Just who is the best Captain (and I’ve even thrown in the other captains)
Judge them by whatever criteria you want, but please tell us why.
Trick question. Fleet Captain Christopher Pike is the answer. (although, I may be biased.)
There’s always one =p
Also I did do this topic just because I knew this argument would come about eventually.
I like Kirk he’s what made star trek work and was the reason for all the other series, and I love William Shatner, because he’s as cool of a celebrity I have ever met albeit very briefly, but all in all I like Sisko cause had and excuse my language all the ball’s of Kirk but still held the respect factor so its Sisko
I’ll always remember William Shatner as Denny Crane
Ahem. Check the avatar. I’m just sayin’.
It seems this debate never goes away. And it shouldn’t. In 3976, Cornelius and Dr. Zaius will almost come to blows in council chambers over it.
Yet you’ve also listed those other Captains, so let’s deal with them first.
Archer and the long road: Many of the Star Trek leads have had their exposition time but Archer’s always felt like, “OK I’m about to make a speech, engage my acting voice.” If you listen real hard you can hear ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’.
Janeway - Woman driver: The first female captain and she gets her ship lost. It must be an inside joke for the writing staff since Deanna crashed the Enterprise, not once but twice. That must have been some insurance write-off.
Sisko - Can breathe I breathe get breathe some breathe air exhale: I just love when Sisko got worked up. C’mon Hawk kick some a$$!!
All that being said, I would follow each and every one of those captains into battle. They always put their crew first and were admirable role models. Man, I miss me some Trek.
Now on the main event: Kirk vs. Picard. That’s like choosing Chocolate or Vanilla. It all boils down to preference.
Everytime Picard says engage, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. In the first episode he faces the god-like Q and by the end he’s telling it to piss-off. Picard is a man of incredible passion and intelligence. We are not worthy! His Ahab is magnificent. When he has the tustle with his brother in the vineyards and breaks down, it gets me everytime.
Personally my vote is for Kirk. The man battled God and won!! He has an ego the size of a Dyson sphere. When Starfleet took his ship, he stole it and wrecked another (Excelsior) and then blew up the Enterprise to off some Klingons. When a genetically advanced dude (KHAN!!) says, “I have 10 times your strength.” Kirk throws a punch at him, gets thrown against a bulkhead, grabs a pipe and goes medieval. He does a tumble roll like nobody. Diplomacy for Kirk is a phaser and a smirk. He is Kraft and Macaroni, the cheesiest, yet he is AWESOME!!
you know what your right the man beat god that makes him the best, i officially change my mind i mean he beat god, saved the whales and killed a whole bunch of Kingon’s in the process.
how could I have gone so wrong
Have you ever seen Kirk reading a book? (Apart from the scene in STII, when he pretended to try to read a book).
Anyway, I voted Jean-Luc Picard, French Captain with a British accent, and speaking of books, I love the scene in The Royale, when they give him the copy of the book and he reads the first sentence out loud and immediately judges it to be pretty dreadful. Makes me feel like a philologist like me could captain a starship, too.
I saw this thread last night, and actually stopped myself from posting then, because, MAN !, it’s a hard choice !
We’ve got Kirk, the original (Cpt. Pike excepted, my humble apologies to ‘our’ Pike, but the poor guy not only got locked in an aquarium with dirty-minded bubble-headed voyeurs and a hot babe, but his pilot episode tanked !!) Kirk was a great captain for the times, a guy every straight-laced nine to fiver who secretly wanted to be one of the Beatles could look up to, a guy who broke the rules and won the fights, and landed the hottest green girl in the quadrant every time. He was respected by his men and tolerated by his superiors, because he always pulled it off in the end. And the whole Spock/Kirk dynamic was great, Spock supplying the helpful hints along the way to jog Kirk’s brain into making a sensible decision once in awhile…(ok, just joking…maybe).
Picard though, he’s a pretty together guy. He’s got guts, he’s just as ‘boldly going’ as Kirk ever was, but he’s also got a very good mind to go with his excellent leadership qualities. He’s a better listener, delegates authority well, and respects the decisions of his crew. Picard doesn’t always get the green hottie, because he’s more concerned with helping out the other 5 million people on her planet find a way to eat ! Picard’s just as tough, but might explore another option or two before blowing the other guy’s ship into plasma. He beat the Borg ! And yes, when he says “engage”, I feel all safe and everything’s right with the world again.
I think I’d rather be on a landing party with Picard’s crew than Kirk’s (I know, tell that to Tasha Yar…), and I’d rather be in a battle with Picard on the bridge…and I never thought Kirk could be replaced in my Star Trek brain by a calm, bald, introspective guy, but there ya go…I vote Picard.
