I have made a reply with each Captain’s name. This is not a popularity contest. This is a Leadership contest. Who is/was the best captain?

Upvote your choice(s). Comment on your choices if you like, explaining your rational… or don’t comment if you don’t like.

PLEASE, do not comment negatively on any captain. Let the love flow for these captains. Positivity please.

Lastly, if you know a captain I missed and you want to add them, feel free! There are a lot I didn’t include because I just tried to hit the major franchises, but there are certainly some worth mentioning.

P.S. I’m not a student of Trek or even that smart, just a fan trying something, so if I screw it up please forgive.

    • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.netEnglish
      16·
      6 months ago

      Picard is the best, most well-rounded captain. He can do diplomacy. He can do science. He can run a starship. He can fight…

      All the others aren’t shown to be as flexible or as widely capable. I still find Janeway to be my favorite though. I like my heroes to have flaws like normal people. Picard is damn near flawless, like Superman.

      • xspurnx@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        And when he isn’t (e.g. dislike of children) he has the strongest will to overcome his inadequacies. I wonder: was there an instance in which he didn’t win? (In TNG, never liked the ‘Picard’ show.)

        So yeah, he wins this contest easy. As to who I like the most: Sisko.

      • ElderWendigo
        1·
        6 months ago

        Don’t sleep on his sexual charisma, his flute skills, and his fluency in history, philosophy, and literature.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
      14·
      6 months ago

      I vote Picard for one main reason - we’ve seen him in far more different situations than any of the others thanks to the spread out period of TNG in series and movies. Other captains tend to have a more constrained image due to the plot they’re in. Riker would be best second in command for the same reason.

    • kbal@fedia.io
      4·
      6 months ago

      Yeah that’s right, it’s Janeway. Only she could’ve held that crew together.

    • usernamefactory@lemmy.ca
      11·
      6 months ago

      I love Pike’s command style. No ego or pretence. If you’re on his bridge it’s because he trusts you, and he’ll never give you a reason to think otherwise.

      Picard is a wonderful character, but it took him seven years to join his officers for a game of poker. Pike’s cooking dinner with them week one. If you want my best work, that’s how you get it.

      • ummthatguy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        6 months ago

        Picard is a captain first and friend second (even then, not until the situation is unofficial). It’s part of what makes him the best captain, but an otherwise solitary person.

        • Stamets@lemmy.worldM
          6·
          6 months ago

          The reason I vote Pike is because to me he’s able to blend both of those where Picard couldn’t or wouldn’t. It’s likely just a different philosophy but I like both sides of that coin. Just happens to be the warmer one gets my tick. That and the psychotic level of self sacrifice he has thrown around so far

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
        5·
        6 months ago

        Archer was a great captain when he needed to be. They all were.

        Also, Jellico is not one of the options and I couldn’t vote for him the necessary one billion times, so this is all bogus.

        • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
          1·
          6 months ago

          Archer was a great captain when he needed to be.

          True! Archer was absolutely a great captain on many occasions.

          But I still think he’s still objectively the worst. He did it first…and worst.

          Even with having that stupid dog reconned into being teleported into atoms, I’m still mad about his dog going on away missions.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
      4·
      6 months ago

      This option isn’t fair because, as I already said, I can’t vote for him the necessary one billion times.

      The man defeated the Cardassian military single handed with one ship just by being a hardass.

    • thessnake03@lemmy.world
      3·
      6 months ago

      Man just wanted some efficency and didn’t have time for niceties. Of course he’s rough around the edges after heavy negotiations with the cardassians.

  • Teal@lemm.ee
    7·
    6 months ago

    Harry Kim finally gets promoted to Captain of the USS Rhode Island and still no respect. :)

    • AChiTenshi
      2·
      6 months ago

      I mean he did allow his former captain get away and go onto violate the temporal prime directive.

      • Teal@lemm.ee
        2·
        6 months ago

        True. Though Harry also broke the prime directive in Timeless (S5E06) when he sent a message to the past.