Star Trek: The Next Generation's Main Characters, Ranked From Worst To Best

When it comes to great characters in the "Star Trek" universe, there's no denying that "Star Trek: The Next Generation" has some of the most interesting, dynamic main characters in the franchise — right up there with Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) from "Star Trek: The Original Series." Almost consistently throughout the series, "TNG" writers seem to understand that a great sci-fi character is not just about what they look like on paper. It also comes down to building out that character's backstory, development, and relationships with other characters — all of which "TNG" does beautifully. It's often the spirit of their relationships with each other that makes the crew of the Enterprise-D some of the most watchable characters in the "Star Trek" canon.

But what makes a good "Star Trek" character might not always make a good neighbor or co-worker, and if you were forced to choose at phaser-point on max setting, you wouldn't pick them for your Away team. There are even a handful of "TNG" characters who had plenty of potential but got a raw deal. From the eloquent diplomat to crewmen with creepy holodeck habits, here's our worst-to-best ranking of "Star Trek: The Next Generation's" central characters.

The cards were always stacked against Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur), the more "Bones"-ian doc who came in to replace Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) after her unexpected (and temporary) exit during Season 2 of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." By that point, fans had already come to know and love their dear Dancing Doctor, and the entrance of Pulaski felt a bit like having your sweet, cookie-baking mom replaced by a wicked stepmother. The fact that Kate was unapologetically bigoted toward Data, another beloved Enterprise-D crewman, made her addition a bridge crew member too far.

In another timeline where Crusher never existed, Pulaski's abrasive, biting wit and unvarnished bedside manner might have developed a bit more along the same lines as Bones's personality, as fans grew to adore her for the soft and gooey center revealed along the way. But in this timeline, she was always going to be viewed as a foil for Crusher's sweet mom vibes — which is a shame, because the concept for her character had a lot of potential, as was Muldaur's portrayal of the strong, unflappable woman on a ship full of oversimplified female stereotypes.

The more toxic corners of the "Star Trek" fandom have long been plagued with Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) abuse, thanks in no small part to the long-lived "Shut up, Wesley!" meme stemming from his character's treatment in "The Next Generation." And while it's true that Wesley has finally had a redemption in the "Star Trek" universe, as told through his epic Traveler storyline before Wesley disappeared again ahead of "Picard" Season 3, it's hard to argue that young Wes wasn't one of the more irritating main "TNG" characters.

At least in his early "TNG" episodes, Wesley is written as a chronically annoying gifted kid with little respect for others' boundaries or his place in the world as a younger member of the Enterprise-D community. He is an unhumbled pain who habitually abuses his mom's position and flaunts his above-average intelligence to bend — or even break — the rules. While his time in Starfleet and his relationship with the Traveler eventually mellow him, Wesley's earlier appearances strongly transmit "coddled mama's boy" in a way that's hard to separate from his character.

Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) is another one of those "TNG" characters who gets a later redemption in the franchise and ends up — supposedly — being a valued member of the Enterprise-D crew (and later alumni gang). But we're not buying it for a second. We know that no matter how many times he checks in with his old buddy Troi (Marina Sirtis) or saves the crew of another "Star Trek" series, most of his old Enterprise colleagues only keep his name in their contacts list so they can filter his calls.

While Barclay's neurodiversity and mental health issues are centered as a huge barrier to his social relationships in his earlier appearances, that's not what's wrong with him — plenty of neurodiverse Starfleet folks would make an awesome addition to your holoLARPing crew. But it's hard to get over how this man deepfakes his crewmates for romantic AI content and never explicitly apologizes for it, just as it's difficult to imagine his terrible personality in "The Nth Degree" isn't coming from somewhere buried not-so-deep inside his "nice guy" persona.

There's nothing inherently wrong with El-Aurian barkeep Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg). She's an asset to the crew, even if it's just serving up their cocktails and doling out valuable insights about the Borg, the Q, and the Nexus. She's witty, warm, and wise, and some of her scenes — like the one in "The Dauphin," where she and Riker try to teach Wesley the art of seduction — are a blast to watch.

