I don't think that making Sisko a Commander at first was racist. The main difference between Sisko and the other Captains was that Sisko was not commanding a Starship, while the rest of them were. Starships are always captained by Captains (or higher, like Commodore Decker), while Starbases aren't as rigid. And recall that before the discovery of the Wormhole the main reason Starfleet was on DS9 was to help the Bajorans transition to an independent government. The base wasn't intended to be the "major crossroads" that it became once the Wormhole was discovered, but rather more of a diplomatic mission, so perhaps a stronger military presence wasn't considered necessary at first.
On the larger question, there wasn't so much racism as "speciesism", at least at first. They made a big deal about Spock being one of the few non-humans serving in Starfleet, and there were very few other species serving at all. There was also sexism, as they said in the original series that women were not allowed to command starships. And while it was not explicitly discussed, Sulu didn't spend three years in the closet for nothing LOL.
Is there Racism in Star Trek?
C-ZAR™, Emperor of the PHÆT
2012/06/26 18:22:49
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Let me first state that I had asked this question before on another site, but since SodaHead has a larger contingent of fellow Trekkies, I thought I'd ask it again.
I also know that within the universe confines of Star Trek, that Racism has long been eliminated and Starfleet is a very equal-opportunity organization, where Officers are promoted due to their merit and skill, I'm asking, that Do you think that behind the scenes,in real life, the powers-that-be at Paramount Studios made Captain Benjamin Sisko's character a Commander for the first 3 seasons because they were not sure how the Star Trek audience would embrace a Black Captain?
Is it even in the realm of possibility?
Let's look at the facts: All the other series' respective Captain's were so from the beginning of the show's run til it's season finale:
Kirk, Captain--Star Trek: TOS
Picard, Captain--Star Trek: TNG
Janeway, Captain--Star Trek: VOY
Archer, Captain--Star Trek: ENT
and, last, but not least
Sisko, Commander, seasons 1-3, Captain, seasons 4-7--Star Trek: DS9
What do the first 4 Captains have in Common?
Was art imitating Life here?--it kind of reminds me of the DS9 episode "Far Beyond the Stars" (which was directed by Avery Brooks, btw) in which Sisko portrayed a writer who came up with the concept for the story that DS9 is based, but came into conflict with Odo's "Pabst" character, because he did not make the Commander of the station White, was this some sort of way they hinted that possibly in real life, Paramount execs made Sisko a Commander for 3 years of the shows run?
what do you think?
I also know that within the universe confines of Star Trek, that Racism has long been eliminated and Starfleet is a very equal-opportunity organization, where Officers are promoted due to their merit and skill, I'm asking, that Do you think that behind the scenes,in real life, the powers-that-be at Paramount Studios made Captain Benjamin Sisko's character a Commander for the first 3 seasons because they were not sure how the Star Trek audience would embrace a Black Captain?
Is it even in the realm of possibility?
Let's look at the facts: All the other series' respective Captain's were so from the beginning of the show's run til it's season finale:
Kirk, Captain--Star Trek: TOS
Picard, Captain--Star Trek: TNG
Janeway, Captain--Star Trek: VOY
Archer, Captain--Star Trek: ENT
and, last, but not least
Sisko, Commander, seasons 1-3, Captain, seasons 4-7--Star Trek: DS9
What do the first 4 Captains have in Common?
Was art imitating Life here?--it kind of reminds me of the DS9 episode "Far Beyond the Stars" (which was directed by Avery Brooks, btw) in which Sisko portrayed a writer who came up with the concept for the story that DS9 is based, but came into conflict with Odo's "Pabst" character, because he did not make the Commander of the station White, was this some sort of way they hinted that possibly in real life, Paramount execs made Sisko a Commander for 3 years of the shows run?
what do you think?
Top Opinion
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ProudProgressive 2012/06/26 19:29:19
Conspiracy theories everywhere; people will see whatever problems they want to see.
And I always learn a little bit more from many of your Blogs...
Thanks.
Until you asked, the only thing that came to mind about some of the black actors was Warf and Jordie.
You've brought back many a great memory sir!
Please keep em coming.
The fact is that head of a base, like Deep Space 9, would appropriately be a Commander. Sisko became a Captain when he was also given command of the Reliant.
From a military point; DS9 wasn’t supposed to be what it turned into. Frankly, the only reason a commander would have been placed there instead of a LT Commander, is because of the number of people involved on the station, and the international (interplanetary) nature of it. Think about it; what was the mission of DS9 on day one, to sit there and help the people of Bejoir, that’s it, nothing a LT Commander couldn’t handle. If they started the series out with Sisko being a Captain, I would of called BS on it because it would have been an over usage of rank.
