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Which Trek Captain had the most difficult command?

RedRum

RedRum

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Oct 25, 2017
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I'm thinking about going back and binge watching a few seasons of all the Trek shows.

I'm curious to see some responses about who had the most difficult command of all the shows. Other factors that could be taken into consideration would be the crew compliment to help, ship and/or station, and the most difficult situations that arrived.

My opinion (and don't kill me) ..is that Sisko had the most difficult command. From the beginning managing DS9 was an absolute nightmare and it didn't help that more than half the people on that station hated him.
 
Infamous Hawk

Infamous Hawk

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Oct 30, 2017
364
Sisko as portrayed, absolutely. In theory, it would have been Janeway, because she had a 50-50 mix of Starfleet - Maquis crew, plus they're in a completely unexplored region of space with no reasonable backup.

But the writers and producers fucked up what would have been an awesome concept.
 
BossAttack

BossAttack

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Oct 27, 2017
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Sisko had to deal with the fate of the entire Alpha Quadrant and the Federation. It's not even a competition.
 
DrForester

DrForester

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Oct 25, 2017
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As presented.
Sisko. He had to balance the needs of the Federation and the needs of Bajor. He was on the front lines of a war against a powerful adversary.

If they hadn't fucked it up:
Close between Archer and Janeway. Both were searching the unknown with little to no backup. Janeway also (in theory) had to deal with a few dozen maquis members who absolutely loathed the Federation.

But they fucked it up.
 
Officer Big Mac

Officer Big Mac

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Oct 28, 2017
22,596
Sisko was trying to bring Bajor into the Federation with the Dominion invading. Half the people there didn't hate him. KainWinn hated him. Everyone else thought he was the Emissary but Winn resented him for it.

Picard was captain of a space taxi. Kirk had a bunch of sexist and racists under him. He also had a bunch serving on his ship.Janeway, at least on paper, should have had an absolute nightmare of a command. But, it turns out, she was the nightmare.
 
JonnyDBrit

JonnyDBrit

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Oct 25, 2017
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Of the 'main' Captains, gotta be Sisko. As Hawk puts it, Janeway's should on paper be the hardest - mixing together literal terrorists with the establishment they were fighting against - but the show rarely ever brought that to the fore, and while getting back to the Alpha Quadrant was difficult, rarely was she and the Voyager crew not up to the challenge (because the show would end if that were the case).

With Sisko, the man first had to balance the interests of a planet that only sort of wanted his presence there against the political, scientific, and strategic ramifications of what became the keystone in his position - the wormhole. He was eventually presented with having to make the key decisions that launched the most devastating war in the galaxy's recent memory. Having to navigate his morals and necessity in order to win said war. Oh, and coming to terms with whether or not he should become a god.
 
SlothmanAllen

SlothmanAllen

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Oct 28, 2017
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Janeway. She and her entire crew were incompetent making their perilous journey back to the Alpha Quadrant all but impossible.
 
dots

dots

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Oct 27, 2017
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Picard's entire arc from the first to last episode was that Q was testing him. That's gotta be rough.
 
Gennady

Gennady

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Nov 5, 2017
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Sisko, Uncooperative and ungrateful people to protect that only changed their mind because he talked to their alien gods. Woefully understaffed and underequipped to deal with the klingon, cardassian and jamhadar incursions.
 

amusix

The Fallen
Oct 29, 2017
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Sisko, without a doubt.

Janeway's difficulties were purely her own making, so I wouldn't count those.
 
The Adder

The Adder

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Oct 25, 2017
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Sisko.

Janeway made her command as difficult as it was through her own decisions. Otherwise it'd be close and debatable.
 
itwasTuesday

itwasTuesday

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Oct 30, 2017
8,078
Well, from the 09 movie captain Thor had the ship for like an hour then he got blown up. The crew all peaced out too.
 
HStallion

HStallion

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The-Orville-Seth-MacFarlane%20%281%29.jpg
 
The Adder

The Adder

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To elaborate on my point, Janeway put herself and her crew in that situation whenn she chose not to use the array.

A timed detonation, a crew member staying behind, or Janeway herself staying behind to destroy the array would have spared her the journey across the Delta Quadrant.
 
