Highest upvoted helmsman in this thread will be declared best helmsman in the fleet.
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Gotta go with Tom. Going from prison to full redemption, while at the same time growing into a loving father married to a hot badass half-Klingon is definitely life goals. Not to mention his affinity for history and classic cars.
Dude designed and built his own shuttle, then had a breakthrough in warp field theory that let him exceed warp 10. In addition to scraping through multiple battles with Borg and other fleets of enemies. How is he not the clear winner?
He broke warp 10 before he designed the Delta Flyer. Season 2 for warp 10 and season 5 for Delta Flyer.
He loses points for the time spent as a lizard, I think
Also that sweet transition from literally no attitude control straight into warp drive when they got shot by Species 8472. Dude’s got skills.
I was thinking of the same scene! He was great at getaways and evading.
It’s not official canon but since the actor appeared in TNG as a different cadet who engaged in risky shuttle maneuvers to show off, it’s assumed that Paris was generally the same.
Yeah the two characters have different names (Nick Lacarno vs Tom Paris), but I always assumed the TNG character was the inspiration for Paris.
Iirc he was supposed to be the same character, but then voyager would need to pay royalties to the tng writers every episode he was in
lol, that sounds about right. I’d be pissed if I were the writers. “Hey we used the same actor and the same back story, but we used a different character name so go fuck yourself.”
At least it cost the studio a nice bit of story continuity from its hugely popular TNG property. Im sure more trek fans would have been more gripped by voyager with that bit in there. It certainly has a bit more chemistry to me after learning it just now.
I would have preferred the writers got paid, but being cheap cost the stuido too.
Just as long as it’s not time for his yearly mid-life crisis.
Yeah it’s Paris and it’s not even close. He was the first test pilot to break the trans-warp barrier. Smashin hot Klingon ass, and banged his captain when they were lizards. Mans a fuckin Starfleet legend.
I’d say Lt Mayweather as runner up. Dude was a freighter pilot and they basically tossed him in our very first combat spaceship that can hop around the galaxy. And was like “I dunno figure it out as we go” lmao.
Ortegas and Paris are definitely the most pilot like pilots character wise though. Both of them have fighter pilot personalities, excited to get into the action and do wild shit.
Sulu has a sword.
But Captain Proton has a Destructor Beam!
Overrated! 😡
Ortegas has wielded a sword too. I’d like to see them both wield a bat’leth. For honor you know.
The Federation’s Helmsmen quality peaked in the 23rd century.
Its a battle of pilots… is it a hand to hand battle? And even so somehow sulu gets a sword, when they all had phasers? Seems conceptually backwards to me
Piloting and fencing both require excellent hand-eye coordination. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Mr. Sulu is the best helmsman. QED
I don’t care who wins as long as Wesley Crusher loses.
Just load him into the pattern buffer and pull the plug.
I’ve been waiting since TNG aired to upvote your comment.
I was about to say the same thing lol
I love the choice of picture here. Wil appears to be wearing his “I know everyone hates Wesley” face.
There’s a kind of magic here that this is a game, and Wil’s entry is going to lose badly. (We love you Wil.)
Wesley, Ro, and Bozeman Tourist are eliminated immedietly, we never see them do anything fancy at all, they input courses and hit engage, that’s it.
Of those remaining, Sulu is what most people think when they think fancy starship flying, but, if you really look at it, his top moments are manually flying a shuttle into a shuttle bay, and skillfully pulling rather relaxed but precise maneuvers piloting the Enterprise in V’Ger, the Bounty, and a Huey helicopter. No high speed are rapid maneuvering. So while he gets points for skill and for being able to fly anything he gets into, he’s not the top pilot.
Detmer has shown some fancy flying, including combat maneuvers, but only on the Discovery. We don’t know if she’s as skilled if she’s put into a shuttle or an atmospheric craft.
Mayweather, for all the failure to utilize his character, has been put in the hot seat with high pressure, rapid and precise maneuvering. Romulan minefields, combat against the Xindi, high warp precision formation flying, he really is a great pilot.
Ortega is right up there too, she flew into the accretion disk of a black hole while fighting the Gorn, even with her memory severely hampered she piloted the Enterprise through an asteroid field. She flies the ship, top marks, but…
Tom motherfucking Paris. This guy can fly through asteroid fields, through torn up subspace, fluidic space, quantum slipstream tunnels, shuttles, shuttles he designed, shuttles underwater, terrestrial vehicles, high speed combat maneuvers, you name it he can do it. Tom Paris is in my mind the unquestioned #1.
I like this breakdown, particularly the contrast between Ortegas and Paris. I think Ortegas is a better overall character, and gets big points for having her skills and progress matter to her character development. Paris, though, was an elite pilot before he showed up on Voyager, and then he spent years doing the most insane piloting anyone in Starfleet has ever seen. Ortegas is sort of the ideal of a relatable, blue-collar pilot with a promising career ahead of her, whereas Paris was a savant when he left with Voyager and a legend when he got home. He’s a tier above everyone else on the list, you gotta hand it to him.
Tom Paris is an amazing pilot but he’s the most bland bad boy ever. At least some of the others are interesting!
