Favorite Star Trek Captain

[MissKittyFantastico]

And stuff like Riker technically being a Captain at the end of Nemesis but we never really see him on-screen AS captain (just CO),

He was properly Captain (by field promotion) during the meat of 'Best of Both Worlds' - did pretty well for himself too.

For that matter does Worf count being the CO of the Defiant for so much time?

I'd count him - 'Rules of Engagement' lifts him from on-a-technicality to a legit contender for me, since it was basically a whole episode about Worf as (effectively) a captain, strengths and weaknesses.

And if its just the rank of captain that was important, what about the characters we know WERE captains but didn't see onscreen as such, like Admiral Nechayev and her 3 fans?

I feel like what there needs to be is a good look - over a series, or just one episode if it's good enough - of the character in the big seat. I'd go so far as to throw out rank entirely, and just say if we have a sufficiently weighty instance of that character in command of a starship, facing a proper command situation (so for the purposes of debate, just sitting through the night shift doesn't count), with everybody looking to him/her/it (don't want the J'naii feeling excluded) for orders, that person was captaining the ship and ought to be given a shot at the title.

Granted it's inevitably going to come down to the main captains in the end, but the others can still get honourable mentions. Dr. Crusher in 'Descent', for instance - took out a Borg ship. Loses points for it not being a real Borg ship, but I think gains points again for doing us the favour of getting rid of that daft-looking embarrassment. Geordi in 'The Arsenal of Freedom' - got a cheeky little acknowledgement from Picard for his efforts at the end of the episode, not bad going.

As a bonus, this means we can include Captain Kim of the Nightingale, because every contest needs a hilarious failure in the first round.

Nah, I think we're just saving ourselves a big headache xD

Where's the fun in that? As Q would say, if we can't take a little bloody nose, we should go home and hide

[Durandal_1707]

And if its just the rank of captain that was important, what about the characters we know WERE captains but didn't see onscreen as such, like Admiral Nechayev and her 3 fans?

I feel like what there needs to be is a good look - over a series, or just one episode if it's good enough - of the character in the big seat. I'd go so far as to throw out rank entirely, and just say if we have a sufficiently weighty instance of that character in command of a starship, facing a proper command situation (so for the purposes of debate, just sitting through the night shift doesn't count), with everybody looking to him/her/it (don't want the J'naii feeling excluded) for orders, that person was captaining the ship and ought to be given a shot at the title.

I think it'd be awesome if it turned out that Nechayev was an excellent, inspiring, heroic, and all-around exemplary starship captain, one of Starfleet's best, and just ended up, like Kirk, rising to the Admiral position for which she's less suited, via the Peter Principle. The difference being that she didn't end up in a situation where she needed to steal a starship, and thus she stayed there.

[Ordo]

[MissKittyFantastico]

I think it'd be awesome if it turned out that Nechayev was an excellent, inspiring, heroic, and all-around exemplary starship captain, one of Starfleet's best, and just ended up, like Kirk, rising to the Admiral position for which she's less suited, via the Peter Principle. The difference being that she didn't end up in a situation where she needed to steal a starship, and thus she stayed there.

My head decided to combine those literally - Nechayev as captain was basically Starfleet's Jason Bourne, invincible commando with nerves of steel, and because she's miserable stuck behind a desk she's constantly formulating plans to steal a ship and get back in the action, but never goes through with it because her sense of duty is too strong. Every time she's sitting in the conference room listening to Picard waffle on about his assignment, she's actually thinking 'Okay, I set my PADD to record Jean-Luc's voice, eight seconds gives me enough to fake his spoken command codes for bridge access, so I nerve pinch Jean-Luc, use the three seconds it takes to get through the connecting corridor to the bridge to access and run the classified files on Soong's remote takeover program for Data, he grabs the helmsman and throws him at Troi, I get Worf in an armlock and use his phaser to take out Riker then toss him over the horseshoe, time: sixteen seconds so far, then fake a containment failure to clear main engineering...' "Don't you agree, Admiral?" "What? Sorry, thinking about something else."

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

If you take out the main five, what's left is either one-off characters (who are often villainous or incompetent) or main characters who we pretty much never got a chance to see act as captain. It's a bit surprising that we never really got a recurring captain of another ship- the only one that comes to mind is Hernandez appearing a few times on Enterprise.

