Every main Star Trek ship's chief medical officer, ranked by ability

Behind every high-octane space battle and broken leg on an away mission in Star Trek, there's a hard-working Chief Medical Officer in sickbay giving everyone the best chance of survival in the aftermath. Of course, sometimes they're just tasked with whipping up a cure for food poisoning after an ambitious Talaxian tries his hand at Earth cuisine. Either way, a Starfleet crew wouldn't be complete without someone leading the medical team and offering unorthodox solutions to equally strange problems. It's time we talked about those oft-underappreciated figures.

It should be noted at this point that not every Star Trek series has a Chief Medical Officer. Most do, though. Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Picard are the only outliers. Sure, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) is in Picard, but not in her former capacity as a CMO. Similarly, Zero (Angus Imrie) only unofficially serves as Star Trek: Prodigy's CMO. I'll also give an honorable mention right now to Diana Muldaur's Dr. Pulaski. She was clearly a talented doctor, but The Next Generation couldn't make her character work, hence the early exit. As such, it's tricky to place her accurately on this list. However, judging the others in terms of talent, bedside manner, and, most importantly, resourcefulness, is a relatively straightforward affair.

Dr. Hugh Culber

Stationed Aboard: USS Discovery

Wilson Cruz's Star Trek character is a very capable physician. He is the USS Discovery's Chief Medical Officer, after all. It wouldn't make sense if he wasn't among Starfleet's finest doctors. However, Star Trek: Discovery rarely showcased his talents. The series was less concerned with having Dr. Culber develop some wild new medical procedure every week, as might have happened far more often with CMOs in other Star Trek projects. He had a handful of moments that allowed him to shine in this respect, but Discovery focused far more on his death, resurrection, and the fallout of that high-concept twist. As such, it's tricky to rank him any higher than here.

Why He's #8: I needed to see more of Dr. Culber in action to properly appraise him as a Chief Medical Officer. He's obviously competent, but Discovery's heavily serialized formula didn't leave much room for a deep dive into his abilities.

Dr. T'Ana

Stationed Aboard: USS Cerritos

The USS Cerritos has a Caitian Chief Medical Officer whose bedside manner is so incredibly poor that it's tricky to believe that Star Trek: Lower Decks is canon. It is, though. The animated comedy just takes a more irreverent approach to fleshing out the franchise lore. Voiced by Gillian Vigman, Dr. T'Ana is more likely to be seen yelling at a patient than placing a comforting hand on their shoulder. That's pretty much her only downside, though. What she lacks in warmth, she makes up for with sheer ability. What would be treated as landmark medical breakthroughs on other ships are treated like everyday treatment plans in the Cerritos' sickbay.

Why She's #7: While Dr. T'Ana does sometimes need to improvise, she's stationed aboard a fully stocked Starfleet ship that gives her all the resources she needs. Plus, I don't relish the thought of being her patient.

Dr. Joseph M'Benga

Stationed Aboard: USS Enterprise

Originally played by Booker Bradshaw in The Original Series, Babs Olusanmokun's younger version of Dr. M'Benga has allowed Strange New Worlds to more completely showcase what the character is capable of. In short, M'Benga would be a solid choice for any Starfleet crew. That being said, while his history as a wartime physician allowed him to develop some very innovative treatments, the residual trauma he experienced during that era of his life does occasionally make him a little volatile.

Why He's #6: There's no doubt that Dr. M'Benga is a very talented Chief Medical Officer. That being said, it can be difficult to predict how he will react to certain stimuli.

Dr. Phlox

Stationed Aboard: Enterprise NX-01

Captain Archer's (Scott Bakula) crew needed a Chief Medical Officer with an especially strong thirst for adventure. Thankfully, that's exactly what they got with Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley). Enterprise NX-01 was headed deeper into space than humanity had ever ventured, and their Denobulan doctor was the perfect fit for such a mission. His unorthodox approach to medicine often combined the use of alien critters and more traditional procedures. He ticks every box of what a great Chief Medical Officer should be; I just think he's very much of his era.

