Could Jadzia Dax have been promoted to Commander?

[CDP]

going back to the original post, if the war had continued much longer in the way it was going at the time (heavy loss wise etc), jadzia would probably have been promoted to captain anyway and been gibven permenant command of defiant.

 

[Kai Winn]

no. she was simply too young and inexperienced. her internal parasite used to be a gymnast, a dedicated mother, a failed pilot, a diplomat, and a psychopath to name the most memorable ones, no qualification here either.

 

[SoM]

Hmm, interesting. I always had the impression that while Kira served as Sisko's XO for the station in general, Worf was his XO for Starfleet matters, including the Defiant, as well as the second officer for the station, after Kira, trumping Dax because of his command division position. If what you're saying is true, in a situation where Sisko and Kira were unavailable, leaving just Dax and Worf available, Dax would have command if they were on the station, while Worf would have command if they were on the Defiant. We have seen the second situation on the series, but I can't remember if we ever saw the first one.

Of course, logically, Kira should have had no place on the Defiant from Worf's arrival onward (at least - or if she did, it would have been as a Bajoran observer with no part in the chain of command), but that clearly wasn't the case since she takes the ship out many times in command (and even takes control when Sisko flakes out in Tears of the Prophets, despite Worf being on the bridge).

The idea wasn't such a bad one, but they never followed through on it.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Of course, logically, Kira should have had no place on the Defiant from Worf's arrival onward (at least - or if she did, it would have been as a Bajoran observer with no part in the chain of command), but that clearly wasn't the case since she takes the ship out many times in command (and even takes control when Sisko flakes out in Tears of the Prophets, despite Worf being on the bridge).

The idea wasn't such a bad one, but they never followed through on it.

They kinda really established it from the very beginning, though. From the start, we saw that DS9 was a joint operation between Starfleet and the Bajoran Militia. When the Defiant was assigned to the station (and that's the key thing), it became part of the station's vehicle inventory. Sisko apparently did not discriminate between Starfleet and Bajoran personnel under his command and had no problems with Kira or Odo serving on the Defiant.