Day 4 - Favorite Captain

[rivendellrose]

30 Days of Star Trek Meme Day 3 - Favorite Captain

Okay, well, this is a bit of a tough one for me.

Up to about two years ago, the answer would have been an unequivocal nod to Benjamin Sisko, AKA Captain Dad. The guy is a single father who tends to treat his entire crew like family, as well as being a gentle, good leader who still has opinions and makes mistakes, and is a total badass. What's not to love? Plus, invites the whole senior staff over to make jambalaya, and has the best singing voice of any Star Trek captain bar none. And, in general, the "best captain" question always stands as a bit of a cipher for favorite show, I think, and... well.

Then, probably about three years ago, CBS announced they were casting Michelle Yeoh as a captain, and I knew instantly that my loyalties would forever be divided from that moment on.

I hesitate to lay Georgiou as my favorite because... well. Spoilers.

It would be reasonable to say that we didn't get enough of the "real" Captain Georgiou for me to say she's my favorite. One episode and some flashbacks? That's it? And for that I'll throw aside my love of my first captain? Well... no, I wouldn't except for one thing. And that thing is basically that I've been in love with Michelle Yeoh since the year 2000, and the minute she stepped on screen as Georgiou I knew I would be happy to follow her wherever, go into battle under her, die for her, etc.

Favorite, though. Better than someone we got seven seasons of?

I'm going to say yes, for two reasons: first, the question is "captain," not "lead of the show." And second, while I was at a... difficult age for Janeway (I connected really strongly to her at first and then rejected her just as strongly, basically because, man, the middle school years are hard, and I've never been able to get over it and reconnect with her or Voyager as a show), I have longed for a female captain for as long as I can remember. Georgiou filled every bit of that urge for me. She's older, she's supremely confident, and the way she was written held no sense of that "we really have no idea how to do this, HOW DO WE WOMAN CAPTAIN?!" sense that I find overwhelming with Janeway. I love that they let Michelle Yeoh use her real accent. I love that she was relaxed in command, that she teased her staff, that she had bottles of wine in her ready room. And I've built up a whole mental universe, both before and after her on-screen death, around what I think she was like as captain. Is the version of Philippa Georgiou that lives in my mind totally canon? Nope. Does that matter to me? Not in the slightest.

So, yeah, after a lot of faffing and doubting and feeling faintly disloyal, Georgiou is my favorite captain.

Day 1 - Favorite Episode of TOS
Day 2 - Favorite Federation Race
Day 3 - Favorite Ship
Day 5 - Saddest Event
Day 6 - Happiest Event
Day 7 - Favorite TNG Episode
Day 8 - Favorite Federation Enemy
Day 9 - Favorite Character
Day 10 - Most Shocking Moment
Day 11 - Crew Position You Would Want
Day 12 - Crew Position You Wouldn't Want
Day 13 - Favorite DS9 Episode
Day 14 - Favorite Time Travel Episode
Day 15 - Favorite First Officer
Day 16 - Favorite Voyager Episode
Day 17 - Favorite Trek Novel
Day 18 - Favorite Non-Aligned Race
Day 19 - Favorite Enterprise Episode
Day 20 - Character You're Most Like
Day 21 - Least Favorite Character
Day 22 - Favorite Trek Film
Day 23 - Best Trek Tech
Day 24 - Best Overall Space Vessel
Day 25 - Favorite Discovery Episode
Day 26 - Planet You Would Most Like To Visit
Day 27 - Character You Would Date
Day 28 - Name Your Own Starship
Day 29 - Favorite Trek Quote
Day 30 - Favorite Trek Series

Comments

[mekare]

Good answer. I second all your reasons for why Sisko was awesome (I am still finishing DS9) too.

[rivendellrose]

Oh, I'm jealous that you're getting to go through DS9 for the first time now! I watched from the time I was eleven or so until the end, so my early memories of it are all kid impressions, and my opinions are mixed up with where I was at, developmentally, when something happened. I've rewatched since then, of course, but it never quite undoes whatever I thought when I was little, and sometimes that makes it kind of weird.