Should Picard have been promoted?

[Q99]

Additionally, the E-E is the absolute top of the line and new, Sovereign hulls are in very short supply, even more-so than Galaxies (While the E-D is still a newish design, by the time of Generations it is over a decade old and a newer gen of ships has begun being deployed... and even if they salvaged the Saucer, they'd likely put it on a new ship, no Engineering section means it isn't the Enterprise).

The Stargazer was a pretty old ship at the time, so it's loss is no surprise.

Also, thanks to SIFs, ships can be pretty collision resistant.

[Eternal_Freedom]

That said it wouldn't surprice at all if the Stargazer could have been repaired and returned to duty had starfleet been able to recover her right after the battle of maxia (though I suspect too much time had passed when she was recovered from the ferengi to make repairing her worth the effort), Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) lost the whole of the stardrive section and there was possibly (if not likely) heavy damage in the saucer section thanks to the unplanned crash landing.

Picard says in his closing log in Generations that while casualties were light, "the Enterprise herself cannot be salvaged."

[Lord Revan]

That said it wouldn't surprice at all if the Stargazer could have been repaired and returned to duty had starfleet been able to recover her right after the battle of maxia (though I suspect too much time had passed when she was recovered from the ferengi to make repairing her worth the effort), Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) lost the whole of the stardrive section and there was possibly (if not likely) heavy damage in the saucer section thanks to the unplanned crash landing.

Picard says in his closing log in Generations that while casualties were light, "the Enterprise herself cannot be salvaged."

I might have worded it better but my point is that the Enterprise had lost the stardrive section totally and there was most likely heavy damage on the saucer section (even though casualities were light) so the fact that Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) was written of as loss is not really a surprise.

[Ave Dominus Nox]

Out of universe I suppose they could have promoted Picard to Rear Admiral and let him take the Enterprise as his flagship which would allow him to stay on the show. Also from an in-universe perspective if the Enterprise is going to be out and about meeting new races and governments and acting as ad-hoc ambassador on occasions then having an officer of Flag rank on-board wouldn't be the worse thing.

Also slightly off topic, but does the USS Defiant have an actual permanent crew or is it just pulled from DS9s crew?

[Lord Revan]

Also slightly off topic, but does the USS Defiant have an actual permanent crew or is it just pulled from DS9s crew?

DS9 crew, the defiant is assigned to Deep Space 9 and thus has no crew of its own.

[Patroklos]

The best part about Picard being an Admiral is that allows, even though I think it is limiting and unrealistic, Riker to become a ship CO and still keep the band together.

And that doesn't mean everyone has to get a promotion along with them. They should have jettisoned Troy and Beverly half way through the movies to go on to bigger and better things in Starfleet (ie remove their wooden performances. In the case Sirtis not giving any performance at all, just being Sirtis) a la Sulu and bringing in some fresh blood. The TNG movies were SCREAMING for an inject to add some energy to the main cast even if just one movie plot vehicles. Think Valeris or Saavik.

[NeoGoomba]

Hey we had Lieutenant Hawke in First Contact. A good actor playing a decent role. Good thing they killed him off instead of keeping him around to be a Worf surrogate or something.

[The Romulan Republic]

The best part about Picard being an Admiral is that allows, even though I think it is limiting and unrealistic, Riker to become a ship CO and still keep the band together.

And that doesn't mean everyone has to get a promotion along with them. They should have jettisoned Troy and Beverly half way through the movies to go on to bigger and better things in Starfleet (ie remove their wooden performances. In the case Sirtis not giving any performance at all, just being Sirtis) a la Sulu and bringing in some fresh blood. The TNG movies were SCREAMING for an inject to add some energy to the main cast even if just one movie plot vehicles. Think Valeris or Saavik.

Has the problem of losing both your remaining female main cast members. They'd have had to introduce new female characters to take their place.

[Lord Revan]

The best part about Picard being an Admiral is that allows, even though I think it is limiting and unrealistic, Riker to become a ship CO and still keep the band together.

And that doesn't mean everyone has to get a promotion along with them. They should have jettisoned Troy and Beverly half way through the movies to go on to bigger and better things in Starfleet (ie remove their wooden performances. In the case Sirtis not giving any performance at all, just being Sirtis) a la Sulu and bringing in some fresh blood. The TNG movies were SCREAMING for an inject to add some energy to the main cast even if just one movie plot vehicles. Think Valeris or Saavik.

Has the problem of losing both your remaining female main cast members. They'd have had to introduce new female characters to take their place.

there's also the matter that By this time the main cast had been together for 7 years at the very least (work of Generations started pretty soon after TNG ended) so removing any cast members might not be an option if you want to keep any of them.

[Q99]

Remember they tried getting rid of Beverly (who btw I liked) in S2, and invited her back in S3.

As for Troi, they really needed to shift her role. She did have some good stuff, but mostly later on once she got a proper uniform, and I blame the writers much more than the actress.

[Prometheus Unbound]

Remember they tried getting rid of Beverly (who btw I liked) in S2, and invited her back in S3.

Well, Maurice Hurley either sexually assaulted or attempted to sexually assault her, there's that as well. She returned at Stewart's request, after Hurley had left the show.

[Patroklos]

Remember they tried getting rid of Beverly (who btw I liked) in S2, and invited her back in S3.

As for Troi, they really needed to shift her role. She did have some good stuff, but mostly later on once she got a proper uniform, and I blame the writers much more than the actress.

Troi had her issues on the show, however I am revering to her simply disappearing in the movies. There was some actress who looked like her who kept wandering onto the sets between raiding the crew catering. You would have thought they would have edited that out.

To be fair, Sirtis was the only one who really had to change herself to include changing her voice and syntax. Stewart, for instance, was really just being Stewart reading lines. He was just really well cast (and was playing a human). The same was true for the rest of the main cast. Even Dorn only had to play Klingon sometimes, he just talked like he talks in real life most of the time. She probably just started getting comfortable and felt invulnerable due to the the reasons someone said above. She could get away with not being Troi.

[Tribble]

Well, Troi does have the honour of being the only one to have crashed two Federation flagships; that ought to count for something!