Starfleet Admirals - Good or Bad?

Star Trek flag officers - good or bad?:

Commodores: 4 good, 4 neutral, 1 bad

Good:
Robert April (One of the most notable and decorated officers in Starfleet's history, and a solid worker right up until his old age)
Matt Decker (Another of Starfleet's most decorated officers. Though an antagonistic force in The Doomsday Machine, he was given a clear and extremely sympathetic reason for losing his mind and he DID ultimately relinquish command of the Enterprise before she suffered catastrophic damage. Additionally, his sacrifice lead to the Machine's destruction. Even in extreme PTSD, then, he did an inestimable service for Starfleet)
José I. Mendez (Was kind enough to temporarily waive the travel restriction (and its associated death penalty) to Talos IV despite Spock's less-than-upstanding actions)
Robert Wesley (A calm and steadfast leader who saved the Enterprise with an excellent judgement call and later oversaw an efficient evacuation after he became a planetary governor)

Neutral:
Barstow (Left the Enterprise hanging in the breeze, but under the circumstances I don't think Kirk would've had it any other way. Only appeared briefly)
Enwright (Summoned the Enterprise for the trial run of the M-5 computer. He couldn't have known how badly it would go and we never see his face or learn anything about him)
Stone (He did his job as he should have. No more, no less. Whilst he WAS willing to share the risks faced by the Enterprise crew, little is known about the man beyond this and I don't think that alone is a strong enough demonstration of integrity to push him to the "good" character)
Travers (Though apparently famous for his hospitality, we never got to see it. Or him, for that matter)

Bad:
Stocker (The prototypical "modern Major General". Almost lost the Enterprise due to gross inexperience. Although Kirk held no ill-will toward the desk jockey, it seems like a really bad idea to make men who have never served on a starship into flag officers)


Rear admirals: 3 good, 5 neutral, 3 bad

Good:
Bennet (was quite reasonable about how he handled Bashir's DNA tampering case, letting Julian himself get off and permitting a relatively light sentence for his father)
Brand (stern, but an even-handed follower of procedure)
Gregory Quinn (tried to protect the Federation from the parasitic beings. Ultimately became a victim of them himself, but that wasn't his fault)

Neutral:
Coburn (just a random military strategist. Impossible to say whether or not he was a good man in the brief time he appeared)
Daniel Leonard (blustering, but understandably so. Only appeared briefly)
Rollman (so generic she is only listed as "ADMIRAL" in the two scripts she appeared in. Did nothing of particular note)
Savar (one of the victims of the parasitic beings. It is ultimately unknown whether he was a good or bad egg prior to this)
Sitak (see Coburn)

Bad:
Mark Jameson (caused a 40 year long civil war. Generally self-centred and shortcut-taking, favouring preserving himself over doing what was right)
Erik Pressman (jeopardised peace and the lives and careers of fellow Starfleet officers through his illegal experiments aboard the USS Pegasus)
Norah Satie (Attempted out of paranoia to destroy multiple loyal Starfleet officers by instituting a kangaroo court. Although I would speculate she was simply mentally ill rather than truly villainous, the episode she appeared in certainly regarded her as the latter.)


Vice admirals: 5 good, 15 neutral, 6 bad

Good:
Maxwell Forrest (Johnathon Archer's long-suffering boss-man. Practically bent over backwards for Archer and later sacrificed himself protecting an essential Vulcan dignitary he had butted heads with for years. Depending on your opinion of Archer, it could be argued that he killed with kindness... yet kind he was all the same...)
J.P. Hanson (Worked diligently (if fruitlessly) to attempt to prepare Starfleet to face the Borg threat. In the end he dutifully gave his life attempting to protect the Federation from that same threat)
Hayes - male (Did what he could to protect the Federation and render assistance to Voyager)
Owen Paris (Worked diligently to assist Voyager. A stern but fair father to Tom)
William Ross (similar to Sisko, Ross was a generally good and upstanding man who was forced by circumstances to do something deplorable. To condemn him, you would have to condemn Sisko as well and I doubt many of us would be willing)

