Top 5 Starship Captains

I blame Star Trek for getting me interested in all things military. When I discovered that the fictional USS Enterprise was named for a World War 2 aircraft carrier, my naturally inquiring mind took over and I continue to study and read about military history to this day. Below is my list of the all-time great captains of TV and Film:

1) Captain James T Kirk- No contest! Kirk is the preeminent Cold Warrior in space, a little James Bond and Horatio Hornblower rolled into one. Never fails to beat the bad guys and get the girl in the end.

2). Commander Adama (original)-More Ronald Reagan than Jim Kirk, Adama led the original Battlestar Galactica from a hopeless genocide by the evil Cylons to a "shining new planet called Earth"!

3) Han Solo-Throughout the 3 original Star Wars films, his shoot first and blow-them-to-heck-later mentality helped turn the tiny Rebellion into a Empire shattering juggernaut! For his generation he was Dirty Harry with a starship, but like Kirk, he also had time for the ladies, and one in particular.

4). Captain John Sheridan-The 2nd Captain of the Babylon 5 space station, he left an exciting job commanding the heavy cruiser Agamemnon to whip this UN in outer space into shape to battle the sinister Shadows. Later, he managed to get another starship, a sleek vessel built with alien technology called the White Star, to lead the greatest armada seen in space outside of Star Wars!

5). Captain John J. Adams-Future comedic actor Leslie Nielson led the United Planets' Cruiser C-57D to the Forbidden Planet of Altair 7 to battle the evil Monster from the Id, a creature which oddly resembled a cross between a lion and Winston Churchill! Adams was the fore runner of Jim Kirk in that he beat the bad guys and won the girl, in this surprisingly good movie from the 1950's.

Inspired by an article titled The Top 20 Starship Captains.