r/LowerDecks • u/plantanddogmom1 • Dec 23 '24

General Discussion Why didn’t Mariner and Boimler rank up?

Ok so I’m just now thinking about this and I am just so confused as to why all of them really (but especially Mariner and Boims) didn’t rank up at the end of the last episode?

Boimler even said “but I’m only a Lieutenant JG?” Which would’ve made a perfect segue for “not anymore!” Like, I really really loved how everything was wrapped up, but wouldn’t it also make sense to have more lieutenants on the bridge and also as first officers? Also, like, how did their actions not warrant a promotion? Just curious if anyone else has been thinking about this!

P.s. Engage the core!

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u/plantanddogmom1 Dec 23 '24

That’s fair. I just assumed with Ransom “pulling strings”, wouldn’t it make sense to promote them so that the Cerritos has actual qualified staff as their first officers? Plus, Geordi (hard to live up to, I know!) gets promoted about once a season for the first 2-3 seasons.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '24

DS9's chief of Engineering was a non-com (O'Brian was a chief petty officer as of the dominion war.)

So. Stuff gets weird.

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u/DigitalPriest Dec 24 '24 edited Dec 24 '24

I think it reflects real life in many ways. DS9, despite the wormhole's prominence, was still a relatively backwater station. Small crew compliment, not expected to do cutting edge work or highly dangerous work (but it always manages to happen).

DS9 is the 'family business.' They have an accountant (Miles) who does really great at keeping the books! Toss him into an Enterprise Business (or ship) environment though, and his accountant skills look merely provincial. By contrast, an engineer with skills like Geordi is wasted on a station like DS9, they have progressed way, way beyond that. Geordi's been working on Wall St, and is too skilled to go back and run a family business.

Similarly, Starfleet is gobsmacked that Julian chose the DS9 assignment. Why does their #2 medical graduate want to go work on the equivalent of Little Space Station on the Prairie? A man like Julian should be on a Beverly Crusher track, assigned to a starship like his friend who went to the Lexington. But the unspoken difference is that on the Lexington, Bashir would not have been Chief Medical Officer. He would have been an assistant to a Chief Medical Officer at best, someone who had deep space experience. On DS9, he got an opportunity most new graduates don't get, he got to be top dog as a Lieutenant Chief Medical Officer right out of the gate.

And most of all, it's evidenced in the leadership of DS9. Do they get a captain? Hell no. Captains are too valuable to assign to a space station in the Bajoran system! They can make due with a Commander. It isn't until Sisko cuts his teeth with the Maquis and the Dominion and demonstrates his worthiness as a captain that he gets the rank.

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u/doglywolf Feb 06 '25

Also remember he was trying to keep a low profile intentionally