Wesley, Ro, and Bozeman Tourist are eliminated immedietly, we never see them do anything fancy at all, they input courses and hit engage, that’s it.

Of those remaining, Sulu is what most people think when they think fancy starship flying, but, if you really look at it, his top moments are manually flying a shuttle into a shuttle bay, and skillfully pulling rather relaxed but precise maneuvers piloting the Enterprise in V’Ger, the Bounty, and a Huey helicopter. No high speed are rapid maneuvering. So while he gets points for skill and for being able to fly anything he gets into, he’s not the top pilot.

Detmer has shown some fancy flying, including combat maneuvers, but only on the Discovery. We don’t know if she’s as skilled if she’s put into a shuttle or an atmospheric craft.

Mayweather, for all the failure to utilize his character, has been put in the hot seat with high pressure, rapid and precise maneuvering. Romulan minefields, combat against the Xindi, high warp precision formation flying, he really is a great pilot.

Ortega is right up there too, she flew into the accretion disk of a black hole while fighting the Gorn, even with her memory severely hampered she piloted the Enterprise through an asteroid field. She flies the ship, top marks, but…

Tom motherfucking Paris. This guy can fly through asteroid fields, through torn up subspace, fluidic space, quantum slipstream tunnels, shuttles, shuttles he designed, shuttles underwater, terrestrial vehicles, high speed combat maneuvers, you name it he can do it. Tom Paris is in my mind the unquestioned #1.

30% mimimum increase in base salary, extra week vacation, and, if possible, stock options. And make damn sure the Health/Dental/Vision is a step up from what you currently have.

I never stab him if he’s cheating.

So you’re not fully committed, ok.

Ok, so as a starter, I’d recommend that someone going by the above do a kind of seven episode primer on Star Trek and what it’s about. Moral/Ethical philosophy.

TOS - Balance of Terror, is preemptive aggression ever justified?

TNG - Measure of a Man, what makes a person a person?

DS9 - In The Pale Moonlight, do the ends justify the means?

VOY - I’d go with Equinox parts I & II over Year of Hell, but also a “do the ends justify the means.”

ENT - Judgement, is justice arbitrary or universal?

Skip DISCO, plenty of issues to be examined but each one takes a whole season.

Skip LD, there’s a few issues but they’re not as well presented.

SNW - Strange New World

Star Trek Transporters don’t annihilate you. According to all the stuff from Star Trek it literally disassembles you, moves your particles through space in a matter stream held in a containment field, and reassembles you at the new location.

So the Ship of Theseus question doesn’t actually apply, your physical material is the same before and after. The question is if disassembly constitutes dying, and if the reassembled you at the new location is a resurrected you, or if disassembly isn’t dying, then it is in fact just a form of transport.

And let’s not forget the NX-01 herself shows up onscreen in Picard Season 3.

Frakes is, in addition to an iconic Actor, the best Trek Director of the modern age. 11/10.