FAVORITE STAR TREK CAPTAIN OF ALL-TIME

March 26, 2013 The Dork Knight Uncategorized 0

Last week I asked what was your favorite Star Trek series of all-time. Deep Space Nine was a surprise runaway winner. As a follow-up to that, this week it’s all about the Captain. The results were predictably close between Kirk and Picard. But in the end, Jean-Luc Picard edged out James Tiberius Kirk by less than 6%. Here is how it all broke down:

Picard                    38.0%
Kirk                       32.4%
Sisko                     22.2%
Janeway                  2.8%
Archer                     2.8%
Kirk (Pine)                1.9%
At first I thought the results were a generational thing. The older fans favored Kirk, the younger, Picard. That was not the case. The results varied and individuals gave many reasons why one was favored over the others. Some however couldn’t differentiate between Captain and the actor playing him/her. My personal favorite will always be Kirk. I appreciated his take no prisoners mentality and he was the Captain of my childhood. But do I think he is a better actor than Patrick Stewart? No, I do not.
From the moment The Next Generation premiered in 1987, the debate between the Captains raged on. Add three additional series and a reboot film and the questions remain. It has always been my belief that they (Kirk & Picard) are products of their time period. Captain Kirk and his shoot first, ask questions mentality is a product of the 1960’s. It was a very turbulent time in our country. The country was still recovering from the losses of great men of vision like President Kennedy, his brother Robert and Dr. King. Not to mention the Vietnam war appearing on the nightly news. Kirk represented that Alpha male that this country sorely needed at the time. It wasn’t that he lacked diplomacy. It’s just that he could speak softly but also carry a very big stick if provoked.
Fast forward nearly 20 years and the world has gotten seemingly “smaller” with the bringing down of the Berlinwall and the fall of Communism. No longer would “Cowboy Diplomacy” work with this new landscape. Captain Picard is a symbol of that change. While the ultimate decision always remained with him, Picard relied on the input of his senior staff. He was also a great delegator who very seldom went on landing parties unless absolutely necessary. This has nothing to do with courage. On the contrary, Picard was a very courageous leader but understood that his responsibly was to the ship and her crew.
As for the others on this list, Sisko, Janeway, Archer and Chris Pine’s Kirk, only Sisko was shown the most love. Sisko to me was a cross between Kirk and Picard. The problem with that however is that he never really stood out like the other two. And even though Chris Pine’s Kirk came in last, it had more to do with his lack of work as that character. Many voters spoke very well about Pine and was glad that his performance was not a caricature of Shatner’s Kirk which would have been too easy and obvious to do.  
A final note about this poll was that there were some very good honorable mentions such as Capt. Pike from the original Star Trek, Capt. Sulu from Star Trek VI and even Kelsey Grammer’s Capt. Morgan Bateson who appeared in an episode of The Next Generation. All got nice and well deserved nods from the voters. Another great debate was had by all. Can’t wait for the next one but until then…
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
About The Dork Knight 520 Articles
James aka “The Dork Knight” is a blogger and writer based out of Upstate New York. For James, it all started with a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… when he dragged his mom to see The Empire Strikes Back 10 weeks in a row. He lives and breathes nerd culture. James is proof that a Star Wars fanatic can be a passionate Trekkie as well. So much so James dressed up as Captain Kirk to the premiere of Star Trek VI in 1991 and still has the uniform. When it comes to Comic Books, Sci-Fi or Fantasy whether in print or digital, in the theatre or on my TV screen, I’m all about it and I love it. So bring your Phaser (set to stun), Lightsaber, Sonic Screwdriver, a Wand, Mjolnir or the Ring to rule them all, because this site is for the dork in all of us.