So if/when Sisko comes back
- Thread starter Photon
- Start date
Why wouldn't he?
As an inactive member of Starfleet, yes. Otherwise, he would have no authority over anyone.
Given the size of the armada he was commanding, he should have been at least a RADM anyway. And Avery Brooks would have looked bad-a** in admiral's braid.
Actually, the writers decided somewhere around the beginning of the sixth season that he would never achieve the admiralty, that his destiny would be religious. The discussion about the prophets in Favor the Bold reflects how his mentality was changing.
From Unity:
Kira: "You're not coming back?"
Sisko: "Actually, Starfleet wants to make me an admiral. They planned to offer it to me after the end of the war."
Kira: "You're not coming back?"
Sisko: "Actually, Starfleet wants to make me an admiral. They planned to offer it to me after the end of the war."
One of the plans for a six-episode arc which started season six was to promote Sisko to admiral, even if only temporarily. This was vetoed after extensive discussion involving Ira Steven Behr, who "felt it took the lead character out of the Star Trek pantheon." He did, however, briefly serve as adjutant to Admiral Ross, temporarily turning over his command to Dax. (Star Trek Monthly issue 38) Around the same time, Ron D. Moore in an unrelated matter described Sisko as having evolved since the start of the series in that he had "grown accustomed to the idea that he may never get admiral's stars" and preferring to remain a captain on the frontier. (AOL chat, 1997) (AOL chat, 1997)
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Benjamin_Sisko
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Benjamin_Sisko
In season 1, Starfleet was still expecting to see DS9 as a backwater post. Just run this little space station that belongs to this quiet little planet, nothing very demanding happening. A commander's post should be fine. However, after the coup attempt on Bajor, they should have made him a captain as the planet was not as quiet as they thought. Then probably a rear admiral at the time of the unpleasantness with the Klingons, and a vice admiral when he was serving as Admiral Ross's adjutant and commander of the combined Starfleet-Klingon-Romulan task force.
Star Trek tends to prefer homeostasis, and DS9 is not different. The reset buttons are not just about death, but all aspects of their lives. Admiral Kirk takes the captain's seat from Decker, then demotes him. Spock is captain, but surrenders his command to Kirk. Starfleet "punishes" Kirk because he saved Earth from the whale people. Picard takes back command of the Enterprise because, somehow, the only rehabilitation he needs, physical and mental, is punching out his brother. Any assignment that takes a crewmember outside the ship/station will quickly be reversed. XO Chekov? Destroy his ship. Riker passes up command after command. Trip has to come back to save the girl who jilted him(and of course, repair Enterprise's warp engines). Only when those series come to an end are characters allowed to go off in different directions.
DS9 ought to have been different in this respect. The station wasn't a tool for the crew to perform necessary tasks. It was home, a place to come back to, a place to defend. The two long arcs showed how the characters could work independently of one another without requiring them to detach from the station. Dax could have continued as the CO of the Defiant, Worf could have switched uniforms permanently, Kira could have take over the station.
I don't mind that Sisko didn't move up in rank. However, it made no sense that he would both run the station and work on war strategy. There were definitely moments when Sisko expressed the desire to stay--the conversation with Ross, planning to build a house--but there could have been stories that strongly showed these impulses. Either Sisko chooses not to promote (because it would take him away), or his attachment ot Bajor makes him seem unfit for promotion. Taking leave in the middle of the war to peel potatoes could have been more clearly something that made him seem unrealiable. I don't think that there is only a military destiny for Sisko, but the forging of any destiny should have been clearer.
DS9 ought to have been different in this respect. The station wasn't a tool for the crew to perform necessary tasks. It was home, a place to come back to, a place to defend. The two long arcs showed how the characters could work independently of one another without requiring them to detach from the station. Dax could have continued as the CO of the Defiant, Worf could have switched uniforms permanently, Kira could have take over the station.
I don't mind that Sisko didn't move up in rank. However, it made no sense that he would both run the station and work on war strategy. There were definitely moments when Sisko expressed the desire to stay--the conversation with Ross, planning to build a house--but there could have been stories that strongly showed these impulses. Either Sisko chooses not to promote (because it would take him away), or his attachment ot Bajor makes him seem unfit for promotion. Taking leave in the middle of the war to peel potatoes could have been more clearly something that made him seem unrealiable. I don't think that there is only a military destiny for Sisko, but the forging of any destiny should have been clearer.
In Picard's case might some mind wipe been used? It's been used in other episodes.
He continued to retrieve memories in First Contact.
Sisko may not even still be corporeal. I think he has graduated from Starfleet for good. Time and place no longer mean anything to him. He can bring his family or anyone else he wants to see to the celestial temple when he wants to see them. He did it with Kasidy at the end of WYLB.
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I think Picard just flat out lied his ass off to the right people, telling them that he was good to go. He could pull it off with his verbal skills. And I think Troi backed him out of loyalty, perhaps with the intention or private agreement with him to give him intensive counseling on the down-low.
