Favorite and Least Favorite Star Trek Captain?

[Here No Longer 5,270]

With Star Trek: Discovery getting to the halfway mark of its first season and me being about half a season of Voyager away from ending my recent binge of the whole series (upon creating this thread), I decided it was time to poll the community on the subject of Starfleet captains. 

Who is your favorite Starfleet Caprain?

Who is your least favorite Starfleet Captain?

 

I know who's probably going to be answered the most in both questions, but I just felt like asking.

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My Answers:

 

My favorite is Jean-Luc Picard. A very philosophical captain that rarely did anything that really offended or really could offend, he's exactly what I'd want in a captain. One that listens to the concerns of his crew and addresses them, even always giving the respect of saying "your objection is noted" when his actions are questioned by senior officers even under the most trying of circumstances. Plus, he was portrayed as a captain who had his own way of commanding his ship, and his own personality that is as deep as it is well-defined.

 

My least favorite is Kathryn Janeway. She is easily the worst captain for reasons I've [posted about multiple times before. She's an egotistical hypocrite with a contorted sense of morality that always sems to fit her actions, no matter how unjustified. She treats her crew in a way I find downright disrespectful (she's especially bad about it towards Chakotay and Seven of Nine),  and she's a downright moron. It doesn't really help her case that SHE is the ONLY REASON Voyager got stranded in the Delta Quadrant in the FIRST PLACE...

 

Also, the way I'd probably rank them:

1. Jean Luc Picard

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2. James T. Kirk

3. Johnathan Archer

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4. Benjamin Sisko

5. Kathryn Janeway

Edited January 15, 2018 by Duzzkey
Added a ranked list.

[Concerned Bystander 2,901]

I'd certainly have to agree with Picard as the best captain.  As much as I love the original series, Picard comes across as a far more believable character than the almost cartoonish Kirk.  To my mind most of the best episodes of TNG were ones that focused on Picard, and it is no coincidence that 'The Inner Light' and 'All Good Things' (both Picard episodes) also happen to be the two episodes which won the Hugo Award for science fiction.

Picard was not someone to let his feelings get in the way of his responsibilities, but neither would he blindly follow orders from above where he believed them to be wrong or illegal.  He lacked the raw physicality of Kirk or Sisko but this only made him a better character because it prevented him from coming across as a Mary Sue.

My least favourite is Janeway.  It's not that I dislike her per se, I just don't like her as much as any of the others.  I have not seen Voyager all the way through, I'm currently binging TNG on Netflix having already worked through TOS, TNG, DS9 and Enterprise.  Janeway made a rather poor first impression on me, but that may be tied in largely to the weak beginning of Voyager as a whole.   From the outset Voyager set up so many avenues of conflict among the crew which had the potential to bloom into several interesting storylines, but then failed miserably to capitalise on any of it by resolving everything by the end of the pilot episode.  Perhaps seeing the entire series right through will alter my opinion of her once I get past that awkward first season.

[Denim&Venöm 16,508]

Not much of an opinion on Kirk, Sisco or Archer, since I was never heavy into their series. 

As has been mentioned, I too don't dislike Janeway. But also like has been mentioned, there's having a character with flaws, and then there's having a flawed character. Janeway is hard to sympathize with, and is the direct cause of several conflicts within the series. Not quite sure what the writers were going with, but she was portrayed as both a 'by the book' captain and a 'self righteous' captain. Like they tried to fuse Kirk and Picard. Those two don't mesh well together. even within the context of the show, she is a poor captain, being the cause of her crew's suffering on numerous occasions, as well as their demise in one instance. entertaining show, but in hindsight, she wan't the best.

So by default, the honor of best cap goes to Picard. Level headed and objective, but having a strong enough moral compass to act when it's in everyone's best interest. Plus the acting and portrayal were more solid and engaging, not that Kate Mulgrew's acting was bad. She did the Janeway character better than Geneviève Bujold would have. Just that Patrick Stewart lended more credence to the the series as a whole. 

[cuteycindyhoney 13,283]

Jean-Luc Picard is MY captain. "Inner Light" showed him in a new light that always makes me tear up. Janeway was a little weak. They should have made her a stronger role model. Kirk was too busy going after anything remotely female to be a good captain.

Edited January 15, 2018 by cuteycindyhoney

[Jeric 46,834]

I really should just point an arrow up I would be just repeating what Bystander and D&V said, though I may swap Archer and Janeway. They are both tied at the bottom. I liked them fine, and they both had great moments in episodes, but the others were just better. The first three series each had radically different Captains who still shared the same values about Starfleet and the Federation, but their personalities were nice and distinct. 

Janeway and Archer suffered from a lack of depth in the other characters. It made it hard to play off of different people. Enterprise had four characters that were interesting, and Voyager basically had Seven and The Doctor. 

