What TOS-era character could have captained the Enterprise-B?

[Riley]

Let's put aside that Berman/Braga/whomever else wanted Harriman and his crew to look inept so that Kirk could save the day. In fact, let's even go so far as to put aside what we saw in Generations. It's the first Enterprise without Kirk as captain in decades, and Starfleet is looking for seasoned officers for the position. They also don't care if said officers once served with or have ties to James T. Kirk.

While I think Chekov would be nice symbolically since he was with Kirk his entire career and worshipped Kirk, I'm not sure he's up to captain a new Enterprise.

I have a few suggestions:

Sulu, who might be offered the E-B after proving himself with the Excelsior.

Styles, who was obviously a capable officer since he was given Excelsior originally. I wonder how Kirk would feel about that?

Lt. Stiles, who came from a long tradition of Starfleet officers and was in the command division.

Kyle, who was a commander in Ops in TWOK but who could have easily switched to command at some point after the Reliant incident.

Kevin Thomas Riley, who actually got a first name unlike Stiles and Kyle and who once introduced himself as "captain of the Enterprise." Since he's one of my favorite minor TOS characters, he'd be my pick.

 

[128bits]

I seem to recall one of the original plans not involving the E-B at all. Were Paramount not pushing for both the E-A and E-D to appear together as well as the captains? This would have retconned TUC (which would be annoying.)

I expect they realised this so just wrote in the E-B subplot, found an established (but new to Trek) actor to portray the Captain and had him be an opposite to Kirk. I don't think they really thought all that much about it.

Its tough to really think about anything relevant they could have done with a different Captain. Alan Ruck did really good at getting the "he's not Kirk!" point across.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I am shocked that you would pick Riley!

How about Saavik? She was introduced commanding the Enterprise in the simulator so it would've been fitting to have her last appearance be in actual command.

 

[Riley]

I am shocked that you would pick Riley!

How about Saavik? She was introduced commanding the Enterprise in the simulator so it would've been fitting to have her last appearance be in actual command.

That's a great idea! I didn't think of her because I don't think she'd be at the rank of captain by the time of Generations or a year after TUC. She could have been the XO, though.