After a weekend of looking at some of Star Trek's less popular elements, let's spin it round and look at your top dog.
Who is your favourite character? Is it a main cast member, a recurring guest-star or maybe someone who only appeared in a single episode? If it was my dad answering this it would be Gowron.
I could probably select a top ten easily but I will restrict myself for the purposes of this question to - Captain Benjamin Sisko.
Sisko may not have been my favourite character when Deep Space Nine started but as they go, I find him to be the most developed of the commanding officers and perhaps one of the most developed characters of all-time. Starting out in Emissary as a man still, subconsciously, mourning the loss of his wife at Wolf 359 and bringing up a teenage son while in service to building the Federation's relationship with both the Prophets and the Bajoran people.
From becoming a builder in the early years though, the character of Sisko changed immensely as Deep Space Nine became a significant outpost and then the first line of defence against the Dominion threat. A shaved head and a goatee might have been physical changes that Avery Brooks preferred but they also marked Sisko's growth into a more militaristic captain fully prepared for war and, as we discovered most notably in For the Uniform and In the Pale Moonlight, willing to go to any extreme for the "greater good".
Sisko is like that metaphorical onion, a multi-layered character who, once the writers knew what they could do with him, just went from strength to strength as more facets of his relationships with the crew and his son were explored, as well as the aliens and enemies he encountered.
Nowhere else do we see a commanding officer leave his post, command a station and a starship and ultimately give his own life in this realm to defeat his nemesis. I could probably - and should - do a bigger post exploring Sisko's role within the show (I did a little bit on this a while back HERE) but for now, I think these few paragraphs go a long way to showing why he's my favourite Star Trek character.
Follow 30 Days of Trek and join in with the daily challenge across the SKoST social media platforms! I'll be back at 1pm TOMORROW with the thirteenth question and it's specifically linked to the day!
