Defining Moment For Each Captain

[Maj. Dick]

For Kirk I would say talking out of getting blown up in The Corbomite Moneuver. Kirk was so cunning he could just make things up to get out of an unwinnable situation.

For Picard it's when he found a loophole in the Sheliak treaty and then dusted off the Enterprise plaque in Ensigns of Command.

For Sisko it's from my favorite DS9 episode For the Uniform. Ruining the atmosphere of that planet is the most "ends justify the means", thing I have ever seen in star trek.

For Janeway I would say making a controversial deal with the Borg in the Scorpion is a good moment to define her arguable all over the place approach. She seems to bend the rules only before their breaking point.

For Pike it's him cooking for and hanging out with the senior staff like they're his kids in Children of the Comet. He is without question the "dad" of all the captains. His other defining performance is The Menagerie for obvious reasons.

I would assume Archer giving a really inspiring speech in one of the episodes where he acts like a wistful politician.

I don't know the other captains well enough.

 

[UssGlenn]

I would assume Archer giving a really inspiring speech in one of the episodes where he acts like a wistful politician.

The most famous Archer speech is the one about a Gazelle giving birth. It's certainly a defining moment, in a bad way.

 

[Qonundrum]

TOS - Kirk's "risk is our business" speech.

TNG - Either against the Shelliak or the Borg in TBOBW. Season 3 has a number of defining moments.

DS9 - Sisko addressing the Wadi leader in "Move Along Home" comes to mind. As does a speech in "Sons of Mogh" with lambasting Worf and Dax, and I recall a few scenes from Paradise (season 2) and Emissary that are just as good and those also don't involve yelling, and Sisko by far is the one yeller who keeps it interesting...

VOY - I don't recall the episode, but Janeway's speech about saving her crew (I think it was Borg-related, but on countless occasions she shows how she goes out of her way to save her crew. Even in de-Tuvixing Tuvok and Neelix!) Your example for Janeway is another robust example.


...and the following is why, when people ask me "Kirk or Picard", that my answer is a clear "Sisko!" :

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Not as much yelling REALLY LOUD (which is already fantastic as far as impassioned commanders goes), but it is the content that he is yelling. That makes Sisko the best IMHO. Especially when demanding why the Jem Ha'dar is walking free while his own crew is locked up (a Trek captain trait that seems to generally be consistent for all Commanders...) Hell, he covers the gamut - even when not in "yell mode" (not included in that compilation), he's readily my favorite. He embodies the best of Kirk and Picard, as well as a show letting a commander make decisions that TNG and TOS would dare not tread, and even TOS - which came closer to DS9 - still wouldn't take off the kid gloves (in a show in a time where it had little in the way of kid gloves.)

DS9 rules. TOS is a close second.


On edit, one succinct comment says it best:

You turn to Picard when you want to prevent a war. You turn to Sisko when you want to win one.

 

[Oddish]

Even if it technically never happened...

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[kkt]

Kirk - I'll second the "Risk Is Our Business" speech

Sisko - "I'm not Picard."

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

The most defining moments in my opinion:

Kirk: In the episode The Deception Gambit, where he seduces a beautiful alien woman by teaching her a fake game he just made up in order to trick a jealous godlike being into becoming mortal so they can wrestle for the fate of the Enterprise crew.

Picard: In the episode The Debate, where he sips a cup of Earl Grey tea before utterly demolishing an old reclusive Romulan scientist's case that he has a legal right to make copies of Data to avoid anyone having to mourn another officer lost in duty. He then gives him a speech about how death is an important part of life, before catching a glimpse of Lwaxana Troi in the corner of his eye and running off to do some fencing practice in the holodeck.

Sisko: In the episode Deeds Beyond Mortal Laws, when Sisko comes back from supervising a construction project on Bajor and struggles to contain his rage when he discovers that someone has broken into his quarters and filled his cupboards with replicated ingredients. When he finds out that it was Jake and Nog who switched the vegetables in order to send the real ones to starving Bajorans, he realises what a great kid he has.

Janeway: In the episode Exposition, where Janeway finds that her crew have been infected by a virus that makes them relive all of her most horrifying choices. After five minutes moping in the dark about her decisions, she figures out a scientific solution to the problem that will involve grabbing a phaser rifle, crawling through Jeffries tubes, and steering the ship right into something extremely dangerous: an alliance with the Hirogen.

Archer: In the episode Temporal Echo, when Archer is told by Daniels that he needs to resolve a conflict between the Vulcans and Andorians as they'll be part of the Federation someday. He paces back and forth in his ready room, telling him to shut up and go away already, before doggedly tracking down evidence proving that by their own directive, neither side has any right to the planet.

