Sisko always stuck out to me as a role model, period.
Of all the Trek leaders, even when I was a little kid, Sisko stuck out to me as the one that I would feel best following. Yes, I'd heard people mentioning it was revolutionary that he was black, but as I said once in a discussion with another fan, that was VERY much of secondary importance to the fact that of all the Trek captains, he was the one in whom I could put real confidence as a leader. This was someone capable of making tough decisions, taking action, and on the personal side, of being a capable and loving single father in a difficult environment. I don't think ANY Trek captain, black or white, has ever measured up to the Sisko standard.
As I was telling this other person, I would not feel confident under the leadership of Janeway or Archer because I felt they were unclear on who they were as leaders. Picard was clear on who he was, but I know I could not have a good working relationship with him, and it would be a question of whether I got kicked off the ship before I could ask for a transfer...I did not feel like he had the stones for some of the tough things that have to be done sometimes. And Kirk--he was tough, all right, but I would not feel comfortable as a woman serving him...to him (well, at least until he got older), it seemed, if you didn't put out, or at least show some leg, you were nothing.
As for Sisko, only three things, really, that he did bother me. The first was in "For the Uniform," when he used WMDs with impunity. The second was his subterfuge in "In the Pale Moonlight." And the third was his awful treatment of Vic in "Badda Bing, Badda Bang." To take it out on a sentient photonic lifeform, to say he was okay with the man's program--his life and being--being erased, simply because his programmer gave him a white person's image was something I found horrible. It suddenly brought what until then had been a really amazing commander, and one that I had felt could treat everybody fairly in the way that he would want to be treated, down to someone who felt that it was okay to allow awful things to befall a person just because he happened to look like people whose ancestors did his harm. Yes, Vic was an artificial life form. But even without knowing the EMH, we'd had enough precedents of AIs being recognized as life--Data, Moriarty, the nanites--that Sisko should never have stooped that low and used his race as an excuse to allow Vic to be harmed.
All I can say is, thank goodness he came around or that would've been a REALLY low point as far as the character was concerned.
Of all the Trek leaders, even when I was a little kid, Sisko stuck out to me as the one that I would feel best following. Yes, I'd heard people mentioning it was revolutionary that he was black, but as I said once in a discussion with another fan, that was VERY much of secondary importance to the fact that of all the Trek captains, he was the one in whom I could put real confidence as a leader. This was someone capable of making tough decisions, taking action, and on the personal side, of being a capable and loving single father in a difficult environment. I don't think ANY Trek captain, black or white, has ever measured up to the Sisko standard.
As I was telling this other person, I would not feel confident under the leadership of Janeway or Archer because I felt they were unclear on who they were as leaders. Picard was clear on who he was, but I know I could not have a good working relationship with him, and it would be a question of whether I got kicked off the ship before I could ask for a transfer...I did not feel like he had the stones for some of the tough things that have to be done sometimes. And Kirk--he was tough, all right, but I would not feel comfortable as a woman serving him...to him (well, at least until he got older), it seemed, if you didn't put out, or at least show some leg, you were nothing.
As for Sisko, only three things, really, that he did bother me. The first was in "For the Uniform," when he used WMDs with impunity. The second was his subterfuge in "In the Pale Moonlight." And the third was his awful treatment of Vic in "Badda Bing, Badda Bang." To take it out on a sentient photonic lifeform, to say he was okay with the man's program--his life and being--being erased, simply because his programmer gave him a white person's image was something I found horrible. It suddenly brought what until then had been a really amazing commander, and one that I had felt could treat everybody fairly in the way that he would want to be treated, down to someone who felt that it was okay to allow awful things to befall a person just because he happened to look like people whose ancestors did his harm. Yes, Vic was an artificial life form. But even without knowing the EMH, we'd had enough precedents of AIs being recognized as life--Data, Moriarty, the nanites--that Sisko should never have stooped that low and used his race as an excuse to allow Vic to be harmed.
All I can say is, thank goodness he came around or that would've been a REALLY low point as far as the character was concerned.