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I’m curious as to how many, if any, episodes of the original five broadcast Trek series did not include a single appearance by that show’s lead actor, the Captain for that particular show. I.E., TOS episodes in which Kirk does not appear, TNG episodes without Picard (none), DS9 sans Sisko, Voyager episodes without Janeway, or Enterprise episodes without Archer.

Are there any? If so, which ones?

LessPop_MoreFizz
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    as you ask about the original five series it's not an answer, but Discovery has two episodes without Saru when he was acting captain, and two without Lorca (before a replacement had been officially appointed). Obviously neither was the main character of the series though, which is Michael. Additionally, the first two episodes of Picard lack Rios who is captain of La Sirena (because the ship had not yet been introduced), but again Rios is not the main character of the show who is obviously Picard – Tristan Aug 12 '22 at 10:17
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    And then there is also Lower Decks, where the captain is a relatively unimportant character. LD is canon, if you want it or not :). Although the voice actress Dawnn Lewis is credited for every single episode, according to her IMDB page. – Philipp Aug 12 '22 at 13:14
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    @Tristan - Technically the entire second season of Picard doesn't have Picard in it – Valorum Aug 12 '22 at 18:17
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    @Tristan yeah, Disco/Lower Decks/Picard have a fundamentally different format in many ways which make this question less interesting w/r/t those shows, hence their not being included in my question. I rather like the new stuff it’s just… not apples to apples for the purposes of this curiosity of mine. – LessPop_MoreFizz Aug 12 '22 at 18:51
  • @Valorum For quite similar reasons every episode following chronologically from the first time a captain used a transporter also doesn't have that captain in it. :D – Lexible Aug 27 '22 at 15:36

7 Answers7

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For future reference, Memory Alpha has categories that can help with this kind of query; they're grouped together as "Regular cast non-appearances".

Using the resources there, it seems there are no episodes of the first five live-action Star Trek series where the captain (or equivalent) does not appear:

  • William Shatner appears as Kirk in all episodes of TOS. ("The Cage" is an exception, but Kirk wasn’t captain of the ship during the events of that episode, and Captain Pike does appear.)
  • Patrick Stewart appears as Picard in all episodes of TNG.
  • Avery Brooks appears as Sisko in all episodes of DS9.
  • Kate Mulgrew appears as Janeway in all episodes of Voyager.
  • Scott Bakula appears as Archer in all episodes of Enterprise.

There are instances of many other major cast members not appearing, but not the captains. Note that those lists do mention episodes in which characters only appear off-screen (i.e. heard dialogue only) or in an unusually brief capacity (in a dream etc), so it would also seem there are no episodes where the captains only make appearances of those kinds, either.

