May
2009
Who Is The Best Star Trek Captain
Ever since the week of September 28, 1987, there has been a question that has plagued this planet: Who is the best Star Trek captain?
The week of September 28,1987 was when Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered in syndication, and since that time there has been no more hotly debated topic amongst Star Trek fans who the best Captain is. The problem, as I see it, is everyone’s favorite has always come down to emotion. They base their love of a particular Captain on which one they grew up with, or that they know the best. I’ve always tried to approach it more as, “Which Captain would I actually follow into a battle?”, and that is exactly how I have put this list together.
First I will give you the Captains in chronological order by the show’s timeline, and then I’ll get down to the nitty gritty at the end. Enjoy!… and try not to kill me for my rankings!
Capt. Jonathan Archer, Enterprise
While Enterprise was the fifth, and final, Star Trek television series, it was actually the first in the timeline as it takes place towards the beginning of the United Federation of Planets (UFP).
Capt. Archer seemed very confused about what it meant to be a Captain through out the run of his series. He went from a wide-eyed explorer who loved the stars to a commanding officer who was willing to make morally questionable command decisions as the series went on.
Perhaps it could be chalked up to the fact the UFP was still in its infancy, and they hadn’t set down a lot of rules yet, such as “the prime directive”, but he just seemed to never fully understand what it meant to be a captain, and never had that “take no guff” air of command about him without swinging to the extreme ends of the pendulum.
Capt. James T. Kirk, Star Trek: The Original Series
Oh, Kirk. He was the first exposure so many people had to the world of Star Trek, and so they judge everything since by the standards he set. And oh what standards those were!
The problem with Capt. Kirk is that he was an adrenaline junkie. He never met an alien he didn’t want to shoot or sleep with. Diplomacy? What the heck is that?!? It’s hard to say how good he was as an actual officer, but there is no question that his crew was loyal to him, and would have followed him any where he went. Course, that may have lead them into an even worse problem, but who cared at that point?
Of all the Captains, Kirk was clearly the most ‘by the seat of his pants’ one in the history of the franchise. He seemed to luck into solutions to situations more than actually solving them, or he would end up leaving it to his crew which always seemed far more capable than him. He was clearly a product of the time frame this show was made in, but that carried over to the movie franchise, so I’m not sure that can even be used as a defense. He was a decent Captain, just probably not the best.
(Please note this is all based on William Shatner’s performance in the role, I have not seen the new movie yet, but from what I know, it would have to be almost considered a seperate character)
Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
If Capt. Kirk wasn’t your introduction to Star Trek, then it was Capt. Picard, and then he’s the one you judge everyone else by. However, unlike Kirk, he actually seemed like an actual Captain.
Unlike his predecessor (in the history of Star Trek, 70-some years separated Picard and Kirk, so I mean as characters), Picard was truly a commander. He was enough of a diplomat that he would be called upon to serve as the arbitrator in peace negotiations, but he was a man of action when needed, and at that he was a brilliant tactician.
One thing the UFP (yes, really the show’s writers) did between the original series and this one was to make the rule that the Captain of a starship couldn’t go on “away missions”. This eliminated a lot of the potential for Picard to go all Kirk on an alien race (”Should I sleep with it or kill it?!?”), and that was all left to his second in command, Cmdr. Riker.
I think Picard brought a certain elegance to the rank, and it wasn’t just Patrick Stewart’s Shakespearean training, it was that the writer’s realized a Captain shouldn’t be so much of a cowboy, but someone that people would actually want to follow into battle.
Capt. Benjamin Sisko, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Capt. Sisko is a tough one to talk about because he was in such a different situation than any other commanding officer in the history of the series.
While he did start off at the rank of Commander at the beginning of the series, he was promoted to Captain later in the series. No matter what his rank was, he was still the top ranked officer on Deep Space Nine and on the U.S.S. Defiant. While this was actually my personal favorite of the five series, I have to call it as it is, and Sisko was always more of a glorified dock manager than a “Captain”. Yes, there were moments that you could say were Captain like, especially when fighting the Dominion, his primary job was to keep the station running smoothly, which was essentially a seaport.
I think if he had been out running around the galaxy like all of the other Captains he would have proven himself a very capable Captain, but going simply by what we saw on screen, he just didn’t really have the opportunities the others did.
Capt. Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager
Voyager was the series I was personally most disappointed with because they missed an oppurtuinty to have the ship come home with pipes sticking out at odd angles in the hallways, plates missing from the hull and so on. Instead the ship came home looking like it had regular servicing at a Starbase, and a glorious oppurtunity to show a less than shiny Starfleet vessel was totally missed.
That aside, Janeway was probably the Captain with the most weight put on her shoulders. 70,000 light years from home, a crew made up of Starfleet regulars and Marquis renegades, and yet she kept them together until they found an eventual way home. If this wasn’t a true example of someone acting like a Captain, being a true leader of people, I don’t know what is.
While the show may not have been the best, it was actually the best they ever did at showing a Captain under trying circumstances. It doesn’t mean she was the overall best, but it certainly shot her up my personal rankings.
Conclusion
So, what is my personal final list? Well, I’ll tell you this, I based it on command experience shown, and not on which series I liked the most, or which I watched first. Basically, I tried to remove all emotion from the list, so I know this will be a ranking that gets much disagreement, but it’s how I did it.
- Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Capt. Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager
- Capt. James T. Kirk, Star Trek: The Original Series
- Capt. Benjamin Sisko, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Capt. Jonathan Archer, Enterprise
So, there you have it, probably not the way most people would rank them, but I explained how I reached my conclusions, and I truly doubt you could find any two Star Trek fans who agree 100% on the order.
If you enjoyed this list, you may also like Who Is The Best James Bond & Who Is The Best Doctor Who.
