, while her patience was constantly tested by the insubordination of her daughter, Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome).
By the end of Star Trek: Lower Decks, Captain Freeman led the USS Cerritos to save the multiverse, and her starship’s crew received the accolades they long deserved. Freeman left her beloved starship to lead Starfleet’s new mission to guard a multiversal portal and explore the infinite frontiers of Star Trek’s alternate realities.
Captain Michael Burnham
Star Trek: Discovery
Without Captain Michael Burnham and Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek on Paramount+ wouldn’t exist. Leading the USS Discovery, the compassionate and genius-level Burnham was a relentlessly driven action hero who saved the galaxy in every season of Star Trek: Discovery.
At first, becoming a starship Captain seemed impossibly out of reach for Michael Burnham, who Star Trek: Discovery introduced as Starfleet’s first mutineer. Regaining her rank and belief in Starfleet’s virtues, Commander Burnham’s unbridled heroism made her promotion to Captain of the USS Discovery at the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 3 inevitable and undeniable.
Like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), the first Black Captain to lead a Star Trek TV series, it took Michael Burnham three seasons to receive her promotion to Captain.
Captain Michael Burnham was a revolutionary figure, as Star Trek: Discovery downplayed the starship’s ensemble crew to singularly focus on Burnham as the show’s lead character. Star Trek: Discovery’s ending showed that Michael’s success continued as a wife, mother, and a Starfleet Admiral, with Burnham eventually releasing the sentient USS Discovery to its ultimate destiny.
Captain Nahla Ake
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy introduces the latest Captain to join the elite list of female Captains to lead their own Star Trek series, but with an extra magnitude: Captain Nahle Ake is embodied by Holly Hunter, who is also the first Best Actress Academy Award winner to headline her own Star Trek series.
In January 2025, Michelle Yeoh became the first Best Actress Academy Award winner to star in her own Star Trek feature film, Star Trek: Section 31, which was also the first Star Trek movie made-for-streaming on Paramount+.
Along with commanding the USS Athena, Captain Ake is also the Chancellor of Starfleet Academy. The USS Athena also doubles as Starfleet Academy’s San Francisco campus, with Ake’s starship capable of launching back into space whenever lessons require it, allowing Starfleet Academy’s cadets to receive hands-on training.
Captain Ake is a 422-year-old Lanthanite, and her wisdom, experience, and compassion towards nurturing young minds establish her as the ideal leader for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Academy Award winner Holly Hunter makes Star Trek‘s list of female Captains to lead their own Star Trek series even more history-making and elite.
