Captain Erika Hernandez is a character in the fictional Star Trek universe, introduced in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode, "Home". She is portrayed by Ada Maris .

Hernandez is the second Starfleet captain given command of a starship in Earth's Warp 5 program, and is assigned to Columbia (NX-02), the sister ship of Enterprise (NX-01).

"Home", which takes place in 2154, establishes that some years earlier Hernandez and Enterprise captain Jonathan Archer had been in a relationship, which was briefly rekinded during a therepeutic holiday Archer took following the Xindi mission.

Later, in the episode "Affliction ", Hernandez accepted the transfer of Enterprise chief engineer Charles Tucker, though she had to withstand complaints from her engineering crew, including requests for reassignment, due to Tucker's hard-driving manner of working.

In "Divergence ", the Columbia was used in a risky maneuver that allowed Tucker to perform an EVA to access a sabotaged Enterprise while both ships were still travelling at high warp. She later allowed Tucker to stay aboard Enterprise briefly in order to oversee repairs.

Continuity issues

The decision by the writers of Star Trek: Enterprise to introduce a female starship captain in the mid-22nd century (more than 100 years before Star Trek: The Original Series) was controversial with some fans, who felt a female should not be shown in command of a starship at this point in history. This stems from a one-line remark by a female character in the Original Series episode "Turnabout Intruder", "Your world of starship captains doesn't admit women."

Over the years, some Trek purists have felt that this dialogue indicated that, for whatever reason, women were not allowed to captain starships at the time of TOS. Indeed the first female starship captain of that era would not appear on screen until the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry himself was reported as saying that the line was chauvanstic and regrettable.

An alternate interpretation of the line is that the character was referring to the fact that starship captains are "married" to their vessels, preventing long-term relationships with people from forming. This interpretation reflects an underlying theme of Star Trek that is present in all the series. The writers of "Home" took this interpretation of the line when they chose to make the captain of Columbia a woman, and there is no further canonical evidence to suggest that women were ever not allowed to command starships.