TheJames T. Kirk (William Shatner) was so much better than when Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) met Kirk in the Star Trek movie Generations. In the 1990s, Kirk, the Captain of the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek: The Original Series, encountered the Captains of the first two spinoff series. But while Kirk's feature film team up with Picard was given pomp and circumstance — especially since it ended with Kirk being killed off from the franchise — Sisko's brief man-to-man with the Enterprise's commander on DS9 was much more fun and satisfying for Trekkers.
By the early 1990s, an underwhelming demise for the captain that started it all.
It fell to space station K-7. DS9 went all-out by recreating the classic TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles"; the actors wore The Original Series' colorful uniforms and, in a few scenes, DS9's actors were digitally inserted into memorable moments from the original episode. The results were amazingly convincing and hilarious, like Kirk dressing down the Enterprise crew for brawling with the Klingons, which included his yelling at DS9's Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) and Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig). This also retconned TOS so that canonically, Sisko and crew were in the episode all along. But DS9 saved the best part for last: Sisko meeting Kirk.
Even though they had saved Kirk's life from an exploding Enterprise and settling for simply telling Kirk that it was an honor serving with him. Kirk politely nodded while Sisko left happily, although Spock obviously found the moment to be curious. But the meeting ended "Trials and Tribble-ations" on a perfect grace note and the quick chat between Kirk and Sisko was electric.
Although DS9 repurposed old footage of Kirk and William Shatner did not appear in the flesh, the time-travel shenanigans meant Sisko got to meet Kirk in his prime and DS9 got to honor TOS while simultaneously delivering an all-time classic episode. Ironically, Sisko met also Picard in DS9's premiere episode, "Emissary," and he had a hostile rapport with the Captain of the Enterprise-D. So, it was especially sweet and rewarding for Star Trek fans to see Deep Space Nine's commander so respectful towards Kirk, the original Captain of the Enterprise.