Shouldn't Sisko Have Been A Commodore?

[USS Triumphant]

Or better? It really seems to me that space station commander would have to be a Commodore or better, so the officer has the authority to boss starship captains around.

Not to mention the fact that he took charge of fleets later in the series.

 

[urbandk]

Or better? It really seems to me that space station commander would have to be a Commodore or better, so the officer has the authority to boss starship captains around.

Not to mention the fact that he took charge of fleets later in the series.

Well it started out as a backwater post. When the wormhole was discovered, DS9 was thrust into significance. Sisko doesn't automatically get a promotion.

Later, I agree. He should have been promoted to Commodore instead of Captain.

 

[Mr. B]

A promotion beyond captain may have undesirably highlighted the perplexity of the fleet commander being aboard a tiny ship.

 

[USS Triumphant]

A promotion beyond captain may have undesirably highlighted the perplexity of the fleet commander being aboard a tiny ship.

Which is, in fact, one advantage to such a decision: the enemy will almost certainly assume that the fleet commander is aboard something larger.

 

[Star Wolf]

Or better? It really seems to me that space station commander would have to be a Commodore or better, so the officer has the authority to boss starship captains around.

Not to mention the fact that he took charge of fleets later in the series.

Well it started out as a backwater post. When the wormhole was discovered, DS9 was thrust into significance. Sisko doesn't automatically get a promotion.

Later, I agree. He should have been promoted to Commodore instead of Captain.

I agree we are treating DS9 like it was a Starbase and not an orbital mining station moved to the mouth of the wormhole. Not only was it backwater it is owned by Bajor, a non Federation planet.

perhaps like in the present day the rank of commodore keeps going in and out of fashion. Sometimes a military rank. Other times used for a civilian commander of merchant ships in a convoy. Seeing how every squadron or capital ships has an admiral. I think speaking of engagements where there is one admiral would be in as much error as speaking of a modern USN super carrier as if there was only one O6 captain aboard. Sisko, should have been an admiral.

 

[nx1701g]

I think he didn't get the promotion to Admiral because he wasn't the Commander of the Ninth Fleet. In Season Six it was established that he wasn't the commander of the fleet, Martok was.

 

[Anwar]

Also, it would be strange that Sisko got promoted all the way to Admiral from Captain in such a short time. He'd have to get a two-step promotion to become a Rear Admiral if anything.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I agree we are treating DS9 like it was a Starbase and not an orbital mining station moved to the mouth of the wormhole.

Admitted, but...

it is owned by Bajor, a non Federation planet.

...here, you're actually helping to make my point. This is the guy in charge of the Federation's presence at Bajor - a world which, while maybe a little out of the way, has apparently been a major player in its part of the galaxy on-and-off for millenia - and the best Starfleet can offer is a Commander?!

If I were Bajor, I'd have been a bit insulted.

 

[Daneel]

I'm not sure what Sisko's rank should have been, but from what we saw on-screen, it doesn't seem like the rank of Commodore had been in use in Starfleet since the 23rd century. I'd imagine the Trek writers didn't want to make the ranking system more complicated than they felt it needed to be.

 

[nx1701g]

I'm not sure what Sisko's rank should have been, but from what we saw on-screen, it doesn't seem like the rank of Commodore had been in use in Starfleet since the 23rd century. I'd imagine the Trek writers didn't want to make the ranking system more complicated than they felt it needed to be.

I recall seeing a one pip Admiral in one of the episodes - but they called him Admiral.

 

[Anwar]

They probably just adopted how the USN is today, they changed Commodore to the first Rear Admiral rank. They just refer to both the One and Two Pip Admirals as "Rear Admirals" or just "Admiral" because it does come off as silly to call someone a "Lower Rear Admiral", emphasis on the first two parts of that rank.

 

[nx1701g]

Noncanonly Commodore has been reintroduced in the Trek novels, sort of:

Calhoun calls Picard Commodore in a novel of the TNG relaunch when he leads a group of ships into battle against the Borg.

 

[Londoner]

What I would have thought is that, as DS9 became more strategically important the commander's post would have become a Captain's and later, arguably, an Admiral's. Not that Sisko should have got promoted, but rather he should have got shunted off to another Commander's slot and a Captain pulled in to take charge of the station.

 

[nx1701g]

^ Wasn't that addressed in Emissary?

 

[James Wright]

Didn't DS9 belong to the Bajoran's and after the worm hole is dicovered didn't they have an agreement to let Starfleet maintain the station in the Bajorans' stead?
If Sisko had been promoted to Flag Rank it would have been a one star Rear Admiral(lower half), the Rank of Commodore was no longer used in the 24th century.

