Star Trek: Every First Officer Ranked

Serving as first officer of a star ship puts a person in the unenviable position of representing the crew to the Captain, while also representing the Captain to the crew. It's not always shown on screen in Star Trek, but there seems to be a lot of adminstration to the job as well.

There are crew rotations to plan, service reviews and ship readiness reports to draft. Yet, with all that said, there also seems to be a lot of sitting down beside the Captain. Hard then to get through the admin when there isn't even a desk to lean on.

Here, we break down the rankings of all of the First Officers across the franchise. It is likely that enjoyment of the each iteration will come from enjoyment of that show as a whole but there may be a few surprises in this list. Feel free to sound off in the comment section with your opinions. For now, let's see who the real Number One is...

Honourable Mention: Star Trek Picard: Number One (Deniro)

Sure, it's technically a cheat but he's the best boy!

While she's a compelling character once she arrives on Discovery, Michael Burnham, did, as first office of the Shenzhou, get her Captain killed (and eaten, though in fairness, she didn't know about that).

Burnham is a good example of how strong characters do not always make strong leaders. But, she is also a good example of how a character can grow over time. In the other entries in the franchise, for the most the characters arrive in the roles that they are assigned to throughout the series sun. Riker was first officer from the pilot and Chakotay assumes the role going into the series proper.

Burnham's journey is one told in reverse. She begins the show as a first officer but makes such a calamitous error that she is given a court martial, stripped of rank and jailed. By the end of the second season, she may have all the characteristics needed to assume the role again but, for the moment, she comes in at the bottom of this list.