Mutiny Mutiny was defined as an unlawful attempt by military personnel to seize or overthrow military authority . Mutiny refers specifically to any attempt by a starship ' s crew members to illegally take control of the vessel from its commanding officer . Historically , mutiny was considered to be one of the gravest offenses that a member of the military could commit . In the past , those accused of it faced a court martial , and if convicted , faced severe punishment , up to and including capital punishment ( though by the 22nd , 23rd , and 24th centuries , capital punishment had been abolished and thus was not a sentencing option for convicted mutineers ) . By the 24th century , acts of mutiny in Starfleet were considered nearly unimaginable and extremely rare . ( ; ) Notable mutinies . Earth history . In the late 18th century on Earth , the crew of the performed a mutiny against their captain , William Bligh . " Tom Paris compared the Krenim Annorax to Bligh , after he learned that the crew of the Krenim weapon ship wanted to end their hunt for the perfect timeline . " ( ) Garth of Izar . Fleet Captain Garth of Izar told Captain Kirk that following his learning of the techniques of cellular metamorphosis on Antos IV , the crew of the starship he commanded mutinied against him . Garth , who had gone insane , ordered the destruction of Antos IV , but the crew did not carry out his orders and relieved him of command . Garth was committed to a Federation rehabilitation colony on Elba II . ( ) The Battle of the Binary Stars . In 2256 , during a stand - off at the edge of Federation space between the and Klingon forces organized by T ' Kuvma , Commander Michael Burnham insisted that the " Shenzhou " should attack first in order to win the respect of the Klingons . When Captain Philippa Georgiou refused to accept Burnham ' s recommendation , Burnham incapacitated her with a Vulcan nerve pinch , locked weapons on the T ' Kuvma ' s sarcophagus vessel , and attempted to fire . She was belayed at the last moment by Captain Georgiou , who arrested Burnham . After the subsequent battle , Burnham was arrest ed and charged with dereliction of duty , assault ing a fellow officer , and mutiny . She pled guilty before a court martial and was sentenced to life imprisonment with total loss of rank . ( ) Six months after the Battle of the Binary Stars , Commander Ellen Landry called Burnham " Starfleet ' s first mutineer . " ( ) Mission to Qo ' noS . After discovering that the mirror planned to activate a hydro bomb in the volcanic systems of Qo ' noS – an action that would render the planet uninhabitable within weeks – Burnham contacted Vice Admiral Katrina Cornwell to threaten mutiny on the basis that Cornwell was abandoning Starfleet principles – the exact same mistake Burnham herself had made . The crew seconded the threat and subsequently agreed to force Georgiou to hand over the detonator to L ' Rell , who used the device to take leadership of the Empire and force an end to hostilities . ( ) The " Pegasus " incident . In 2358 , the , under the command of Erik Pressman , tested a phasing cloaking device . This highly secretive project was in violation of the Treaty of Algeron and was extremely dangerous to the ship ' s crew . This dangerous situation came to a head when an explosion in main engineering caused several casualties . Most of the " Pegasus " officers , including the first officer and chief engineer , initiated a mutiny against Pressman . William T . Riker was the only bridge officer to defend the captain , but a few other crew members joined Riker and Pressman from various sections of the ship . Outnumbered , Pressman fled the ship in an escape pod , along with Riker and seven other crew members who sided with him . The " Pegasus " apparently exploded moments after . The mutineers went down with the ship . The Starfleet Judge Advocate General later investigated the " Pegasus " incident , but the survivors withheld all information about the phasing cloaking device . The Starfleet Judge Advocate General was only able to conclude that there had been a mutiny aboard the " Pegasus " prior to its destruction and that the survivors were probably not telling the complete truth . Further investigation was recommended . However , due to the sensitive nature of the phasing cloaking device experiment , Starfleet Intelligence quickly classified the report . No follow - up was ever conducted . The truth was not revealed until 2370 , when the wreck of the still - intact " Pegasus " , along with the cloaking device , was discovered . Riker gave a complete account