Picard is my gut reaction to that question. Though if I were to watch the shows again, I could choose to Janeway. I'm more interested in Voyager, but Next Gen has a lot of superior episodes in terms of quality.
I never liked Kirk, and I found Deep Space Nine and Enterprise to be uninteresting to the point where I don't know the names of their captains.
In Kirk vs Picard then Picard all the way
In Janeway vs Archer vs the guy from deep space 9 then Janeway.
Picard is still superior. I just like Picard because he is very calm and tactical and tries not to let emotions rule his judgements, he also takes into account the opinions of the crew more and is just generally a pleasant chap who would rather talk things over than start shooting.
I like Janeway though, she too is more human than Archer (although thats not hard)and cares greatly for her crew and like Picard is also very concious of her decisions and how they affect people.
I havent really seen much of Kirk to be honest but from what little I have seen (two or three of the movies) he seems a good captain, I just prefer Picards more thoughtful stlye.
I think that Archer is a horrible captain who makes rather stupid decisions and seems to have no emotions at all, he is far to cold and what emotion he does show is largely limited to anger or sadness, and then anger.
Picard, followed closely by Janeway. Both of them were written well, with the authority you expect of a commanding officer, but at the same time with more than enough eye for the ethical side of their various adventures. Also they remain human beings, something often forgotten in 'the hero' type characters, especially in sci-fi.
I would argue that Janeway (while a decent captain) threw ethics out the window every chance she got. Have you ever watched the opinionated reviews of episodes on youtube (by sfdebris)? They are not only hilarious, but he nails each captains flaws almost perfectly. Janeway tends to be a ***** whenever possible.
1. Picard
(genuinely interesting and compelling as a character, modelled heroic virtues that were actually compatible with the Federation's supposed utopianism, made outstanding contributions to canon)
2. Janeway
(actually a more interesting and inspiring heroic character than either Kirk or Picard -- she combined both of their virtues and added her own -- and was a far better female character than the bulk of other women who appeared in Trek; unfortunately she came along as the franchise was running out of dilithium and was given crap material to work with)
3. Kirk
(built the foundations, was a cut above the Standard Action Hero of his day, and Shatner showed occasional flashes of comic talent and genuine dramatic power)
4. Sisko
(would have been an interesting character in the hands of an actor with the talent needed to play him -- unfortunately Avery Brooks wasn't it)
5. Pike
(he was the guy in the pilot; not a cut above the Standard Action Hero of his day)
6. Archer
(let's... let's just never speak of this again)
A more detailed explanation here:
Pike: (I know he was only in the pilot, but still, he was a Captain.)
Great Moments: When he pressed the button that made the green light go on. (Just kidding. But not really.) Oh, hang on, I've got one: if he and his crew had gotten picked up for the main series, we would have had a pair of foxy babes as his sidekicks in place of Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley. Which... you know, hard to imagine, now, but I could probably have lived with that.
Crimes Against Canon: He was like one of those obliviously silly square-jawed heroes that Leslie Nielsen started out playing and then made a career out of parodying.
Kirk: (Hey, some of this sounds familiar...)
Pros: Dashing. Virile. Charismatic. Bold. Not entirely humorless, and even mildly funny on occasion.
Cons: Swaggering. Arrogant. Sanctimonious. Hypocritical. Not a fraction as cool without Spock and Bones there to do their sweet thing as his side men.
Great Moments: The corbomite device. The confrontation with the Gorn. "The Conscience of the King." Not one, but two legendary confrontations with Khan Noonian Singh (probably the best Trek villain ever). Helmed two of the finest cat-and-mouse space battles in Trek canon. Featured in the only "mirror-universe" Trek episode that ever needed to be written. Made history with the first interracial kiss on network television (given how rare it still is for this to happen, a pretty big deal). Delivered beautiful work in the best death scene in Trek canon, not to mention in the moving eulogy afterwards ("Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human..." Great stuff). And Shatner's legendary real-life antics later made possible the hysterically funny Galaxy Quest, so that must count for something.
Crimes Against Canon: The classic moments are actually pretty few and far between; he featured in far more bad TOS episodes than good ones (meaning every episode where they run into an alien planet "just like Earth," every episode where they swaggeringly tear up the Prime Directive that they're supposed to be sworn to uphold until death, any episode featuring Harry Mudd (probably the worst Trek villain ever), and truly God-awful tripe like The Omega Glory, The Squire of Gothos and Spock's Brain). Should have stepped aside from the movie franchise after Wrath of Khan; everything after that was garbage, especially The Final Frontier. Delivered terrible work in the most underwhelming death scene in Trek canon ("It was fun"? Piss off).
