History Main / TheCaptain

*** Lee Adama, call sign "Apollo", was the re-imagining of ''Captain'' Apollo from the original ''Galactica'' series. So I guess that makes him a Captain-once-removed.

*** The quarians of the Migrant Fleet do call Shepard ''Captain'' even if Shepard insists that s/he is a Commander, the reason being that s/he is in command of a ship and is responsible for the lives of its crew. It's a cultural thing.

They will almost always hold said actual rank, even if their performance would allow them to move up the chain of command. (Also true in non-naval branches of the armed forces (Army, Marines, etc.), since Captain is the highest of the Company Grade ranks, i.e. the officer ranks that participate in actual combat. From Major onward, officer ranks are more administrative.) This is sometimes confused by the naval convention that anyone in command of a given ship is referred to as "captain", no matter their rank (for most vessels, they're [[CommandingCoolness Commanders]]) - and all other "captains" receive a promotion for the duration of their stay. HoratioHornblower becomes a captain while still a Midshipman.

* Being about pirates, ''OnePiece'' has a lot of them. Hero Captain Monkey D. Luffy deserves special mention for appearing to be a complete IdiotHero and LeeroyJenkins, but eventually shows that he is actually a talented and inspiring leader with a very firm grasp on whether or not he and his crew can win a battle. His authority over his team is also absolute, regardless of his bouts of idiocy - when you have a loyal swordsman like Roronoa Zoro to ensure that his authority is respected, well, it's a good thing ThePowerOfFriendship is the more prominent motivation.

* William McTavish of the ''SS Longhope'' in {{Literature/Passage To November}}, a 40-ish, decorated veteran of the Royal Navy who came to America at the request of Cleveland Transport to run their sole "salty."

** Having survived many a storm on the open seas, it takes a lot to scare him. But the Great Lakes are prone to sudden gales, particularly in the autumn-- the worst being called the November Witch, the sort of gale so vicious they're known to rip steel hulls to shreds and take entire ships to the bottom of the lake. His greatest fear is realized in November 1913 when the worst storm ever to strike the Great Lakes tears a swath of destruction from Duluth to Buffalo. Before it's over, more than 20 ships will have been forever lost and nearly 300 souls will have perished [[spoiler: including most of the ''Longhope's'' crew]].

*** In ''Countdown'', Data (BackFromTheDead), is shown to succeed Picard as TheCaptain of the Enterprise.

** In the MirrorUniverse double elisode "In a Mirror, Darkly", Archer is a Commander to Captain Forrest (Admiral in "our" 'verse). He leads a mutity and takes command by force. While crewmembers loyal to Forrest end up freeing Forrest, who takes the ship back from Archer, Forrest is later killed (along with the ISS ''Enterprise''), while Archer becomes captain of the USS ''Defiant''. It's only a temporary step, though, as his goal is not the captain's chair but TheEmperor's throne.

** John Sheridan, second through fourth seasons - [[spoiler:he has to resign at the end of the fourth season and becomes the President of the new Interstellar Alliance instead.]])

* Lt Commander/Commander Mike Flynn of the [[SeaPatrol HMS Hammersley]].

* The makers of the TV drama ''Series/{{Colditz}}'' wrote the token Royal Navy officer, Lt. Dick Player, as an amalgam of several famous, or perhaps notorious, British submarine commanders who saw German captivity. In reality, there is a story of submariner Tommy Catlow geting onto the roof and disregarding an artillery barrage from the nearby Americans, so as to set out a large Union Jack where it could be seen so as to advise the Yanks they were approaching a PoW camp.

* Lieutenant JohnFKennedy, commander of PT-109.

* Lieutenant-Commander Malcolm Wanklyn VC DSO**, British submarine ace, who sank a truly massive amount of shipping in the dangerous, shallow and exposed waters of the Mediterranean as the CO of HMS Upholder. See the other wiki: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_David_Wanklyn]].

** Also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Launders Lieutenant James Launders DSO* DSC*]] commanding His Majesty's Submarine ''Venturer''. Not only did he sink the ''U-864'', he did so using a [[ImprobableAimingSkills three dimensional firing solution he worked out on paper,]] as both sublieutenant-marines were submerged at the time, the only time in history such an attack was ever made.
** Lieutenant-Commander Tommy Catlow, who escaped from a pre-war submarine disaster (HMS Thetes sank with a full crew in the Mersey Estuary in 1937. Catlow, then a junior officer, tested an untried and unreliable escape system, and got out to deliver messages to the rescue team). He spent the early part of his war sinking Axis shipping in the Med. Captured by the Italians, he attempted escape so frequently that he was handed over to the Germans and incarcerated at Colditz. At war's end, he was on the short-list for a place in the famous glider... the makers of the TV drama ''Colditz'' wrote him in as the token Royal Navy officer, Lt. Dick Player.

** Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson, the first commanding officer of the first nuclear submarine the USS Nautilus.
** Commander William R. Anderson, who took the Nautilus on its famous voyage under the North Pole in 1958.

* Captain Isaac Hull of the USS ''Constitution''. During the War of 1812, the ''Constitution'' was confronted by the British ship HMS ''Gurriere''. The ''Constitution'' warred the other ship to scraps, an action that served notice that Britain's feared Navy now had a contender.

* Lieutenant Commander Earnest E Evans captain of the USS ''Johnston'' of Taffy 3. This completely badass [[BadassNative half Cherokee]] who commanded the USS ''Johnston'' during the [[DavidVersusGoliath Battle Off Samar]]. When the Japanese fleet during the Battle off Samar was first sighted, Evans did not hesitate and his ship [[LeeroyJenkins immediately]] headed directly towards the far superior enemy. He is reported to have told his crew over the ship's intercom: "A large Japanese fleet has been contacted. They are fifteen miles away and headed in our direction. They are believed to have [[BigBad four battleships]], eight cruisers, and a number of destroyers. This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can." In his attack run he managed to take out of the battle two Japanese heavy cruisers in moments. While he abandoned ship with the rest of the crew when the ''Johnston'' sank, he was not rescued. Maybe his [[BrassBalls brass balls]] took him to the ocean floor.

* ''Film/GalaxyQuest'' plays it straight in a ShowWithinAShow of the same name with Commander Peter Quincy Taggart of the NSEA ''Protector'' (an obvious {{Expy}} of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Kirk]]). The film, however, is about the RealLife actors playing them. TimAllen's character Jason Nesmith, the actor playing Taggart on the show, definitely does ''not'' qualify as this trope, although he tries to be, when a bunch of naive aliens show up expecting Nesmith to be their hero Taggart (they have no concept of fiction and assume all Earth transmissions are documentaries).

** Leonard fits the role better when it comes to the group's general dynamics, with even Sheldon equating him to Kirk at least once.

* The Imperial Navy in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' obviously has captains, but it also has the even more awesome title of Lord-Captain (also sometimes known as flag captain, but that doesn't sound quite as cool), which is reserved for the captain in command of a detachment of vessels. It is a title so awesome even in-universe, that most Rogue Traders refer themselves as lord-captain despite most of them not qualifying on the title(while large Rogue Trader dynasties do have fleets of ships, most of the time they operate independently), and technically since it's a rank in the Navy, which Rogue Traders aren't part of, they wouldn't be able to use it even them. [[{{ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney}} Not that any of them gives a damn]].

** Speaking of airships, one of the coolest Captains in history was Hugo Eckener, commander of the ''Graf Zeppelin,'' the Zeppelin that ''invented'' the CoolAirship trope. Captain Eckener himself was a [[RenaissanceMan reporter, editor, airship captain, doctor of psychology, president of the Zeppelin Company, engineer, political rival and bitter enemy of Adolph Hitler, explorer and international diplomat.]] His airship was the most successful airship of '''all time,''' having circumnavigated the globe faster than any airplane before it, went on voyages and expeditions to the far corners of the world, explored unknown regions of the North Pole, and eventually became the first transatlantic airliner ever, flying from Rio to Berlin, transporting tens of thousands of passengers in luxury, speed and perfect safety. It served for over a decade and flew ''over a million miles.'' Captain Eckener's ''Graf Zeppelin'' also happened to be... A mere prototype, which had never been designed to do half of those things.

* In ''CaptainScarlet'', the main character is a captain, but The Captain is Colonel White.

*** The Doctor is technically the captain of the TARDIS, though he's never referred to as such, and is usually also the entire crew.

** The Doctor is technically the captain of the TARDIS, though he's never referred to as such, and is usually also the entire crew.