Isnt Wesley effectivly a traveler? Being able to “blip” into any part of the galaxy on demand is a pretty hard to beat feat for a helmsman.
Doesn’t count unless you’re actively commissioned/enlisted in Starfleet, though.
Doesnt that invalidate Tom then? He was given a battlefield reinstatement by Janeway, and most of his feats fell in the time period before it was “official” from Star trek command.
Whose to say that ol “make it so” Picard cant pop a commision on Traveler Crusher on demand?
I’m gonna rank them because Sulu
- Sulu - has a sword. The OG. No comparison. Completely outclasses the others, but he’s had the most development as a character over the years, so I don’t really think it’s a fair comparison
- Ortegas - I’ve been surprisingly impressed with the actress and she’s without a doubt the most likeable after Sulu. The recent season has made her really interesting, and I hope the writers keep expanding her character. She’s fantastic. “I fly the ship!”
- Tom Paris - best character development after Sulu, has consistently great moments throughout Voyager. I did feel his acting felt lackluster at times, which is why I gave Ortegas the spot above
- Mayweather - good solid performance, interesting character with a better background with Paris. I wish the writers had done more with the character.
- Detmer - again great potential in the character, but the writers never really let her shine. I wanted to find out more about her, but Discovery was so overshadowed by Michael’s character that Detmer felt disappointingly underused.
- Ro - solid acting, but not much character depth. Never really clicked for me as a “helmsman” - always seemed like she was doing things other than piloting. Never really clicked as part of the crew in the way the rest of the cast did.
- Cartoon Dude - I have no idea what this guy’s name is, but he’s not Wesley.
- Wesley - I have great sympathy for Wil Wheaton’s difficult experiences on set as child actor, but that simply cannot distill the loathing I have for this character. TNG was a near perfect Trek in almost every respect, save when Crusher was in the scene.
Cartoon Dude is “Captain” Gavin, a civilian that got stuck on a replica Phoenix that was stolen by the Lower Decks crew, so they could use it to steal their own ship from dry dock.
When the Lower Decks crew made it aboard their ship, they left him to fly off in the Phoenix on his own for his “Trek amongst the stars!”
He was eventually rescued by Star Fleet, adrift near Jupiter
Thanks - I’ve watched a bit of the 1st season of Lower Decks, but hadn’t gotten to that part yet.
Still better than Wesley.
You gave words to my exact thoughts and feels.
Congratulations, you get to be me today.
I don’t even know a lot of those but yes, Wesley must go!
My vote is Sulu 100%
Oh my!
Tom Paris
Underrated best pilot for sure. The only pilot in the show who constantly just wanted to pilot things.
Enters a space race, designs his own shuttle and makes it look like a hot rod and configures the controls for manual operation. Works on classic cars on the holodeck. He breaks the warp 10 barrier.
dont forget he has children with Janeway (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
I’m not sure breaking the warp 10 barrier is such a positive, knowing how that episode ends…
But I agree. Paris has my vote too.
Is that the episode I’ve spent most of my adult life trying to forget?
What episode whatnow?
The lizard one.
Its not the warp 10 barrier itself that matters. Its more that hes actually interested in being a pilot. Where all the others are very thin characters.
My vote goes to Erica
Erica has to win. Being the pilot of the Enterprise is her only character trait, so it would be unfair to pick anyone else.
Also, SNW writers, GIVE US MORE ERICA ORTEGAS. After the strike, of course.
The pilot seat is her realm…
She needs someplace to put all that nonconformist sex appeal.
I’m upvoting this even though my vote goes to Sulu. Erica “I FLY THE SHIP” Ortegas needs her own fucking episode already.
Tom. Gotta be Tom
Tom is such a good pilot he broke the warp barrier, turned into a lizard, made his CO turn into a lizard, had sex with her, and returned back to human form all in a 30 minute episode. Top that
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Did he break the warp barrier in the first 18 minutes?
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“What makes you think it was [his] idea?”
Sulu easy win
Target the other candidates and fire.
My vote is for Ortegas.
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Based and hair piled. Nobody else has that cut.
Detmer has a pretty savage side cut.
If she wasn’t on Discovery, she might have scored more points.
The pilot seat is her realm.
I will not stand for this Jadzia Dax erasure. Does any one else have TWO lifetimes of being shuttle pilots? No.
Didn’t the first Dax pilot die in a piloting accident, though?
I don’t know if she ever said if it was pilot error or not though. He was a test pilot, so the accident may have been due to a flaw in the shuttle he was testing
How many other pilots survived dying in a crash? You can’t buy that kind of experience!
Sulu all the way!
As far as I know he’s the only one with his own theme song.
I think advances in special effects give Ortegas and Detmer a pretty solid advantage over the others, just because fancier flying is now within tv production values.
But as far as I know, Sulu is the only one to make captain, get his own command, and have a ship named in his honor. Plus, he got to strut around in monster maroon.
And Tom Paris is a dick.
EDIT: of course, there is a guy who wore monster maroon at one point, got his own command, and made admiral. But for some reason, the helmsman of the Stargazer isn’t an option.
If anyone says to vote out Sulu, I’m coming at you with a fencing saber.
Foil.
Yeah, he took the foil and left me with the saber.
