Once upon a time in fandom, the eternal question was "who's a better captain, Kirk or Picard?" Since then, the addition of Deep Space Nine and Voyager to Star Trek canon has complicated the debate, and some longtime Trekkers might find the new answers surprising.

Even though Deep Space Nine's darker ambience, station-bound drama and flirtation with serial storylines left fans either loving the show or hating it, space.com readers came out in favor of Captain Benjamin Sisko.

Of the people responding to a recent "Who is the best Star Trek captain?" poll on the site, a full third -- more than 2,000 -- voted for Sisko, leading some to suspect that a particularly obsessive fan had stuffed the electronic ballotbox.

The Next Generation's favorite francophone took second place with 30 percent of the total votes, while 28 percent opted for the punchy delivery and devil-may-care ways of James T. Kirk.

Between them, the three male captains took a full 91 percent of the votes.

Voyager's Kathryn Janeway, the only female commanding officer to lead her own Star Trek incarnation so far, trailed far behind with only 7 percent of the votes.

This disappointing showing may reveal more about the flat response that Voyager has inspired than about any innate chauvinism in the Star Trek community.

Meanwhile, even the lack of interest in Voyager could not keep Janeway from winning the hearts of more than 400 space.com readers, including Sally Ride, president of the company and first U.S. woman in space.

Computer-compatibility issues kept Ride from voting, but she said she would "like to officially enter my favorite as Capt. Janeway."