** You hardly need to be a Captain Badass when the ship you're sailing, despite being about as seaworthy as a haystack, is immune to the enemy's guns and massively outmatches her in firepower; that goes double when the other ship is overdue for refit and repairs. Hull never commanded in battle again.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', deciding THE captain wasn't good enough, has 13 of them in the court guards alone (and named the Gotei 13 accordingly). However, even amongst these elite, 1st division captain Yamamoto stands out. He's in charge of the rest, he's been there for a thousand years because no shinigami stronger than him has been born in that time. On top of that, the Gotei 13 (while including the Covert Ops, because the 2nd division captain is also the Covert Ops supreme commander) excludes the mysterious Kidou Corps and the even more mysterious Division 0 (the Royal Guard) - both of which almost nothing is known about.

** Will Riker temporarily took the rank and position of captain in the two-part episode "The Best of Both Worlds", and would later permanently move on and become The Captain of the USS ''Titan'' at the end of ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''.

* Captains Murrell (destroyer escort) and Von Stolberg (U-boat), ''The Enemy Below''.

* Jack Aubrey of the Aubrey-Maturin series, as well as many other main characters.

* The captain in RickCook's ''LimboSystem'' finds it disconcerting to deal with making first contact when he is completely out of touch with any superiors. Another character urges him to remember that he is the "master under God" of the ship, and suggests that he consider how captains of old acted with such authority.

* OlderThanRadio: ''20,000 Leagues Under The Sea'' (1870) has the unforgettable Captain Nemo. However, this trope is deconstructed with Nemo: He is so charismatic a captain that his crew doesn't notice that he is going a VillanousBreakdown and placed the Nautilus in the Maelstrom.

* Although his official rank is Lt. Commander, Matthew Reddy is the commanding officer of the USS ''Walker'' in Taylor Anderson's ''Destroyermen'' series. Even after he becomes effectively an admiral, with other captains and at least one admiral under his authority, he objects to being called by any rank higher than "captain."

* Captain Francis Crozier, captain of Terror, in Creator/DanSimmons' ''The Terror.'' Captain Sir John Franklin is also present as a much less badass version of the trope.

* the makers of the TV drama ''Colditz'' wrote the token Royal Navy officer, Lt. Dick Player, as an amalgam of several famous, or perhaps notorious, British submarine commanders who saw German captivity. In reality, there is a story of submariner Tommy Catlow geting onto the roof and disregarding an artillery barrage from the nearby Americans, so as to set out a large Union Jack where it could be seen so as to advise the Yanks they were approaching a PoW camp.

* Not sure if this counts, but Captain Falcon from ''F-Zero'' fights like a [[OneManArmy few dozen people in one]] and apparently has the title of Captain because he was once a Captain in the Galaxy Police, which means he actually had men at his disposal, once.

* [[KaizokuSentaiGoukaiger Captain Marvelous]]

* Captain John Brannigan, in the ''RevelationSpace'' series by AlastairReynolds. In addition to being over 700 years old, Captain Brannigan is a mostly cybernetic member of the Ultranauts, a cybernized interstellar space-faring faction. Near the end of ''Revelation Space'', [[spoiler:Captain Brannigan, who has a variant of the Melding Plague (a virus that distorts nanotech machinery, and turns it malignant), is unfrozen, and his nanotech virus takes over the ship, rendering the Captain also his own Cool Ship.]] In Absolution Gap, [[spoiler: he uses as a sort of avatar a 21st-century mechanical spacesuit, and kills invaders of himself by turning walls into spikes, and setting up similar traps.]]

* Captain Darien Lambert of the Fugitive Retrieval Section in ''TimeTrax''.
** It appears to be a police rank, although modern police captains don't normally go into the field.

** Also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Launders Lieutenant James Launders DSO* DSC*]] commanding His Majesty's Submarine ''Venturer''. Not only did he sink the ''U-864'', he did so using a [[Improbablecommander AimingSkills three dimensional firing solution he worked out on paper,]] as both sublieutenant-marines were submerged at the time, the only time in history such an attack was ever made.

* Going to an age OlderThanRadio gives us one of the greatest in ''20,000 Leagues Under The Sea'', and its unforgettable Captain Nemo. However, this trope is deconstructed with Nemo: He is so charismatic a captain that his crew doesn't notice that he is going a VillanousBreakdown and placed the Nautilus in the Maelstrom.

* Captain Mallory, played by GregoryPeck, in ''TheGunsOfNavarone''.

* The unnoficial in-field leader of a team is called a captain. The role is frequently honorary, but most times given to TheAce or TheSmartGuy of the team. In some cases the captain may be given the responsibility of interacting with game officials regarding application and interpretation of the rules.