I found myself referring to the 'wisdom' of Jean Luc Picard in a recent post. (yes, I know it's sad ).

So, who's your favourite Enterprise captain - Kirk or 'The Picard'?

I thought the 'Enterprise' series with Jonathon Archer was awful and doesn't even qualify.

(I was tempted to post this in the religious debate section as Picard is a God in my eyes, but thought better of it)

btw. I think Kirk is an oafish thug!

Of course Kirk is a bit of a thug....

__________________
Grassaf, Eolas

Kirk, he is so handsome : )

__________________
May your awareness be perfection

Oh V - you're so shallow...

......and loving it LOL

__________________
May your awareness be perfection

That was Don Adams -- Maxwell Smart, Secret Agent 86 -- I would take Smart over either Kirk or Picard, any day of the week. They may have had (respectively) brawns and brains, but he had luck, lots and lots of luck.

You don't have to be either stronger or smarter than the other guy, just luckier.

__________________
Grassaf, Eolas

This question actually is more complex than it appeared to me on the surface.

The concepts of the universe and by extension the nature also of our current time are quite different between the two series. Kirk lives in a universe in which the good guys are either good or they are bad guys in disguise. With a few exceptions, bad guys are not redeemable and there's no way to stop them without fighting. Picard lives in a universe in which there are more shades of grey and diplomacy is often the best option.

I think if we accept both universes as presented, the two captains were fairly well suited to their individual realities. I think Picard would have been terribly ineffective in Kirk's world, and Kirk would probably have found himself in a rehabilitation facility in Picard's. Or at least...hmm...actually he might have escaped, but there probably would have been a sincere effort to put him in one at any rate. The later series(pl) even commented on that.

In terms of what the two captains accomplished, I think it's pretty difficult to assess because we seem culturally today to be coming out of a period in which the TNG world view and ideals have been predominant in the West for some time but the TOS world view is experiencing some type of strong revival because of the current wars and tensions. There are lot of people who are starting to think some things really are black and white these days. They just don't agree on which one is which sometimes.

I think I am going to have to go with Kirk here, even though my world view probably more closely resembles TNG. I am doing so because of the depth and solidity of the human relationships he had with his two closest friends, Spock and McCoy. Picard certainly cared about his crewmembers, but he was more "professional" and distant in his dealings with them, and he comes across to me as a bit colder. My personal preference is generally for people who are emotionally more intense. That may be because I tend to over-intellectualize and waffle a lot emotionally and I think I recognize trait that in Picard at times. With Kirk you would know exactly where you stand unless you're an utterly clueless evildoer. With Picard, he might change his mind or switch tactics or even act in a manner that could be called passive aggressive. All those things can be beneficial in diplomacy, but if I had to deal with a person like that often, I think we'd have problems because I do those things also. On TNG a lot of the characters spent much of their time analyzing each other and themselves. Maybe that's healthy, but it can turn into a soap opera instead of a space adventure, and at times in the show, it did. Kirk also managed to solve most problems by himself. Picard often needed a whole team of advisers like Deanna and Guinan and Beverly and Data. I wonder if those would be good traits in an actual captain. For a President, they might work better.

Sisko I think actually combined some of the better traits of both of them. If I had to serve under any of them in a dangerous situation, I think I might prefer Sisko. A poll actually showed once that military personnel tend to prefer Sisko to either Picard or Kirk.

__________________
"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love."
- Carl Sagan