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So many commanders missing it's not a proper poll.
You are welcome to post all Commanders you think should have been included. We can always create another poll, although it will have to be a little different.
Just remember, I admittedly forgot John Robert Crichton (Farscape) and Roj Blake (Blake's 7). I also have stated that no animated or video game commanders are included because they appeal to target audiences. So please post your list of missing Captains/Commanders, and let's maybe get another Poll going.....
No also, no Radio Show commanders, unless they were resurrected for TV or the Silver Screen. I wasn't sure if I should include Captain Video or not.
Now that I think about it more, Sisko is in some ways a better diplomat than Kirk or Picard or Janeway. Those captains, while respected for who they are, didn't bump into the top leaders often, if at all. They dealt with small planetary governments, but not the leaders of big empires. Sisko did though. After a while he had the Grand Nagus on speed-dial and could ask favors from him. How many could claim that honor? The Klingon leaders respected him, even when they were at war with the Federation. Gul Dukat's fortunes waxed and waned over the course of the show but for a time he was high up in the Cardassian government (let's not forget the Bajorans viewed him as a Hitler or Stalin figure.) Sisko dealt with Dukat constantly. Even the Founders allowed him to visit their primary world of goo. And of course the Prophets, whatever they were, singled him out for special tasks.
Whether it was small unit ground forces action, starship or battlestation or even fleet scale battle, Sisko could handle it all. He was at least equal to Kirk or any other Commander on this list in that respect.
If the top criteria is who could "protect us from a powerful invading alien race," well, Sisko did that too. He was front and center in conflicts with the Klingons and the Dominion.
He's not getting the same votes as Kirk and Picard, but when you consider his accomplishments he is at least their equal.
Just my 2 cents though.
Sisko didn't have Kirk, Pike, or even Janeway's tactical insights. Mal Reynolds could have probably taken over the space station. Sisko could have whipped Picard in a battle though. When I think about it, Sisko was a lot like Dylan Hunt in his command style.
Sisko didn't have Kirk, Pike, or even Janeway's tactical insights. Mal Reynolds could have probably taken over the space station. Sisko could have whipped Picard in a battle though. When I think about it, Sisko was a lot like Dylan Hunt in his command style.
Sisko had one heck of a sub commander in Jadzia Dax. Who else would sneak through a cluster of suns (is that what she did?) to come up behind the enemy?
Which makes an interesting question: if the four sub commanders (not necessarily second in command, but the one you turn the warship over to) of Sisko, Picard, Kirk, and Janeway came up against each other, what's the order of rock, paper, and scissors?
well golly gee wiz, there were spoof episodes in each of the Start Trek series, and STTOS had the tribles
I was going to say Kirk starred in the most spoofs, but I'm drawing a blank now. I do recall one wag back in the day saying that whenever he wanted to know what American foreign policy was, he would tune in to the latest Start Trek episode.
Considering what I am reading here, why isnt it appropriate to consider Jason Nesmith against any of the other commanders named? He was given command and had to survive.
Look, ALL of the commanders in question are the products of scriptwriters. NONE of the characters are anything other than fiction.
Gene Roddenberry came to sci fi the hard way, according to This Wikipedia Source So he was a hard working guy looking for an ingress, found one in Star Trek, and the rest is history. No sure how much direct input he had on the later series. Does "executive producer" mean he was paid a royalty for his ideas?
So yes I am defending my inclusion of the Galaxy Quest universe in the discussion.
It's been a long, long, long time since we could be confident that the top military officer was also the most able battlefield commander. These days, we could charitably say they are the most able administrators who managed not to suck too bad if they had a chance to command soldiers on the battlefield in their early career.
I would not call selecting the right field commanders itself the defining criterion of being a good military commander.
How many military historians think Eisenhower was a better battlefield commander than Patton, for instance.
Now there's an interesting point. Is the best fighter the best commander? Is the best programmer the best head of the software development department? As a wise man I once worked with used to say, beats the hell out of me!
You are welcome to post all Commanders you think should have been included. We can always create another poll, although it will have to be a little different.
Just remember, I admittedly forgot John Robert Crichton (Farscape) and Roj Blake (Blake's 7). I also have stated that no animated or video game commanders are included because they appeal to target audiences. So please post your list of missing Captains/Commanders, and let's maybe get another Poll going.....
No also, no Radio Show commanders, unless they were resurrected for TV or the Silver Screen. I wasn't sure if I should include Captain Video or not.
You've narrowed it down to just TV commanders, why not post this in the TV section then?
Sisko had one heck of a sub commander in Jadzia Dax. Who else would sneak through a cluster of suns (is that what she did?) to come up behind the enemy?
Which makes an interesting question: if the four sub commanders (not necessarily second in command, but the one you turn the warship over to) of Sisko, Picard, Kirk, and Janeway came up against each other, what's the order of rock, paper, and scissors?
Well I'm not really sure I understand your question here. As I posted earlier Kirk is Fleet Commander in my scenario, with Mal Reynolds as his field commander or basically second in command of the fleet. I wasn't thinking in terms of individual ships, but rather the entire defending space armada.
If you wish me to rank Star Trek Commanders in order of leaders it would be:
I'm not qualified to rank the other commanders from other Sci-Fi shows because I haven't seen them all.
However, I'm feeling you wish me to include more females in our list. I wish I could, but there just aren't that many Sci-Fi females in leading roles. No matter, IMO the most outstanding Sci-Fi female protagonist ever is Ellen Ripley from Alien. In fact, I would have included her in the list, but she wasn't the ship's Captain. This is too bad. Sigourney Weaver also portrayed outstanding leadership qualities in Avatar, but here again wasn't a ship's Commander.
Speaking of Avatar, Trudy Chacón the combat pilot was another excellent example of a female with outstanding leadership skills.
Finally, Starbuck in the remake of Battlestar Galactica was good, but I just couldn't get past a female Starbuck. I so wished she played some other character because the original Starbuck was my favorite character in the show--mainly because of how he was always after the ladies.
You've narrowed it down to just TV commanders, why not post this in the TV section then?
Han Solo, Mal Reynolds, and David Bowman were all Silver Screen commanders. I couldn't think of any more, but if I had I would have included them.
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