Favorite Star Trek Captain

[FaxModem1]

Simple enough question. Who is your favorite Captain from Star Trek? Why?

[The Romulan Republic]

Picard.

When well-written, he is a rational, educated man, skilled in combat, diplomacy, law, science, and the arts. Eloquent, sensible enough to see that putting families on an exploration/combat ship by design is stupid, and a champion for the rights of the oppressed. And, of course, played by Patrick Stewart.

[Anduinel]

Benjamin Lafayette Sisko.

[Ordo]

Benjamin Lafayette Sisko.

Seconded


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[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

Kirk. Sisko and Picard are great too, even if Picard annoys me at times. Sisko loses a few points for being in charge primarily of a space station.

Kirk is more disciplined than people give him credit for (how many times does he actually disobey orders?), but he also has a great intuitive sense of what needs to be done. He's a natural leader and has a ton of charisma. His decisions tend to make a degree of common sense. He's also the lead character on my favorite show, which helps.

[MissKittyFantastico]

The Sisko, and awesome as the badass stuff is, it's not that - what draws me to him (and this is part and parcel of DS9 as a whole, really) is the journey he takes. We meet him a grieving widower, uncertain of his future and unhappy with his prospects, the only thing he's really committed to is being a good father. Seven years later he's a husband and father-to-be, his son is a grown man he's proud of (even if he does forget to show up for most episodes), he's a successful military commander - a war hero - the respected leader of the station's community, and (putting aside the outright Space Jesus stuff) an admired religious icon. It's been a long road getting from there to here (yes I know... honestly, I like that opening lyric, just not the rest of it), and we get to walk the road alongside him the whole way. Granted the other captains aren't without character development - I particularly like how TUC dealt with Kirk getting past David's death, and 'Lessons' followed up 'The Inner Light' (Picard also had an embarrassment of moments of standalone awesomeness, usually when speechifying about something) - but I just don't find them to be in the same league as what they were able to do with Sisko by embracing the serialised storytelling over episodic.

And while we're talking Captains, I have to throw a substantial amount of love Shran's way as well.

[Meushell]

Sisko. I felt he was well written without overshadowing the other characters.

[Rocketboy1313]

I like Sisko. He is flawed in a way I like, he's a bit of a hot head compared to most other leaders of the era and I like that.

Aside from general competence which most Star Fleet character have I look for the best flaws, and Sisko's are the most relatable.

[The Romulan Republic]

On flaws, its been a while since I watched a lot of Trek, so I might be way off on this, but would it be fair to say that Picard's primary flaw is that he's somewhat... I don't know, emotionally detached?

We see this, of course, in his infamous dislike of children, as well as in the criticism that he's sometimes to rigid in his adherence to Federation doctrine, to the point of ignoring or excusing moral injustices and loss of lives. Of course, one could also argue that those traits are exaggerated and that Picard is a) entirely right that children have no place on a ship like the Enterprise, and b) obliged as an officer to uphold the law in all but the most extreme circumstances, even if he personally disagrees with said law.

He does seem to grow out of this somewhat over time, as well, though that could be just inconsistent writing to some extent.

[Durandal_1707]

Picard: Awesome acting, writing is all over the place.

Sisko: Well written, acting is good but prone to shatning at times.

Overall favorite is still Sisko, but you have to respect Stewart's acting skills.