Dax should have been promoted to Captain

[Gotham Central]

Early in season 6 Dax is temporarily given command of the Defiant when Sisko is "promoted" to serve as Admiral Ross' adjutant. Since that promotion was meant to be permanent, why wasn't Dax promoted to captain and put in a red uniform?

From a storytelling perspective, it might have been interesting to give her the promotion and let her keep it. After "The Sacrifice of Angels" they could have given Dax her own ship and simply assigned it to DS9.

 

[DS9Continuing]

Well, it certainly would have given Dax something to actually do in the sixth season.

.

 

[MacLeod]

Last I checked you didn't need the Rank of Captain, to be commanding officer of a ship. Larger vessels like the Galaxy and Soverign Class given there prestige require a minimum rank of Captain for commanding officer. Whilst smaller vessels like the Oberth Class require a minimum rank of Lt. Cmdr for the position of Commanding Officer.

 

[Elias Vaughn]

Dax wasn't on the command track. She was probably only captain until Starfleet could find someone permanent to take over.

But even if not, Sisko was only a commander when he became captain of the Defiant, so it's not like the rank is necessary.

 

[Skywalker]

For a small ship like the Defiant, lieutenant commander or full commander should be sufficient.

IMO Sisko should have been promoted to commodore during the war. But Star Trek has always placed an inordinate amount of importance on the rank of captain, so obviously that wasn't going to happen.

 

[InklingStar]

For a small ship like the Defiant, lieutenant commander or full commander should be sufficient.

IMO Sisko should have been promoted to commodore during the war. But Star Trek has always placed an inordinate amount of importance on the rank of captain, so obviously that wasn't going to happen.

I read somewhere that the writers actually wanted to promote Sisko to admiral in season 6, but the higher ups (Berman I guess) nixed it.

War is a catalyst for promotions, so realistically the final cast should have been Admiral Sisko, Captain Worf, Captain (Jadzia) Dax, etc.

 

[Skywalker]

For a small ship like the Defiant, lieutenant commander or full commander should be sufficient.

IMO Sisko should have been promoted to commodore during the war. But Star Trek has always placed an inordinate amount of importance on the rank of captain, so obviously that wasn't going to happen.

I read somewhere that the writers actually wanted to promote Sisko to admiral in season 6, but the higher ups (Berman I guess) nixed it.

War is a catalyst for promotions, so realistically the final cast should have been Admiral Sisko, Captain Worf, Captain (Jadzia) Dax, etc.

I think admiral would have been a little too high (especially since Sisko started out as a commander--which was also dumb), but I agree with the rest of your post. I would have ended it with everyone like this:

Sisko: Commodore
Kira: Captain
Worf: Commander
Jadzia: Commander (posthumous)
Bashir: Lt. Commander
Ezri: Lieutenant
Nog: Lieutenant, J.G. (as he was in the actual show)
O'Brien: Master Chief Petty Officer

 

[Gotham Central]

For a small ship like the Defiant, lieutenant commander or full commander should be sufficient.

IMO Sisko should have been promoted to commodore during the war. But Star Trek has always placed an inordinate amount of importance on the rank of captain, so obviously that wasn't going to happen.

I read somewhere that the writers actually wanted to promote Sisko to admiral in season 6, but the higher ups (Berman I guess) nixed it.

War is a catalyst for promotions, so realistically the final cast should have been Admiral Sisko, Captain Worf, Captain (Jadzia) Dax, etc.

I think admiral would have been a little too high (especially since Sisko started out as a commander--which was also dumb), but I agree with the rest of your post. I would have ended it with everyone like this:

Sisko: Commodore
Kira: Captain
Worf: Commander
Jadzia: Commander (posthumous)
Bashir: Lt. Commander
Ezri: Lieutenant
Nog: Lieutenant, J.G. (as he was in the actual show)
O'Brien: Master Chief Petty Officer

There are no Commodore's in the 24th century. That rank has been replaced by varying degrees of admiral.

That said, I wonder why they nixed the idea of making Sisko an Admiral? It would have made sense given that he was leading entire fleets during the war. They made Janeway an admiral for doing much less.

