Science fiction has spent decades exploring the far reaches of our universe and various fictional ones, but space itself never gets easier. In our fictional futures, humans might be fighting across the asteroid belt; wormholes may be spitting poor astronauts out like cherry pits; or the key to faster-than-light travel might be impermanent, stranding new civilizations out in the black. Everywhere you look, there’s a space crisis.
But where there’s crisis, there’s also those who rise to the occasion—the tight-knit, found-family spaceship crews who utilize their respective talents to keep their boat running; bands of pirates battling empresses, or emperoxes allying with scientists. These five ensembles don’t let black holes or petty squabbles get in the way of simply staying alive—and occasionally saving the universe.
The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey
In That Was Awesome!, Rob Ziegler sums up the complete competence of the Rocinante crew in his favorite scene from the space opera book series: When Holden and Naomi admit to their crewmates that they’re sleeping together, and Holden is about to launch into the typical spiel of “This isn’t going to change anything,” Amos immediately cuts him off with teasing: “Hey, Alex. XO boning the captain going to make you a really shitty pilot? […] And, oddly enough, I don’t feel the need to be a lousy mechanic.” The ribbing is good-natured, but also reveals how much the Roci is on top of their shit; they have survived far too much at this point to let two crew members’ relationship muck up their lives. It’s pragmatic, but also kinda sweet.
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Leviathan Wakes
Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone
You know that saying, “if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room”? Back on Earth, Vivian Liao spent her time in all manner of wrong rooms, as a brilliant innovator whose peerless status leads to more than one reckless decision. But when she gets dragged across space and time by the heart, to a space station under attack by monks and robots, Viv’s biggest adjustment is not that this is the future, nor that it’s beyond any bit of science fiction she could fathom. Her rudest awakening is that she, frailly human and very behind on pertinent intel, is no longer the most capable person in the room. Lucky for her, destiny conspires to unite her with Hong, crystal-weapon-wielding warrior monk from the Mirrorfaith—and then Viv makes one of her patented reckless decisions in freeing Zanj, a fearsome pirate of legend who runs on sense-enhancing batteries and a brutal smile. Add in a few more allies of the godlike variety, and suddenly this planet-destroying Empress that dragged Viv into her future will have a lot more to worry about.
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Empress of Forever
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
We do not blame Rosemary Harper, leaving her home planet of Mars behind, for being intimidated when she first sets foot on the Wayfarer. For one, she’s hidden more than a few details about her past during the hiring process, so she’s constantly on edge that she’ll be found out. For another, the crew is full of brilliant technicians, a pilot and a navigator whose respective talents are literally otherworldly, a doctor and a chef in one, an AI with the social intelligence to mediate disagreements, a sensitive captain who knows how to bring out the best in his crew—and they’re all a tight-knit family, to boot. But as Rosemary begins to regard the Wayfarer less as a workplace and more as a home, she finds that her work as the ship clerk, wrangling her crewmates with important forms, is just as integral to staying the course out in space.
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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
Not all ensemble casts need to share the same physical space in order to make for a compelling story. Emperox Cardenia, scientist Marce, and starship captain Kiva are linked by the Flow—an extradimensional field of space-time through which the Interdependency establishes and maintains its empire. When the Flow begins to change course, threatening to cut off entire planets from one another, these three citizens must draw from their drastically different upbringings to discover what links them (Cardenia’s father hired Marce’s father to study the Flow) and determine how to turn the rising tide of rebellion (Kiva’s guild is being sabotaged by a rival house) on the desirably remote planet of End. Despite devastating new information and potentially fatal setbacks, time and again these brilliant, regal, brave protagonists prove their capability both apart and together—proving the Interdependency’s main ethos, that no human outpost can survive on its own.
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The Collapsing Empire
Farscape
Is it fair to call the crew of Moya competent? They have a spectacular habit of frelling things up beyond repair and then adding in a few explosions on top, like an accidental cherry. But the fact that they have no business cohabitating is part of what makes their dynamic so impressive—being able to pull off any sort of plan when you never agreed to work together in the first place is, quite frankly, competence of the highest order. This ship full of escaped prisoners, malcontents, and one lost human somehow manage to knock over space banks and trick bounty hunters and outrun so-called-peacekeeping armadas despite the fact that everyone on the crew is typically in the middle of some form of personal crisis. They have a wide range of skills as well—nerds (Crichton, Jool, Sikozu), warriors and tacticians (Aeryn, D’Argo, Scorpius), political refugees (Rygel, Zhaan, Chiana) and empathetic gurus (Stark, Pilot, Noranti)—making them near-to unbeatable when the chips are down.
