I think it’s really interesting to think about the differences between the one and twos in the old era of Star Trek (TOS-ENT).
Spock and Kirk were written to be essentially opposites each other that worked perfectly together, as well as working as our introduction into the universe.
Kirk is emotional, courageous, and a leader. Spock is logical, patient, and a right hand man. As we dig deeper into their psyches we see more overlap in Kirk’s conniving nature, Spock’s strong sense of loyalty.
Picard and Riker are written to be opposites to Kirk and Spock. Picard is a diplomat through and through, self-sacrificing, and struggles with the toll of his job. Riker’s a cowboy, he wants to save everyone, wants to have fun, and struggles with the weight of his job.
I mean, we see the continuous thing of Riker being offered command he doesn’t quite feel ready for, and Picard being a teacher to his core (as long as it’s not to children).
Then we get to Sisko and Kira, who are completely and entirely different from the other one and twos we have so far.
Sisko was written to be incredibly separate from the other Starfleet members, and we can tell. He’s more willing to bend rules, strong in his convictions, and he’s the first proper wartime commander we see. Kira’s an ex-revolutionary that actively fights Sisko, she’s someone with an incredibly set moral compass that doesn’t always point in the same direction as him. They actively clash.
When we move on to Janeway and Chakotay, we get a near similar dynamic but it’s changed just enough.
Janeway’s similar to Sisko in her willingness to do what she thinks is right, but due to her circumstances, she prioritizes Starfleet protocol for a sense of normalcy and we see her constantly working against her guilt. Chakotay doesn’t have the same Starfleet loyalty, and that makes both of them work well in saving the crew in different ways.
Then we have Archer and T’Pol.
Archer falls back hard on the cowboy archetype we had from Kirk and T’Pol was originally slotted into a near adversarial role, both of them massively struggling with one another. T’Pol’s character arc exists separate from Archer, but we see her try to accept his emotionality through her own difficulties and him accept her lack of due to their circumstances.
Each one builds on the past but still does a successful job reinventing a dynamic while not losing what it is that’s needed for this kind of dynamic. Your Captain and your First Officer need to be strong or else shit falls apart, and if it does, you gotta have a damn good reason why.
