Yes, it makes no sense that the captain of a tiny ship would have the same grade as the captain of a Galaxy class. Earth navies have been using lower grades for the captains of small ships since at least the 1700s, maybe earlier, despite all of them being address as "captain". I can only speculate that many TV writers and copy editors are unaware of Earth navy practice in this post-mandatory military service age.
Why wasn't Sisko promoted at the start of Season 3?
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Yes, it makes no sense that the captain of a tiny ship would have the same grade as the captain of a Galaxy class. Earth navies have been using lower grades for the captains of small ships since at least the 1700s, maybe earlier, despite all of them being address as "captain". I can only speculate that many TV writers and copy editors are unaware of Earth navy practice in this post-mandatory military service age.
Yes, a promotion to Commodore at the same time Sisko was made Ross's chief of staff would have made all kinds of sense. Maybe they were reluctant just because on TOS and TNG the commodores we met were almost always doofuses or worse.
Fleet captain would have worked as well.
They never explained exactly what "fleet captain" meant. If it just meant the most senior captain in the fleet, Sisko probably wasn't it, as he was a relatively young man.
Not so much "often" as invariably.
Commodores first class and admirals were assigned a fleet captain (chief of staff) and a flag captain (flagship commander). The "starburst" commodores in TOS are this, though they were the modern commodore sleeve lace, rather than the modern rear admiral sleeve lace worn by commodores first class.
Commodores second classes were assigned only a fleet captain, and were required to command their flagship personally. They wore the same sleeve lace as modern commodores.
Regarding Sisko starting off as a Commander...
I think the producers, Piller in particular, thought by having a lead who was as psychologically damaged and grief stricken like Sisko was start off as a Commander and later become Captain, it would be another way of showing how he grows and moves on in the show.
Note that at the start, Sisko was ready to resign his commission. He wasn't fully committed to Starfleet anymore.
Regarding Sisko not being promoted when Ross made him his adjutant...
Two things. First, Ross' previous one was a Commander, so maybe the post didn't require a grade higher than Captain. Second, Sisko did directly stop Bajor from joining the Federation less than a year earlier, and while Admiral Watley said he could 'have his commission' for it but opted not to due to his being Emissary, he could very well have gotten a reprimand or something that would prevent Sisko from getting a higher rank than Captain.
I think the producers, Piller in particular, thought by having a lead who was as psychologically damaged and grief stricken like Sisko was start off as a Commander and later become Captain, it would be another way of showing how he grows and moves on in the show.
Note that at the start, Sisko was ready to resign his commission. He wasn't fully committed to Starfleet anymore.
Regarding Sisko not being promoted when Ross made him his adjutant...
Two things. First, Ross' previous one was a Commander, so maybe the post didn't require a grade higher than Captain. Second, Sisko did directly stop Bajor from joining the Federation less than a year earlier, and while Admiral Watley said he could 'have his commission' for it but opted not to due to his being Emissary, he could very well have gotten a reprimand or something that would prevent Sisko from getting a higher rank than Captain.
Makes sense. One thing DS9 seriously got right was ensuring that characters were promoted in a time and manner that made sense. No other Trek series of that era can say that. And despite what I often say about a certain badly treated ensign, Voyager was the second best of the four.
Behr did want to promote Sisko when the Dominion War started, Berman overruled him saying "Star Trek is about the Captains, that's the whole reason we had to promote Sisko to Captain to begin with."
Amusing, since, of the human characters, Harry has by far the most growth of everyone.Well, that explains why Harry Kim never was
And... how did he grow, exactly? Swapped the clarinet for a saxophone?
Harry SHOULD have grown tremendously. He could easily have been VOY's answer to Nog, in fact. Watching the supposedly professional VOY showrunners totally fail with him is like watching an NBA center miss a slam dunk.
With all due respect to Berman, Star Trek is about the people, whether they are captains, commanders, CPOs, majors or colonels in an allied service, or civilians. They should have ranks corresponding to their responsibilities.
