Who is the best Star Trek First Officer?

[Daryn]

Well now, everyone always pits the Star Trek Captains against one another, but what about the First Officers? With five series and five different officers, there is quite a mix of talent to pick from. I know I have my favorite, how about you?

[Nelle Kozera]

Chakotay and Janeway, best pair evar! In my opinion anyway. Though I have moved away from Star Trek in recent years, Voyager was my favorite series followed by Deep Space Nine and Enterprise.

[Dusty]

Riker. He plays trombone. Whats not to love?

[Wolfgang of Borg]

I grew up watching reruns of TOS on BBC 2 (+ the early movies), jandrew edits have ruined TNG for me , and i only saw dribs and drabs of Voyager (the Doctor was the only character i really liked).

Anyway, honestly i think Mr Spock could kick anyone's arse (aside from Data of course, and my evil cousin).

[emikochan]

Voyager was my favourite by far but Riker just wins it if we're comparing just first officers (and Riker / Picard is the best first/captain combo imo =p)

[Pixel Mouse]

Sorry, it's all about Spock for me. Riker is pretty up there though...

[Daryn]

I have to say Riker + Facial hair > Riker - Facial hair.

[Dusty]

I have to say Riker + Facial hair > Riker - Facial hair.

Riker looks strangely lifeless without his beard.

[Gusto-Pastel]

Oooh, tough call. Gotta be Riker, Chakotay or Spock, but I gotta go with Riker for action man points.

[Golithka]

Voyager is my favorite series and not surprisingly, Chakotay is my favourite first officer. Before I first saw Voyager, my favorite was Riker.

[Samantha Arrow]

A bit of a tough choice. Riker and Spock are both pretty epic, though between them I think Riker actualy has a bit more character.

But I went with T'Pol cause she's drop dead sexy...

BTW, T'Pol was really classified as Sub-Commander for a long time, I think Tucker is the real first officer in ENT

[Samantha Arrow]

Yep, Tucker is the actual first officer, T'Pol just got special treatment for being Vulcan and such

[Rick Canaan]

Kira all the way for me. I mean, somebody had to save Deep Space Nine from Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko)!!

Also, I just liked the character best out of all of the genre's first officers. This was mostly because of the actress who played her - Nana Visitor. She was a top notch actress who excellently portrayed the role of an angst-ridden ex-military-occupation-rebel, but who also grew with the character into a very mature role as a leading figure in the Bajoran Military.

Spock, in the original series was pretty good, too. He would get my second vote.

And I know that I am going to pee in a few peoples Wheaties with what I am about to say next, but I absolutely disliked William Riker. The guy who played him, Jonathan Frakes, was a very poor actor. He was constantly needing reassurance from Gene Roddenberry (rest his soul) because he didn't believe in his ability to effectively portray his role; he had very little self confidence. The beard in fact, was an idea one of the show's producers had, in hopes of helping Frakes feel more secure about himself (Frakes was overheard saying once that he thought he was too baby-faced for the role of first officer). The beard appeared in the opening of the second season.

As for the other shows, I was never too keen on any of them save perhaps for Enterprise. Enterprise had a promising start, but then pretty much devolved in the same direction as all of the rest of the Star Trek shows - which was downwards. All of the computers sounded the same (no matter the race of people who owned them), the make-up effects became just as cheesy and the plots just started getting as thin as all of the rest that came before.

Given all of that, I never paid much attention to the characters. "Cool. Another Star Trek. What ever" and I would flip the channel or go hop on the computer for a while - never staying interested long enough to start really getting into any of the shows' characters.

So, in any event, I voted for Kira (obviously). But there was a really good cast of other actors in Deep Space Nine, too. I am hoping that we get to see more of Rene Auberjonois in future television and perhaps even some upcoming films.

Because while I voted for Kira because that was the poll, I would have voted for Rene, hands down, had the question been "Best Star Trek Character" overall.

--Captain out. Beam me up, Scotty.

[themnax]

i think pretty much all of them, with maybe one or two exceptions, would have made better captains then their captains though.