Guybrush McKenzie
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    I would agree that The Cage doesn't count as a non-appearance - not because it wasn't broadcast initially but because Jeffrey Hunter appeared as Captain Pike. The fact that William Shatner wasn't in it is irrelevant. – GordonD Aug 12 '22 at 09:26
  • I've submitted an edit including the more recent shows. In particular Discovery and Picard do offer instances of the commanding officer or captain of the ship being absent for some episodes, but they may still not qualify as examples for the purposes of the question (given the reference to the show's lead actor in the question) – Tristan Aug 12 '22 at 10:03
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    @Tristan - Note that the question only asked about "the original five broadcast Trek series", i.e. TOS to Enterprise. – LogicDictates Aug 12 '22 at 10:12
  • gah, my tendency to skim strikes again. Please ignore my submitted edit then. I will add the info as a comment to the question as it is not an answer, but just a relevant note – Tristan Aug 12 '22 at 10:14
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    @Tristan - I did think of adding the other shows, since I was already looking at the lists, but decided not to since the bounds of the question were pretty clear. It’s “left as an exercise for the reader”, as it were. – Guybrush McKenzie Aug 12 '22 at 11:52
  • @GordonD thanks for that - I agree. I’ve updated the reasoning accordingly. – Guybrush McKenzie Aug 12 '22 at 11:57
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    It's also arguable whether The Cage even counts as an episode, since it was never broadcast. Parts of it were edited into The Menagerie. – Barmar Aug 12 '22 at 13:18
  • So tl;dr: none! – Organic Marble Aug 12 '22 at 13:46
  • If you're counting the episode where Kirk wasn't captain, you'd also have to count the episodes where Picard becomes Locutus. Also, Sisko wasn't a captain for the first few seasons, only a commander, but that's a technicality. – Darrel Hoffman Aug 12 '22 at 13:49
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    @DarrelHoffman that’s what I meant by “or equivalent”. ;) – Guybrush McKenzie Aug 12 '22 at 13:57
  • So you're saying there's a way to produce a compilation video where you show a clip from every episode that contains that series' captain? Pet project anyone? – Wyck Aug 12 '22 at 19:11
  • @Wyck: I seriously do not hope that there will be a necessity for this any time soon, but note that on Ex Astris Scientia, a page with one photo of each episode/movie a character appeared in is typically posted once one of the regular/semi-regular actors has passed away. That comes close to your "clip show". – O. R. Mapper Aug 13 '22 at 23:01
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    @DarrelHoffman: "you'd also have to count the episodes where Picard becomes Locutus" - I'm not sure whether I'm getting the comment right, but note that the question also mentions "lead actor" as a description of what the OP is after. Thus, even in episodes where such a "lead actor", who would usually play the commanding officer in the show, is temporarily incapacitated, they would still the show's lead actor, so-to-speak "the captain of the show" from an out-of-universe perspective. – O. R. Mapper Aug 13 '22 at 23:04
  • Locutus is Picard as far as I’m concerned. Same for any Mirror-universe equivalents that show up. We’re not talking about Jeffrey Combs playing both Weyoun and Brunt here, we’re talking about one character that might have multiple ‘aspects’ or variants within a series. (Or, to return to the metaphor, Jeffrey Combs playing all of the many Weyouns) – LessPop_MoreFizz Aug 16 '22 at 12:49
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    @LessPop_MoreFizz: I would not agree with that intepretation at all. But I would claim that the idea of "lead actor" doesn't change just because Stewart plays Locutus or someone is playing their mirror-universe equivalent for an episode. The question is mentioning captains merely as a way to define which is the "lead actor" and that doesn't need to be precisely accurate in every episode. Put another way, the "show's captain" doesn't have to be the captain in every single episode to still be the show's captain. – ThePopMachine Aug 19 '22 at 15:37
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William Shatner as Kirk did not appear in the animated episode, The Slaver Weapon. Its the only time in the first block of Star Trek history (not including the new shows) where the Captain did not appear.

Scott Fraser
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    Hi, welcome to SF&F. Please note that the question was specifically about ST:TOS, ST:TNG, ST:DS9, ST:VOY, and ST:ENT, so ST:TAS isn't really relevant. – DavidW Aug 12 '22 at 16:08
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    @DavidW - it's still an interesting and useful fact and has my +1 – Valorum Aug 12 '22 at 16:34
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    The question asks about the first five broadcast series, which includes TAS and not ENT. – Plutor Aug 12 '22 at 19:51
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    That’s my own fault for forgetting the Animated Series exists. Nonetheless this is a good and interesting answer. +1. – LessPop_MoreFizz Aug 12 '22 at 22:41
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If you can accept The Animated Series as a continuation of TOS, then Kirk did not appear at all in TAS: The Slaver Weapon.

There are two episodes where the captain only makes a very brief appearance:

Valorum
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Pete
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Shatner is credited in all 79 episodes of The Original Series, but not in The Cage, so your call on that one. Obviously, Kirk was in Menagerie 1 & 2, the retelling of The Cage, broadcast in November of 1966. The Cage was not broadcast during the show's initial run (IMDB seems to be wrong on this), running on TV first in 1988.

Stewart is credited in all 176 episodes The Next Generation.

Brooks is credited in all 173 episodes of Deep Space Nine.

Mulgrew is credited in all 168 episodes of Voyager.

Bakula is credited in all 97 episodes of Enterprise.

According to IMDb.com, accessed 08/11/22.

Also, Memory-Alpha.fandom.com "The Cage"

JohnHunt
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    This isn’t definitive. Leading actors are often credited on all shows of a series even if they don’t appear in a particular episode. – Dale M Aug 12 '22 at 03:02
  • @ Dale M; I agree, which is why I deliberately wrote "credited". But it does establish "canon" in a sense, and needs to be addressed, I think, – JohnHunt Aug 13 '22 at 06:47
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As close as any episode of the live-action broadcast shows come is TNG’s Thine Own Self, where Picard’s only dialogue is one short line. Others have covered The Animated Series.

