Should Sisko Have Been Promoted Earlier?

[kkt]

A theory of mine is that in the earliest planning stages, Commander was meant to be Sisko's title rather than rank. In much the same way the commanding officer of a naval officer as addressed as "Captain" regardless their actual rank, a person in charge of a space station is addressed as "Commander" regardless of their actual rank or professional title. For a real world example, when Chris Hadfield was in charge of the ISS he was addressed as "Commander Hadfield" even though his actual rank in the Canadian military was Colonel. With that in mind, I suspect during the early stages everyone said "Commander Sisko" thinking it would be his title and not necessarily his rank. Then as the series developed, everyone just got so used to calling him Commander Sisko that eventually Commander ended up becoming his rank.

Just a theory of mine which may not be true at all, but it shows that Sisko's lower rank was a result of ignorance and miscommunication rather than malicious intent or anything. So I prefer to believe it.

Yes, Commander has been a job title for NASA astronauts in the Apollo missions, Skylab, Space Shuttle, and ISS stations. But NASA doesn't have ranks within the astronaut corps, though most of them have their ranks in one of the armed services.

Maybe the show writers were just setting it up so they could promote him in a few years. And/or to stress how unimportant Bajor was at the beginning of the show.

 

[The Wormhole]

Yes, Commander has been a job title for NASA astronauts in the Apollo missions, Skylab, Space Shuttle, and ISS stations. But NASA doesn't have ranks within the astronaut corps, though most of them have their ranks in one of the armed services.

True, but I suspect the writers never took that into account. After all, the commanding officers of every Starfleet space station seen throughout TNG were also addressed as Commander, and when we actually did see them they also had Commander's pips.

For that matter, at the risk of bringing That Show into a Star Trek discussion, The Orville also had Commanders commanding their space stations.

 

[Nerys Myk]

With wormhole discovery I think the playing field around Bajor significantly changed. So either Sisko should have been promoted or replaced.

 

[kkt]

True, but I suspect the writers never took that into account. After all, the commanding officers of every Starfleet space station seen throughout TNG were also addressed as Commander, and when we actually did see them they also had Commander's pips.

For that matter, at the risk of bringing That Show into a Star Trek discussion, The Orville also had Commanders commanding their space stations.

That seems like a very strange choice on the part of TNG.

 

[at Quark's]

True, but I suspect the writers never took that into account. After all, the commanding officers of every Starfleet space station seen throughout TNG were also addressed as Commander, and when we actually did see them they also had Commander's pips.

For that matter, at the risk of bringing That Show into a Star Trek discussion, The Orville also had Commanders commanding their space stations.

I've often thought that was strange. Some of these space stations are absolutely huge and dwarf the ENT-D. Then again, we don't know how much Starfleet personnel is actually aboard those.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The writers seemed confused by the double use of "Captain" and "Commander" in naval parlance.

 

[kkt]

With wormhole discovery I think the playing field around Bajor significantly changed. So either Sisko should have been promoted or replaced.

Maybe promotions above commander need to be confirmed by the Federation Senate and one of the Senators was filibustering them all.

 

[at Quark's]

With wormhole discovery I think the playing field around Bajor significantly changed. So either Sisko should have been promoted or replaced.

Replaced, realistically. I mean Bajor probably was a bit of a backwater post until then, and it suddenly became of prime importance. And since it happened in the first episode, Starfleet only knew of him being reluctant to be there in the first place, and wouldn't have put much importance to the Kai's statements, that he personally was supposed to be there - if they'd even heard about those by that time they wouldn't have taken it seriously.

Maybe promotions above commander need to be confirmed by the Federation Senate and one of the Senators was filibustering them all.

Probably in the post-voyager era Vice Admiral Janeway will take care of that :P