Promotion for Sisko

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I think Behr and co. wanted to make him an admiral during some point during the Dominion War, but were told by the higher-ups (Berman? Piller?) that it would make DS9 too different from the other franchises—citation definitely needed.

God forbid there be a little variety and not everything try to be a half-baked TNG remake. Ugh.

I noticed that the war planning sessions were always... Martok, a Romulan, and then two Starfleet, Adm. Ross AND Sisko. Woulda made a helluva lot of sense for Sisko to just be in charge there.

Sidenote, Piller at that point was not involved with the show in any real way, he was merely a consultant, I believing giving the odd note here or there. So if it was a producer higher up, then it was Berman... and that wouldn't surprise me at all. his vision of all Trek post-TNG was always McTrek.

 

[flemm]

What was the point of promoting him to Captain then? He commanded the station and the Defiant as a Commander. He could have easily been Ross' right hand man as a Commander.

Captain is an important rank in Trek, really the only one that is traditionally significant. That makes this promotion important, whereas promoting Sisko to Admiral would mostly be for the novelty value.

Concerning Sisko's prominence by the time of the later season, i.e. running the war effort, doesn't it makes the same sense to promote him the way they promoted Kira.

Sure, and I can see why this crossed Behr's mind. I certainly would not have been opposed to the idea. The fact remains that it wouldn't have changed anything at all from a storytelling point of view.

Behr had to fight for a lot of the stuff that DS9 did that Trek shows did not traditionally do, such as some of the darker material and serial stories, so as fights with the studio suits are concerned, this one strikes me as pretty insignificant, which is probably why Behr dropped it and spent his time lobbying for important things, like episodes such as ItPM and Inter Arma, and the final arc of season 7.

 

[DS9 Gal AZ]

I don't think Sisko wanted to be an admiral. Didn't Eddington (the security officer who turned out to be a Maquis) once say something about that, something along the lines of: "People don't go into Starfleet to become lieutenants ... or admirals for that matter. It's the captain's chair everyone has their eye on." I always got the feeling that, while being promoted to admiral was outwardly an honor, most officers (Sisko included) preferred to stay at Captain rank as long as possible because that's where the action and excitement were. Being an admiral was almost like going into retirement, it seemed ... frankly, I was just glad when they promoted Sisko to Captain from Commander.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

The downside to this is that “commodore” can sound a bit ridiculous

And "admiral" doesn't? Who's he admiring? That lieu-tenant there, perhaps? Is this the same loo where the rear admiral empties his colonel?

It's pronounced "lef-tenant"

 

[C.E. Evans]

While I used to feel differently about it, I now think that it was right that they started Sisko off as a commander. Deep Space Nine was originally something of a crap assignment--command of a slightly run-down Cardassian space station that very few people outside of the Bajor sector ever heard about. The station was merely one component in the reconstruction effort of Bajor and wasn't exactly a highly coveted post. What really made it important was the discovery of the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant. Otherwise, it would have been nothing more than a little-known outpost in the boonies and its CO only warranted a commander's billet.

Once the Dominion conflict got underway, yeah, Sisko warranted a promotion because the situation had changed dramatically and Sisko became a key field officer. The key thing is field officer, IMO, and Sisko being a captain was appropriate. Had the TOS rank of commodore still been in effect, he might have warranted that later on, but it might not have been necessary.

What was important was Sisko's position as the recognized commander of DS9 and Admiral Ross' adjutant. That alone made him the senior field officer in regards to anything concerning DS9 and the wormhole, IMO.

 

[USS Excelsior]

Sisko didn't want to be behind the scenes making the decisions, he wanted to be out there implementing them. And plus Sisko planned to retire soon and settle on Bajor anyway.