Officer Big Mac

Officer Big Mac

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Oct 28, 2017
22,596
The Adder said:
To elaborate on my point, Janeway put herself and her crew in that situation whenn she chose not to use the array.

A timed detonation, a crew member staying behind, or Janeway herself staying behind to destroy the array would have spared her the journey across the Delta Quadrant.
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Weren't the Ocampa dying anyway? So by time season 6 rolled around, Ocampa would have run out of energy and forced to the surface where the Kazon probably ate them.
 
Meows

Meows

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Oct 28, 2017
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It's between Sisko and Janeway and I think you could make arguements for both Captains. Janeway's crew had a very difficult and personal mission that ordinarily would have been impossible - they also had so many battles with the Borg. But Sisko not only had to worry about Deep Space Nine and Bajor - he also had to protect the fate of the entire Alpha quadrant in a bloody war. I lean toward Sisko myself.
 
Htown

Htown

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Oct 25, 2017
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Oh, Sisko, without a doubt.

Dude wasn't even a captain at first, just a commander sent out to a station next to a planet coming right out of a Nazi-style occupation, to bring that planet into the Federation. Then he immediately finds out that he's now also responsible for keeping tabs on the first known stable wormhole, which leads to an unexplored part of the galaxy. He is also thrust into an unwanted and important position in the Bajoran religion after talking to the wormhole aliens they see as gods. So he has to juggle all that, while trying to make a home on this Cardassian station for his son, trying to integrate his Starfleet personnel with the Bajorans on the station, and keep the Cardassians off his back. Oh AND he's got to deal with a splinter group of Federation colonists who are taking up arms and engaging in an armed conflict with Cardassian colonists in the demilitarized zone, and keep that from exploding into an all-out war. And then it turns out there's essentially a massive and aggressive space empire on the other side of the wormhole, and they're looking to expand.
 
hobblygobbly

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NORDFRIESLAND, DEUTSCHLAND
Sisko was on the front line of the Gamma quadrant with the wormhole and the actual Dominion war which was the biggest threat the Federation and Alpha quadrant had faced to date. Plus he had to balance his responsibility with Bajor both as his mission to Bajor by the Federation as well as on a personal level for the Bajorans since he was their Emissary. Not to mention that he was not particularly prepared for all of this, it was his first time having such a level of command at a time of the greatest threat, his appointment to Deep Space Nine was thought to be temporary, something he detested at first, but would become the most important strategic asset for the Federation.

Janeway also had a difficult command but in a much different way.
 
Sephzilla

Sephzilla

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Sisko and then Archer.

Janeway would have had it easy if she was smart
 
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Dicer

Dicer

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Oct 26, 2017
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People are really dismissing Archer, running around space in a slow ass/non shielded/under gunned starship. Meanwhile the entire human race was depending on him to not be obliterated, with the Vulkans not really giving two shits...add to that the time shit and the pretty high body count.
 
Laser Man

Laser Man

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Oct 26, 2017
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After watching some TNG conventions on youtube, seeing what Marina Sirtis can be like... it's gotta be Picard!
 
Big-E

Big-E

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The answer is Sisko. Janeway should be the answer, but the fact that they pretty much resettled every week makes her lose.
 
BorkBork

BorkBork

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Htown said:
Oh, Sisko, without a doubt.

Dude wasn't even a captain at first, just a commander sent out to a station next to a planet coming right out of a Nazi-style occupation, to bring that planet into the Federation. Then he immediately finds out that he's now also responsible for keeping tabs on the first known stable wormhole, which leads to an unexplored part of the galaxy. He is also thrust into an unwanted and important position in the Bajoran religion after talking to the wormhole aliens they see as gods. So he has to juggle all that, while trying to make a home on this Cardassian station for his son, trying to integrate his Starfleet personnel with the Bajorans on the station, and keep the Cardassians off his back. Oh AND he's got to deal with a splinter group of Federation colonists who are taking up arms and engaging in an armed conflict with Cardassian colonists in the demilitarized zone, and keep that from exploding into an all-out war. And then it turns out there's essentially a massive and aggressive space empire on the other side of the wormhole, and they're looking to expand.
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Yup. Sisko for sure.
 

shauntu

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Oct 27, 2017
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Infamous Hawk said:
Sisko as portrayed, absolutely. In theory, it would have been Janeway, because she had a 50-50 mix of Starfleet - Maquis crew, plus they're in a completely unexplored region of space with no reasonable backup.

