A "starship captain" refers to the person who leads and commands a spaceship that travels through space. They are responsible for making important decisions, managing their crew, and ensuring the ship reaches its destination safely. Full definition
At first I wasn't so sure about Chris Pine as James T. Kirk; he looks more like a football hero / prom king than he does a rebellious starship captain who reads Dickens. (combustiblecelluloid.com)
If the object really is a gas cloud, the fireworks (at x-ray and infrared wavelengths) should reveal the extreme conditions that prevail around the galaxy's biggest black hole — useful information not only for astronomers studying supermassive black holes in other galaxies but also for starship captains the next time they voyage to the Milky Way's hub. (sciencemag.org)
Star Trek has the Prime Directive which directs starship captains to avoid interfering in the development of primitive alien cultures and although it seems to make sense at first glance it's just a fairy tale until we actually find ourselves dealing with such a scenario. (religion.blogs.cnn.com)