If you do not consider Mirror Universe doppelgängers impersonating the real captain to count, a large part of season 1 of Discovery qualifies. An interesting judgment call is “The War Without, the War Within.”

Captain Gabriel Lorca (who had secretly been an impersonator for the whole season) was dead, and for most of the episode, Admiral Amanda Cromwell is the commanding officer. In the final scene, she names Phillippa Georgiou the new captain of the Discovery. But, that is really her Mirror Universe counterpart, the Empress of the Terran Empire, in disguise. But but, Admiral Cromwell knew that when she put her in command.

In the Voyager episode “Living Witness,” Captain Janeway only appears as a hologram

Major spoiler: whose portrayal is not entirely accurate.

The Enterprise two-parter “In a Mirror, Darkly” might also qualify on technicalities, if you squint hard enough.

The Mirror-Universe version of Archer (a different person in a different universe) is the main character of these episodes, we also see Captain Forrest of the ISS Enterprise, and Archer does take over the ship and start calling himself “Captain Archer,” but this is a hoax and he is not the lawful Captain.

Another amusing possible technicality inspired by a comment is “Farewell,” the season 2 finale of Picard.

The new Borg Queen took La Sirena and flew off with it in the previous episode, so neither Jean-Luc Picard nor Cristóbal Rios is the commanding officer of any ship any longer. Nor does Jean-Luc Picard hold the rank of Captain. He is either an Admiral, a General, or an undocumented immigrant. When Q snaps his fingers again, most of the time-travelers reappear on the bridge of the USS Stargazer, but not its captain, Rios, who stays behind. Admiral Picard does not take over as commanding officer of the starship he is on, but picks someone else to.

Since I don’t see any mention of them yet, Lower Decks and Prodigy both have the (Acting) Captain appearing in every episode. Not every episode of Short Treks is set on a starship with a captain.

Davislor
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    If we're going to get picky, the entire 2nd season of ST:Picard has a robot version of Picard running around pretending to be the original – Valorum Aug 13 '22 at 22:05
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    @Valorum Even if you consider them two different characters, that’s another situation like Pike/Kirk in TOS or Georgiou/Lorca/Pike in Discovery. The series would just have different captains in different seasons, who both appear in each episode of that season. – Davislor Aug 13 '22 at 22:08
  • @Valorum But, another interesting technicality there is—I think I will edit that in. – Davislor Aug 13 '22 at 22:09
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    I laughed out loud at "not entirely accurate" -- Yeah, their Janeway wears gloves. The real Janeway doesn't wear gloves! Unbelievable oversight. – apsillers Aug 18 '22 at 17:11
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Some interesting pedantic edge cases:

  • The finale of Enterprise "These are the Voyages..." only has a holographic representation of Archer, as part of the holodeck simulation run by Riker. (Note this isn't a surprise twist or anything: the episode is explicitly framed as a TNG-era story that includes an ENT holodeck sim.)

  • "In a Mirror, Darkly" follows a mirror-universe Enterprise; the main-universe's Archer is referenced explicitly when mirror-Archer learns about him through Starfleet records, but the character does not appear. (The captain of mirror-Enterprise does appear throughout, though. Whether you count this as an "appearance by the captain of the show's primary vessel" is a matter of whether you think the alternative-intro'd mirror-Enterprise show itself is still a show about main-Enterprise or mirror-Enterprise.)

  • Honorable mention to Voyager's "Course: Oblivion" which...

    follows a duplicate Voyager, made of decaying exotic matter, trying to find the real Voyager. (Not a proper answer, however, because the real Janeway does make a very brief final appearance.)

apsillers
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Another pedantic edge case. The first 71 episodes of Deep Space 9, from S01E01: Emissary to S03E25: Facets do not technically feature the show’s main captain. Benjamin Sisko was introduced with the rank of Commander and held this rank until S03E26: The Adversary where he was at last promoted to Captain, a rank he maintained until the end of the series.

Princess Ada
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