of what had happened 12 years earlier , and Pressman was arrested for violation of the treaty . ( ) The Telepathic Archive . The newly discovered Bajoran wormhole , which provided instant access to and from the Gamma Quadrant , inspired many exploration missions , but one Klingon expedition ended in tragic mutiny . Upon returning from the Gamma Quadrant , the cruiser was badly damaged and only its first officer survived . He was beam ed aboard Deep Space 9 shortly before his ship exploded , and although he died within moments , he managed to utter one word : " " Victory . " " Unknown to both the Klingons and the crew of Deep Space 9 , the cruiser had discovered a telepathic log from a long - dead civilization , and when the first officer was beamed aboard the station , he brought it with him . The same mutiny which had destroyed his ship became to manifest itself aboard the station as tensions between Major Kira Nerys and Commander Benjamin Sisko escalated to unusually high levels . Loyalties were split primarily along Federation and Bajoran lines , with Chief O ' Brien being Sisko ' s closest ally but Lieutenant Dax siding with Kira . The only members of the senior staff not involved were Constable Odo and Doctor Bashir ; while Odo was unaffected by the telepathic field , Bashir appeared to have been affected by someone who had been neutral or otherwise more interested in his own well being in the ancient civilization . As Odo realized what was going on and both Kira and O ' Brien courted him for his loyalty , he began to discover the cause of the mutiny as he pieced together damaged log entries from the Klingon ship . He and Bashir came up with a plan to remove the telepathic field , although Bashir was more interested in gaining a personal advantage than saving the other crew members . Odo used his favorable position among both sides to lure them both into a cargo bay , where he activated the program to remove the field . Everyone but Odo , including Bashir , appeared to suffer a massive headache when it was activated , and a purple energy field was released from their bodies . None of them remembered what had happened . Telling them to grab hold of something secure , Odo opened the cargo bay door enough to allow the field to be blown into the vacuum of space , saving the station and its crew . ( ) The Komar . When Tom Paris started to act strangely and sabotaged the Navigational Control as well as the current course of " Voyager " , he was sent to sickbay by Captain Janeway . She was willing to rule out mutiny for the time being . ( ) The Maquis and the USS " Voyager " . When the Maquis crew of the " Val Jean " and the Starfleet crew of the merged to create one crew in the Delta Quadrant , thoughts of a Maquis mutiny were constant initially . When B ' Elanna Torres attacked Joseph Carey in 2371 , a number of Maquis crewmembers , including Seska and Jarvin , were in support of a mutiny if Chakotay was to perform one . This did not go forth . ( ) The holoprogram " Insurrection Alpha " was written by the ship ' s chief of security , Lieutenant Tuvok , to prepare security officer s for the possibility of Maquis mutiny , but was deleted by him unfinished when he concluded that the program ' s incendiary nature might result in the very conflict he sough to prevent . The incomplete program nevertheless enjoyed a vogue as entertainment amongst the ship ' s crew when the deleted file was discovered by a resourceful B ' Elanna Torres who believed it to be a holographic novel . ( ) Vedek Teero Anaydis . In 2377 , Teero Anaydis , a radical Bajoran Vedek who was determined continue the fight against the Cardassian s , engineered a plan to cause a Maquis mutiny on the USS " Voyager " . Teero Anaydis had been kicked out of the Maquis earlier for experimenting with mind control as a means of getting new agents . Afterward , the Dominion crushed the Maquis resistance in the Alpha Quadrant so Teero Anaydis turned his attention to the Delta Quadrant and the stranded Starfleet vessel whose crew , many of whom were Maquis , had contact with the Federation . In 2370 , he had implanted suppressed memory commands into Tuvok at a colony near the Badlands . These commands would activate when Tuvok heard a certain Bajoran chant . Teero Anaydis triggered the suppressed commands in Tuvok in 2377 by embedding a subliminal message consisting of the chant into a letter to Tuvok from his son Sek . Tuvok then used Vulcan mind meld s to implant these commands into the other Maquis members of the crew . " Voyager " was almost taken by Teero Anaydis and his new ' recruits ' , however Tuvok managed to reclaim control of his mind and used the mind meld technique to stop the mutiny by returning the minds of the other Maquis crew members to normal . ( ) USS " Equinox " . In 2376 , Maxwell Burke , first officer of the , mutinied against Captain Rudolph Ransom after Ransom had ordered the remnants of his crew to surrender to the USS " Voyager " . Burke wished to continue killing nucleogenic lifeform s to fuel the " Equinox " s enhanced warp drive , an action which Ransom initially supported , but later realized was against both Starfleet principles and his conscience . While Burke asked Ensign Marla Gilmore to take Ransom to the brig , she instead escorted him to engineering and informed him she was still on his side . Ransom arranged to beam Gilmore along with other crew members not in shielded areas to " Voyager " . Burke and others with him on the bridge were killed by the nucleogenic lifeforms while attempting to reach the " Equinox " s shuttlebay . Ransom went down with his ship . ( ) The mirror universe . Mutiny was a common sight in the mirror universe throughout the 22nd and 23rd centuries . Mutiny usually involved members of the crew assassinating a superior officer as a means of advancing in rank . Such officers who carried out these assassinations tended to rely on bodyguards and surprise . In 2155 , Commander , first officer of the Imperial Flagship , staged the first recorded mutiny aboard a Terran starship in history by wresting control from Captain Maximilian Forrest . By rallying the support of Major and Sergeant , Archer was able to detain Forrest and bring " Enterprise " into Tholian space to pilfer the , a Federation starship brought across an interphasic rift from 2268 . Shortly after these events , the now - First Officer waged a second mutiny , using Vulcan crewmen to extradite rightful Captain Forrest from the brig . The command crew was able to detain Archer , who was entitled to a record ten hours in the agony booth , developed by Major Reed and Doctor . After Archer was able to successfully attain command of the " Defiant " and escape from Tholian space , his mutinous actions were far from over . Leaving Captain Forrest to die with " Enterprise " , he then brought " Defiant " to the front lines of the Rebellion the Empire was losing badly . With the advanced Starfleet weaponry , the 22nd century vessels were easy targets for the " Defiant " s phaser and photon torpedo banks . After successfully destroying a Rebel attack force , Archer ' s plans doubled yet again . It was now that the former " Enterprise " first officer began sowing the seeds of his own ascent to the role of emperor by challenging Fleet Admiral . His downfall , however , was his Vulcan first officer , who saw that it would make things even worse for her people . She used the completely non - Human crew of the to sabotage the " Defiant " ' s power grid and attack . However , the quick actions of Chief Engineer allowed " Defiant " to raise her shields and destroy the " Avenger " . When celebrating his victory with , whom he trusted implicitly , Archer found his champagne poisoned . Sato then rewarded his personal guard , Mayweather for his treachery and the former comm officer took over the late Commander Archer ' s plans to overthrow the Empire with the " Defiant " at her disposal . This cutthroat , cloak and dagger means of assassination paved the way for the Imperial crews in future years . ( ) In 2267 , was a cunning schemer with designs on overthrowing as captain , to which end he enlisted several other crew members in his mutiny . By the time Chekov carried it out , the mirror Kirk had been replaced with a parallel universe duplicate who was able to defeat him . Chekov was punished with a trip to the agony booth . ( ) Alternate reality . In the alternate reality , attempted a mutiny against when he disagreed with Spock ' s decision to take the to the Laurentian system rather than go after the " Narada " and Nero . His mutiny failed and Spock marooned him on , but he returned to the " Enterprise " with the help of Spock Prime and . Once there , he successfully took command of the ship by forcing Spock to prove that he was emotionally compromised , following directions from Spock Prime . As Kirk had been made acting first officer , when Spock resigned he automatically became acting captain . After Spock regained control of his emotions , he returned but deferred to Kirk ' s command and seemed to function as his first officer . Kirk seemed to suffer no reprisals from his mutiny and was later given official command of the ship . ( )