Why He's #5: Phlox is innovative and great with his patients. I just struggle to believe that he would thrive quite so well in other settings. Plus, because he had absolutely no additional medical staff to assist him, it's hard to tell what kind of leader he would be. I suspect he'd be a good one, though.

Dr. Beverly Crusher

Stationed Aboard: USS Enterprise-D (Primarily)

There's no denying that Gates McFadden's Star Trek character is an incredibly talented and competent Chief Medical Officer. Her absence from The Next Generation Season 2 is due to behind-the-scenes reasons, rather than being any kind of negative criticism of Dr. Crusher's skill set. Whenever Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) asked her to come up with a medical solution to a problem that seemed impossible, she met the challenge with enthusiasm every time and helped save the day. Dr. Crusher also had a calm leadership style that her medical staff gravitated toward. There were hardly any instances that caused her to become severe.

Why She's #4: As many breakthroughs as Dr. Crusher enjoyed, she served aboard the Federation's flagship. A little like Dr. T'Ana, Dr. Crusher was never left without the resources she needed to continue operating at peak efficiency. Her resourcefulness, therefore, is tricky to analyze.

Dr. Julian Bashir

Stationed Aboard: Deep Space Nine (Primarily)

Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) was presented with countless medical mysteries during his time aboard Deep Space Nine (and the USS Defiant). Lesser doctors would have failed to solve them or sought help from elsewhere. Siddig's character refused to falter, though. As one of the franchise's most underrated frontier doctors, Bashir's workload was made even more difficult by being forced to work with repurposed Cardassian tech. Did it make him bat an eye, though? Not really. While occasionally dipping into the findings of his Starfleet predecessors, Dr. Bashir largely trailblazed his own research and medical procedures.

Why He's #3: There are only two Chief Medical Officers I would choose over Dr. Bashir to be part of my crew if I were a Starfleet Captain. Read on, and you'll understand.

Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy

Stationed Aboard: USS Enterprise

As much as I've talked about Star Trek's various Chief Medical Officers pulling off some seriously impressive feats and formulating countless breakthroughs in their field, DeForest Kelley's character blows almost all of them away. After taking over from Dr. M'Benga, Bones went on to have a legendary career as the Enterprise's CMO. His work became foundational to his successors, not just in Starfleet, but in the Federation at large. To top it all off, he did much of his work on the frontier of space during an emotionally and physically draining five-year mission of exploration. There's a reason he was forever telling everyone he was a doctor and nothing else. It was his entire identity, and that commitment to his calling really showed.

Why He's #2: Honestly, it would have gone against the spirit and logic of the exercise to leave out the next doctor. You'll see why he's inarguably the best CMO in Star Trek history, despite Dr. McCoy's accolades.

The Doctor

Stationed Aboard: USS Voyager (Originally)

The USS Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram was never supposed to be a Chief Medical Officer. He was a last resort when the ship lost its entire medical staff. So, it's all the more impressive that Robert Picardo's character was able to become so much more than the short-term solution to a medical crisis that he was programmed to be. He came preinstalled with all the career highlights of Starfleet's best doctors from decades gone by. Yes, even Dr. McCoy. While the Doctor initially lacked the necessary creativity to venture beyond the information he already had access to, his desire to grow and change ultimately resulted in an unexpected skill of devising his own medical procedures.

Despite his advantage as an artificial lifeform, it's still very impressive that the Doctor was able to serve multiple functions at once in Voyager's sickbay. There were no specialized diagnosticians, no one stationed there specifically to perform complex surgeries, or any nurses fully trained and ready to go. He did 90% of the work while others did what they could to fill in the blanks at his request. Furthermore, his only real weakness, a poor bedside manner, was gradually swept away by a much more sensitive approach to treating his patients-turned-found-family. Photonic or otherwise, to do all that without support, stranded in the middle of the Delta Quadrant, makes it especially clear that the Doctor is Star Trek's best Chief Medical Officer.

Why He's #1: Come on, I thought this would be obvious. Even if it can be argued that the knowledge he started with was not his own, that's true of everyone on this list. The Doctor has the broadest skill set, the greatest capacity for growth, and a well-earned reputation for thriving under unprecedented conditions.

Do you disagree? Tell me in the comments who you think deserves a higher or lower spot on this list!