Picard:
Pros: Rational. Scholarly. Humane. Dignified. Prudent. Shrewd. Stalwart. Classier by a mile than Kirk could ever dream of being. Got a backstory that actually felt like a backstory. Didn't need the help of his supporting cast to be compelling or interesting.
Cons: Awkward. Stuffy. Pretentious. Sanctimonious. Periodic lapses into overacting stood out way more glaringly than anything on Kirk's constant plateau of overacting. Over-punctilious about legalisms and often prone to pursuing the nonviolent solution to situations to such a ridiculous degree that the writers had to bail him out with some spectacularly unlikely contrivance.
Great moments: The Picard Maneuver. "There... are... four... lights!" "Shaka, when the walls fell." Featured in and tied together the first and by far the best "finale" for a Trek series. Less promiscuous about his space-babes than Kirk, but more than made up in quality the lack of quantity: won the love of Famke Janssen, for instance -- easily worth a dozen of Kirk's interchangeable space floozies -- and without being skeevy about it, either. Faced off with some of the coolest Omnipotent and Hyper-Potent Beings any Trek crew encountered (including the mysterious Cosmic Lab Technician Nageelom, a series of increasingly fascinating confrontations with Q, and the living oil slick that killed Tasha Yar). Absolutely classic struggles with the Borg (best villainous Trek species until later series got hold of them). Wins best catch-phrase: "Make it so!" Wins best tie-in with a TOS cast member through his mind-meld bond and friendship with Spock's father, Sarek. Delivered solid dramatic moments by the bucketful, anchored a cast that felt like a cohesive and well-rounded ensemble in a way the TOS crew never did, and was the lynchpin of classic "social problems" episodes that introduced the Bajorans and the Cardassians, the warp and weft of Klingon and Romulan politics, and more.
Crimes Against Canon: Was lucky to survive TNG's mostly-awful first three seasons without getting cancelled. Pretty much every holodeck episode could and should have been shitcanned -- that was an even worse meme than TOS' "this planet is just like Earth" cliche -- along with every episode that depended on retreading a plot from a TOS episode and almost every episode involving cameos by TOS crew members. Data's Pinocchio Dilemmas of the Week got incredibly tiresome, and so did Picard's appointed role as go-to guy for talking him through 80% of them. Went 0 for 4 on the big screen: all the TNG movies were bad -- all of them -- and thanks to awful writing and some of the worst overacting of Patrick Stewart's career, Picard was often one of the worst parts of them, sometimes near-unrecognizable as the character from the series.
Sisko:
Pros: Charismatic. Brooding (yes, this is a plus -- he was the first Trek captain to have to genuinely struggle with dark impulses, traumas and impossibly outgunned situations for more than one episode at a time). Tough, but given a softer side by his role as a family man. Resourceful. Capable of sharp dealing and even outright ruthless tactics when necessary.
Cons: Wooden as George Washington's teeth; as cool as it was to see a black Captain on the bridge, Avery Brooks couldn't hold a candle to Shatner as an actor, let alone Stewart. Because of this, never became as interesting a figure as he should have been, and never felt like the heart of his crew in the way that Picard felt like the heart of TNG; the cast of side characters -- Odo, Quark, the Cardassian tailor-spy whose name I can't remember, Gul Dukat -- all eclipsed him from the beginning, and he didn't even have sidekicks to cover for his flaws like Kirk did. (Major Kira and Dax were too autonomous as characters to fulfill that role, and neither of them were all that well-acted either.)
Great Moments: DS9's early seasons had some of the most interesting writing of any Trek series, and during his flashes of competence Brooks could make it come alive: "Yes, sir, we met in battle. I was on the Saratoga at Wolf Three. Five. Nine." He had other cool moments, like the episode where the crew gets possessed by the ghosts of an ancient civilization and Sisko turns into a Nero-like figure obsessed with building an elaborate clock (a retread of a TNG plot device, but not a bad one). Not all that many of them, though.
Crimes Against Canon: Every time Brooks really tried to emote. And that was a lot of times.
Janeway:
Pros: Calm, confident, and authoritative, the kind of woman who commands a room just by stepping into it (even if she's just grabbing a cup of coffee). Preternaturally determined and incredibly. Combines some of the best virtues of earlier captains -- the bold decisiveness of Kirk, the rational temperance of Picard -- with an underlying emotional complexity that's all her own and distinctively feminine. Fittingly, probably the most interesting female crew member ever to appear on a Trek show; an inspiring figure, albeit suspiciously lacking in human flaws.
