Why wasn't Sisko promoted at the start of Season 3?

[suarezguy]

With adding the Defiant, wouldn't making Sisko captain contribute more, and made sense at the time, to the sense that the show/character had come into his own and that the situation was with the frontier was getting more and more tense?

Did the writers think just adding the Defiant was enough change at once for then and did they like a lot having Sisko portrayed as so young he's technically not captain yet, think that would work and be good for another year?

 

[fireproof78]

He was still commanding a smaller outpost and a small ship.

Commander is fine.

 

[Iamnotspock]

I don't know why they didn't promote him then but I think the Doylist reason they did promote him when they did is that after VOY started, people started talking about "the captains"; Kirk, Picard and Janeway. It was one thing for Sisko to stand apart from Kirk and Picard when he was still the new kid on the block but once he was being actively left out of a growing line-up, Ira Behr said, "Hold on a minute..."

 

[The Wormhole]

It basically had to do with the fact that Berman and Piller wanted Sisko to be a Commander for their own reasons. It was Behr who felt Sisko should be a Captain and arranged to have him promoted ASAP when he took over the show.

 

[at Quark's]

He was still commanding a smaller outpost and a small ship.

Commander is fine.

If so, then why was he promoted at the end of the season? Or was that simply a 'you've served satisfactorily as Commander for long enough now' promotion?

 

[somebuddyX]

I don't think Ira took over completely until around "Life Support" so possibly didn't start pushing until then. He then might have wanted to wait until the finale, and because originally they were going to go back to Earth perhaps it might have been more of a reason to wait until then to do it.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

If so, then why was he promoted at the end of the season? Or was that simply a 'you've served satisfactorily as Commander for long enough now' promotion?

To show the development of the character?

 

[The Wormhole]

I don't think Ira took over completely until around "Life Support" so possibly didn't start pushing until then. He then might have wanted to wait until the finale, and because originally they were going to go back to Earth perhaps it might have been more of a reason to wait until then to do it.

The decision to wait until the finale to promote Sisko was more likely related to the fact the finale was the next "high profile" episode that would be guaranteed to have the most viewers, of which promoting the lead character should be included in such an episode rather than some random episode in the middle of the season.

 

[at Quark's]

To show the development of the character?

Well, that explains why Harry Kim never was

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Well, that explains why Harry Kim never was

DS9 is the show where the station goes nowhere but the characters go far. Voyager is the show where the ship goes far but the characters go nowhere.

 

[Dee1891]

With adding the Defiant, wouldn't making Sisko captain contribute more, and made sense at the time, to the sense that the show/character had come into his own and that the situation was with the frontier was getting more and more tense?

Did the writers think just adding the Defiant was enough change at once for then and did they like a lot having Sisko portrayed as so young he's technically not captain yet, think that would work and be good for another year?

Sisko should have been a captain at the beginning of this series.

I don't agree with that comment about the Voyager characters. Nor one bit.

 

[fireproof78]

If so, then why was he promoted at the end of the season? Or was that simply a 'you've served satisfactorily as Commander for long enough now' promotion?

I take it has a promotion due to increase in responsibilities. Which tracks with what all Sisko was overseeing.

 

[at Quark's]

I take it has a promotion due to increase in responsibilities. Which tracks with what all Sisko was overseeing.

In general I agree that he deserved a promotion (or possibly multiple promotions) sometime during the series. In terms of responsibility, he starts out as a commander (overseeing a supposedly small Starfleet contingent on a backwater space station), and ends at a much higher level than a mere captain (being a pivotal military leader commanding entire fleets, religious icon and therefore indispensable linking pin with Bajor, and so on).

It's just that I don't see why he wouldn't merit that promotion at the beginning of S3, but he does at the end of that same season - it's not as if that much really changed in terms of his responsibilities during that specific season. Basically they just learn more about the dominion in terms of the greater war arc but the situation is only slowly buidling up. (A promotion in, say S5 would have been perfectly fitting, for example).

 

[fireproof78]

It's just that I don't see why he wouldn't merit that promotion at the beginning of S3, but he does at the end of that same season - it's not as if that much really changed in terms of his responsibilities during that specific season. (A promotion in, say S5 would have been perfectly fitting, for example).

In terms of responsibilities no not much changed. But promotions require time and demonstration of ability. From a administrative perspective they would consider a more experienced captain, a more seasoned officer or someone with less baggage with Bajor.

 

[kkt]

Sisko should have been a captain at the beginning of this series.

I don't agree. At the beginning of Season 1, DS9 was a minor post, probably somewhere between 50 and 200 Starfleet personnel. If it was a ship with that small a crew it would have been a lieutenant commander's post at most. Just barely big enough to send a message to Cardassia and Bajor that if Cardassia tried to take the station or Bajor again there would be consequences.

Also Sisko was too inexperienced to be a full captain yet. He was 1st officer of the Saratoga, but that's not like having an independent command. And working in a shipyard in Earth's system sounds more like a desk job.

If Starfleet thought DS9 needed a captain as CO in season 1, they would have sent someone else.

 

[at Quark's]

If it was a ship with that small a crew it would have been a lieutenant commander's post at most.

How about captain Ransom's Equinox, with an original crew component of (approx) 78? (And yes, the script implicitly makes clear he was captain by rank, otherwise the question of who had seniority between him and Janeway wouldn't have been asked in the first place.

Even Janeway's original crew complement was supposed to be around 150, not much more.

 

[suarezguy]

Wasn't the original Enterprise crew 150? That was also later the size of Voyager while the Enterprise-D crew I think was never directly specified but I think it was somewhere between 200-500 (the rest of the of the 1,000 being civilians).

 

[Legate Duhmar]

He was still commanding a smaller outpost and a small ship.

Commander is fine.

I thought by season 3 he should have been promoted but it was also great to see a younger officer age into a captain role over the course of the show as DS9 grew in importance.

 

[kkt]

Wasn't the original Enterprise crew 150? That was also later the size of Voyager while the Enterprise-D crew I think was never directly specified but I think it was somewhere between 200-500 (the rest of the of the 1,000 being civilians).

Kirk in TOS said there were 430.

 

[Oddish]

DS9 is the show where the station goes nowhere but the characters go far. Voyager is the show where the ship goes far but the characters go nowhere.

I am going to quote that statement ad nauseam.