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How many times did Picard decline a promotion?

I only remember once, when the Admiral wanted him to be Commandant of the Academy.

Would that be a promotion? "Commandant" is a title, not a rank. He could still be the Commandant of Starfleet Academy while holding the rank of captain.


No Admiral Quinn said he was going to make Picard an Admiral. I would think that rank would be necessary to be Commandant of the academy otherwise too many people would outrank you in such a prestigious position.
 
Didn't make sense than, doesn't make any more sense now.

Quite. One gets the feeling that we missed some sort of an adventure between "BoBWII" and "Family", one where Riker really made an ass of himself or something... Perhaps a conclusion to the Shelby story? Perhaps the fourth pip eventually went to that determined and more luminous competitor?

I wonder what would psychologists say about this evident fear of moving on. Perhaps it was Riker's fear of leaving Troi behind and losing her for good that kept him in place.

IMHO, it ties better with Riker's problems with his father, as explicated in "The Icarus Factor". Riker would have been kicked forward in his career by a number of father figures, but in Picard he would have found the one he really wanted to stick with, preferably for the rest of his life. Rising to Picard's level might be almost as frightening for him as leaving Picard behind...

Timo Saloniemi
 
It is also worth bearing in mind that the Borg cube destroyed much of the fleet so it may have been that there were no ships for Riker to take command of.
 
It is also worth bearing in mind that the Borg cube destroyed much of the fleet so it may have been that there were no ships for Riker to take command of.

Starfleet Command:

So...Captain Riker...we lost a lot of ships during the Borg attacks. I mean, we really appreciate everything you've done for us...but we don't really have a starship for you per se... We do have a shuttlecraft you can use...if you're amenable, I mean...Anyway, let us know...
 
I can see why someone who loved their job would go back to it. Especially if their promotion only happened because their old boss died...and then came back.

I'm gonna go ahead and assume that not everyone wants to be a captain. Just a lot of them. (Like actors wanting to direct. ;) )
 
It is also worth bearing in mind that the Borg cube destroyed much of the fleet so it may have been that there were no ships for Riker to take command of.

Starfleet Command:

So...Captain Riker...we lost a lot of ships during the Borg attacks. I mean, we really appreciate everything you've done for us...but we don't really have a starship for you per se... We do have a shuttlecraft you can use...if you're amenable, I mean...Anyway, let us know...


In BOBW Riker is offered the command of the USS Melbourne but at Wolf 359 the Melbourne is destroyed. Apparently thirty-nine ships were destroyed which probably represented the bulk of the fleet. Following BOBW Riker has to stay on the Enterprise because there literally is nowhere else for him to go.
 
It is also worth bearing in mind that the Borg cube destroyed much of the fleet so it may have been that there were no ships for Riker to take command of.

Starfleet Command:

So...Captain Riker...we lost a lot of ships during the Borg attacks. I mean, we really appreciate everything you've done for us...but we don't really have a starship for you per se... We do have a shuttlecraft you can use...if you're amenable, I mean...Anyway, let us know...


In BOBW Riker is offered the command of the USS Melbourne but at Wolf 359 the Melbourne is destroyed. Apparently thirty-nine ships were destroyed which probably represented the bulk of the fleet. Following BOBW Riker has to stay on the Enterprise because there literally is nowhere else for him to go.

I think it is pushing it saying that is the bulk of the fleet, I mean just a few years later on DS9 they have what seems like nearly a thousand ships. I could see how that they only had so many ships able to meet at Wolf 359 because the fleet would be scattered across the entire federation. But that just goes to show you that with the increase of CGI technology that the federation was able to find more supplies to build more ships :)
 
Starfleet Command:

So...Captain Riker...we lost a lot of ships during the Borg attacks. I mean, we really appreciate everything you've done for us...but we don't really have a starship for you per se... We do have a shuttlecraft you can use...if you're amenable, I mean...Anyway, let us know...


In BOBW Riker is offered the command of the USS Melbourne but at Wolf 359 the Melbourne is destroyed. Apparently thirty-nine ships were destroyed which probably represented the bulk of the fleet. Following BOBW Riker has to stay on the Enterprise because there literally is nowhere else for him to go.

I think it is pushing it saying that is the bulk of the fleet, I mean just a few years later on DS9 they have what seems like nearly a thousand ships. I could see how that they only had so many ships able to meet at Wolf 359 because the fleet would be scattered across the entire federation. But that just goes to show you that with the increase of CGI technology that the federation was able to find more supplies to build more ships :)

At the end of BOBW Shelby mentions that the fleet would be "back up in less than a year". This implies that thirty-nine ships was a significant loss to the Federation at that time.
 
I always felt Shelby's remark implied that the fleet "assigned to this region" would be back up... The loss of thirty-nine ships, while terrible, seemed relatively small for it to be a substantial number of vessels in Starfleet's entire fleet in the late 24th century. The Federation is made up of well over 100 planets (150 by INS, IIRC) by then. DS9's DW stories seemd to be much more realistic in its numbers.

As for the promotion questions, I remember reading a rumor that Stewart was renegotiating his contract and that if he pushed too hard during the summer hiatus, Locutus would die, Riker would remain captain, and Shelby would be added to the cast as XO. I later read that this was BS but I always enjoyed that rumor wondering how the dynamics of the show would've changed if that had occurred. I also liked the (false) rumor that accompanied the episode "Second Chances" in which Riker's transporter created double is found - Cmdr. Will Riker would get promoted and leave while Lt. Tom Riker would stay on the show. A new character but not really. Lots of possibilities!
 
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