Neutral:
Aaron (See Savar)
Chekote (Although he made the wrong call in calling for the evacuation of Starfleet personnel from Deep Space Nine during the AfGU uprising, it wasn't malicious and his hands were arguably tied. Was good enough to allow Riker the leeway he needed to investigate Picard's apparent death, but overall it's difficult to judge him one way or the other)
Matthew Dougherty (Definitely not a good man by any stretch of the imagination, but it is to his credit that he at least stuck to only what the Federation Council had authorised him to do and nothing more)
Fitzpatrick (Gave Kirk the order to protect K-7's quadrotriticale supply. Only appeared briefly)
Fujisaki (Though it's entirely possible he was Section 31, there is no proof of this, 'nor do we know anything about the kind of man he was)
Gromek (Gave Picard the order to intercept K'Ehleyr's probe. Only appeared briefly)
Haden (Just a man doing his job. Helpful, but not ultimately noteworthy one way or the other)
Hayes - female (informed Picard that two Ferengi freighters had been attacked by Cardassians. Only appeared briefly)
Thomas Henry (participated in Satie's kangaroo court, but quickly put a stop to it once he realized how corrupt it truly was)
Marcus Holt (ordered Picard to investigate the disappearance of the USS Hera. Only appeared briefly)
Janeway Sr. (little is known of Kathryn Janeway's father other than that he was an admiral)
Nakamura (Though he authorized Maddox's mission to disassemble and study Data, this was before Data's personhood was officially established in a court of law)
Patterson (Though extremely friendly with Janeway, it's hard to say if this was down to a genuine cordial nature or simply nepotism. Only appeared briefly)
Connaught Rossa (Although we can sympathise with a mother who lost both of her sons, only to find out that one of them was actually still alive only to have him ripped away again, she doesn't get any points for that and we simply don't know enough about her otherwise)
Simons (Made the call to require Alkar to continue to his mission aboard the Enterprise. Only appeared briefly)

Bad:
Margaret Blackwell (One of Erik Pressman's "friends" at Starfleet Command. Authorised the surreptitious mission to retrieve the Pegasus, which Picard ultimately blew the lid off)
Anthony Haftel ("Order a man to hand his child over to the state. Not while I'm his captain". And this was AFTER the events of Measure of a Man!)
Kennelly (Engaged in illegal under-the-table dealings with the Cardassians in a misguided attempt to preserve the peace)
Leyton (Staged a coup d'etat against the Federation president in a misguided attempt to preserve the Federation)
Toddman (A definite borderline case, but ordering Eddington to sabotage the Defiant's cloak seems a bit much)
West (One of the Khitomer conspirators. Attempted to assassinate the Federation president. Though referred to as "Colonel", he wore the rank insignia of a vice admiral, so he counts)


Admirals: 1 good, 22 neutral, 1 bad

Good:
T'Lara (An even-handed follower of procedure, similar to Brand)

Neutral:
Brooks (She was mentioned a couple of times, but never appeared)
Chapman (Had a recipe for pound cake, but never appeared)
Colti (Visited DS9 to observe Bajor's entrance to the Federation, but never appeared)
Douglas (Approved the decommissioning of the NX-01, but never appeared)
Drazman (Apparently dull as dishwater, but never appeared)
Fitzgerald (Ordered Spock not to violate Federation directives to search for Kirk. Only appeared briefly)
Gardner (Took over from Forrest after he died, but wasn't as helpful as his predecessor)
Gilhouly (One of several faceless admirals who were mentioned as having commanded Dominion War fleets)
Gupta (Arrived on DS9 to assess Cardassian movements along the DMZ, but never appeared)
Hahn (An instructor at Starfleet Academy, but never appeared)
Hastur (See Gilhouly)
James Komack (gave a couple of sensible orders in a couple of TOS episode, but really not much too him)
Mitchell (Commanded a Starbase, but never appeared)
Mitsuya (A fearsome poker player, but never appeared)
Namimbly (See Hahn)
Nogomo (Supervised an investigation, but never appeared)
Nogura (Shuffled personnel around for the V'Ger crisis, but never appeared)
Nsomeka (See Hahn)
Veta (See Colti)
Westervliet (Released the Enterprise from responsibility for Yonada. Only appeared briefly)
Charlie Whatley (See Colti, but he actually appeared, albeit briefly)
Wright (Contacted the Defiant regarding an investigation, but never appeared)

Bad:
Raner (See Margaret Blackwell)


Fleet admirals: 1 good, 5 neutral, 1 bad

Good:
Shanthi (Allowed Picard the leeway to do some of his best work and favoured throwing the book at Erik Pressman)

Neutral:
Bill (No last name given. Was shocked to discover that the man who had attempted to assassinate the Federation president was Colonel West, but beyond that we know nothing about him)
Bob (No last name given. His demeanour and first-name basis with Kirk slightly suggests a nice guy, but once again we really don't know anything much about him)
Brackett (The best thing she did was inform Picard about Spock's apparent defection. The worse thing she did was cover her ass a bit. Overall, we'll call this one a wash)
Harrow Morrow (An antagonist to Kirk in Search For Spock, but in no way a malicious one)
Alynna Nechayev (The ultimate in moral ambiguity when it comes to Starfleet flag officers. Incredibly difficult to rate, so she resides here for at least the time being)

Bad:
Cartwright (one of the Khitomer conspirators. Very much a snake in the glass and one of the most shining examples of corruption at the highest levels of Starfleet)


Total: 14 good, 51 neutral 12 bad