It may be hard to find anybody who doesn't answer either Kirk or Picard for the best of all-time, but how would you fill out a top 5 Captains? The "best" may be debated elsewhere, but I don't think the debate even gets interesting until you get past 1 and 2. My list is here. I have a few unconventional choices. I'm curious to see what you think of these 5, and what 5 you would all choose...
"Best" Starship Captain can cover an awfully wide range of categories, not all of them necessarily compatible with each other.
Your fifth choice of Mackenzie Calhoun makes no sense. Other than in some alternate universe, the guy would have been shown to the closest air lock as soon as Starfleet figure out who he was and put together the details of his back history. Calhoun really is kind of pathetic. .
My Top Five, in no order: Capt. James T. Kirk Capt. Benjamin Sisko Capt. Edward Jellico Capt. Hikaru Sulu Capt. Will Decker* (* - okay, a bit of a stretch maybe, but the kid looked like he had potential)
I would not mind have served under Captain Benjamin Maxwell (TNG: The Wounded). He seemed like a very honorable and trustworthy man.
Maxwell was right all along! I wish they had brought him back along with other Maquis sympathizers like Tom Riker and Cal Hudson. Did the latter survive or was he killed? Can't recall.
5. Willard Decker 4. Jean-Luc Picard 3. Christopher Pike ("The Cage") 2. Rachel Garret 1. Benjamin Sisko
1. Picard 2. Garrett 3. Sisko 4. Kirk 5. Janeway BTW, this list of mine tends to fluctuate from time to time, except for the top 2 spots.
Garrett had the balls to take on 4 Romulan Warbirds. Not out smart and/or run, fight. And she was willing to go back even though she knew they'd never survive. She's got more cajones than the other Captains put together. Also, where does all this Robau love come from? I never saw anything special about him. He put the elder Kirk in command and sacrificed himself as it turn out for very little. At least Janeway's sacrifice saved billions of lives, her ship, her crew and herself (Year of Hell). And around here she's not very well liked.
Robau is the Boba Fett of the Trek universe. Beloved even though he got little screen time and went out like a bitch.
It took a Romulan supership from the future, a demented insane warlord of a Romulan, planetoid destroying artillary, a ten foot metal trident, and blowing his ship out infront of him, just to kill him, face to face no less. Sorry but a 'few minutes' or not, that's a hell of a lot just to kill one man.
Nero: "I'm looking for the one responsible for the destruction of my world." Robau: "I, Robau destroyed your world." Nero: "You destroyed my world?" Robau: "Yeah, right after I fukked your mother, now release my ship bitch."