Who are your favorite hyper-competent ensembles?
The mercs around Miles Vorkosigan on various missions (plus his cousin Ivan, and assorted others on occasion)
The ragtag turned worldshaking mercs of Planet Mercenary.
The Kings of the Wyld’s band, Saga. When they finally come together and act like it, they are unbeatable.
Ah, the crew of Moya…always in trouble but they do come up with a plan (thank you John)…sometimes it’s a good one, but sometimes…but it always worked out in the end….they came together and became a family..even Rygel…I’d love to see more of them.
The Discovery crew in season two. We have Pike, THE OG Starfleet captain, The Science Team of Saru, Burnham, Stamets, and Tilly, Detmer, an excellent pilot, Spock’s walk on, Dr. Culber and two very effective enforcers in MirrorGeorgiu and Tyler. (and all the rest) Every member of the Discovery crew is excellent at something.
Love the Farscape write up, but it missed one key point: Moya herself is very much a part of the crew, and she got them into and out of trouble on more than one occasion.
Firefly all the way!
Louis Wu, speaker to animals and Nessus.
I’m not convinced I’d want to be anywhere near the crew of the Rocinante, it’s generally worked out extremely poorly for all but one exception so far, in the TV series at least… Though yes that exchange was pure gold and rather cemented my affection for the story and the characters, a well executed dismissal of a rather tiresome trope.
Firefly, but with enough money to keep the ship in repair.
I will join the crew of Firefly fans :)
1. Crew of Moya (Farscape)
2. Crew of Serenity (Firefly)
3. Crew of the Indelible 6 & Kill Team Victory (Galaxy’s Edge series) KTF!
4. The Merry Band of Pirates (Expeditionary Force series)
5. Going out on a genre limb … Commander Shepard and the crew of Normandy (Mass Effect video game trilogy)
Man I love Farscape, but I don’t know if I’d say that I would trust them. I mean the track record for people who visit Moya, or who are visited by Moya, is pretty bad.
The crew of the Enterprise-D. I mean, Picard, come on.
Everyone else can have the dysfunctional-as-hell crew of the Firefly. I’ll take the dysfunctional-as-hell crew of the Capricious, thank you. They found the big ship on the edge of the universe and, sure, they’re a bad deal for the whole galaxy, but they’re just competent enough to get themselves out of the trouble they’re not quite competent enough to avoid in the first place.
Though I wouldn’t say no to the sanitation crew of the EMC Pufferfish.
I wouldn’t say super-competent, or even barely-competent at all, but I’d still like to join up with the crew of the JMC Mining Ship, Red Dwarf. It’d be fun-fun-fun…
Or the Orville, of course. It is the weirdest ship in the fleet, but still not bad in a crisis.
The crew of the Ghost from Star Wars: Rebels too.
@5 “Possibly you’re not recalling some of the Captains previous plans.”
@15, I recall, but things do have a way of working out. Of course somebody usually gets shot but as long as it’s not me….
With all due respect you’d have to pay me a lot to get on the Moya. And being the only woman on the Red Dwarf doesn’t strike me as the best idea either.
I would argue for the crew of Babylon 5.
Also Firefly, IF they have enough money to repair the ship…
@8, 17 – As long as there is a spare catalyzer aboard Serenity…
I’d say the crew of the Vorpal Blade, from John Ringo’s Voyage of the Space Bubble series
Put me in the company of Simon R. Green’s Deathstalker crew: Owen Deathstalker, Hazel De Ark, Jack Random, and Ruby Journey after they survived the Madness Maze!
Hal Spacejock. There’s a robot and a ship’s navcom competently running an interstellar freightliner, but because they are artificial intelligences, they don’t have the legal rights to own a spaceship and run a business. So they have to have a human who can be easily manipulated into pretending he runs the business; except he keeps making decisions; always the wrong decisions.
