In comparison to Captain Kirk, Captain Picard is a superior captain and leader.

Thanks again to my opponent. I have really enjoyed this debate. I look forward to a continuation of this in the future. Conclusion Q: My opponent ignores a very important point about Trelane. He is child amongst his race, while it is implied that Q is a fully developed intellectual being. Kirk only stalled Trelane, and he did so by making Trelane angry. This gets the best of his temper and childish intellect. Con dares to compare Q to Trelane, where it is obvious that Trelane has the emotional maturity of a 8 year old. Is there anything spectacular about being able to make a child upset? If a child has great power but is emotionally immature, is he really powerful at all? I never suggested that Kirk was not smarter than a fifth grader, I am stating that he is inferior to Picard. If Con's point holds true, that all Picard and Q did was play mind games, we still must recognize that Picard played mind games with a omnipotent and intellectually developed deity, not a malicious and powerful child. Q judged the potential of humanity by testing Picard. That says something. At what point did Kirk serve as the ambassador for humanity on such a level? Borg / Philosophy in action: Make no mistake, what my opponent is stating is that a Star Fleet Officer should have committed genocide. The Borg is a sentient race, and it can be argued that they have never killed anyone except in self defense. In every episode where we see the Borg they assimilate until attacked. They assimilate whole planets and cultures, add to their knowledge, preserve the history and technology of that culture for eons, but they do not drop nukes on planets and obliterate whole planets. They simply have a different perspective of consciousness and individuality. One that we disagree with. e have a cultural bias toward homogeneous cultures, which is fine. But my opponent goes as far to say that Picard be stripped of his rank. I find this both ridiculous and insulting. Because Picard will not commit genocide, he should stripped of his rank. If there was a virus that killed all the or the Romulans, Ferengi, Klingons, Cardassians, or any of the Federation's former or present enemies, would he sanction the use of that too. I am sure the Federation scientist and doctors could if they wanted to. But there is a reason they do not. If Kirk found a virus to kill all of the Klingon's should he use it? If Con is to be consistent he should and we wouldn't have Worf. I would also contest that threat of the Borg was an entirely bad thing. Look at the weaponry and technology developed as a response to the Borg presence. I am pointing to the last episode of Voyager here , "Endgame". Plus it is proves that and individuals conscious and individuality could be restored. As with Picard, and 7 of 9. Before we righteously claim that Picard is inferior to Kirk on this merit. Let's think about Voyager episodes Unimatrix Zero and Unimatrix Zero Part II. Let's think about how hot Seven of Nine is and let's ask ourselves. Should Picard have committed genocide to that race? I would even go as far as to say that Kirk after seeing Seven of Nine would have sided with Picard. I will end this portion of the debate by stating the obvious. The Borg was a sentient species whose people were assimilated but not yet dead, technically no lives were lost. But had Picard introduced the virus he would have been ending the lives of Billions possible Trillions of lives, subsequently erasing the eons of culture, history and technology the Borg had catalogued in their data bases. I would question the idea that Kirk entered the Nexus the same time as Picard, as it was clearly 78 years later, but will cede the point that Picard's advanced knowledge of the Nexus aided him in breaking the spell . Tactics: To my surprise, my opponent mentions the TNG first episode but dutifully ignores the mark of superior tactics that occur in Act Three. Though it may not have been a spectacular starship exploding value. Picard used a set of tactics that allowed the majority of his crew to safely escape. Picard commanded the fleet that blockaded the Klingon-Romulan border during the Klingon Civil War. Kirk shows cleverness in managing his own ship, but he lacks the intellectual faculties needed to manage multiple ships at once. TNG Redemption and Redemption II I agree with Con as he states that "Ships have crews, not just Captains...". What I would stress is of the greatest importance is how the crew is utilized. Both Captains are seen pushing their crews to levels of greatness. But it is Picard that encourages his crew to resounding excellence. Kirk calls on his crew once he has sufficiently put them all in grave danger. Picard is seen over and over again having open and equal dialogue with crew where they work toward a solution together. In fact almost every episode of TNG displays this.