Why Carol Freeman Is Really the Best Captain in Star Trek
The captain of the USS Cerritos isn't flashy like her predecessors -- and that's the point
Carol Freeman is the best starship captain in the history of televised Star Trek.
And yes, I'm well aware of exactly who preceded her in the franchise.
Yet even among the likes of James T Kirk (William Shatner and Paul Wesley), Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter and Anson Mount), and the others, the captain of the USS Cerritos stands out among Starfleet captains from the various TV series.
Here's why.
To be clear: the pantheon of starship captains who preceded Freeman — who is voiced by veteran actress Dawnn Lewis — is made up of truly great women and men, no exceptions.
But that's also the point.
Kirk, Picard and the rest are portrayed as exceptional captains, heroes among heroes, as it were. The Enterprise, after all, long has been the flagship of the Federation, which is — by definition — in a league of its own.
Yet from the first moments we meet her in the premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks, “Second Contact,” the entire raison d'etre for Freeman and her crew aboard the Cerritos is to perform the largely unnoticed and workaday jobs that actually keep Starfleet and the Federation going.
From the aforementioned second contact, to trade negotiations with the Karemma on Deep Space Nine, actually being the brains behind the diplomacy which ushers the Ferengi into the Federation and, of course, dealing with those pesky Pakleds on a seemingly endless basis, Carol Freeman is really what archetype of a Starfleet captain should be.
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She's really what I imagine what most captains of Starfleet’s ships of the line would be.
Freeman has the intelligence and heart, for instance, of Jean-Luc Picard but without the hidebound prickliness which, for example, afflicts Captain Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox).
Ben Sisko once was described as the the captain in Star Trek who was most like actual military personnel.
Yet I think that Carol Freeman surpasses even the Emissary.
She's quietly competent, let's her crew do their jobs and usually always focused on the success of whatever mission Starfleet hands her.
And she really tries to be the best mother she can be to one of her own subordinates, the often-errant Lt Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome).
All of this, I believe, makes Carol Freeman the indispensable captain. Sure, the glory might go to the heroes and legends like Kirk, Pike, and Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula), but it's clear that Federation wouldn't be able to run and keep its lights on without Freeman and the other captains like her.
And Dawnn Lewis portrays Freeman with many of the qualities she imbues in the character: heart, that quiet competence and devotion to the success of the mission: In this case, a quality Star Trek series.
“You got to see that she is shrewd. You got to see that she has a plan. You got to see she has a backbone,” Lewis, the voice of Captain Freeman, told SYFY WIRE. “And I don't care what anyone says, the Cerritos is the most important ship in Starfleet!”
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