When DS9’s Mission changed, to guarding the wormhole; well, honestly, an admiral would probably have been flown in, and the entire thing would have been beefed up to no end. I seriously doubt they would have left Sisko in charge of it. And once the Dominion became involved; the place would probably have been turned into a MACOM, with a (4star) CinC in place.
In the end; Sisko was in charge; what his rank was, really doesn’t matter, he was the go to guy.
His promotion to Captain later was probably just PC BS, anyway...
On the larger question, there wasn't so much racism as "speciesism", at least at first. They made a big deal about Spock being one of the few non-humans serving in Starfleet, and there were very few other species serving at all. There was also sexism, as they said in the original series that women were not allowed to command starships. And while it was not explicitly discussed, Sulu didn't spend three years in the closet for nothing LOL.
They're always the ones on the 'away team' that get killed.
*lolz
You're forgetting a precedent from ST:TOS.
In the episode "Court Martial," Captain Kirk must make a report to the commandant of Star Base Eleven. He carried the rank of *Commodore.* And Commodore Stone was black. It was scarcely racist of Gene Roddenberry to have the very white James T. Kirk not only make a report to Commodore Stone, but *then* to stand trial by general court martial on a murder charge before a court at which this same Commodore Stone presided.
And how about this semi-regular on the show--Dr. M'benga, who served as Dr. McCoy's deputy CMO during the third season? Why, he was even a specialist in Vulcan medicine!
Don't forget this: Worf the Klingon, who transferred to Deep Space Nine, had an interracial (technically, interspecial) romance with Jadzia Dax.
So: why the confusion over Benjamin Sisko's service rank? I'll take a stab at it: in the military, service rank is not a hard-and-fast predictor of the size or responsibility of any assignment. I would imagine that Sisko vaulted to his assignment as commandant of Deep Space Nine relatively swiftly, and so swiftly that regulations required that he not get the permanent rank of Captain that quickly. So it took three years for the Starfleet Bureau of Personnel to advance him to that permanent ...
You're forgetting a precedent from ST:TOS.
In the episode "Court Martial," Captain Kirk must make a report to the commandant of Star Base Eleven. He carried the rank of *Commodore.* And Commodore Stone was black. It was scarcely racist of Gene Roddenberry to have the very white James T. Kirk not only make a report to Commodore Stone, but *then* to stand trial by general court martial on a murder charge before a court at which this same Commodore Stone presided.
And how about this semi-regular on the show--Dr. M'benga, who served as Dr. McCoy's deputy CMO during the third season? Why, he was even a specialist in Vulcan medicine!
Don't forget this: Worf the Klingon, who transferred to Deep Space Nine, had an interracial (technically, interspecial) romance with Jadzia Dax.
So: why the confusion over Benjamin Sisko's service rank? I'll take a stab at it: in the military, service rank is not a hard-and-fast predictor of the size or responsibility of any assignment. I would imagine that Sisko vaulted to his assignment as commandant of Deep Space Nine relatively swiftly, and so swiftly that regulations required that he not get the permanent rank of Captain that quickly. So it took three years for the Starfleet Bureau of Personnel to advance him to that permanent rank. Then, too, Starfleet didn't recognize the strategic importance of Deep Space Nine until he had served there for three years and sent back an astonishing series of reports.
By the time we moved to NextGen 20 years had passed and society's views of what was "acceptable" had changed somewhat. There were women Admirals by then, and more non humans as well. Television as a general rule tends to reflect our own lives rather than breaking new ground.
On the other hand, Commodore Stone raises an interesting issue - since that episode established that a Starbase commander is at least as "important" a position as a Starship commander, it raises the question of whether there was a "standard" rank for a Starbase commander. Why would a Starship captain (Kirk) be outranked by a starbase commander, when in DS9 the starbase commander (Siski) was outranked by a Starship commander.
As for Sisko, it may not have been that "swift". He was already First Officer on the Saratoga when the Borg attacked at Wolf 359, so he obviously had some command experience already, and that was several years before he was assigned to DS9. I do agree that the assignment to DS9 was made before they knew about the wormhole, and originally was more of a diplomatic mission - to help the Bajorans set up their own government and get over the damage the Cardassians did - so they may have assigned Sisko more for his diplomatic skills than purely by rank.
Klingons hate Romulans, Romulans hate Klingons, Both races hate Ferengi, and all of them have biases against humans.
Dun dun dun.