Captain’s Blog: Star Date -314120.2185792349
Calling all fellow geeks, nerds, dorks, and dweebs. It’s time to get out the vote. Of all the Star Trek series we’ve seen to date, whom would you rather serve under and call your captain?
Benjamin Cisco: Forged in the fires of Wolf 359, Cisco was the most soldierly of all the Star Trek captains (although he held the rank of Commander for much of the series). He was the only Captain to shoot first, ask questions later and managed to survive battles with The Borg, The Maquis, The Cardacians, The Breen, The Klingons, and The Dominion. He was also the only character to be worshiped as a religious icon or “Emissary” and the only one to ascend to some sort of godlike state of being at the end of the series (although Will Wheaton’s Wesley Crusher did something similar in TNG).
Katherine Janeway: Ok seriously, the only reason she makes the list is because of her success in battle with the Borg and Species 8472. These formidable adversaries allow an otherwise boring character consideration for the award.
Jean Luc Picard: Easily the most well rounded of all Captains. Jean Luc was well read, well exercised, and well spoken. Although the Enterprise D and E did see their share of combat (as well as the Star Gazer) Picard seemed more apt at avoiding a firefight than winning one. His slick tongue, intuition, and ability to smell a rat allowed him to stop many a battle before they even began. As one of few to go Borg and back, he is granted special consideration for the Star Trek Badass Award.
Jonathan Archer: He was the only character in Star Trek with more time travel experience than Kirk. Instead of a Vulcan, his sidekick was a hologram named Al with a computer named Ziggy and…. wait, oh who am I kidding, Sam Beckett never should have been cast as an Enterprise Captain. “Oh Boy.”
James T. Kirk: The man who started it all. With his A-Team-esque fist fighting and awkwardly paused sentences he traveled across the cosmos to strange new worlds. Yet, somehow he always managed to end up on Earth in the distant past. By far he was the most successful with the ladies and he was the only character to go from Captain to Admiral and then back to Captain again.
All right, Trekies, let’s hear it. Cast your vote for Best Captain in the comment section below and feel free to cite your reasons why. The most colorful and well-worded votes will be quoted when the winner is announced in a follow-up post at a later date.
Image Used in this Post
Star Trek – Silver Defiant image courtesy of Flickr user tkksummers published under the CC license.
~Man Overboard
32 Comments
Thanks to the link you provided I can live out the remainder of my days chronologically dating my non-existent stamp collection with star dates.
Man Overboard you are the hero of the day – don’t let your invisible friends tell you otherwise.
As far as Captains, Picard all the way; cerebral and cunning with a penchant for class.
Also, we can’t forget the Captain to be named later.
Thanks for the kind words Mr Molyneux.
I too cast my vote for Jean Luc Picard. The only true Renaissance man in Star Fleet.
Piccard all the way!
Who wouldn’t want a captain who can shine his head like a bowling ball?
Fox News Opinion Dynamics Polls show Jean Luc Picard with a commanding lead early on.
My vote is for Picard.
Captain Kirk!
Gotta go with Picard … cause let’s face it — if you’re a red shirt under Kirk, you have a lifespan of about 3.5 seconds. Stuck on Voyager, and you’ll wind up in the brig out of sheer boredom. Cisco is just too … well … Cisco for me (his speech patterns wore on my nerves at times). And the rest … uh, just plain no.
Picard all the way. High chance of survival, and it’ll look great on your resume.
Well done, Three, my sentiment exactly.
Tally after day one:
Jean Luc Picard: 5
James T. Kirk: 1
Now if I had to assign an order to the Captains it would be:
1. Picard
2. Kirk (it does not get any better than a middle name of Tiberius)
3. Janeway
4. Cisco Kid Was a Friend of Mine
5. Last and certainly least John Archer
Hi folks, new reader here. This is good stuff.
I have to cast my vote for Picard. Among all the other things, let’s not forget the immortal “Picard Maneuver”. None of the other Captains have a battle tactic named after them. Picard all the way.
Welcome Mike.
The Only true Captain is Captain Kirk. He is a man’s man! He gets all the ladies no matter the species!
Picard. He is the complete package, and a pimp. Gets all the ladies with that bald head.
Update: After two full days of voting we stand at:
Picard 7
Kirk 2
Cisco 0
Janeway 0
Archer 0
I’d have to go Picard, easily. I think it was just that whole British thing.
Janeway was my least favorite. She reminded me too much of Katherine Hepburn, who just isn’t Starfleet material.
While Voyager was my favorite series of Star Trek, Picard was easily the better captain.
One of the main reasons why is Q. Picard single handedly destroyed, and then created life on earth as we know it. That is time travel back further then all the others if you ask me.
Not to mention tricked Q into saving some planets.
Picard is my vote.
Excellent point Steve. I don’t think any of the captians ever had to deal with something to the extent of Q toying with the Enterprise D.
Although Cisco did have one run in with Q. That episode really established the difference between the two:
Cisco “I am not Picard!”
Q “No, you’re much easier to provoke.”
Are we going to get a Who Was the Best Star Trek Sidekick post from Gamble, Jack – Overboard, Man?
Hmmm – we may need to start with First Officers and work our way down from there. But that is another story.
I’m 65% Worf!
Apparently I really am the Captain – I got a 75% match to Kirk and 75% to Picard, with the next being 70% Riker.
I’m 95% Deanna Troi. A woman. What?
Well…I can’t say I didn’t expect it.
70% Geordi LaForge
-butterfly in the sky, I can fly just as high….
How bout Steuben. His vessel was responsible for romance. Plus it had shuffleboard.
Um…its spelled Captain ‘Sisko’ and ‘Kathryn’ Janeway. Wiki something before you write an article.
In this case, “um” would be followed by a comma not three periods. Also, your use of “its” is inappropriate as you mean to say a contraction of “it is” and, as such, you require an apostrophe.
Ensure grammatical perfection before you make an Internet Troll Wiki recommendation based on spelling errors.
Actually the implementation of the ellipsis is acceptable in this case, as it indicates a pause in speech.
Since when is a Wiki a credible source?
Ruby, they should make blogosphere air-fresheners for people like you.
Before long Wiki will be quoted in scripture.
It must be because I stumbled upon Star Trek during Kathryn Janeway’s reign or maybe because I’m a female but I swear she fights the Borg with the finess I so wish to posess. She’s got my vote.
But, seriously, I’m writing a paper in RN English on Compare and Contrast and I chose Cisco and Janeway. Help if you may. I need some insigt. I love them both so much it’s hard to contrast; I’m standing to close to the canvas I suppose.
I have to go with Cisco over Janeway Tiffany. Let’s face it, they pussified the Borg in Voyager to such an extent that I lost interest in the show and the Borg were no longer this unstoppable force that they were at Wolf 359. Cisco on the other hand was you no BS, hit em hard hit em fast military strategist who took on the Dominion, the Klingons, The Cardacians, The Breen, The MaQui, and even Q. He is the Chuck Norris of the United Federation of Planets. Benjamin Cisco could slam a revolving door.