Ok, I’m for Janeway all the way, beauty, brains, sexual tension with the smoking hot Chakotee (sp???), and though Picard had to battle Q, he never had to fend off Q trying to impregnate him (that we know of). Nothing against Kirk or Pircard, but Voyager to me was Star Trek at its best.
Enterprise - totally agree with above said, and would add, it was like every character on the show was just based on some stereotype - kind of like tillium ship workers in BSG without any of the depth (though there was little, I’m afraid to say - guess what, “little guys” rarely refer to themselves as such, and this whole “masses of undereducated regular joes” idea is as inaccurate as it is here in our universe and talked about by the talking heads as idiotically and stereotypically…says the waitress with a masters degree who makes WAY more money waiting tables than she ever did with “a real job”…)
Now, about Sisko, a fabulous character, but I have a REAL hard time separating the man from the captain - years ago, when the show was still on the air, every interview with him that I read began by him saying he didn’t want to discuss the lowly Star Trek issue, and how he was such a shakespearian actor and blah blah blah I’m so great blah blah blah. Everytime I saw DS9 after that, all I could think of and see was the disdain this man held for the role he was lowering himself to play…
Ok, I’m done ranting for the day - how about a “who’s the hottest ST captain poll” ?!
Oh that’s pretty easy. Picard … er… Patrick Stewart was voted “Sexiest Man Alive” sometime in the late 90s/early 00s …
Her? (I have got to stop with these Arrested Development references :D)
Picard has my vote, Sisko a reasonably close second.
My vote is picard, hes reasonable, smart, cares for his crew and focuses on the job at hand. Plus he hashis own song. It probably helps that he was my ‘first’ captain when I decided I wanted to watch star trek, and Patrick Stewart is one of my favorite actors ever.
Second would be Janeway, though at times I find her to be too emotional or sentimental she still represents a fine balance between leader and friend. Holding together the voyager crew is a job i’m not sure picard or kirk could have managed.
Thirdly would be Kirk, As a Leader he’s good, but personally I think he would have made a better first officer, hes good at diplomacy and forging personal relations with alien species but he seems a bit too ‘cavalier’ to be captain, then again I’m just starting to watch star trek: TOS so I’m probably missing out.
Making me pick a captain is like picking between my kids. Or something like kids, since I don’t have any kids. But you get my point. 
Well put. Totally agree.
Actually I’ve heard this said about Robert Beltran (aka smoking hot Chakotay). He has been described as being bitterly outspoken about Voyager and it’s direction.
Whenever I hear about personal views of actors I think of Tom Cruise. Tom is a meglomaniac with delusions of power. Yet I can sit down and enjoy one of his films. He’s an actor and he does his job. I don’t have to like him as a person to appreciate his work. Avery’s the actor, Sisko is the character. Try not to let that interfere with your enjoyment of a quality show.
I’ve mentioned somewhere else (don’t remember right now) that at times this plays an important role in who you fancy as Captain. It’s sort of like your first love, you never forget.
I just finished watching the TNG episode Birthright, Part 1, and saw a great example of why Picard is the runaway winner in this poll. Data is accidentally shut down and has a “vision” after which he visits Picard for advice. Picard’s take: he suggests that Data is a “culture of one – no less important than a culture of one billion.” When asked to explain, he posits, “when we look upon Michelangelo’s David, we don’t ask what it inspires in others. We understand what it inspires in us.”
A captain as familiar with the arts as the sciences – and a skilled leader to boot? He’s got my vote.
ummmmmmm Han Solo?
Ok, I used to have these on my computer, saved from my old text BBS days. Don’t anymore but they are still online.
Kirk vs Picard:
http://www.duke.edu/web/DRAGO/humor/trek/kirk-vs-picard.html
Picard vs Janeway:
http://www.gamebits.net/kgagne/startrek/captains/
I’m not really a Trek person, but I used to watch ST after school in the evenings so I had to pick Kirk. I like Sean Connery too, even though others have brought great personal style to the role of Bond, there’s something about being the first. Kirk was handsome and brave and had good people around him. I love him in TWOK movie the best. I’m am looking forward to the new movie and seeing how the young captain is portrayed.
Picard embodies the best characteristics of all the other captains -
The…human…qualities…of…Kirk (say it Shatner style)
The tactical qualities of Sisko.
The make-it-up-as-you-go ingenuity of Janeway.
The wonder of exploration qualities of Archer.
And his own diplomatic qualities. The complete package.