The problem with her character is that, despite her great personality and a pretty solid backstory, she doesn't actually seem to exist outside of functioning as an advice vending machine for the crew. No boyfriends or girlfriends, no smutty exercise room girl talks about how much some guy is making her toes curl — Guinan doesn't get to do her own thing, and she certainly never gets her own episode (the closest we get is her time-travel story in "Time's Arrow"). It would have been nice to see her character get a little more personality-building the way Pelia (Carol Kane) has on "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) is another great "TNG" character who ranks low on the list because of her wasted potential. Originally the head of Enterprise security, Yar was a tough-as-nails character who was well-loved by her crewmates — particularly her buddy Worf (Michael Dorn) and her situationship Data (Brent Spiner).

Tasha is hardly the typical Starfleet officer, which adds complexity to her character. Raised in one of the galaxy's roughest neighborhoods on gang violence-riddled Turkana IV, Tasha grew up having to fight to survive, and yet somehow hung onto her humanity. As an adult, the resilient Yar dedicated her life to using her own strength to protect others. But far more than just a tough, Amazonian warrior chick stereotype, Tasha was complex and sensitive — and, not to mention, patient with Wesley.

And yet despite all that great potential, Yar was vastly underutilized, mostly getting a spotlight in objectifying storylines like "Code of Honor" and "The Naked Now." It's not hard to see why Crosby opted for an out — even if Yar's untimely death at the hands of the malevolent puddle Armus in "Skin of Evil" was a diabolical move on the part of writers that became one of Trek fans' most hated moments.

Much like Yar, Pulaski, and just about every other female character on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the problem with Deanna Troi isn't how her character is written or even performed — it's how that character was treated in the world of "Star Trek." And few characters have been treated worse than Counselor Troi, who constantly finds herself violated throughout the series from psychic assaults to mystical pregnancy to the absolutely criminal assaults by the "TNG" costume and hair departments.

Despite the counselor's excellent counseling and capable leadership, Troi is too often reduced to a stereotype of what guys like Don Draper think women are made of — whether she's complaining about her mom, gushing over guys with her bestie Crusher, or swooning over a Death by Chocolate. And we'd be remiss if we failed to mention the exhausting string of romance plots like the Worf-Troi romance hated by Marina Sirtis. For someone who is actually one of the smartest bridge officers on the ship, Troi spends far too much time getting sidelined by her own personal problems, and that's a crying shame.

In terms of character ratings, Dr. Beverly Crusher is fairly close to being tied with Deanna Troi for many of the same reasons. The fact that her character seems to get taken ever-so-slightly more seriously after Crusher's mysterious return in Season 3 only nudges her slightly higher on the list.

Like Troi, Crusher's character too often gets stuck with romance-focused storylines, the most egregious among them "Sub Rosa," which finds the doctor engaging in "Outlander"-style shenanigans with a predatory ghost guy who turns out to be a corpse-reanimating alien. Also, he banged her grandma, and somehow that makes her want him more ... yikes.

But cut past all the personal life nonsense, and Crusher is a pretty good doctor with an excellent bedside manner, not to mention a good friend and advisor to Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart). She's excellent at going with the flow, arguably the best holoLARPer in the crew, and sharp-minded enough to figure out when she's stuck in a bubble universe, which almost — but not quite — makes up for the whole ghost-hookup nonsense.

Enterprise-D's Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) might seem like your run-of-the-mill neighborhood nice guy, but he's actually kind of a mixed bag when it comes to good-versus-bad personality traits. There's no denying he's great at his job, and he generally seems to be a pretty good boss to work for. He's a great friend to Data, and their bromance is a fan-favorite "Star Trek" friendship. He's also one of the more well-rounded and interesting Enterprise-D crewmen, thanks in no small part to his character's excellent portrayal by Burton.

But much like his coworker Reg, Geordi gets into some very questionable holodeck activities. And Geordi's are arguably worse, since he deepfakes and proceeds to sexualize the AI version of Enterprise-D designer Leah Brahms (Susan Gibney) after feeling exploited by Barclay's deepfaking of himself. It's forgivable only because, as Burton himself observed, the "Star Trek" writers were too lazy to give LaForge any legitimate love life. And that's just sad because, aside from the holocreeping, he's kind of a catch.

After biding his time as Transporter Chief on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) would eventually go on to be a staple on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," making Meaney one of the most prolific actors in the franchise next to Worf actor Michael Dorn. Although he mostly hangs out in the background during early "TNG" episodes, O'Brien is always there, a sort of persistent, calming presence in a world where transporters are actually kind of scary and prone to disastrous malfunctions.

