Captain Captain was a commissioned officer rank , the equivalent of which was used by the service organizations of many civilizations . The title of captain was often used by vessel commanders and , as a naval rank , in many Earth navies and Starfleet , was above commander . As an infantry rank , captains ranked subordinate to a major and above a first lieutenant . Earth history . On Earth , the title of captain was used as far back as the Middle Ages , where a captain was a nobleman commissioned to command a company of soldiers . One of the characters of William Shakespeare ' s play " Henry V " was quoted as saying " " Under what captain serve you ? " " when approached on guard duty . ( ) By the 20th century , the rank of captain was common in Earth militaries and was used by all branches of service in the United States armed forces . The rank of captain was represented by a double rectangular silver bar uniform insignia for ground units and the equivalent of a colonel ' s eagle for naval captains . In 2364 , the Q - entity took the form of a US Marine Corps captain when confronting Captain Picard . In this disguise , Q was quoted as stating " " All it takes is a few good men " . " Q also appeared as a 16th century sea captain to the crew . ( ) In the US Navy , the rank of Captain was specifically that of the superior officer of a ship , whereas in the other branches – being land or air based and not having ships – it was just another officer rank . The rank of captain was also used by World War II Germany . In the German army , the rank was translated as " Hauptmann " ( headman ) , but in the SS , company captains were referred to as " Hauptsturmführer " ( " head storm leader " ) . The collar insignia for this was a black square bordered with white , with three silver pip s in a diagonal line , with two stripes underneath . In a holodeck simulation of a Nazi campaign in France , a group of Hirogen pitted the crew of against holographic 1940s Germans . A US Army captain named Miller was the role assigned to Chakotay in the program ; an SS " Hauptsturmführer " captain was another character in the simulation . ( ) Starfleet captains . By the mid 22nd century , captain was a senior line officer rank of most space services and usually given to the commanding officers of starships . This naval rank is equivalent to the infantry rank of colonel , the Romulan Star Empire ' s commander grade , the Cardassian Union ' s title of gul and the Ferengi Alliance ' s quasi - military DaiMon title . On starships , the term captain was also often used as a synonym to commanding officer . Proper naval parlance said that , even if a vessel was commanded by an officer whose rank was lower than captain , that officer was still able to be referred to as a captain while on the deck of their own vessel , no matter their literal commissioned rank . ( ) Captains of starships , often located hundreds of light year s away from and out of communications with higher authority , needed to be able to function autonomously and make independent command decisions affecting Federation policy and countless lives . Accordingly , few Starfleet officers ever gained the captaincy of a starship , the result of decades of sustained excellence as a Starfleet leader . A senior captain given a large degree of responsibility or administrative assignment was sometimes given the title of fleet captain . The rank of captain could also be held by non - command personnel , especially on ships with a number of veteran and senior officers whose experience had warranted advancement to the rank of captain but without command of a starship . Such was the case on the , where the senior staff consisted of no less than three captains : the commanding officer ( James T . Kirk ) , the first officer ( Spock ) , and the chief engineer ( Montgomery Scott ) . ( ) Captain Scott had previously held his rank of captain while chief engineer of the , where he was known as the " Captain of Engineering " . ( ) The rank of captain could also be held by staff officers , such as those assigned to as a Judge Advocate General sector officer . Such was the case with Phillipa Louvois , who was a sector JAG officer in 2365 . ( ) Reaching the rank of captain in other non - command branches of Starfleet was generally considered difficult , as noticed by one security officer , who once remarked " " You don ' t make captain by wearing a gold shirt " " . ( ) However , the rank was apparently obtainable in both the sciences and operations division , as the rank was held by Captain Krasnovsky in 2267 , although he may have held command qualification while also being a science officer , and Vice Admiral Toddman presumably held the rank sometime before 2371 . ( ; ) Tryla Scott was said to have achieved the rank of captain faster than anyone in Starfleet history as of 2364 . ( ) When Lieutenant commander Data was asked in 2368 by why he wasn ' t captain of the " Enterprise - D " , Data explained that " " My service experience does not yet warrant such a position . " " ( ) Some noted captains in Starfleet history were : " The Starfleet of the alternate reality established in 2233 by the temporal incursion of the Romulan Nero had the following noteworthy captains " : Other versions of captain . Captain was a title typically held by commanders of merchant vessels and sometimes service craft . In 2367 , Wesley Crusher remarked in a bemused manner that Dirgo was claiming to hold the rank of captain while serving as the master of the mining shuttle " Nenebek " . To this , Dirgo sternly told Crusher that yes , indeed , his rank was that of captain in comparison to Crusher ' s rank of ensign . ( ) The title of was also given to the leaders of sport s teams . In the 2360s , K ' Vada , Kargan , Korris , Kurn , , and Tel - Peh were captains in the Klingon Defense Force . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The lead characters in " Star Trek " productions have typically been Starfleet captains . In series television , these characters have included ( in production order ) James T . Kirk ( William Shatner ) , Jean - Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) , Benjamin Sisko ( Avery Brooks ) , Kathryn Janeway ( Kate Mulgrew ) , and Jonathan Archer ( Scott Bakula ; the only difference when listed chronologically being that Captain Archer was before the other four captains ) . At first , the only exception to the captain - as - series - lead practice was when Sisko was portrayed as a commander during the first three seasons of , although Kirk was portrayed as an admiral , rather than a captain , in the first four " Star Trek " films . Also , the alternate reality version of Captain has served as the lead character in three films – , , and – but has never appeared in televised " Star Trek " . Other instances of breaking the captain - as - series - lead method are in , which portrays Captains Philippa Georgiou and Gabriel Lorca as secondary characters to series lead Michael Burnham . The actors who have appeared in lead roles as " Star Trek " captains on television have been extremely varied . Jonathan Frakes remarked , " " The five captains are so distinctive because of the five actors that play them , obviously . Patrick [ Stewart ] was cast against type , coming after Bill [ Shatner ] . Avery [ Brooks ] , quite obviously , was cast against type , coming after Patrick . It was smart to bring Kate [ Mulgrew ] in , as a woman , and then Scott [ Bakula ] had an entire charm of his own . I think [ . . . ] whether it was planned or not , it was a very successful endeavor . " " ( " The Captains " ) The Bajoran Militia , which also used army rank names , has been referred to by the as having a captain grade , with an insignia seen in episodes on officers subordinate to Major Kira Nerys , although they were never referred to by any specific rank in canon productions or materials .