James

 

[Broccoli]

Honestly, Sisko probably shouldn't have been commander of DS9 during the show's run.

For one, we can probably gather that DS9 was not a high priority position. Yes, they were trying to get Bajor into the Federation, but that is more of the diplomats' job than a Starfleet base operator. As others have stated, it was a backwater assignment that really didn't require a lot of Starfleet involvement.

Also, we can gather that Sisko probably wasn't high up on any favorites list at Starfleet. True, he wasn't a troublemaker nor a slacker, but judging from the little we see in "Emissary", he wasn't really an overachiever. He probably did his job as assigned (I suspect the death of his life kinda pushed him into this "coasting state"). This was probably the reason he was give the DS9 assignment. From Starfleet's point of view, it wasn't a high priority, but they wanted someone who was competent at his/her job and would pull it off successfully.

Now, once the wormhole was found, I am surprised that Starfleet didn't pull Sisko out of there right away and assign someone else of higher standing and/or prestige due to DS9 becoming much more important. As I theorized earlier, Sisko wasn't a golden child and, as far as we know, his record wasn't anything too special. Also, he bitched about not wanting the assignment to begin with, even to the point of mentioning it to Picard, the captain of the flagship.

But, if the did that, they would have wasted the entire pilot episode with focusing on a character we'd never see again!

^ Wasn't that addressed in Emissary?

No, it wasn't. The episode ended with Sisko deciding to stay (Wow...job has perks!) and no one questioning it.

 

[Jono]

^ They sort of address it in "Rapture". The visiting admiral tells Sisko that Command has never been comfortable with Sisko's role as Emissary and that they would have transferred him to a new post if they thought they could do it without negatively affecting their relationship with Bajor.

 

[nx1701g]

^ Sorry that was what I meant to say.

 

[Daneel]

Now, once the wormhole was found, I am surprised that Starfleet didn't pull Sisko out of there right away and assign someone else of higher standing and/or prestige due to DS9 becoming much more important. As I theorized earlier, Sisko wasn't a golden child and, as far as we know, his record wasn't anything too special. Also, he bitched about not wanting the assignment to begin with, even to the point of mentioning it to Picard, the captain of the flagship.

Well, it seemed pretty clear to me that Picard understood that Sisko had had a genuine change of heart about the assignment, and was dedicated to doing the best he could in his position. If Picard was convinced, I'd imagine Starfleet was as well.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Honestly, Sisko probably shouldn't have been commander of DS9 during the show's run.

For one, we can probably gather that DS9 was not a high priority position. Yes, they were trying to get Bajor into the Federation, but that is more of the diplomats' job than a Starfleet base operator. As others have stated, it was a backwater assignment that really didn't require a lot of Starfleet involvement.

Also, we can gather that Sisko probably wasn't high up on any favorites list at Starfleet. True, he wasn't a troublemaker nor a slacker, but judging from the little we see in "Emissary", he wasn't really an overachiever. He probably did his job as assigned (I suspect the death of his life kinda pushed him into this "coasting state"). This was probably the reason he was give the DS9 assignment. From Starfleet's point of view, it wasn't a high priority, but they wanted someone who was competent at his/her job and would pull it off successfully.

What about Sisko's background prior to DS9?

Although Sisko likely started off an engineer, he nevertheless served with Ambassador Curzon Dax early in his career and it's definitely plausible that he made a name for himself in certain circles in Starfleet. When Sisko was assigned to the Okinawa, (then Captain) Leyton made him his first officer after recognizing his command potential. A similar scenario likely played out on the Saratoga.

Following his personal tragedy at Wolf 359, Sisko chose an assignment at the Utopia Planitia Yards not only because he was grieving over the loss of his wife, but because he was also now a single father and wanted to raise his son fairly close to Earth. During his time there, Sisko worked on the Defiant Class Development Project and apparently was also in charge in building various orbital platforms. Any sense of him coasting there was because some in Starfleet believed he was capable of more than that.

Starfleet assigned Sisko to DS9 against his wishes, but he went anyway because he was still a Starfleet officer. He might have considered leaving the fleet to pursue civilian opportunities back on Earth, but he hardly would have been the first in Starfleet to have done so (I believe Christopher Pike sharing such sentiments once). Sisko's decision to stay after the discovery of the wormhole had more to do with the end of his long-grieving over his wife and a rediscovery of himself, IMO.

Sisko was more than qualified to run DS9. The station was originally meant to be just a base of operations for the Starfleet relief efforts on Bajor and likely was only a commander's billet from the start. The really big work was probably being overseen by admirals and ambassadors...