Cons: Again, didn't get to feel like quite the lynchpin of her crew that Picard became; in fairness, this felt like a production and writing problem (like the rest of the cast were often going through the motions), rather than a fault of Janeway.
Great Moments: Robbed, unfortunately. Voyager got off to a decent start but quickly settled into a rut of uninspired or just plain awful writing. It didn't produce anything in the way of truly classic episodes and Janeway didn't get to strut her stuff in many truly memorable scenes. Most of the really fun stuff went to the Emergency Medical Hologram.
Crimes Against Canon: The entire series, basically -- especially when they started Stunt Casting for Titties with Seven-of-Nine -- but it wasn't Janeway's fault.
Archer:
Pros: Uhhhhh... Scott Bakula has nice... hair...
Cons: Starts off the series as a whiny, annoying fucker complaining about how the stuffy old Vulcans won't let humanity take the car out on Saturday. Later transitions to just annoying. Primary response to seeing him: "Could we please cut to T'Pol now? Doesn't she have to, like, shower or something?" Secondary response: "At least let's see if there's a re-run of Quantum Leap on..."
Great Moments: When the episode ends and the credits roll. Even listening to that horrible Eighties Rawk soundtrack is preferable.
Crimes Against Canon: Again, basically the entire series. This time, though, the Captain is a major, major contributor to the awfulness -- along with his sidekicks, Security Officer Rigor Mortis and the Charmingly Stupid Engineer Trip (on loan from the extras casting calls on Talladega Nights, apparently) -- in ways that even Officer Sexy Vulcan couldn't rescue.
You seriously think any real Trekker could let you get away with diss-ing Scott Bakula, a.k.a. Sam Beckett?!?!?! (Quantum Leap). He was bloody awesome! He's tied for 2nd place in my book, with Sisco. I've seen every episode of every series at least twice, most thrice, and several four + times, and let me tell you, Season 3 of ENT is the BEST Star Trek story of all, including the Dominion War, including the mediocre Voyager ending, everything, you can't get away with calling him a whiner, especially when he was right! If you had watched the show, the Vulcan High Command which Jonathan was always complaining about, gets thrown out by T'Pau (yes, the very same from 'Amok Time'). The Vulcan's were corrupted at that point, so he was justified. And he made a damn brilliant Star Trek Captain, at times he was even better than Sisco.
*Reads entire post by BobDobolina, starting at 9:40pm*
*Pauses at 9:41 pm, to continue rebuttal rant*
You didn't like the 'BROOKS'?!? HE WAS AWESOME! If you've seen every episode of DS9 at least once, then I'll respect your opinion and move on, but this guy PWNS dude, he just pwns.
*Continues*
*and... Pauses in disgust*
...You don't like Deforest Kelly.... You don't like 'BONES'? What is the matter with you? You can't trade Bones for two hot babes, they were a dime a dozen in TOS. Shame on you sir, shame, on, you (I reserve to right to retract that, if you have anything further to add).
*continues again*
*pauses at Kirks greatest moments*
You've earnt some respect back, that was an excellent summary.
*continues*
*pauses*
Oi! That death scene was just fine thank you. 'EVERYTHING AFTER TWOK?!' Please! TWOK, TSFS and TVH were part of a trilogy series (albeit, arguably declining from oldest to newest in quality of trek), and Star Trek V was fantastic! Go watch that again. And what about Star Trek VI? 'The Undiscovered Country' the only flaw in that movie is the pink and red blood, and that was a cheap way of getting around a higher rating scheme *deep breathe* so younger people could watch it.
And movies 7-10 were great too, 11, well, that was crap, but I'm alone in that analysis.
*continues*
*Finishes Picard Pros*
Bravo, really quite a good summation there, very very good. In fact, I'm changing my first pick to Picard, but Kirk is like 95/100 vs. Picard?s 98/100, so an extremely close second now (poor Janeway gets knocked to 4th, you'll see).
*continues*
*and pauses*
Hang on! There were plenty of good Holographic episodes, what about the 10010101 episode? Or Professor Moriarty versus Data? Or the cellular peptide episode (Data), or how Geordi uses it to save the Enterprise? C'mon, there are heaps of good examples, I can't think of much it didn't contribute to in a good way.
Oh, and yes, they did re-use some TOS in the beginning, but that should be forgiven (mostly), they only did it... half a dozen times out of what? 200 odd episodes (or near abouts), and what about when Spock came on? Or Sarek? Those were all excellent episodes and even the one with Bones in the pilot episode, or Scotty's episode were both pretty good.