Sorry, folks, but the finest crew in the Known Universe is the compliment of the Galactic Patrol dreadnought Dauntless. These guys have smoked entire fleets
I trust the Nostromo crew!
As long as I’m not being attacked by aliens or protomolecules (and not because he ever fared poorly against then) , I’d actually like to travel with the quiet competence of Nathan Lowell’s Ishmael Wang.
Any crew so far mentioned, but never any of machinations of the Lost In Space families.
Richard Seaton and Martin Crane, from E E “Doc” Smith’s Skylark series, with a nod to Percival Stevens, IPC Spacehound.
No Honor Harrington mention? She’s an exteremly competent commander, and usually draws together a great crew. I mean, she can even bring you back from a prison planet called Hell.
Also: despite his shady dealings, the Stainless Steel Rat is very adept at weasling in and out of the odd pockets of the universe when needed. He starts as a crew of one, but before marries quite a competent lady, plus their kids are nearly born geniuses. They appear quite the competent crew all around.
Competent never seems to be without idiosyncrasies which rise out of growth, moments of genius, and a code of loyalty:
1. The Dendarii Free Mercenaries
2. The crew of Firefly
3. Babylon 5
4. Moya’s crew
Any Star Trek crew from the 23rd century onwards (23rd century security personnel exempted).
I would go on a long adventure to find a new home with Adama ( father and son ), play cards with Starbucks, pay my respect to the best president in tvshow history ( not you Gaius ). The crew of Galactica, even though that would end probably badly for most of us.
I’d like to put in a word for the Dorsai series of books by Gordon R. Dickson beginning with Tactics of Mistake. A fantastic set of books that encompass interstellar war and the growth of human intelligence.
It’s Zaphod Beeblebrox for me, all the way to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
1. I LOVE that the Expanse made it to this list. As lo g as it’s while Bobby Draper is part of the crew I’m all in to go adventuring with them.
2. How did Enterprise D crew not make it onto this list. I feel like they are better resourced and safer than anyone else here.
3. John ‘Blackjack’ Gerey and the crew of the Dauntless don’t even get an honorable mention? Jack Campbell crafts a perilous universe then they expertly thrive in it despite being under resourced and outnumbered.
@33 Tor seems to have something of grudge against ST:TNG right now, I don’t know why. I think the lack of in your face grimdarkness, and that it is the very antithesis of the current official ST franchise, has something to do with it. And of course it is the inspiration of The Orvill,e and Tor seems to really, really, really, really hate The Orville. Like The Orville murdered their firstborn in the cradle level of hate.
The crew of INS MacArthur seemed adept at everything except pest control, the survivors will have a handle on that now. Lazarus Long and Dora master space and time.
Lazarus Long and his family/crew aboard the “Dora”. Any permutations of his family and friends are the best bet you have of staying alive and loved!
The Doctor + Romana comes to mind as being competent.
I like The Expanse, but I am NOT going ANYWHERE with James Holden. All the others characters are fine with me though.
@38 I thought the whole point of The Expanse was that we very specifically were not going anywhere at all and were stuck here? Same with Firefly, we went somewhere, but are not leaving it at all.
I wouldn’t mind hitching a ride on the good ship Marathon, though her crew tends more to the colorful than the competent. Every time they land on a new planet things immediately go pear shaped, but they always make it home.
I’m referring to Eric Frank Russell’s Men, Martians and Machines. I’d be the only woman on board but this shipload of fifties gentlemen would undoubtedly treat me like glass with a lot of awkward turning of caps and ‘ma’ams’.
The crew of the Pegasus (mostly), from James Wittenbach “Worlds Apart” series.
You could do worse than hire the Evening Bird out of Uldune. The captain and his young ward are people of great resource as we see in Witches of Karres.
Any of the crews around any Traveller gaming table.
This venerable old roleplaying game revolves around the theme of a troupe of disparate stellar wanderers lumped together in a rusty old space bucket, getting into scrapes and somehow saving the subsector again and again, while somehow also making a fortune from speculative trade – and even the occasional bit of space piracy, because everybody loves a space pirate in Traveller.