But the writers and producers fucked up what would have been an awesome concept.
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So much agreed. Voyager had such great potential, sadly squandered.
 
Jackpot

Jackpot

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Archer had it super rough. Travelling in a ship less capable than a Voyager shuttlecraft, trying to save humanity single-handedly whilst being undercut by his superiors and his allies.
 
Medalion

Medalion

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Sisko had Wormhole Alien Gods on his side
Janeway had Future Janeway's Questionable Morals and Future Tech

Hmmmm
 

Mister Saturn

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Oct 31, 2017
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Sisko, definitively. He had to contend with difficulties inherent to the position of a federation commander while also keeping the peace between a very religious and very divided people, and doing it at what is possible one of the most dangerous bits of space in the alpha quandrant, a location which also became the focal point for one of the deadliest wars faced by the federation.

Now, if we were to expand on franchises, we could point to Col. Everett Young in Stargate Universe as a "Janeway done right" type of ship commander. I don't know if I'd say his command was more difficult than Sisko's, but probably it was about equally as difficult, and any mistakes made had far more punishing consequences due to his isolation from any help or backup from the SGC.
 
99Luffy

99Luffy

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Sisko seemed like he had it easy compared to Archer considering Archer actually led away missions. Pretty sure Enterprise had more casualties than Voyager too in half as many episodes..
 
lorddarkflare

lorddarkflare

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Archer easy. He had no one in his corner except for those future cops, and they continuously dicked him over.
 
Tygre

Tygre

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It should have been Janeway. If not her, then Archer. But they fucked both of those up to various degrees.

As presented, it's Sisko by a mile, best exemplified by the incomparable In the Pale Moonlight.
 
UCBooties

UCBooties

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Oct 26, 2017
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I agree with the people saying Sisko based on the actual shows.

But people talking about how Janeway should be the right answer based on the concept are really getting at what a wasted opportunity Voyager ended up being. I wonder what it would have been like of the Voyager concept had been used more recently during the "golden age" of tv. A post BSG, prestige show that put the personal conflicts and razor thin margins for survival front and center. Trying to keep the crew from devolving into civil war/mutiny while fending off Kazon attacks and desperately trying to ration everything on the ship should have been the entire arc of the first season. Season finale could have been a mutiny actually coming to a head and Janeway and Chakote having a real stand off until its revealed that the mutiny was actually instigated by both SF and Maquis crew members trying to exploit the tensions to take control.

Then once the crew starts to gel a bit better you can ramp up the external conflicts. Spend an entire season dealing with the phage aliens and all their bodysnatching. Show that the Doctor really struggles with xenobiology or any medical knowledge that isn't in his data files because he was never programmed to be a full Doctor. Hell work in some ethical discussion of whether they can tinker with his programming to make him more flexible and improvisational but at the cost of fundamentally altering his personality and possibly making him more eratic since they don't have a full AI programmer on board.

If the show goes on long enough, you can have a whole season devoted to the borg and a desperate attempt to exploit a schism in borg "society" in order to survive the fact that the ship's only path home is directly through the heart of borg territory.

The other thing they could do with a higher budget and lower episode count is have more permanent changes to the ship. When Voyager limps back to the Alpha Quadrant it should be a true Ship of Theseus, covered in patchwork plating, sporting a replacement naucel and covered with bolted on phaser arrays and other external weapons to replace Federation tech that was destroyed on their journey and could only be replaced with jury-rigged alien tech.

Long form TV wasn't really a thing back when Voyager was on the air and it was never going to be good with those producers, but I can't help but wonder what a more modern take on Voyager would have looked like. I feel like it could have been something special and I feel bad that the cast wasn't given better material to work with.

TLDR: Voyager in a post BSG wold could have been pretty awesome.
 
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