Can we try something? Upvote the best captain! Not necessarily the one you liked the best.
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.
Picard
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.
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.
Don't sleep on his sexual charisma, his flute skills, and his fluency in history, philosophy, and literature.
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.
Sisko
It hurts me not to vote for Janeway, who is an absolute badass that I love, but I think Sisko would be the best boss
He turned out to actually be the Bjoran emissary.
Chessmate.
Pike
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.
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.
Janeway
Yeah that's right, it's Janeway. Only she could've held that crew together.
I don't know that me upvoting all of them would accomplish anything.
With ranked approval voting, we can still do the right thing and up vote all except for Archer. Heh.
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.
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.
Archer
I would follow Archers enthusiasm into the Delphic Expanse any day!
I don't generally Downvote on this platform, but I seriously considered making an exception for Captain "took my dog on away missions" Archer...
Jellico!
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.
Everything else is a vote for second place.
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.
Kirk
Emergency Command Hologram aka EMH Mark 1
Saru
Harry Kim finally gets promoted to Captain of the USS Rhode Island and still no respect. :)
I mean he did allow his former captain get away and go onto violate the temporal prime directive.
True. Though Harry also broke the prime directive in Timeless (S5E06) when he sent a message to the past.
Worf
Freeman
Riker
Kangaroo
Sulu
Shaw
Even though he was Jellico-lite, I liked the dude.
Dal
Burnham
I love that 3 hours into voting, Burnham is sitting untouched, up or down...
To me Burnham often feels like "No honey, we're not getting Janeway, we have Janeway at home."
And I'm willing to admit that's about me. Janeway is my favorite Captain, and Burnham has a lot in common, while not being Janeway.
I see parallels:
That said, I agree on Janeway being the better telling of each - that's my point too. I regularly think "I should just rewatch Voyager, instead".
Which, oddly, isn't to say I would rather watch Voyager than Discovery. I adore Discovery, and it has some stories that haven't ever been done as well in other Trek.
But Burnham, specifically, constantly falls into Janeway's shadow, for me. And to me she was more interesting as a convict, and as a science officer, than as a Captain - for the same reason.
I am looking forward to seeing an ex-convict Federation Captain. I think there's interesting stories to be told there.
Oof. Sorry to hear that. I hope you can hang in there and weather it. I appreciate your perspectives around here.
Jellico is genuinely better suited to the chair than anyone. You can't beat the highest possible bar.
Kinobi
I'm being downvoted for removing a comment that duplicated what someone else said?
Cry some more.
Stalk less.
Ironic.
He could upvote others but not himself