It’s the central theme of Traveller that nobody can make it in space on their own; and that no matter where you come from, it’s where you’re going to next that counts, as long as you do it together, and no crewmember gets stranded.
@38 The pair that make up James S A Corey have said that they like scifi that is about the near future where it’s all in one solar system and fairly grounded and they like scifi that is about big operatics in the far future with vast space empires and that sort of thing. They’re writing the Expanse because they feel that there’s never been anything that explores the space between the two, where the local becomes the galactic. So while it does start with the notion of being stuck in the solar system, the fact of the protomolecule opens up a future beyond the heliosphere.
Crew’s I’d happily hire to transport me and my plot mcguffin across the universe:
Moya from Farscape
The Lady MacBeth from the Nights Dawn trilogy
The Justice of Toren from the Ancillary trilogy (at least you’d never be short of a cup of tea)
The Mistake Not… from The Hydrogen Sonata. Well, pretty much any Culture ship, but the Mistake Not… has the edge for me. It’s full name is quite the mouthful however.
The Ares from The Martian. If you were stranded on a planet, you know they’d be back to rescue you (bright your own soundtrack however).
If I had to join or rely on a fictional crew then my first choice would obviously be the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701-D/E, and second place goes to the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager, NCC-74656. Quite frankly, there’s almost nothing those two crews can’t beat.
Third is more complicated, and a tie between three ships, the Serenity, the Bebop and the Heart of Gold. Lets face it, who wouldn’t want to be a part of one of those families?
I’m in agreement with the crew of the Wayfarer from the original post.
And with @24 about traveling with Ishmael Wang.
I’ll add the crew of the Earthrise, in the series by M.C.A. Hogarth that begins with the book of that name. The crew includes the human captain, several representatives of the “Pelted” races long ago genetically engineered by humans, a couple of true aliens, and the late addition of an Eldritch, the most mysterious race in the galaxy. Whatever kind of trouble you are in, they won’t abandon you, even if the ship is (yet again) running short of funds. Plus, the ship has a fabulous bubble that combines a view out to the stars with a greenhouse that lets the cook grow fresh food and the crew have a place to relax.
@42 I agree with the Dauntless out of Uldune
But my first choice will be grizzled space dog of the starways – Rim Worlds Rear Admiral John Grimes.
I’ve got a long-standing crush on the Minds, and would happily tour spacetime with the Interesting Times Gang, myself.
No love for Pyanfar Chanur and her crew?
I LOVE the sanitation crew of the EMC Pufferfish (Terminal Alliance), as well as the Prisoners/crew of Perdition (The Dred Chronicles)
I’d put the SG1 on there. Who else has destroyed an invading fleet by firing a star into them?
Cal Carver and the Space Team from the Space Team series by Scottish author Barry Hutchison
I have always envied Crichton for roaming space with the Farscape ladies – fascinating women, all of them, including her Ladyship (pardon the pun!) Moya herself…
However, the Galactica crew, the classic Enterprise crew, Cap’n Picard’s and Captain Janeway’s Star Trek crews are also a lot I wouldn’t mind joining as the rogue wandering scholar and explorer!
I can have the temper of a hungover Klingon, the cunning of a Ferengi merchant, and enough Hessian mountain stubbornness to withstand Scorpius’ sick mind games or any Borg attempt to assimilate me…
But then, I wouldn’t mind riding shotgun aboard Han Solo’s Millennial Falcon either – and I do like Wookies and Ewoks (it’s all in the eyes, reminding me of my passed best pal – a Jack Russell…)
I’m a huge Farscape fan, and love Firefly, too. A new book with an intriguing crew is Starship Repo by Patrick Tomlinson, which I read recently. Lots of inventive alien creatures who all come together on missions to repo starships whose owners have fallen behind on their payments.
Captain Jester and the Omega Mob from Robert Asprin’s Phule’s Company Series: they’re crazy but it works!
There’s a few good ones in anime – here’s a couple of my favorites.
The Bebop (Cowboy Bebop): You’re probably going to be broke most of the time, but you’ll otherwise be trucking around with a bunch of fun and interesting people – just remind Spike about that fridge in the back of the hold.
