Kirk, Solo, Shepard - Who Is The Best Space Hero?

[Alar]

You forgot to mention that Captain Picard saved all of humanity from the Q Continuum, and potentially the entire universe when he stopped the gigantic time field that was constantly expanding back through the past from enveloping... everything.

FemShep is also pretty damn great.

Dave Lister

He gets my honorary vote.

 

[Vigormortis]

?Nuke 'em? Sheridan is nice and all but did he ever dance on a table with a nuke strapped to his chest to force the two most evil space empire to reach a peace treaty? Nope!

John Crichton did and therefore is the best space Hero. Lost in space through a worm hole with no hope of getting home and surrounded by insane alien criminals while being chased by space Nazi, John ends up becoming the most feared outlaw and stops a galactic war.

And here I was all set to chime in my vote for Picard, ready to defend that choice, and someone had to go and remind me of Crichton...

Damn it! Ugh, you win this one. I gotta agree with you and give it to John. The guy just oozed 'cool space hero'.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Philip J Fry.

Plot Armor and the luck of stupidity does not a hero make, as mucha s I love Phillip J. Fry.


OT: Han Solo. Aside from my absolute love for the trilogy, Harrison Ford and such, the man knows every inch of ship like a loving caring parent who nurtures his child. It may be a bucket of rust-splorched bits, custom rewiring that would confuse a standard starship technician to the brink of insanity and somewhat prone to breaking down at the least opportune tumes. But as a Captain, no one else can fix, his ship with a technical tap like Han SOlo as evinced in the original trilogy.

Mal Reynolds may be a badass, and has a demeanor that exudes a pheromone beyond "cool", inspires unwavering loyalty in his charges and knows just how to live off a spare parts budget but he's no Solo.

Picard is a great figurehead, a great leader, diplomat, deductive reasoner and an pinnacle of what humanity should strive for as a person a but as a starship captain relies too damn much on his senior officers' knowledge and skill to get him out of a jam via deus ex machinca.

Kirk knows only a handful of things, complemented by a way more competent bridge crew, and those things are fistfight aliens twice his size and strentght into submission and bed just about any female of any alien speciese (being that they're attractive to his tastes).I have often wondered how he would have faired agaisnt thje likes of Lwaxana Troi...

In any case, Han Solo hands down is the premier hero and ship captain because not only has he been able to singlehandedly do what no one else has ever done, score a hit on Darth Vader in thee midle of battle, (don't give me the "Vader was distracted bullshit"), he also can fix his own damn ship whilst uttering the words "its not my fault" when usually it probably is not..

/threat

 

[Namrok]

You know, ever since I rewatched Star Trek recently, I've really been partial to Captain Sisko. He's got some moral ambiguity going on, but he never strays into full on anti-hero. He has believable relationships with his son and crew members. The father son relationship between him and Jake is probably the best Star Trek has ever pulled off from main characters. And the acting for the character is spot on, even including nervous ticks like rubbing his head when he's frustrated. It really endears you to the character.

 

[bdcjacko]

Philip J Fry.

Plot Armor and the luck of stupidity does not a hero make, as mucha s I love Phillip J. Fry.

Yes it does.

 

[DOOM GUY]

I'm gonna have to go with Jean-Luc Picard.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

?Nuke 'em? Sheridan is nice and all but did he ever dance on a table with a nuke strapped to his chest to force the two most evil space empire to reach a peace treaty? Nope!

John Crichton did and therefore is the best space Hero. Lost in space through a worm hole with no hope of getting home and surrounded by insane alien criminals while being chased by space Nazi, John ends up becoming the most feared outlaw and stops a galactic war.

You make a stupendous point. No one else on this list would likely survive being relocated to a ship full of prisoners and going through the nuttiest space adventure ever and keep their sanity. John Crichton did...except for maybe that last part.

Space captain who scares away the ancient super-aliens, or space maverick who out-thinks and out-ballses two galactic superpowers; let's call this a wash.

 

[Ieyke]

The correct answer, is None of the above.
Because the correct answer is

Like Han Solo, but much better.

 

[Kiba The Wolf]

I think Malcolm reynolds would like a word with you

 

[conmag9]

Han was more or less a glorified taxi service, as I recall. Anyone else with a ship would have been just as good. The only thing he did that really mattered was disabling Vader long enough for Luke to blow up the Death Star. Which, you know, good job (sorta? They just built another one), but it was facilitating the actual hero rather than his own heroics.

Kirk did some pretty impressive stuff, but mostly on the single planet or even local scale. Moreover, he was a better explorer than hero, I found. To be fair though, I've only seen some of the original series. Next Gen and Voyager interested me more.

So, of the listed three, definitely Shepard. Saved trillions of lives by stopping the Mecha Sushi invasion. Unless played as Renegade, in which case "anti-hero, barely". But while a few of her Renegade Actions made me chuckle, Paragon Shep is the only one I really hold to.

 

[thoughtwrangler]

Stanley Tweedle from Lexx is the clear winner here. Security Guard/Courier/Captain extraordinaire.

 

[L. Declis]

I'm gonna have to go with Jean-Luc Picard.

I'm glad someone else put this in. Who are his competitors?

A guy whose plan is to simply attack everything and roll the dice? A warrior, not a leader.

Solo? A coward, an okay pilot and a princess fucker? Not sure he qualifies.

Shepherd? Maybe genocided the Krogan, maybe the Alien Queen (Ranthee?), maybe the Quarians/Geth, definitely the Batarians, maybe overthrew the elected alien council, maybe helped a dangerous serial killer escape justice, helped another one take back a hive of villainy and scum, destroyed the only way of travelling around the galaxy, ultimately destroying it anyway, placed her friend in the position of the ultimate crime overlord, helped a thief, helped a terrorist organisation get hold of Reaper tech, maybe punched a journalist, maybe tortured a man, so on and so forth.

Picard? Guided the galaxy into peace. Dealt with gods. Dealt with the biggest threat to galactic life (the Borg). Managed to retain his mind after assimilation. Dealt with the rights of androids. Could do diplomacy as well as war.

This is a man to follow.

 

[KissingSunlight]

A lot of people giving credit to Picard for containing the Borg threat. It was Captain Janeway who shut it down. Also, got her crew home from the Delta Quadrant.

A hero that did the most with the least. Captain Malcolm Reynolds. With no army, just a handful of people trying to survive in an indifferent, hostile universe.

No one mentioned Commander Adama. A leader past his prime forced to step up and save the remainder of humanity from extinction.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Best Space Hero goes to Han Solo, if only because I have no love for Kirk or Shepard.