Sorry, I'll stop now.

 

[Farscape One]

Kirk - I think I will have to agree about "THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER". This really showcased his tactical mind and how he can turn a defeat into a win. (I was originally going to go with "BALANCE OF TERROR", because it not only had him thinking tactically, but he deftly handled bridge bigotry and showed his human side in the end at the chapel and as he walks out. But because "THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER" was produced first, I'll go with that.)

Picard - I'm going to pick a moment that might be unexpected... "The Enemy". He asks Worf to reconsider his decision about refusing to give the Romulan a transfusion, but in the end, despite it being a real possibility of the Romulan's death causing a major interstellar incident, he respects Worf's personal choice of refusal.

Sisko- in "EMISSARY", when he finally breaks down and admits that he 'exists here', stuck in the moment of his wife's death. He shows us that he is just a man, with his flaws, pain, and grief, and begins to heal from that point on. This made Sisko the most relatable captain, because he is simply a man trying to live day by day doing the best he can.

Janeway - "SCORPION", when she is proposing the alliance with the Borg. I was completely against the idea of allying with them, but whether you agree with her or not... it's a truly gutsy move to attempt that.

Archer - "THE ANDORIAN INCIDENT", we see his curiosity, his distaste for secrets, and his ability to bring people together all in the forefront here. We also see how he, like Kirk, is a man of action... he's always in the thick of it. (He's also been knocked on his back more than any other captain, with the possible exception of Kirk.)

Burnham - the first time she starts a conversation about feelings in the middle of a ticking clock. It certainly defines her and DISCO.

Freeman - I might go with "In the Cradle of Vexilon". She rolls up her sleeves to get the work done, and was still able to keep a pretty cool head throughout the whole situation. (Overall, I think Freeman improved the most as a captain/leader out of all the others in the franchise. She was a bit of a joke captain at the beginning, but she has certainly done many things that make you see why she earned her rank.)

Pike - I'm going with an episode of DISCO instead of SNW... "Through the Valley of Shadows". He knows what his fate will be and how horrific it is, but still goes ahead to serve the greater good. Especially his dialogue when he reminds himself of why he is a Starfleet officer. "You're a Starfleet captain. You believe in service, sacrifice, compassion, and love." That's heroism... even more than dying for a worthy cause, but knowingly living such a hell for a worthy cause.

 

[Uhura's Song]

Kirk - I think I will have to agree about "THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER". This really showcased his tactical mind and how he can turn a defeat into a win. (I was originally going to go with "BALANCE OF TERROR", because it not only had him thinking tactically, but he deftly handled bridge bigotry and showed his human side in the end at the chapel and as he walks out. But because "THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER" was produced first, I'll go with that.)

Picard - I'm going to pick a moment that might be unexpected... "The Enemy". He asks Worf to reconsider his decision about refusing to give the Romulan a transfusion, but in the end, despite it being a real possibility of the Romulan's death causing a major interstellar incident, he respects Worf's personal choice of refusal.

Sisko- in "EMISSARY", when he finally breaks down and admits that he 'exists here', stuck in the moment of his wife's death. He shows us that he is just a man, with his flaws, pain, and grief, and begins to heal from that point on. This made Sisko the most relatable captain, because he is simply a man trying to live day by day doing the best he can.

Janeway - "SCORPION", when she is proposing the alliance with the Borg. I was completely against the idea of allying with them, but whether you agree with her or not... it's a truly gutsy move to attempt that.

Archer - "THE ANDORIAN INCIDENT", we see his curiosity, his distaste for secrets, and his ability to bring people together all in the forefront here. We also see how he, like Kirk, is a man of action... he's always in the thick of it. (He's also been knocked on his back more than any other captain, with the possible exception of Kirk.)

Burnham - the first time she starts a conversation about feelings in the middle of a ticking clock. It certainly defines her and DISCO.

Freeman - I might go with "In the Cradle of Vexilon". She rolls up her sleeves to get the work done, and was still able to keep a pretty cool head throughout the whole situation. (Overall, I think Freeman improved the most as a captain/leader out of all the others in the franchise. She was a bit of a joke captain at the beginning, but she has certainly done many things that make you see why she earned her rank.)

Pike - I'm going with an episode of DISCO instead of SNW... "Through the Valley of Shadows". He knows what his fate will be and how horrific it is, but still goes ahead to serve the greater good. Especially his dialogue when he reminds himself of why he is a Starfleet officer. "You're a Starfleet captain. You believe in service, sacrifice, compassion, and love." That's heroism... even more than dying for a worthy cause, but knowingly living such a hell for a worthy cause.

