Just who was the best captain in Star Trek?

It’s the one question that every fan has to ask at some point, and then once they’ve made that decision they can then debate it forever with other fans who have different opinions. The recent convention in London took yet another poll, but the results as always are skewed. I’ve heard poll results that have favored everyone from Kirk and Picard to Proton and Decker.

Of course, the problem here is that most people aren’t just offering opinions; they’re stating which captain is THEIR captain. Their captain’s accomplishments are almost impossible to compare. Yes, Janeway defeated the Borg, but is it any less important than Kirk helping to cement the peace deal with the Klingon’s? Picard managed to keep evolution on track after the Q continuum got a bit snarky, while Sisko managed to prevent the Dominion taking over. Archer… well, he managed to fix the mess that Porthos made when the beagle decided to pee on a tree.

So instead of going through the usual countdown of captains and what made them the best, instead I’d like to play a game of What If? and theorise how each captain would have solved certain problems that only one of them came across. So this is the first Alternative Factor, or What Would The Captains Do??? We’ll start with a simple one, which is the whole concept that many Janeway fans argue…

COULD JANEWAY HAVE BEEN THE ONLY CAPTAIN TO GET VOYAGER HOME?

We all know the story. Voyager enters the Badlands searching for a Maquis vessel that’s been causing problems. They get shunted to the Delta quadrant 70 000 light years from home by the Caretaker. They spent 7 years battling Kazon, Borg and aliens who wanted to turn the holo-deck into a Nazi Disneyland. They had help along the way, most importantly from Kes, Seven of Nine and Reg Barkley, but many point to Janeway’s coffee-injected leadership style as being key to their success. But could she have been the only one to succeed? How would the other Big 4 have handled it?

KIRK: For all his achievements, it’s often overlooked just how effective he was in command. The only person to ever to beat the Kobayashi Maru test was no pushover in any situation. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to picture the NCC-1701 Enterprise flying into the Badlands to chase down some Klingons, because that’s what Kirk would order. Upon arrival in the Delta Quadrant Spock would have easily figured out what the Caretaker’s deal was, but the Kazon decide that the Bird Of Prey and Enterprise’s appearance is the first wave of an attack and try to counter it. The Klingon’s are always spoiling for a fight and refuse to back down, and the Array is destroyed in the process, stranding both crews.

Kirk integrates the Klingon crew into his own, and despite some shaky moments the Klingons learn to respect their new captain as a warrior. In their travels Kirk would barrel through the Kazon without blinking, and his determination to win is always a key factor, while Borg space would have been a greater challenge. Don’t think he’d have beaten the odds by just throwing wave after wave of Red Shirts at them; the man never gave up and could fight or bluff his way out of any situation. The image of the Enterprise rocketing out of a Borg conduit is easy to see too, and odds are Kirk could have even done it quicker because he took more risks than any captain before or since.

PICARD: On a mission into the Badlands to investigate Maquis activity, the NCC-1701-D gets blasted through space and confronts the Caretaker. Will Riker doesn’t survive the journey, but the Maquis ship captain Tom Riker takes his place, despite feeling the initial sting of his girlfriend and confidante Ro Laren being a deep cover Starfleet officer. With a much larger crew but many families aboard the Enterprise, Picard has a lot to handle. After the Caretaker dies, Picard opts to follow the same theory as Janeway and heading in the direction of the most densely-civilised areas in order to find help. Picard knows of the potential danger of the Borg in this sector from prior experience there, and it’s a decision that haunts him constantly.

Taking a somewhat more diplomatic approach to the political situations in the Delta Quadrant, Picard’s greatest challenge would be against his archenemies the Borg. However, Picard is a master strategist and with his deeper knowledge of them could pull the Enterprise through. Also he has the added advantages of two officers, Data and Reg Barclay on board. Reg’s contribution is particularly essential in adapting alien technology and figuring new ways to open communications with Starfleet. Deep down, you know that Picard would get his crew home safely, although maybe a little slower than Janeway due to his more methodical nature.

SISKO: In his dogged determination to catch rogue former officer-turned Maquis Commander Eddington, Sisko takes the Defiant into the heart of the Badlands. With his much smaller ship and a skeleton crew, the odds would be drastically against Sisko right from the onset. After the whole Caretaker incident plays out, bringing Eddington and his crew into the fold would be tense, and would lead to countless confrontations. However, Sisko doesn’t take flak from anyone, and his residual connection to the wormhole aliens guides him on an obscure course home. Instead of a straight run to the Alpha Quadrant, Sisko heads the other way to the Gamma Quadrant to use the wormhole to get back home.

It’s a risky gamble. Despite being a shorter distance by 10 000 light years, the wormhole‘s future is always unstable and it’s a race against time. However, the Defiant also entirely avoids Borg space, although it’s heading directly into the heart of the Dominion. Sisko has a few aces up his sleeve though. His engineering experience with the Defiant was hands-on, and nobody knows the ship like he does. The ship is more maneuverable in a fight, and packs a bigger punch than the other ships too. The real score here is the cloaking device, which means many tense moments as they try to do their best to avoid unnecessary fighting. Like a baseball player, Sisko makes a desperate run for home… and would most likely succeed.

ARCHER: Despite T’Pol’s warnings about what the Vulcan Science Directorate says about the Badlands, Archer knows he has to explore this most treacherous area of space. The Caretaker’s actions bring them further away from home than he could ever have imagined. While the NX-01 Enterprise may not have had the capabilities of the later vessels, it’s still more than a match for the earlier Kazon ships. Archer’s real strength in this situation is something that has many have considered a weakness in the Alpha Quadrant of later years: the fact that there is no Prime Directive.

Archer makes the statement that the Caretaker, while weak, is still many years away from dying and could return them to the Alpha Quadrant. The alien refuses, pointing out that he needs to conserve energy in order to provide for the Ocampa and protect them from the Kazon. T’Pol understands both sides, and offers a solution: with her vast scientific knowledge and Vulcan longevity she can remain behind to assist the Caretaker. She offers her services in trying to contact fellow Nacene Suspiria, experimenting in repopulating his race, and in making sure that the Kazon don’t acquire the Caretaker’s technology if such attempts are successful. It may be an ethical grey area that T’Pol is interfering in other cultures, but she logically argues that by helping to send the Enterprise back she is merely limiting the damage. Archer would have been able to bring the Enterprise home relatively unscathed merely by living in a different time.