[PiratePony 8,473]

Wow Jean-Luc is running away with this one. I'm surprised so little people like Janeway - I adored Voyager *reads up at Jerics post* yeah...because of Seven O'Nine and The Doctor.

[Here No Longer 5,270]

2 hours ago, PiratePony said:

Wow Jean-Luc is running away with this one. I'm surprised so little people like Janeway - I adored Voyager *reads up at Jerics post* yeah...because of Seven O'Nine and The Doctor.

As I figured. He's an extremely popular choice, and it's not hard to see why.

I don't like her because I find her idiotic. The two characters you listed annd Tuvok are the only characters I actually care for from Voyager... The rest are blank slates to me. Either that or I don't like them whatsoever.

I'm more surprised that nobody's voted Kirk as their favorite or Sisko as their least favorite, honestly. I'm also surprised by how many people don't like Archer. I thought he was a better captain than Kirk was until the third season of Enterprise, to be honest.

Edited January 16, 2018 by Duzzkey

[Props Valroa 26,039]

Of them, I'd say Jean-Luc was my favorite, not only because of reasons already stated, I just liked TNG in general, everything about it was awesome. TOS was the first star trek I've seen and I enjoyed it though it comes 2nd to TNG, Sisko was also a great captain and I enjoyed DS9 though it had a different feel than the other series, still though it was a welcome change. Sisko is a family man and sort of like the opposite of Picard. Archer, from what I know about him was an ok captain, enterprise for me wasn't as great as the others, though some moments were great. Voyager was just...meh and Ok, same with Janeway, though Seven of Nine is one of my favorite characters.

[Twilight Dirac 720]

Another vote for Jean-Luc here.  He is just a great character all around and it is nice to have a hero known more for his sound judgement and concern for what is right than his ability to run around punching things in the face.  Well, that is at least how he was portrayed until the awfulness that was the TNG movies, but I am not going to count those abominations against him.

I am going to break from consensus here and claim that Archer was the worst captain, despite the problems I have with Janeway.  This is under the provision that we are talking about Seasons 1 and 2 Archer, Season 3 Enterprise might as well be a different show altogether and that Archer actually had good reason make the reckless decisions he often did in that season.  So this is similar to separating TNG Picard from movie Picard.  Archer would repeatedly put his crew and often his ship in danger for no adequate reasons, was absurdly judgmental of others, sold out his Vulcan allies on at least one occasion and just generally acted like a prick.  And while Janeway had an annoying habit of endangering her crew as well, such as when she obliviously flew her ship through a weapons testing area, and often feel Archer's decisions were dumber still. 

But what really seals the deal is the episode "Dear Doctor", where Archer and Phlox deliberately withhold a cure for a plague that is going to wipe out an entire alien race from said alien race, thus dooming that race to extinction.  It is supposed to be a Prime Directive episode.  And while previous Star Trek episodes would have characters debating on whether to let an alien race die out due to the Prime Directive, Archer is the only captain I can ever recall actually going through with it, and this was before their was even a Prime Directive with which to justify the negligent genocide!  This episode basically cemented both Archer and Phlox as monsters in my mind, and I don't ever recall Janeway doing something anywhere near as horrible.  So I am nominating Archer as worse starship captain.

And then there is Season 3, where Archer saves the human race in the end.  But as I said, might as well have been a different show.

 

 

Edited January 14, 2019 by Twilight Dirac

[BritishBrony2012 719]

My favorite: Jean-Luc Picard, seen alot of him and seen most episodes of The Next Generation. As for worst, well I pick Benjamin Sisko, well not fond of Deep Space Nine, Don't watch much of Star Terk after The Next Generation, did watch much of Enterprise even alot of fans dislike it. As didn't much Star Trek Voyager well mostly some of it never think she could be worse. I'm no expert.

[Mellow Mane 5,930]

Unlike many others, my favorite captain is by far Janeway. She managed to keep a crew that consisted of Starfleet and the Maquis together, she had a great character, treated the crew like friends while staying professional and dealt with pretty much all situations in a very good way.

On 1/15/2018 at 6:03 PM, ~Dusky~ said:

She treats her crew in a way I find downright disrespectful (she's especially bad about it towards Chakotay and Seven of Nine),  and she's a downright moron. It doesn't really help her case that SHE is the ONLY REASON Voyager got stranded in the Delta Quadrant in the FIRST PLACE...

She treated the crew with a lot of respect and she basically treated Chakotay as her best friend and Seven as her own daughter. There was also a very good reason why she destroyed the caretaker. The fact that she destroyed it shows that she does indeed have a lot of moral because she pretty much saved the Ocampa from the Kazon in exchange for a longer journey home.

 

[CheeryFox 23,811]

Kathryn Janeway. Took out the Borg. 

Benjamin Sisko =