Really like those choices. Especially Andorian Incident for Archer and Valley of Shadows for Pike. Could not agree more.

As others have said, Corbomite for Kirk and Scorpion for Janeway are also excellent choices.

I'd have to think more on Picard & Sisko.

 

[Verteron]

I tried to narrow it down to four particular quotes, and obviously the plot around them is the context.

Kirk:
I don't believe in no-win scenario. (TWOK)

Picard:
I would rather die as the man I was than live the life I just saw. (Tapestry)

Sisko:
YOU BETRAYED YOUR UNIFORM! (For the Uniform)

Janeway:
Fear only exists for one purpose: to be conquered. (The Thaw)

 

[Sam_I_Am]

For Janeway, I’d say Counterpoint where she’d rather risk her entire ship’s company than hand over telepaths to telephobic aliens.

For Picard, the entire “Let’s make sure history… never forgets the name… Enterprise” bit.

Kirk is “risk is our business”.

Sisko is stepping into the mantle of Gabriel Bell without hesitation.

Archer is chewing out Trip for trying to save that non-binary lifeform’s life in Cogenitor. Or maybe stranding that ship in “Damage”.

I hate to be negative but a Star Trek captain has to set a certain example for the kids (and no longer kids) who are looking for moral guidance from a leadership figure from the utopian future. The two Archer examples I cited disappointed me so much. I’m not sure the other 60s-90s Captains ever made such disappointing command decisions that stuck with me.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

With Kirk, it's a particular line of dialogue in "The Corbomite Maneuver": "I'll keep that in mind, Mister Bailey, when this becomes a democracy." It immediately establishes that Kirk is the guy in charge, and the buck stops with him. His creative solution to Balok's threats at the end of the episode is icing on the cake. When faced with a choice between A and B, Kirk is the guy who will find a Solution C.

With Picard, sadly, it's his "We surrender" in "Encounter at Farpoint." That established Picard as a very different and more passive Captain than Kirk, and the constant conferences on TNG showed him to be much more concerned with consensus than Kirk ever was. It honestly took Picard a few seasons to shake the wimp thing because of that.

Sisko, probably his getting in Picard's face in "Emissary." That and slugging Q and ruefully saying "I'm not Picard" in "Q-Less." Sisko was the guy who'd zig where Picard would've zagged.

Janeway, I'm not sure offhand, as I've rewatched VOY way less than the other shows. Maybe her saying she prefers being called "Ma'am" to "Sir" and telling Harry Kim "It's not crunch time yet, Mr. Kim"? I don't want to say that getting stranded in the Delta Quadrant was her defining moment, as that does her a disservice, but that decision DID shape the course of the next seven years of the series.

Archer? Again, it's tough to say for me. Maybe the first time he got in a Vulcan's face about something. When I think of Archer now, he always seemed to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

Lorca, maybe the moment where he told Burnham there'd be no free rides on his ship. (While part of me loved the Lorca twist, a part of me hated it, because up until then, he was my favorite Star Trek Captain since Sisko.)

With Pike, probably his speech about how Earth nearly destroyed itself at the end of the first episode of SNW. That was when his character really coalesced for me, although he made a great first impression when he debuted at the beginning of DSC's second season.

 

[Oddish]

Janeway, I'm not sure offhand, as I've rewatched VOY way less than the other shows.

Janeway is tough, just because her character is so variable. One several occasions, she risks her crew on moral grounds. On another, she sacrifices a planet to the Borg because she doesn't like the fact that they genetically engineered a child as an anti-Borg weapon. On another, she resorts to torture and nearly murder against an Equinox crewman. On yet another, she effectively kills one crewman to bring back two. It sometines seems like the showrunners never had a solid bead on her character. So naturally, it's hard for us.

 

[Farscape One]

Part of the problem is the constant changing of head writers for VOYAGER. (Michael Piller for seasons 1 and 2, Taylor for 3, Taylor/Braga for 4, Brannon Braga for 5 and 6, Kenneth Biller for 7.) It's tricky to be consistent writing the captain when each new head writer has their own idea and spin and will go that route instead of previous established character traits.

It definitely did Janeway no favors. Had she been played by an actress with less skill than Mulgrew, Janeway would be far worse to me.

 

[Oddish]

Part of the problem is the constant changing of head writers for VOYAGER. (Michael Piller for seasons 1 and 2, Taylor for 3, Taylor/Braga for 4, Brannon Braga for 5 and 6, Kenneth Biller for 7.) It's tricky to be consistent writing the captain when each new head writer has their own idea and spin and will go that route instead of previous established character traits.

