Title.
High situational awareness allowing decisive action, and impeccable plot armor.
Question, Star Trek fans: What makes Captain Kirk a good leader?
Submitted 2 days ago by PixelNomad@sopuli.xyz to [deleted]
Comments
Skyrmir@lemmy.world 2 days ago
GreenShimada@lemmy.world 2 days ago
100% agree that he’s a very bad leader. That wasn’t his role, his role was arrogant, risk-taking playboy. Keep in mind that the TOS years were the late 60s. TOS ran at the same time as the Smothers Brothers, Green Acres, and Bewitched. Arrogant, risk-taking playboy is a prime white male media main character trope that spans generations and decades. No one likes an asshole - unless it’s YOUR asshole, then it can get shit all over and you expect someone else to clean it up. Kirk broke rules, did whatever, fought everyone and banged everyone else, and always came away a winner. THAT was his role.
Even for the TOS movies, they tone him down into a “leader” a bit and it’s really just being the guy everyone has to listen to. It’s an ensemble of subordinates who largely do whatever, he barks demands, and because it’s a movie/show, they’re always working towards the same goal and get the job done.
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The Original Series
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 day ago
Show era, he’s shown to be a competent captain able to make decent strategic decisions. For instance, in the episode with the cloaking Romulan Bird of Prey, Kirk creates a battle plan which is able to take advantage of deficiencies in his foe’s ship. He’s also seen caring about making sure the crew goes into battle prepared, constantly drilling the crew so they are more responsive when time matters. Kirk is also shown as able to make hard personnel decisions which end up being right in the end. Kirk takes risks and is somewhat aggressive in playing a weak hand, but that is why he was put in command. SNW even has an episode showing that Kirk’s command is better suited to certain situations over Pike.
Movie era, Kirk isn’t as good of a captain. His crew bungle safety so bad it kills his science officer. Kirk’s rash decisions get people killed when dealing with Khan. His crew shows wild incompetence which kills a Klingon Chancellor.
It is interesting how different the character is between the shows and the movies.
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 2 days ago
Good decisions.
Pissmidget@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Immaculate enunciation.
cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Is he a good leader? He always came across to me as a bit of a prima donna with a napoleon complex. I’d point to Picard or Janeway as better leaders to be honest, they are both able to actually inspire their crews to become something better than they would be on their own.