The History Of Star Trek's Rachel Garrett, The Enterprise's First Female Captain
At the end of the 1986 film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," Kirk (William Shatner), having gone back in time to retrieve extinct humpback whales and save the Earth from a space monster, was "punished" with a cheeky demotion to the rank of captain. He was also given a starship to command in the newly built U.S.S. Enterprise-A.
The following year, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" debuted, and it was set about 85 years after the events of "Star Trek IV." The new series took place on board the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. The alphabetical jump immediately intrigued Trekkies and chin-stroking began forthwith. Wither the Enterprise-B and Enterprise-C? Those ships provided a canonical mystery that wouldn't be revealed for a few years yet.
Then, in the third season of "Next Generation," one of those ships was finally revealed. In "Yesterday's Enterprise," a time portal opened up in front of the Enterprise-D and the Ambassador-class Enterprise-C flew out of it. It seems, however, that Enterprise-C's departure from its own timeline was catastrophic, as it vanished from a crucial battle about 20 years earlier. Thanks to causality, the Enterprise-D transformed into an alternate, wartime version of itself.
An ethical quandary arose. Should the Enterprise-C return to its own timeline and to certain doom, or should it stay in the 24th century and aid the (failing) war effort? The former decision would restore the galaxy to peace and save millions of lives, while the latter would save the lives of the C's crew. It's a trolley problem of galactic proportions.
The decision was ultimately pondered by the captain of the Enterprise-C, Rachel Garrett (Tricia O'Neil). Garrett, like any Starfleet captain, was resolute and cared deeply about her crew and ship. She met an untimely end.
Captain Rachel Garrett: The Early Days
Captain Garrett only ever appeared in "Yesterday's Enterprise," and her name wouldn't be mentioned in "Star Trek" again until the mention of her memorial in a 2023 episode of "Star Trek: Picard," a series set in the first decade of the 25th century. Garrett, at that late date, had a statue erected in her honor outside of a Starfleet recruitment facility. Sadly, thanks to a murderous gravity weapon, Garrett's statue was also destroyed on the day of its dedication ceremony. The poor captain never gets a break.
Rachel Garrett was the only female captain of a ship named Enterprise until Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) was appointed the captain of the U.S.S. Titan-A, which had, at the time of her captaincy, been rechristened the Enterprise-G. If one abides by "Star Trek" novels — which are non-canonical, but Trekkies are willing to entertain — Demora Sulu (played by Jacqueline Kim in "Star Trek: Generations") also served as the captain of the Enterprise-B after John Harriman (Alan Ruck) signed the Treaty of Algeron. In terms of "Star Trek" chronology, Captain Sulu may have preceded Captain Garrett, but in terms of TV air dates, Garrett was created first. As far as many Trekkies were concerned in 1990, Captain Garrett was the first female captain of the Enterprise.
There was also a comic book wherein Kirk was born female in a parallel universe. That's too obscure to mention, though.
Little has been said about Rachel Garrett's personal life in actual "Star Trek" dialogue, though. Luckily, as with everything in the franchise, the character has novels and a vast amount of expanded universe lore to draw from to fill in the details. Notably, Ilsa B. Bick's 2003 book "Well of Souls" expands greatly on Rachel Garrett and her history.
Garrett's personal life
By "Well of Souls" and a few other mentions in "Star Trek" novels, Captain Garrett was married to a Betazoid xenoarcheologist named Ven Kaldarren whom she met while a Lieutenant Junior Grade on the U.S.S. Argo (not to be confused with Captain Picard's dumb-ass dune buggy). The two had a son named Jason (a name perhaps inspired by her service on the Argo) before she and her husband divorced. As a Commander, Rachel Garrett served as the first officer on board a ship called the U.S.S. Carthage. In a fun repurposing of events, the Carthage was mentioned in an episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" as being present at an obscure war event called the Betreka Nebula Incident. No further details of the Incident are known.
In the 2000 book "Enterprise Logs" the short story called "Hour of Fire" by Robert Greenberger, however, Garrett's tenure as a first officer was said to be aboard a ship called the U.S.S. Gandhi. It's possible, though, that she served as the first officer on board multiple ships.
When Garrett was promoted to Captain, she was given command of the brand-new Enterprise-C. Thanks to the events of "Yesterday's Enterprise," we also know how Garrett died: in an explosion, a chunk of metal was embedded in her head, killing her instantly.
In the 1998 video game "Starship Creator," some other fun, incidental details were included in Captain Garrett's biography. She has a sister named Sarah, for instance, and a brother named Robert James. She was born in Madison, Indiana to parents named Judith and David. No details were provided about Captain Garrett's family. Indeed, those names are so obscure that even the writers of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" wouldn't think to mention them.