While I see some growth in Harry, he really didn't change that much. Tom Paris grew a lot more than he did. For all the inconsistent characterisations of Janeway people complain about, even she grew more a lot more than Harry (in her confidence as a leader, knowing when to be relaxed and when to be strict, when she was needed as captain and when as leader of the community, etc). And that's not even including Seven as human (which, strictly speaking, she is).
The only human character (in the main cast) that grew less than Harry (in fact, devolved) was Chakotay.
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I agree with this. The other thing was to separate him from Kirk and especially from Picard. It's one of the big reasons why we see him show anger at Picard in the pilot. It's pretty gutsy to show your new hero chewing out the great Picard in your very first episode.
I think they wanted to show Sisko as a more working class type of lead. Someone who gets his hands dirty. Something we see also shown in the pilot when he picks up trash and helps Kira clean up the Promenade. We the audience might love Picard but we can relate to Sisko more. A least that is what I think they were going for.
I bolded the part of your quote that I feel is the home run. It's one of the reasons why Sisko is my favorite Captain... his relatability AND his willingness to get his hands dirty to get the job done.
I've heard this differently: the writers wanted to promote Sisko, but Behr hesitated.
Understandable, I guess. But they still wanted Sisko acting like an admiral, i.e. ordering the fleet into battle. A case of having cake and eating it?
I don't know. The three things people seem to say the most about Chakotay are:
1. Talked about spirit animals.
2. He was wooden/a tree/a potted plant.
3. He was Janeway's lapdog.
The three things people seem to say most about Harry are:
1. Never got promoted.
2. There is no number 2. Or 3.
If Harry had been (a) promoted appropriately or (b) killed off when that stupid single rank pip on his collar made sense... would anyone have noticed he was there at all?
I'm saying Chakotay devolved because initially, he seemed to bear some promise. He started out as a Maquis leader, and in some early episodes he says things like 'I have no intention of being your token Maquis officer', threatens to solve things the Maquis way when Seska (not yet uncovered to be a spy) behaves a little too Maquis, and (even if this is a 'reconstructed' S2 Chakotay in S6 Fury (but perhaps for that very reason even more poignant)), he tells people to tear the hull apart if that is what it takes to escape from the Vidiians). But (unfortunately) all to soon, he simply becomes a rubber stamp officer, Janeway's lap dog, permitted his animal spirit guides, his own little adventures but not much more than that. I call that loss of potential.
Harry? Unwavering loyalty to the Captain and Voyager (in itself commendable). He does end up slightly more seasoned, with several (mostly horrific) experiences, and with his own (partially failed, partially successful) command experiments, and the realisation 'maybe it's not the destination that matters. Maybe it's the journey. And if that journey takes a little longer so we can do something we all believe in, I can't think of any place I'd rather be, or any people I'd rather be with' . That's an important growth point, not to be underestimated. But if that's all there's to show for 7 years, it's kind of meagre.
And yes, I was kind of flippant about the relation between his static rank and his (relatively static) character evolution. But, in the end, he was treated as a mostly static, relatively flat character.
Harry? Unwavering loyalty to the Captain and Voyager (in itself commendable). He does end up slightly more seasoned, with several (mostly horrific) experiences, and with his own (partially failed, partially successful) command experiments, and the realisation 'maybe it's not the destination that matters. Maybe it's the journey. And if that journey takes a little longer so we can do something we all believe in, I can't think of any place I'd rather be, or any people I'd rather be with' . That's an important growth point, not to be underestimated. But if that's all there's to show for 7 years, it's kind of meagre.
And yes, I was kind of flippant about the relation between his static rank and his (relatively static) character evolution. But, in the end, he was treated as a mostly static, relatively flat character.
I don't know. I don't think it's a coincidence that Behr was officially credited as an 'Executive Producer' as of "THE DIE IS CAST" instead of 'Co-Executive Producer' (Piller became 'Creative Consultant' in the same episode) since season 2, and Sisko was promoted only 5 episodes later. Also likely not a coincidence Brooks donned the goatee the very next episode, "EXPLORERS".
That tells me Behr was the one more on board with Sisko getting promoted. And to give Brooks more free reign.
