EDIT: Can a mod add a poll please? Kirk, Picard, Janeway, Sisko, Archer, Other.

First off -
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1661/theescapistsearchresultqp3.png
Go away, post-count whores.

Been re-watching some random TNG and VOY episodes again. Not a fan of TOS, DS9 and haven't gotten around to trying Enterprise yet.

Anyways, I've seen a lot of discussion about Picard vs Kirk but little about the best captains in general.

Personally I dislike all of the main captains I know about (Kirk, Picard, Janeway) because they're hypocrites. Janeway regularly jumps back and forth on several issues (often the Doctor's rights as a life form), Picard is a senile old man with a terror of anything he doesn't understand, and Kirk (from what I remember) was hardly the most intelligent man.

My favourite captain is Edward Jellico, who replaced Picard as the captain of the Enterprise for a while, I forget the name of the episode. He's efficient and intelligent, and the episodes are skewed against him - he's made out to be a bad leader because morale drops on the ship under his command. That's because Picard was horribly lax and inefficient and the crew wasn't used to being held to a higher standard, not because of any flaws on Jellico's part.

Picard will always be the better captain, anyone who says otherwise is dumb.

Yeah, Picard is the better captain, but my favourite is Kirk.

Also this should be a poll.

Picard. Why?

"Make it so"

Between his raw sexuality, powerful eyes and this god-quote... how can it be anyone else?

Molikroth:

Go away, post-count whores.

Don't worry, it's out of actual dislike and frustration that we deja-nazi, rather than a desire for posts. When your in multiple thousands of post count, it starts to mean very little. 'reported' is post count whoring, and asshatery. But deja-nazi's are bastards first and whores second.

Just thought that needed clearing up.

@ Ultrajoe - that'd be the assumption I'd make if I were prone to granting the benefit of the doubt. However, many of the multi-thousand posters I've seen doing this kind of whoring generally don't post any interesting content at all, so I go by what I see.

Am I the only one that doesn't get pissed off at Picard's arrogance?

it has to be picard and it's mostly because of this

Picard's the best. This is mostly because of Patrick Stewart. Yes, I love Shatner, my fellow Canadian, with all my heart. But Stewart nailed the role.

cleverlymadeup:
it has to be picard and it's mostly because of this

O.O

I can't unsee it :'(

Urm, Picard, with Archer close second :)

uhhhhh well i liked tom from voyager (yeah i know he is not captain but w/e)

cleverlymadeup:
it has to be picard and it's mostly because of this

I may never stop watching this.

Ultrajoe:

cleverlymadeup:
it has to be picard and it's mostly because of this

I may never stop watching this.

Same here. I was going to say Janeway but ya know what this has just done it for me!

gibboss28:

Ultrajoe:

cleverlymadeup:
it has to be picard and it's mostly because of this

I may never stop watching this.

Same here. I was going to say Janeway but ya know what this has just done it for me!

they should have added some music in the background, besides that I liked captain picard before that video anyways.

Picard was the best character, with a great actor, but not the best actor.
Sisko was the best actor, with a good character, not a great character.
Archer is my favorite, don't think Bakula is all that great of an actor but he did it well, and for that role it worked. Him in any of the other series, no chance.
Janeway is one that I tolerate but never really liked. I think she's better when being a bitch than when she's nice/mellow. In bitch-mode she seems fit for the job, but any other time she comes off as a pro-feminist PR move.
Kirk is the worst of the bunch. Don't like the character, can't fucking stand the actor. It's ironic, so many talented actors in TOS, and the lead role goes to the least talented of the bunch.

Oh come on! it has to be Dr Frasier!

But in all seriousness it was Picard IMO. Best written character, pleased by Patrick Freakin! Stewart no less :P

Ultrajoe:

cleverlymadeup:
it has to be picard and it's mostly because of this

I may never stop watching this.

it's my fav clip

the story behind it is the crew filmed the clip with Patrick and then inserted it into the reel of the show that Gene was watching because he would watch every finished show. he had no clue they did it and apparently found it rather funny as he was taken by surprise

Patrick Stewart is a great actor, he never takes himself all that serious and he's always up for lampooning himself

In terms of character I would say Janeway. Mainly because she's interesting all the time and because Voyager is my favourite star trek. Whether she's in ship-to-ship combat with the vidians or talking about humanity with seven of nine, she stills come across as human and extremely dedicated to the crew.
In terms of actor, I torn between Picard and Sisko. They both show real understanding of their characters emotion and how they treat their duties to starfleet etc.
Personally, I never really watched much of TOS or ENT but from what I have seen, Kirk wasn't that amazing but Archer always seemed nice.

Molikroth:
EDIT: Can a mod add a poll please? Kirk, Picard, Janeway, Sisko, Archer, Other.

Been re-watching some random TNG and VOY episodes again. Not a fan of TOS, DS9 and haven't gotten around to trying Enterprise yet.

If your going to watch ENT anytime soon (where have you been), try to stick it out until mid way through Season 4. It's almost unwatchable until that point.

But if we are picking Captains. Believe it or not I have always liked DS9. Yes, i know, not many do...but I actually liked the dark tone, the religous stories, and maybe because it's the only Star Trek show that actually did something new. By pulling the crew off the ship, and putting them on a space station. Though I am not calling him the greatest actor in the world. For crud's sake he's up against Shatner. But there is something to watching Sisko act like Hawk. Half the time your waiting for him to save Spencer's butt during every episode.

