Radio Times poll to find fan's favourite Star Trek captain

The Radio Times is holding a new poll to find which Star Trek Captain fans of the long-running science-fiction franchise prefer the most.

The poll comes after the news that all five Star Trek captains – from the television series’ – will appear together at a convention in London. The convention is the first official Star Trek event to be held in Britain in a decade and will also be the first time all five actors, who portrayed the television captains, have appeared on stage together. The convention will take place at the Excel Exhibition Centre in London in October (19th to 21st).

Star Trek fans have been asked many times to vote for their favourite captain and the poll in the Radio Times is just the latest. In case you need reminding the five television Star Trek captains are as follows. James T Kirk (William Shatner)  was Captain (later Admiral) of the Enterprise in the original series which ran from 1966 to 1969. Shatner also reprised the role for seven feature length movies ending with Star Trek: Generations in 1994 in which his character was controversially killed off.

Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) was Captain of the Enterprise D (and in the films the Enterprise E) in Star Trek: The Next Generation which ran between 1987 – 1994. Stewart played the role of Picard in four feature length movies ending with Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002 which was Box Office flop. The failure of the movie resulted in the film franchise grinding to a halt for several years.

Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) was Commander (later Captain) of the space station Deep Space 9 in the Bajor System. The space station was parked next to a permanent worm-hole to the Gamma Quadrant of the Milky Way. Star Trek: Deep Space 9 ran between 1993 and 1999 but produced no feature-length movies because the film franchise was concentrated on the Next Generation characters at the time of DS9’s finale.

Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) was the Captain (later Admiral) of Voyager, a ship stranded in the Delta Quadrant of the Milky Way galaxy. Captain Janeway was the first female captain to be the main lead character of a Star Trek series though female captains, and Admirals, had been present in the franchise before the launch of Star Trek: Voyager. The series ran between 1995 and 2001 and as with sister series DS9 no feature films were produced revolving around the series. However, Janeway did appear briefly, promoted to Admiral, in  Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002.

The final television captain was Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) of the prequel series Enterprise (later renamed Star Trek: Enterprise) which ran between 2001 to 2005. The series was a prequel to the original series of Star Trek and featured the ‘original’ star-ship Enterprise. It was also a sequel of sorts to the 1996 feature-length movie Star Trek: First Contact. The prequel series was cancelled after four seasons and was originally intended to take ‘over the baton’ of the film franchise from the Next Generation but needless to say its demise put pay to those plans.

You can vote for your favourite Star Trek captain by visiting the Radio Times website here >>