The quality captain that comes to mind for me is Captain Garret in Yesterday's Enterprise. She comes across as a very competent officer in her handful of scenes in that episode. Both iterations of Captain Pike are good. Captain Decker from The Doomsday Machine was probably a good captain before that episode.

Spock is maybe my favorite character in the franchise, and I could say a lot about his times commanding the Enterprise (The Galileo Seven is one of the most interesting examinations of command and leadership in Trek, imo). Spock could have grown into an excellent captain after some of the growth that we saw throughout the series- his command in The Tholian Web is much more successful than what we saw in The Galileo Seven. We never really got to see him captain a ship after he was totally at peace with himself.

[MissKittyFantastico]

Spock could have grown into an excellent captain after some of the growth that we saw throughout the series- his command in The Tholian Web is much more successful than what we saw in The Galileo Seven. We never really got to see him captain a ship after he was totally at peace with himself.

It's fairly limited in scope, but there's Star Trek VI - we get a good look at him working the problems in front of the Enterprise while Kirk's off learning about alien genitals one way or another. One gets the sense that his maturity has made his leadership style more harmonious with the crew than was the case in his TOS days (where he was already formidable).

Besides the others already mentioned - Shran, Sulu, Riker ('Best of Both Worlds'), Worf ('Rules of Engagement'), Geordi ('Arsenal of Freedom') and Crusher ('Descent') - I think Jellico's worth a look. No doubt to an extent he was written to rile up our beloved main characters, but he's not entirely wrong in some of the points he makes; I'm not a fan of Deanna's observation of his psyche since it seems there more to reassure us that our heroes are right, so I'll admit I tend to downplay that in how I view him. Data gets put on the spot a couple of good times, on the Sutherland in 'Redemption' and the Enterprise in 'Gambit', and I think a case can be made from those that he's a strong contender. Tuvok gets a bit of examination now and then, for instance... okay it's telling of Voyager that I start blanking on episode titles, the one where Janeway and Chakotay get stuck on a planet and Tuvok has everyone whining at him to contact the Vidiians to get a cure for them. I wouldn't be me if I didn't mention Kira, specifically 'Shadows and Symbols'.

It's neither here nor there since they ended up now showing it, but I remember reading that there was an idea during the Dominion-occupies-DS9 arc that when Sisko got reassigned to Starbase Desk Job and Dax took over the Defiant, she'd find herself really getting into the thrill of being in command and kicking ass (similar to her occasional adoptive Klingonness) to the point where she actually got scared by that side of herself. I think the explanation was they ran out of time and budget, and focused on the cheaper and more concise angle of Sisko frustrated at being behind a desk while she captained off-screen.

[Durandal_1707]

If you take out the main five, what's left is either one-off characters (who are often villainous or incompetent) or main characters who we pretty much never got a chance to see act as captain. It's a bit surprising that we never really got a recurring captain of another ship- the only one that comes to mind is Hernandez appearing a few times on Enterprise.

The quality captain that comes to mind for me is Captain Garret in Yesterday's Enterprise. She comes across as a very competent officer in her handful of scenes in that episode. Both iterations of Captain Pike are good. Captain Decker from The Doomsday Machine was probably a good captain before that episode.

Jellico has his fans, doesn't he?

If non-Starfleet captains count, Martok and Shran are some pretty good non-villainous ones.

[Redem]

Picard who I'd like to be (and he has more nostalgia point) , but Sisko more likeable and better written

[Maximara]

Picard was a great diplomat and had strong dealings with the Klingons, but he fumbled with the Cardassians and Romulans, and his failure to treat the Borg as an existential threat was a cataclysmic mistake.

I can't see how you make that conclusion.

It is stated that from where Q sent the Enterprise to get to the nearest starbase at maximan warp would take "two years, seven months, three days, eighteen hours" yet it took just a one year and one month for the Borg to show up in Federation territory.


GUINAN: Q set a series of events into motion, bringing contact with the Borg much sooner than it should have come. Now, perhaps when you're ready, it might be possible to establish a relationship with them. But for now, for right now, you're just raw material to them. Since they are aware of your existence
PICARD: They will be coming.
GUINAN: You can bet on it.
PICARD: Maybe Q did the right thing for the wrong reason.
GUINAN: How so?
PICARD: Well, perhaps what we most needed was a kick in our complacency, to prepare us ready for what lies ahead.

While Guinan wanted to blame Q in reality the Borg already knew of the Federation thanks to their capture of the people on the outposts "The Neutral Zone" a year previously. Data even comments on this.