Sisko had always more action than talk.
Had more pauses in his sentences than Shatner.
Was never on the fence like Janeway with any issue.
Sisko would never allow himself to contract a mutagenic virus, or infected by subspace parasites, or poisoned (Mirror Universe), like Archer.

But why do I like Sisko better than any other Star Trek Captain? He hated Picard with every fiber of his being and was the main lead character on the last great Trek show that had decent ratings.

If there was any way to break new ground in Trek...DS9 did it all.

Picard overall.
Sisko as the most bad-ass, lamping Q for a start.
Kirk would be the one you can have a drink with.
Janeway is the one you'd send on an ass-kicking mission.
Archer was only really good opposite T'pol or Dean Stockwell.

They all have their good points; Sisko as Dr. Noah was inspired.

cleverlymadeup:
it has to be picard and it's mostly because of this

That's cool, I think I too would have to choose Picard as well he is the most likable. Kirk was so full of Himself. Janeway is just a terrible Captain and most of the other characters on the show were more interesting than her anyway, if the Doctor on Voyager were ever actually a Captain I might go with him. Enterprise sucked all together. I do actually like Sisko, but still Picard wins out just a little over him. Oh and the chemistry between Picard and his crew is the best too.

Sisko was the most fully developed captain on any of the shows. He was allowed to be imperfect and grow over time. In the DS9 pilot, he's just lost his wife to the Borg and is now an angry, grieving single parent who doesn't particularly want the job that's just been thrust upon him and wants to be a religious icon even less. Seven years later, he's managed to work through his demons to the point where his son is now a well rounded adult, he has a new wife and a new child on the way, is a celebrated war hero and has accepted his role in Bajors' religion, and then quite literally has to fling himself into the fire in order to defeat Dukat who has become the personification of evil.

Best episode for Sisko would probably be "In The Pale Moonlight", precisely because there is no way in hell any of the other captains would ever visit as dark and unethical a place as he is forced to, hence the line in the show "You might as well forget the whole enterprise."

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=K-YyL7X4CWw

He's repeating himself toward the end (" I can live with it...") as though trying to convince himself of what he's saying, but can't quite manage it, even though his personal sacrifice will potentially save millions.

I'm actually torn between Picard and Archer. TNG had the best cast of characters (especially Q and Data), but I felt Enterprise had the best sub-plots and side stories (Zindy conflict, for example). I think I have to go with Picard though. He was the first captain the average viewer could actually enjoy and relate to and wasn't a complete arrogant ass like Kirk.

Rath709:
Best episode for Sisko would probably be "In The Pale Moonlight", precisely because there is no way in hell any of the other captains would ever visit as dark and unethical a place as he is forced to, hence the line in the show "You might as well forget the whole enterprise."

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=K-YyL7X4CWw

He's repeating himself toward the end (" I can live with it...") as though trying to convince himself of what he's saying, but can't quite manage it, even though his personal sacrifice will potentially save millions.

That was one of the first DS9 episodes that I watched all the way through. At first I thought DS9 would be boring because its not about being on spaceship exploring everwhere. But this episode made be realise that it is just as good, if not better than the others.

cleverlymadeup:
it has to be picard and it's mostly because of this

I completely agree. That's Picard in a nutshell: Pure class.

Kirk might try to follow an act like that with a song of his own, but he'd probably stop halfway through to try and get with a green alien slave girl.

cleverlymadeup:
it has to be picard and it's mostly because of this

Win get.

Picard>all.

/thread, 5000xp, and 1000 Electrum Pieces to those involved.

I watched the original Star Trek pilot(the one that was rejected), and that Christopher Pike fellow would have been pretty cool. I also sort of wish the series had continued in the direction of that old pilot episode, it looked pretty interesting and more of what I'd imagine future space travel to be like(albeit in some very small aspects).

wdwyer:
If your going to watch ENT anytime soon (where have you been), try to stick it out until mid way through Season 4. It's almost unwatchable until that point.

Is there some deep spike-filled pit somewhere on the Internet that I can throw you into?
I've seriously never understood the hatred towards Enterprise. So much of what they did in that series completes the other Star Treks, and they finally provide a glimpse at pre-Kirk 'Trek, but for some reason everyone hates it. Dr. Flox is one of the best characters in all of Star Trek, Commander Shran is one step above Flox on that scale, and that they managed to take races like the Andorians or Orions which were hideously pathetic b-rated costumes in TOS and turn them into believable races with so very little adjustment for Enterpise... Really, what's so bad about the show?

The Borg queen. Lets face it she was the most cutthroat, intolerent, effective and rational of them all.

Also I agree with the guy above me, I too wonder why noone liked Enterprise. I loved what I saw of it for the most part.

Kirk, Hands down, He gave life to the role, the human aspect, the guy every guy wanted to be.

captain picard.

classically trained thespian at the helm of one of the best ships in the history of the future. yeah :)

That guy from Enterprise! Ooo what's his name with the dog, Porthos... ARCHER! Yeah, I really liked Archer.

picard, or sulu if wanna get technical...

Muir:
Kirk, Hands down, He gave life to the role, the human aspect, the guy every guy wanted to be.

Hells NO! I would rather be Scotty (pre-movies when he got all rotund). Bitchin accent, a total lady-killer, and aside from a rather dated haircut, none of that whole "I bet he's a poof" vibe Kirk and Spock gave off.

Couldn't be Chekov... I wouldn't want to be forced to constantly repeat "nuclear wessels".