 

[Skywalker]

There are no Commodore's in the 24th century. That rank has been replaced by varying degrees of admiral.

Just because we haven't seen any, that doesn't mean they don't exist in the 24th century.

Besides, commodore is way too cool a rank to get rid of. One of the U.S. Navy's biggest mistakes.

 

[CoveTom]

There are no Commodore's in the 24th century. That rank has been replaced by varying degrees of admiral.

That said, I wonder why they nixed the idea of making Sisko an Admiral? It would have made sense given that he was leading entire fleets during the war. They made Janeway an admiral for doing much less.

It was never said on screen that the rank of commodore was replaced. We're just assuming that because we don't hear the rank mentioned, it went the same way as the corresponding U.S. Navy rank and got replaced with some variety of admiral. But there's no evidence that says that's true. Even any interpretation of rank pins is up for debate, except for the rare situation they specifically say something like "Vice Admiral William Ross". Normally they just say "Admiral".

I prefer to think commodore continued to exist, as I wish it had done in the U.S. Navy. "Commodore" just sounds so much cooler than "Rear Admiral, Lower Half".

 

[Tiberius]

Last I checked you didn't need the Rank of Captain, to be commanding officer of a ship. Larger vessels like the Galaxy and Soverign Class given there prestige require a minimum rank of Captain for commanding officer. Whilst smaller vessels like the Oberth Class require a minimum rank of Lt. Cmdr for the position of Commanding Officer.

Source?

 

[InklingStar]

That said, I wonder why they nixed the idea of making Sisko an Admiral? It would have made sense given that he was leading entire fleets during the war. They made Janeway an admiral for doing much less.

Hey now, Janeway was leading an entire desk in an entire office.

 

[Eno]

For a small ship like the Defiant, lieutenant commander or full commander should be sufficient.

IMO Sisko should have been promoted to commodore during the war. But Star Trek has always placed an inordinate amount of importance on the rank of captain, so obviously that wasn't going to happen.

I read somewhere that the writers actually wanted to promote Sisko to admiral in season 6, but the higher ups (Berman I guess) nixed it.

War is a catalyst for promotions, so realistically the final cast should have been Admiral Sisko, Captain Worf, Captain (Jadzia) Dax, etc.

That the most competent receive promotion is not a given. Often the most politically savvy find high rank. Just look at the so called experts who said jet combat would never require guns during the Vietnam conflict. Meanwhile F4 Phantom crews were screaming for guns.

 

[MacLeod]

Last I checked you didn't need the Rank of Captain, to be commanding officer of a ship. Larger vessels like the Galaxy and Soverign Class given there prestige require a minimum rank of Captain for commanding officer. Whilst smaller vessels like the Oberth Class require a minimum rank of Lt. Cmdr for the position of Commanding Officer.

Source?

OK insert 'may require' if we are using modern navies as an analogy.

As for the Commodore Rank just because we never sae it doesn't mean it was phased out. It depends as well as if starfleet bases it;s rank structure on the USN or another such as the RN.

 

[Thestral]

Technically Dax get promoted to Captain... Ezri that is, in the books, several years later.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think Vice-Admiral Ross was really the one (the big boss) considered in charge, and Sisko was his top field commander. Sisko's authority may have been underwritten by Ross.

I do tend to think that a commodore rank probably would have come in handy for Sisko during the Dominion War, but if it was recognized by other captains that Sisko had seniority (just like Picard did during both the Battle of Sector 001 and with the fleet deployed during the Klingon Civil War), then it would have been merely an observance of an old naval custom more than an outright necessity, IMO.

As far as Dax being given captain's rank, I never believed it was a permanant command. I think the ship was still considered part of DS9's inventory and Sisko was still the official commander of the station during the efforts to retake it. It would have been a different story if the Defiant was never to return to DS9, IMO.

 

[DavidGutierrez]

The most interesting spin they could have put on Dax's character would be to either keep her as a lieutenant commander or promote her to a commander, but switch her division color to red. Precendent has been set (Data in "Chain of Command, Part II," Riker's progression through the ranks as outlined in "Second Chances," Janeway's career history from "Caretaker") for officers to switch between the tracks given the right circumstances. An interesting exchange between Sisko and Worf in "Rules of Engagement" discusses how different Worf's life has become since putting on a red uniform. I would have loved to see those responsibilities explored more in-depth with Dax during the war.

