The Ultimate WORST CAPTAIN poll!

[marylizz]

I actually had a friendly argument with my friend over this which lasted a very long time. He was absolutely convinced that Janeway was the best captain ever. I thought she was the second-worst. To me, first place goes to Archer because he annoys me. Second goes to Janeway because she made awful decisions and was consistently inconsistent. She seems like a likable person, but a bad captain.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I had to go Janeway here. She's the most inconsistent Captain there is. Tough to have confidence in your Captain when she contradicts herself over and over.

Agreed.

I didn't like Archer much and voted "no" on him as well--however, at least I can kinda understand where some of it comes from since humanity WAS new to the stars and I'll tolerate more screwups under such circumstances than I would from any other captain.

Trek XI Kirk I did not like. However, I can at least see something tragic in the loss of what we saw in TOS, given the difference in how his life was for as long as he could remember.

As for the other captains...

Sisko was badass. Excellent.

Trek XI Pike...badass as well. If you had to pick a captain-rank hero for the movie, HE was the one. Not Kirk. To me, Pike was the hero.

Picard...middling. Sometimes great, other times, a massive wuss. But at least the writers were true to their vision of what he was and was not.

TOS Kirk...he got results, that's for sure. I, however, could not serve under him (sexism and recklessness). But, he's not the worst of the choices.

TOS Pike...did not see The Cage or Menagerie, so my opinion is based largely on how he proved he was later in life--someone capable of extraordinary self-sacrifice. And someone who, even in the worst circumstances I can imagine, seemed to not be crazy about the idea of Spock potentially throwing away his career and his life for his sake. (Yes, he agreed to go to Talos later...but I think his consternation over Spock's actions before that point where the possibility REALLY became a reality, when the deed was already a fait accompli, speaks to who he was as a person.) So, I cannot downvote him...even knowing that remark. Maybe he would've regretted that later in life...not sure. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on that point. (I also don't see where people are getting the manic-depressive bit.)

 

[sbk1234]

Chris Pine's Capt. Kirk. I really wouldn't feel comfortable serving under some guy who goes (literally) from cadet to captain of his own ship overnight. There is much to be said for work experience.

 

[Mach5]

Archer gets a lot of votes, I see... I wonder, does "A Night in Sickbay" have anything to do with it?

Or is it the gazelle speech?

 

[Timewalker]

Best captains:

Pike (Hunter)
Kirk (Shatner)
Picard
Janeway


Worst captains:

all the rest


I did not like Benjamin Sisko. The only time he ever did anything I really applauded was when he punched Q. ("You hit me! Picard never hit me!")

But the last captain I would ever want to serve with has to be Captain Decker. Honestly... there's a planet-munching monster in the vicinity, so he beams his entire crew down to a planet!!!

No, thanks.

 

[Tuvok]

Archer, hands down.

As the first representive of Earth in Space no wonder Aliens kept wanting to wipe our planet out.

Petulant , childish and kept doing stupid things in amazing regularity.

Janeway.

Seriously nice going there getting most of your crew dead because you had to have the moral high ground.

Snark

 

[Nevyn]

Janeway, Archer and NU Kirk.

Janeway because of her lack of common sense in certain dangerous situations, her self-righteousness which reached all-time highs in "Equinox" - endangering your own crew to get revenge is one of the last things a leader ought to be doing - and "Endgame" - where she plays god when deciding who gets a second chance and who doesn't . Oh, and lest not forget falling in love with a non-sentient malfunctioning hologram.

Archer. Mostly because he's a hipocrit for telling crewmembers not the break the "prime directive" while he does it on an almost weekly base while complaining how the vulcans aren't helping humanity enough.

NU Kirk is, to simply put it, an arrogant jerk and an asshole who only got in the big chair because "destiny" said so. If I were NU Spock, I'd resign out of protest the moment I learned that guy was going to get the Enterprise.

 

[barnaclelapse]

Janeway...for having the audacity to make sure we knew that she had a vagina.

Actually, I just never liked the character much. It didn't have anything to do with gender.

 

[Captain Randy Hall]

Let me get in one more problem I had with Picard. He let the Prime Directive prevent him and his ship from rescuing a race on a disintegrating planet but was thwarted when Worf's stepbrother stepped in and put them in the holodeck. Kirk would have saved the people no matter what, but what did Picard do? Hold a 'moment of silence" for the folks who were dying.

I gotcher Moment of Silence right here pal!!!

 

[DevilEyes]

Let me get in one more problem I had with Picard. He let the Prime Directive prevent him and his ship from rescuing a race on a disintegrating planet but was thwarted when Worf's stepbrother stepped in and put them in the holodeck. Kirk would have saved the people no matter what, but what did Picard do? Hold a 'moment of silence" for the folks who were dying.

I gotcher Moment of Silence right here pal!!!

Ugh, I was so pissed off by everyone in that episode apart from Worf's stepbrother. That was the most ridiculous, absurd, idiotic intepretation of the Prime Directive ever.

 

[Sector 7]

I had to go Janeway here. She's the most inconsistent Captain there is. Tough to have confidence in your Captain when she contradicts herself over and over.

QFT! She personally set women's equality back at least a century. A female friend used to point episodes out to me by 'what time of the month' it must have occurred. It really pissed her off.

Archer. The man was written as the perfect captain for the Bush-era-- a single-minded arrogant twit that never listened to the advice of others and only got his job because his daddy was famous. Bush, at least, never whined so damned much.

 

[JustKate]

Oh, for me, it's Archer - definitely. Janeway often wasn't written well, but frankly, I think she comes off better simply because Kate Mulgrew is a pretty decent actress and managed to overcome some (though not all) of that bad writing and to project a better character than was written for her. So I liked Janeway, and really felt that I kind of understood her. Kind of.

But Archer...I liked Bakula OK, right up until Enterprise, when he consistently underwhelmed me. Bakula also had to contend with some poor writing, but he never manged to overcome nuthin'.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

Archer gets a lot of votes, I see... I wonder, does "A Night in Sickbay" have anything to do with it?

The dude threatens to pee on a benevolent alien race's cultural treasures because of his own colossally stupid mistake that he inexplicably blames on them.

So... yeah. Yeah, it does.

 

[KobayashiMaru13]

NuSpock was worst. He refused to listen to the only man with a plan, and shot him in a space pod onto desolate Delta Vega. WTF!? that giant eel thing coulda ate NuKirk, and NuSpock shoulda known that NuKirk wouldnt stay in the pod. Why not use some common sense and lock NuKirk in the frakkin brig?? soooo many things can go wrong with a space pod anyways. NuSpock had no brains.

 

[Timewalker]

Maybe the nuEymorgs already stole his brain.

 

[Rulius]

Esteban...

 

[KobayashiMaru13]

Maybe the nuEymorgs already stole his brain.

lol, yeah.

 

[LaBarre]

Janeway...for having the audacity to make sure we knew that she had a vagina.

Actually, I just never liked the character much. It didn't have anything to do with gender.

And yet, you still state it with an "audacity" of meaning reeking of sexual antipathy that you must have intended to convey - no matter how much you try to cover it with the vanilla I-don't-have-anything-against-women line.

Not nice, but typical of many contributors' attitudes on this forum.

Kudos to you for at least being honest.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Archer is my least favourite and I think the Valakians would agree.

 

[barnaclelapse]

Twenty-one votes for Pine?

Wow...