The Soyokaze (The Irresponsible Captain Tylor): You’re on a warship that is a dumping ground for the misfits and losers of the navy. The good news is that the captain is the captain is absurdly chill, and is either the luckiest person on the face of the earth or a complete genius, so you have a good chance of getting through alive.
The Streaker from Brin’s Uplift universe. Dodging all of the conservative crazies for years and embarrassing them no end was wonderful.
Longtime lurker coming out to Muppet flail about Tanya Huff’s Valor Confederation series. Staff-then-Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is who I’d want to be standing next to when everything goes wrong. Her multi-world crew, some of whom stay with her into the next series, make a strong, talented and unlikely team. Bonus: dry and wickedly funny observations about officers and command chains.
What? No love for the (changing) crew of “Liberator” and Blakes 7?
@27 I think the crew members who called Harrington “The Salamander” while corrupt criminals, had a bit of a point. She wins against ridiculous odds, but most of the time, 2/3 of her crew is killed in the process. Keep in mind I haven’t read anything past “War of Honor” so I may be out of date. When Weber started devoting whole pages to the specific finger motions of Tree Cat sign language, I finally gave up on his ever less relevant writing style. I think he may have peaked with “The Armageddon Troll”.
@52 SG-1 definitely. O’Neill, Carter, Daniel, and Teal’c can get you out of any situation. They technically don’t have their own spaceship, but they’ve captured countless vessels using nothing more than a P-90 and a piece of wire, and they can borrow the Odyssey in a pinch.
And we can bring Creighton (Cameron Mitchell!) and Aeryn (Vala!) along for the ride.
Other top nominees: the crew of the USS Enterprise-D, USS Voyager, and SSV Normandy.
Can’t believe no one has mentioned the Killjoys crew.
Sci-Fi would have to be Kirk, Bones, Spock, and Scotty (the originals). But how about one from fantasy? I give you (drumbeats) THE BLACK COMPANY! If you need to get out of a tight spot, or need serious dirty tricks played, or an empire defended and/or brought down, Croaker, One-eye, Goblin, Silent, Elmo, and Raven are your guys (as long as you play by their rules)!
How can you forget about the crew in Futurama? Fry, and especially Leela?
Who are your favorite hyper-competent ensembles?
Blake’s Seven, a BBC SciFi Series. was short-lived but good. SPOILER: They all *********** at the end! But IF THEY DIDN’T? Love ultra-advanced High-tech AI ships and an against all odds crew. Blake is essentially a pacifist with control of the known universe’s most powerful armed starship. He and his unjustly imprisoned political prisoners inexplicably end up in an ultra-advanced starship with it’s actively learning AI-control system. Pursued across the universe by an unstoppable Government Enforcer, they manage to unite the resistance and build an unstoppable Alliance of followers..
I could never find the whole thing. I could only see it over a very bad off-the-air signal from Denver, CO’s PBS station. It would have been out on VHS or BETA, pre-DVD.
#27 you can keep Honor and her various ships. Her rate of losing crew members is a bit much for me.
But from Weber, there is also the Imperial Battleship Dahak. I’ll take him.
Seconding Firefly and SG1, sure.
But I didn’t see any mention of the Andromeda Ascendant, who is pretty darn competent all by herself, but when crewed by Captain Dylan Hunt and his team? Near-unstoppable. Beka can talk her way out of anything. Trance is the cutest (but occasionally very scary – you do not mess with time!). Seamus Harper can fix anything, with a hilarious comment for good measure. Tyr’s got intimidation down to an art. They are so much fun to watch. Dylan’s leadership and optimism brings them all together.
Roger Stone & family, The Rolling Stones, Heinlein, 1952.
And the multipage riff on the inefficiency of the automobile is worth the price of the book.
My favorite starship crew isn’t so much competent as hyper-incompetent, but they survive nonetheless. They are the crew of Vexxarr.
@20, Yes! As long as I didn’t need to get where I was going alive. Lol
I’d follow Captain John Sheridan and Cdr Susan Ivanova anywhere.
1. Blake’s 7; the crew of the Liberator. Not that I’d trust Blake per se; but you would always be crystal clear about Avon’s (late, lamented Paul Darrow) opinion! Yes, I’d trust them to get me anywhere. Mostly in trouble, but thats OK. Not sure about Scorpio though – I wouldn’t trust Tarrant at all.
