Profiles in Leadership of Five Captains, Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway and Archer

The age old or rather decades old debate has raged over which is the superior Star Trek Captain, Captain James Tiberius Kirk or Captain Jean Luc Picard. But of course as the decades wore on, the debate wore thin and newer Captains came along on newer Star Trek spinoffs which developed their own appreciative viewerships and Star Trek themed fan clubs. None might be able to command the high esteem of Kirk or Picard but then each had their own distinctive qualities and perhaps as with the original rivalry of Kirk and Spock, perhaps this is what really commands our loyalties, the affinity toward the qualities displayed in each that we admire and respect. The qualities of leadership.

Let us now take a look at each Star Trek Starship Captain in turn and at their leadership and command modalities.

Captain James T. Kirk

With a middle name derived from a deceased Roman emperor (a family naming tradition) and a father who was a Starfleet officer, command is very nearly in Captain Kirk's blood. A strong leader, Kirk is charismatic and a commanding presence. While he possesses a sense of humor, he also is capable of the rigidity necessary to command and expect to be obeyed. Gene Roddenberry who himself had served as a pilot during and after World War II had stayed that he had modeled Captain Kirk on the sort of pilot he wished he was. And as an officer Captain Kirk is indeed a powerful presence who almost inspires hero worship.

However Captain James T. Kirk is also a lonely figure given to brooding and often disconnected from his rank and file crew. His close friendships with Commander Spock and Dr. McCoy allowed him to be tethered to the people under his command. While outwardly Captain Kirk seemed like a far more open and outgoing figure than the more austere, arrogant and standoffish Picard, in reality Kirk was nearly as isolated as Picard in his own way. The key difference lies in Captain Kirk's ability to project a warmer image and to interact naturally with crew members when he chooses. Unlike Captain Picard, Captain Kirk does not isolate himself from his men because of a dislike of the gregariousness of social fellowship but because the responsibilities of command that weigh on him force him to isolate himself from the men and women under him, who die regularly because of his decisions.

Furthermore James Kirk is by his very nature a loner, seeking adventure and meaning in exploration, half in love with the ship that gives him the freedom to travel around the stars. For all his people skills, James T. Kirk is ultimately very much alone by choice.

Captain Jean Luc Picard

A throwback to the naval captains of old, Captain Picard is in some regards a martinet, arrogant and intolerant and burdened with a dislike of social occasions, somehow the wild risk taking young man who fought over a game of Damjat and lost his heart became a seemingly grey figure. Yet within that grey figure lurks a spirit of adventure and romance. Like a closed box, Jean Luc Picard is a romantic inside and a hardened commander on the outside. Captain Picard is not ruthless in the way of a Kirk or a Sisko who would risk the lives of men and accept the cost and yet move on. Picard by contrast is far less willing to risk the lives of those under his command but he is also far less willing to show them his human side.

Growing up with a hostile and jealous older brother on a rural farm, Jean Luc Picard was an excellent student who escaped into Starfleet early and got as far away from the family vineyard as he could, embracing the technology and the future that his father and older brother would not. Yet their values, their disdain for the modern and for the gregariousness of human company has remained very much a part of his character. While Captain Picard may transverse the stars, a part of him is rooted in the earth of that vineyard, in the love of old fashioned ways and old fashioned things and the mores of a time gone by.

When Captain Jean Luc Picard confronts the rest of the universe he does so with a courtliness derived from generations of men who believed that the vineyards they toiled in were a noble calling and with the harshness of those who chose to shut themselves out from the modern world by clinging to the nobler ways of an unfallen world.

Captain Benjamin Sisko

Like Kirk and Picard, Captain Sisko is a man looking to escape but he is looking to escape his own past. A formerly capable officer, Captain Benjamin Sisko has become increasingly dispirited by the death of his wife. Choosing to embrace his assignment on Deep Space Nine as a means of dealing with his loss, Captain Sisko has bitterly and aggressively devoted himself to his mission but buried within him is a core of anger at the unfairness of the universe that often rises to the surface. Unlike Captain Kirk or Captain Picard, Captain Sisko does not really believe that exploration is worth the price. He is a man who would settle down but has a history that overshadows the possibility of living that kind of untroubled and peaceful life. Instead he grimly dedicates himself to keeping the peace, protecting others, including the hearthworlds of the Federation by maintaining the border watch at the door to the Gamma Quadrant.

Unlike the previous Captains, Sisko does not embrace the task before him. Occasionally he may find moments of enjoyment in it but the bitterness and anger he feels continue to color everything, eventually betraying him into a superstitious worship of the wormhole aliens in order to find meaning in the shattered ruins of his life.

Captain Kathryn Janeway

Captain Janeway is in many ways less an explorer than a bureaucrat, a supposed scientist, her interest lies far more in the management of people than the achievement of goals. Growing up as the elder daughter in a large family, Kathryn Janeway learned early on about the responsibilities of command in managing a large family. To her the crew of Voyager is her family and that emotional displacement creates problematic situations and creates difficulties in her command. Finding herself unable to trust others, Janeway often takes on excessive burdens and develops a martyr's complex as many overworked parents with responsibilities both at home and at work do.

Captain Jonathan Archer

Son of a brilliant scientist, Captain Archer is in many ways an explorer forced to become a soldier as he finds himself confronting a universe that is far less welcoming than the one his father's legacy was meant to open. Instead Captain Archer's frustration built up from watching his father's work overshadowed by the achievements of the Vulcans now finds itself spilling over on the galaxy that remains far too large for human grasp.

Captain Archer possesses natural command abilities and is respected by his men. However he tends to have a weakness for selecting officers he likes as male friends rather than the officers best suited for the job, a weakness that Kirk and Picard understood better than to fall prey to. His impulsiveness and rashness, unlike Kirk's is not managed by any experience or reason and as a result is often rash and destructive. Discipline over time transforms him into a true prototype of a Starship Captain.