Data's Pinocchio dilemmas were tiresome? He was one of the greatest TNG characters, the movies were basically about Data (ST7 - Data gets emotion, ST8 - Data gets corrupted, ST9 - Data gets damaged, ST10 - Data says Good Bye), he was one of the best characters ever written, all those episodes with Lore, how he dealt with other crew members, the way he developed relationships, raised a childlike android, learnt human interactions, he was an outstanding character, and you should really have appreciated the work that went into him more.
0-4 on the big screen is just completely wrong. ST 8 excellent, ST 9 excellent, ST 10 excellent, only gap is slightly in ST 7, but on all other counts, they were fantastic, putting up ST 1 or ST 4 to ST 7, 7 wins, putting up ST 2 to ST 8... It?s very close, depending on who you are, you might vote for 8 over 2, anyway, this is off topic, we're discussing Captains how did we get onto the movies?
Unrecognisable? I'm sorry, if you're blind or impaired in another way, then I apologize for what I'm about to say, otherwise 'YOU'RE DEAD WRONG' (to coin a Conan O'Brien phrase), some of his best moments 'were in' the movies. How about how he reacted when his nephew and brother were killed in a fire? How he reacted, when his crew were telling him to blow up the ship and he refused to do it, out of revenge for the Borg, then immediately afterwards the scene with Lily, and how he was compared to Captain Ahab and his White Whale (Picard and Borg obviously), or how he fought for the prime directive in Star Trek 9 against the Son'a and the Starfleet Admiral (who was corrupt), and finally how he fought against his own doppelganger in Star Trek X, outwitting virtually his own personality! You just 'cannot' say they did not deserve the admiration and attention any diligent, truly concentrating, Star Trek fan would give any of those movies. Did I just imply you weren't concentrating if you have your opinion? Yes, that's right.
*finally, continues*
*finishes Avery Brookes/Sisco*
Oh get off your horse mate, Avery Brooks was a very good actor, and he portrayed Captain Sisco better than any A grade actor could've hoped to, and if you seriously believe he failed to emote, I have a good reason to believe you haven't seen all of his episodes, and your conclusions, simply aren't valid for his character. Unfair appraisal.
*continues*
*pauses at Janeway's cons*
Well, can't argue too much here. I loved 7of9s... contributions, but thought she was still a good character, almost logical like Tuvok in a way. I thought this cast was probably my second favourite, despite it being my second worst series. I hated Ensign Kim, and B'elanna was annoying, so was freaky deaky Chakotay, but everyone else was excellent, especially (as you pointed out), the EMH, he did get a lot of fun episodes, the ECH, the fiction novel he writes, based on the Voyager crew (love that back-pack!), but I thought Janeway did alright. I still like her, she just doesn't live up to the others, quite as high, I'd give her, a 89/100.
*continues... oh no, Archer, here comes a speech from me again I'm sure*
*immediately pauses at 'nice hair*
Look, go watch Quantum leap, appreciate Scott Bakula, then watch ENT if need be, but it's an excellent series, it has the best engineer in Star Trek (ah ah, Scotty got fat, and added a beard, Geordi was a dork... ok O'Brien was awesome, but Bellana just sucked, Trip is bloody brilliant). The show is seriously under rated, and sadly cut off before its time, in 10/15/20 years, people will look at ENT and go 'wow, why was it cut so short', you watch, they will. It's great, go watch (possible again).
*continues*
*pauses at the end*
Wow, quite a pathetic summation, in contrast to your preferable/favourable ones above, I gather you haven't watched the entire show? I can't blame you too much, pop-culture within the Trek community usually condemns the show, so you were probably naturally stunted in to begin with, but I highly reccomend you persevere through the first couple of seasons, I think you'll be hooked after you watch the amazing 3rd season, and feel sad, as I do, once you finish the 4th and final season. It's a great show, that's all I'll say.
Well, now that I've picked that post apart for 30 minutes, for me, it'd have to be.
1st = Picard
2nd = Kirk
3rd = Archer/Sisco
4th = Janeway (she's still good, but, occassionally, meh).
Key word: Favorite. Kirk. The origional series was more entertaining in an entertainment kind of way, so I like Kirk more by proxy of liking the origional series more.
benjamin sisko FTW! i generally like deep space 9 the most out of all star trek series, guess im not that much into the whole explore new worlds with spaceships kind of thing
Right now I've been in a Star Trek mood and I've been curious as to how the escapist favors one captain over another. I haven't watched enough TNG as much as the original movies to make any good decisions.
Picard. To me he's the figurehead for everything good about humanity, and a great balance of all the traits needed in a Starfleet Captain. He's intelligent, calm, open-minded, and an kick-ass soldier when he needs to be.
Also, all the Star Trek movies he's been in have always been a blast for me.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
