Ares Captain Unknown

career-focused retiring catalytic offstage/absent institutionally significant authoritative stabilizing absent institutional remote procedural

A senior Starfleet officer who holds command of the starship Ares and is identified in the episode only by rank and vessel. Their announced retirement creates a high-profile vacancy that immediately redirects William Riker's career path and places institutional pressure on him to accept a distant command. Never seen on-screen, this captain operates as an offstage catalyst whose administrative decision reshapes personnel dynamics and imposes an urgent, solitary mission requirement that drives the episode's central choice.

3 appearances

Starfleet Operations

Also known as: retiring captain of the Ares, the Captain, the Ares captain, captain of the Ares, captain of the Starship Ares, Captain, Captain, Ares, the captain of the Starship Ares

Ares Captain …'s Journey

A timeline through the narrative

3 moments

S2E2 · Star Trek: The Next Generation - Where Silence Has Lease

Hallucinatory Gauntlet

Absent (unreachable)

The unseen captain's silence during Riker's desperate hail underscores the complete collapse of Starfleet's command structure in the face of the void's reality-warping influence.

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S2E11 · Contagion (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Geordi's Insight—and the Silence

Not shown directly; represented as an absent but expected stabilizing presence — its unavailability increases crew anxiety.

Present only as the invoked chain-of-command: Geordi calls for the Captain twice, but there is no audible response in this event; the Captain functions as an off-screen authority whose absence …

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S2E11 · Contagion (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Runaway Turbolift — Geordi's Perilous Warning

Anticipated concern — the Captain is positioned as the figure whose attention is required to validate and escalate the crisis.

The Captain functions as the addressed authority: Geordi's repeated cries for 'Captain' make the absent Captain the intended recipient of the emergency warning and the institutional locus of decision-making.

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