It's his innate normalcy that makes O'Brien such a good character. In a post-scarcity quasi-utopia, here's this average Joe who's great at fixing things, a devoted family man, and relatively chill most of the time. He's not trying to hook up with hot aliens on shore leave or perform on stage for an audience — O'Brien just wants to fix the machine, wrap up his shift, and get home to the missus in time for dinner so she doesn't nag him. And in a future replete with multiverse realities and giant alien jellyfish babies, there's something incredibly comforting about that.

Coming in just a notch above his "Deep Space Nine" buddy is Worf, Son of Mogh, House of Martok, Son of Sergey, House of Rozhenko, bane to the Duras family, slayer of Gowron, connoisseur of chamomile tea and prune juice. A fierce Klingon warrior raised by his adoptive human parents, Worf forges his own identity in a world that desperately tries to make him choose between his Klingon and human sides — and he's better for it.

While the younger Worf we meet at the beginning of "TNG" is still searching for his path to navigate both realities without losing sight of what's important to him, the Worf we see by the end of the series is a mature father, son, and friend who knows what he wants from life, perfectly positioning him for the leadership roles he will eventually take on in "Deep Space Nine" and "Picard." He's also an athletic hottie with great hair who uses his warrior fierceness to serve and protect the vulnerable, making him a case study in positive masculinity. No wonder Troi can't hit it and quit it.

Q (John de Lancie) might be a hot mess of an omnipotent being, but he's our hot mess of an omnipotent being, and it's hard not to love his decades-long situationship with Captain Picard. Sure, he struggles with boundaries, but we can't hold him to the same standards as Earth boys since Q grew up in the Continuum, after all. A godlike superbeing and one of the strongest characters in "Star Trek," Q effectively frames the entirety of "The Next Generation" from the time he first pops up in "Encounter at Farpoint" to the series finale "All Good Things...," where he reminds Picard humanity has been on trial the whole time.

While it seems like Q is just a trickster figure menacing Picard throughout the series, we eventually learn he was always sort of rooting for the humans and possibly even gaming the system a bit. But whatever the game was, Q's charm, panache, and flair for theatrics — not to mention his not-so-hidden goodwill toward Picard — make all of his faults pretty forgivable. That, and he looks pretty slick in a French Marshal outfit.

If it's not en vogue to befriend AI these days, that's only because we haven't yet made a positronic-brained baddie like Commander Data. While Data spends an awful lot of time contemplating whether he is a real person, anyone who watches "Star Trek: The Next Generation" knows there's no denying our little Pinocchio is a real boy based on his cat dad status alone.

A devoted friend, a reliable brother-in-arms, and a friendly neighbor, Data is also one of the most self-sacrificing members of the Enterprise-D crew, often placing himself in harm's way for the protection of his fellow crewmen. And for a guy who is supposedly incapable of truly understanding friendship and relationships, he puts an awful lot of work into learning dance moves for his friend's wedding and developing a program to make his girlfriend happy. We should all be so lucky to have such an adorable robot boy around.

It's hard not to love Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes), everybody's favorite likable boss. A competent first officer who isn't afraid to challenge his own superior, Riker excels at something many bosses seem to struggle with: Maintaining positive social relationships with his crewmen by establishing solid boundaries that compartmentalize work from play. It's this trait that allows Riker to nurture his deep closeness with ex-imzadi Troi, despite their decision to keep things professional during their Enterprise-D tenure. Their ability to support each other while maintaining underlying romantic feelings with a pin in them is nothing short of goals.

Friendly, charming, and talented, Riker develops his love for jazz trombone from a rough hobby into a legitimate skill over time. He's also something of a talented chef and enjoys cooking for his friends. But where Riker is truly skilled in his understanding of and respect for women.

In terms of likable "Star Trek" characters, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is the total package: A proper English gentleman with the class and refined taste of a Frenchman, esteemed diplomat, skilled Shakespearean actor, archaeologist, lecturer, bookworm, and a reformed bad boy with the scars to show for it. Heck, he even comes from a family of vintners.

But Picard isn't just pretentious hobbies and Starfleet diplomacy. While he doesn't tend to socialize much with his crewmen, maintaining a safe, professional distance, Jean-Luc isn't afraid to do a little holodeck cosplay with his crew every now and then — especially when it comes to his favorites, the detective stories of Dixon Hill. He rides horses, looks great in a deep V-neck, knows how to relax with a cup of Earl Grey, and isn't afraid to reach out for advice from his crew when things get a little tricky on the Enterprise bridge — the ultimate mark of a good Starfleet captain.