Very true, though bad decisions seemed to plague the show from start to finish, from ruining most of B'Elanna's potential character development in "Parallax" to giving the audience a slap across the face by hitting the Reset Button in "Endgame". Seemed like they never caught a break.

It definitely did Janeway no favors. Had she been played by an actress with less skill than Mulgrew, Janeway would be far worse to me.

That goes without saying. The quality of the cast (especially Mulgrew, Ryan, and Picardo) is among the reasons why Voyager was passable Trek instead of miserable Trek. But with DS9-level showrunners, it might have brilliant Trek.

 

[Farscape One]

They had a DS9-level writer... for less than a month. Ronald D. Moore, had he stayed on, would have been immensely helpful to VOY. For proof, look at his solo 'Written By' credit, "SURVIVAL INSTINCT". Not only a great Seven episode, but that episode was full of life. They were docked at a station, and all those people around really infused some color and life to the ship, as brief as it was. Even a lot of little things were going on, like Tom and Harry's brawl and the exchanging of all the gifts.

And the 'Story By' for "BARGE OF THE DEAD" was probably because that was originally going to be used for DS9, but was reworked as "SOLDIERS OF THE EMPIRE", if I remember correctly.

I get why he left, but damn... what a shame. (We did get BSG a few years later, so it worked out for the genre overall.)

 

[XCV330]

defining moment in quotes.
Kirk: I don't like to lose.

Picard: Things are only possible until they are not.

the Sisko: I can live with it. I CAN live with it. (but "Hammock Time!" is the best Star Trek Quote of all time)

Janeway: Abandon ship? The answer is no. I'm not breaking up the family..

Archer: When I was in my early twenties on a trip to East Africa I saw a gazelle giving birth. It was truly amazing. Within minutes the baby was standing up, standing up on its own. A few more minutes and it was walking and before I knew it, it was running alongside its mother, moving away with the herd. Humans aren't like that, Ambassador. We may come from the same planet as those gazelles but we're pretty much helpless when we're born. It takes us months before we're able to crawl. Almost a full year before we can walk. Our deep space mission isn't much different. We're going to stumble, make mistakes, I'm sure more than a few, before we find our footing. But we're going to learn from those mistakes. That's what being human is all about. I'm sorry you can't see that.

Kelvin Kirk: So do I..

Giorgio: Starfleet does not fire first.

Lorca: There's no free rides on my ship.

Pike: You're a Starfleet captain. You believe in service, sacrifice, compassion, and love. No. I'm not going to abandon the things that made me who I am because of a future that contains an ending I hadn't foreseen for myself.

Saru: I saw hope, in the stars. It was stronger than fear

Burnham: It is by the principles of the United Federation of Planets that I live. And by them, I will most certainly die.

Freeman: People, you are Starfleet officers. Pull it together and stop embarrassing me

 

[Oddish]

Freeman: People, you are Starfleet officers. Pull it together and stop embarrassing me

Bet she says stuff like that a lot, given the rogue's gallery of a crew she's saddled with.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Sisko- in "EMISSARY", when he finally breaks down and admits that he 'exists here', stuck in the moment of his wife's death. He shows us that he is just a man, with his flaws, pain, and grief, and begins to heal from that point on. This made Sisko the most relatable captain, because he is simply a man trying to live day by day doing the best he can.

This is a great choice for Sisko. Avery Brooks was really great in that scene. It had to be tough to maintain the emotional through line in all those different setups.

I guess I'm in the minority for not liking Kirk's "Risk is our business" speech all that much. I think Shatner overplays it, and the music makes it rather cheesy instead of inspiring.

Plus, it's been harder for me to take it seriously since it was parodied so brilliantly in Free Enterprise.

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[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

When faced with a choice between A and B, Kirk is the guy who will find a Solution C.

With Picard, sadly, it's his "We surrender" in "Encounter at Farpoint." That established Picard as a very different and more passive Captain than Kirk, and the constant conferences on TNG showed him to be much more concerned with consensus than Kirk ever was. It honestly took Picard a few seasons to shake the wimp thing because of that.

Soap opera actors with funny hats wouldn't have phased Kirky at all in ANY season or episode....including the pilot. He might emit an uncharacteristic girly-man scream or two while being salt-sucked, but that's as far as it goes.

 

[kkt]

This is a great choice for Sisko. Avery Brooks was really great in that scene. It had to be tough to maintain the emotional through line in all those different setups.

That is a good choice for Sisko. Another would be when Sisko is formally reprimanding Worf in "Change of Heart" for disobeying orders and abandoning a critically important mission that he could have completed. Sisko is a real CO not a cheerleader who'll forgive anything from his officers.