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Jolene | May 8th, 2009 at 8:55 pm #
Picard, Kirk, Sisko, and Janeway are mine. I never watched Enterprise.
Kandarr | May 8th, 2009 at 8:58 pm #
Lol this list sucks, Janeway 2nd best? U have got to be joking.
Scipio | May 9th, 2009 at 3:04 am #
I would switch Janeway and Sisko, but definitely Picard way in front.
Akco | May 10th, 2009 at 12:30 am #
Agreed.
xantres | May 13th, 2009 at 12:17 am #
Kirk as played in the new Star Trek movie is fairly faithful to the character in the original series. The only difference I would note is that he seems younger and somewhat less experienced at seducing women. He still flies by the seat of his pants through the whole movie.
You forgot captain Christopher Pike, who appeared briefly in the original series and who makes an appearance in the new movie. Where would he fit into the list? Or is his airtime too short to make the list?
seanpaune | May 14th, 2009 at 3:38 pm #
I pondered including Pike, but eventually decided to stick to Captains that had their own series. If I had included him I would have had to also include Sulu being Captain of the Excelsior in the movies and on an episode of Voyager.
StumbleUpon Is One Wacky Site - SeanPAune.com | June 10th, 2009 at 11:42 am #
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MikeClitoris | June 11th, 2009 at 1:16 pm #
k well make your own fucking list since you think it sucks… You say it sucks then state why it sucks.
shane laser | June 11th, 2009 at 5:30 pm #
You're right about Kirk being sort of a space cowboy when he meets alien races. But I did enjoy how he acted the most like a military commander. He regularly yelled at his subordinates to keep them on their toes and only really fraternized with Spock and McCoy. Gene Roddenberry, with the introduction of "Next Generation" enacted a policy of "everybody is best friends – any ensign can talk to the captain about any problem (like puberty)" and "ignore any order you think is bogus" that stayed with the show ever since. I don't know (i'm not in the armed services), I just don't think it's like that in the military. I think Gene just wished it was when he was a lowly ensign in the navy.
Ash | June 11th, 2009 at 6:00 pm #
I totally agree, the original series was made when a large chunk of people in the country had fought in either WWII or Korea, and the average TV show producer or director actually had a notion of what the military was like. Most people only remember his jokey-priceline.com persona, or his exploits with women, but if you watch the series again with a fresh view you'll see that he does act like a real navy captain…not a love-boat captain like Picard et al. Picard was a great negotiator/diplomat, but that is not the root of a great ship captain…
Riker is a perfect example of how mis-placed the public's opinion is of the James Kirk character…they tried to recreate him in Riker, but he always seemed like a lame character because they missed the essence of Kirk: a true battle captain with a military mind.
You're the first person I've seen who had the same theory on what made Kirk work…Shane Laser's a god-damn genius.
Spanky | June 12th, 2009 at 1:14 pm #
As a retired military man I can say that shane laser hit the nail square on the head. Given the rough and tumble frontier of deep space, I'd much rather serve under a kirk than a picard any day of the week. Diplomats make poor soldiers.
john | June 12th, 2009 at 4:44 pm #
just switch kirk and picard and the list would be perfect
Trekker | June 12th, 2009 at 5:25 pm #
None of them are captains but Kirk. All the rest are wannabe's.
Sylana | June 17th, 2009 at 12:48 am #
Not having actually watched Enterprise at all, I can't comment on Archer as a Captain. However, I think the list as is is fairly close to the mark. What really differentiated the series were the time periods and circumstances, and the captains fit their places in time rather well. The UFP in Kirk's era were still rather rough-and-tumble. The Klingons were enemies, the Romulans were enigmas, and the alpha quadrant was still a fairly uncivilized, and unexplored, place. Kirk fit that. He was a bit of a cowboy, yes, but he was a charismatic leader, and that's all he really had to be. He had Spock, McCoy, and Scotty to do most of the problem-solving for him- all he had to do was give orders and occasionally kill bad guys.
Picard, on the other hand, was supposed to be a diplomat. In that 70 years, the galaxy had settled down a bit, most of the quadrant was explored, and until the Borg showed up, there were really no major enemies (yes, the Romulans were still there, but we had a tentative peace with them). All he was expected to do was run around, put out the occasional brush fire, and make sure everyone was behaving properly. Again, he had good subordinates, but he didn't rely on them as heavily for every minor decision.
Sisko really was the odd man out. Taking command of a barely functioning space station and turning it into a major starport, dealing with the Cardassians, and then the Dominion. He was also the only one that had to deal with a full-out war, and I think he performed wonderfully from what I saw of the final two seasons (I missed most of them, due to a very odd work and school schedule, and have never caught up)
Janeway just plain had rotten luck. Considering the position she was in, and the weirdness that prevailed in that series, I'm surprised they made it home at all. Again, I havent watched the entire series, but I'm fairly sure that I would've never made it through a month in that situation, much less several years.
redopz | June 22nd, 2009 at 2:48 am #
lawl the only reason you couldn't find 2 star trek fans who agreed is because theirs not enough out there ;)
Gerald | June 22nd, 2009 at 6:57 am #
Props to redopz for a most noble, yet highly impotent trolling attempt….unfortunately it fell to the ground like a scud missile
STVoyager | September 6th, 2009 at 4:03 pm #
I agree, MikeClitoris! Janeway belongs on the place where you put her!
ittarter | September 7th, 2009 at 1:21 am #
The final line is amusing. “I truly doubt you could find any two Star Trek fans who agree 100% on the order.”
Well, given that there are only five non-repeating variables, there is a very finite number of possibilities with respect to the order of greatness of the five Star Trek “captains.” My count is eighty. I didn’t calculate it mathematically, but even if I’m wrong, there are WAY more than eighty Trekkies out there!