I voted for Saru. He will be Acting Captain during whatever this crisis is, and I'm hoping that whatever it is and his handling of it will earn him command (as though being the actual Acting Captain during the mission that brought an end to the war shouldn't have, already). But if not him, then a young Captain Morgan Bateson's first command, of course.
Thanks! Plus, she's an intriguing character who has had very little actual screen time. (Hence all the occasionally contradictory treatments of her in books and comics over the years.)
Why would it be Saru? He has 7 or 8 actual months on the job as first officer. Riker was first officer on the Enterprise D-E for 8 years. Saru did not do anything extraordinary to warrant such a quick promotion, especially when Starfleet just went through a war. The only reason to promote him would be that there were no other senior Commanders or captains available to take command of the ship. I don't even think he would want it.
Then again, TNG made a point of establishing that Riker stayed on as first officer far longer than was customary. Shelby was busting his chops about that as far back as Season Three.
Indeed, in season one it was established that Riker was already up for a command of his own before the show started, but took the first officer job on the Enterprise instead since he wanted to be on a more prestigious ship.
Saru just got the Medal of Honour, or the Medal of Finishing Season One or whatever it was called. He can flower up his CV with that for years. And captain of a science vessel seems perfect for a Kelpian. I would personally have gone with him from a narrative perspective as well, cuts down on a top heavy cast (two full commanders and a captain on the bridge) too. As we are apparently not having him (although I wouldn't say that is nailed on yet) a new human would be my choice.
:sits over in the corner, quietly mentioning something about how quickly Pine-Kirk became Captain, looks around to see if anyone is going to throw anything:
But that's jjVerse. No one here takes it too seriously. How old was Harriman (in-canon) when he got command of Enterprise-B?
Saru has just commanded a ship through another universe, found their way back having overseen the toppling of an evil empire and took charge whilst preventing a genocide in an action which ended the war and saved the federation yet still isn't a captain. What exactly does one have to do?
But HE didn't do any of those things. It' was Stametz and Tilly and Burnham who did all those things. He was kinda there for the ride.
I voted for “A new human” cause I think, that is what will happen. My favorite choice would be Saru, because he just earned it. And if they bring another human as Captain for season 2, he can still be the first alien Captain of a hero ship from season 3 on.
Not really, the captain's job isn't necessarily to do those things per se, it is to coordinate them, formulate the ways to turn those tactics into strategies, lead people and make the team work. He did all those things.
Be played by an A-list actor? Seriously. The new captain will be brought on in order to boost ratings with someone who has more star quality.
Yeah, but he's not a household name. In part because he plays heavily made up characters. Edit: I highly suspect SMG will no longer have top billing in the second season either. They'll give lip service to her being an important character, but will want to "move on" from her arc a bit, to the point a lot of the show might deal with the new captain.