Additionally, all on-screen evidence suggests that commodore has been phased out in favor of the rear admiral, lower half. Promoting Sisko, however, wouldn't have necessarily served either a dramatic real-world or pragmatic in-universe purpose. Keeping him as a captain is a constant reminder of the life he used to have, the life that was recently stolen by the war. Additionally, he was simply one of Ross' staff officers. Presumably, Ross already had a deputy commander (possibly one of the rear admirals seen in "Favor the Bold") for his command.

I would've sooner seen Worf promoted to full commander during the war than Dax, however.

 

[Gotham Central]

From an in universe perspective, it would have made more sense for Dax to be promoted to Captain and given her own ship than maintain the status quo through the end of season 6. Think about it, Starfleet was losing whole fleets of ships at the start of the war. Even if they could replace the ships fast enough, it would be necessary to replace the officers. Dax showed that she was a capable ship commander. She should have been given a field promotion to captain since its a foregone conclusion that Starfleet could use capable commanders. A good example of this is seen in "Redemption" when the entire Enterprise senior staff are pressed into service as command officers for the blockade due to a lack of command officers...and that was during peace time. With the Federation at war and losing crews in large numbers, its a foregone conclusion that Dax's experience would have been useful.

Since the war would have lasted through the end of the series, they could have given her her own ship and simply assigned it to the station. Martok was in a similar position yet managed to be around a lot.

 

[Lighthammer]

Technically Dax get promoted to Captain... Ezri that is, in the books, several years later.

I was going to make that point.

RE: Commodore

As I understand it from various sources, Commodore still exists although it's not an official rank, its more like an honorary rank given to someone who needs temporary authority, but is not necessarily in the Star Fleet chain of command.

For instance, if Picard would come back to Star Fleet on a temporary basis to take over command on something, they would temporarily give him the rank of Commodore. He might also be granted the rank in the event that various diplomatic missions required him to be in charge.

RE: Rank required to command

Captain is absolutely not a required rank to command a ship. Certain levels of Star Ships have certain dispersion of ranks.

Voyager demonstrates this a bit. Chakotay is the first officer and up until Voyager premiered, we always saw the first officer of a star ship hold the rank of commander. In Voyager, the first officer holds the rank of Lt Cmdr.

Likewise, up until Voyager we always saw the Operations Manager hold a rank of at least lieutenant where as Harry Kim is stuck at ensign for seven years because the post he holds on that ship only requires an ensign.

In Star Trek the magazine they revealed that Defiant class ships only require the rank of Lt. Cmdr. to be the full time commander. Other escort ships like the Streamrunner or Akira classes also don't require the rank of captain to command it. Likewise, the Nova and Intrepid classes only require the rank of Commander. Janeway and Ransom were captains of their respective ships because they took out one of the prototypes of their respective classes. They want a captain (or an Admiral) in charge of shake downs for new ship designs.

RE: Dax not on command track

Don't forget that Dax was technically the XO of Star Fleet operations on DS9 at the start of the series. In any operation that was strictly Star Fleet, she was the direct next in charge after Sisko.

When Worf came on board during Way of the Warrior in season 4, I'm of the impression he takes over that role. There are a few episodes where he says to Sisko "I wouldn't be good as your XO if I didn't question X".

OBVIOUSLY since Worf wasn't around after Call to Arms, serving as Martok's XO, Star Fleet seemingly still recognizes Dax as a command level.

Like Spock, Beverly and Diana (all who also where a blue uniform), Dax holds a command position.

Also, its worth noting that Star Fleet recognizes the immense benefit of being a joined Trill as Sisko convinces Star Fleet to give her the rank of lieutenant because of her past life experiences.

 

[apenpaap]

It would've been great to see Sisko become Commodore (always liked that rank a lot, it's like super-Captain), and Dax and Worf as Captains during season 6. But at least Kira became Colonel a season later, which I believe is equivalent to Captain.