Comments on: Who Is The Best Star Trek Captain

By: Ash

Ash — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:40:49 +0000

For me it is

1. Picard
2. Sisko (sometimes #1 depending on my mood)
3. Kirk
4. Archer
5. Janeway ( she had so many chances to just send her crew home, but NOOOO she always had to take the moral high ground, uggghhhh character was an Epic FAIL!!!!

By: ittarter

ittarter — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:21:35 +0000

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!

By: STVoyager

STVoyager — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:03:41 +0000

I agree, MikeClitoris! Janeway belongs on the place where you put her!

By: Gerald

Gerald — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:57:16 +0000

Props to redopz for a most noble, yet highly impotent trolling attempt….unfortunately it fell to the ground like a scud missile

By: redopz

redopz — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:48:13 +0000

lawl the only reason you couldn't find 2 star trek fans who agreed is because theirs not enough out there ;)

By: Sylana

Sylana — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:48:15 +0000

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.

By: Trekker

Trekker — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:25:05 +0000

None of them are captains but Kirk. All the rest are wannabe's.

By: john

john — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:44:43 +0000

just switch kirk and picard and the list would be perfect

By: Spanky

Spanky — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:14:06 +0000

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.

By: Ash

Ash — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:00:45 +0000

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.