2. Following straight on – Farscape, Moya’s crew. Heavily inspired by B7 above. Plus I know I would get on with them, because I actually met all of them except Ben Browder.
3. Enterprise-D without a doubt. I know I wouldn’t get to actually hang out with the Captain, but I would enjoy the chance for a quiet cup of earl grey with the Picard.
4. Betty – Alien Resurrection. OK, again not exactly trustworthy per se but fun to hang out with. They also really do look after each other.
5. and lastly as someone mentioned; Streaker from David Brin’s Uplift series. Though the tale of Streaker is rather tragic, her crew are all wonderful, especially the ‘Fins.
6. and also lastly – Heart of Gold, the ship with the best drinks cabinet in the Galaxy.
Any ship with Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr on board.
@66 Yes! Dahak was awesome.
I’d also put a vote in for the crew of the Cornuelle of Thomas Harlan’s In the Time of the Sixth Sun series. Wish he’d hurry up and come out with the next one.
My vote would be torn between the crew of Babylon 5 and all three crews of the SSV Normandy SR1 & SR2 from The original Mass Effect Trilogy.
How about the Raza’s and her wonderful crew from Dark Matter. I would go anywhere with them.
@66 Dahak is good, but I would also love to hang out with Weber’s linked Fury trio from In the Path of the Fury.
@67 Definitely second the Andromeda Ascendant.
David Drake’s Cinnabar RCN team of Adele Mundy and Daniel Leary do a great job of welding together competent crews, leading them into impossible messes, then bringing most of them home again with loads of prize money in their pockets. I would trust them.
Here’s to the crew of the Rene Magritte, who voted 8 to 5 to try to rescue Cordelia, that crazy Betan frill. (None of them voted for Steady Freddy, they all swear).
And I wouldn’t mind The Orville one bit, though I’d stay clear of Bortas and his rather too exciting family situation.
@79 Bortus is fine, but Klyden is a total ass. I truly don’t understand what Bortus sees in him.
Gotta go old school for some names that seem to be missing:
Crew of the Solar Queen from Andre Norton’s series.
Captain and crew of the Norway from Downbelow Station. Signy Mallory gets the job done.
@81. Or if you prefer civilian over military, rather than Signe Mallory in the Norway, how about either the Reillys in the Dublin Again or Sandor Kreja and his crew of Reillys in Le Cygne from Merchanter’s Luck.
The crew of the Dutiful Passage from Sharon Lee/Steve Miller’s Liaden Universe. Uber-competent and very much family-of-choice compatible. Do not get crosswise of Clan Korval.
Don’t forget Margaret Weiss & Don Perrin Mag Force 7 crew.
Thumbs up to Perdition crew. Serenity and Moya.
I can’t believe that I forgot to also mention the crew of The Good Ship Manatee, heads up she’s passing by!
@83 Oh yes, I forgot about the Dutiful Passage! Good choice! Although I think I might prefer to ship with Theo Waitley and her gathering crew aboard the sentient ship Bechimo in the same Liaden Universe.
Well, it seems no one mentioned the crew of the Hot Needle of Inquiry.
Louis Wu, Speaker-to-the-animals and Nessus. How weird is a combination of Human, Kzinti and Piersons puppeteer?
So, here we go:
1. The crew of Enterprise-D (ST:TNG)
2. The crew of Moya (Farscape)
3. The crew of Streaker (David Brin: Uplift)
4. The crew of Hot needle of inquiry (Larry Niven: Ringworld)
5. The crew of Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)
Honorable mentions: White Star (B5), Pride of Chanur (C. J. Cherryh: The Pride of Chanur), Talyn (Farscape), Prometheus (ST: Voyager), Biliskner (Stargate SG-1)
Trust Moya and (most of) her crew / passengers? Yes, indeed.
@87: Talyn? I don’t think I could ever find him totally trustworthy.
1. The Crew of and including Moya
2. The Super Adventure Team!! ( I want Ice Cream!!)
The Crew of The Raza in Dark Matter. C’mon they are frelling frigging awesome!