I'm going a few pages back, and ripping this thread away from thinking about Vulcan sex, but: This is my thinking. Looking at Voyager and Kim's place on it is a bit ingenious because of Caretaker and the loss of the crew. Kim might not have been intended to be Head of Ops, but just Ops, reporting to a senior, with that senior on a different shift. Which, taking Kim as the head of the class, and getting on what was likely a minor ship on a short assignment (wasn't it meant to be only a few months?), that's not unfeasible. His scores put him on something of a fast track. If he'd applied for the Enterprise he'd probably not get a Bridge position, even a junior one because it's the flagship, and no matter how good your scores are you don't get on the bridge that easy (unless the Captain feels responsible for the death of your father and happens to be in love with your mother, who's also the CMO, but can't admit it because of previously mentioned father) Anyway, all hell kicks loose, the ship is in the Delta Quadrant and all Harry's Ops colleagues are dead (who he never got a chance to now). Suddenly this newly graduated kid is head of a department. And quickly proves that test scores don't equal talent in the real world and never gets a promotion.
K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid.) A laughing Vulcan? What the frakk was janeway thinking when she put this crew together?
It really makes you wonder what the director was thinking. (then again, Leonard Nimoy himself had Spock laughing and wrestling Kirk in the water at the end of STIV)
Yes, she's a nurse, and we're told in Caretaker she dies when the original doctor and so many other crew members die.
I gotta say Tom was her personal reclamation project for her old boss, Admiral Paris. What better way to get that promotion than to get his wayward son into shape? That and him being her lizard baby daddy. Kim was just the guy continually failing to get into 7's pants. He's lucky he wasn't demoted for failing Starfllet's principle mission, to Go where No Man Has Gone Before.
I went back and looked at all the old threads in the Voyager forum. Yes I was bored...anyway for someone who didn't do a whole lot Ensign Kim seemed to have a LOT of threads dedicated to him.
I wonder if Janeway will think the same in 20 years. I'm assuming the Timeless disaster propelled Kim into adulthood but if that doesn't happen he may be a pampered Starfleet baby forever.
Kathryn is going to be followed and monitored for the rest of her life by the Department of Temporal Affairs. If she even thinks about driving a Starship into some sun, they'll pop-up and s... Hey? Wouldn't it have been a little cool if in Scientific Method the ship had gone back in time too when Janeway charged a star to shake off Voyager's cling-ons.
The time to have promoted Kim was when she demoted Paris, it would have changed the Kim/Paris dynamic somewhat and could have led to some interesting stories but alas another wasted opportunity.
Surely the time to promote Kim was when she promoted Ayala (Maquis, non-Starfleet past) to Lieutenant.
Just once I would have liked to have heard Kim tell Paris "That's an order!" Janeway liked Kim well enough but Paris was her special...pet project.
Because they served together in the olden days, a fruitful relationship between Owen Paris and Kathryn Janeway is not impossible. Paris coming home one day to tell his wife "Raise this" might be however.
There were several occasions when a promotion would have been appropriate, but let's face it. Janeway would have promoted Naomi, Seven, the Borg kids, Miral, Q Junior, and the salamander babies to Lieutenant before ever promoting Harry.
I have a feeling Janeway would have charged him with pedophilia, arguing that 7 was mentally a petulant child, and decided that execution wasn't such a bad idea afterall. Maybe Suder didn't warrant it, but the universe hates Harry. Hey, Paris wants to play Space Enviro terrorist and gets a temporary demotion, Harry sleeps with someone, gets space herpes and an official reprimand for all his troubles.
Possible theory: Janeway is Admiral Paris's illegitimate love child and he told her in private when she served under him and also tried to make up for lost time. She also got fast tracked for promotions. In return, she decided as a favor to her father to help her wayward brother. It also makes Threshold just more extra special.
Unless there was some forced maturation or hoodwinks with time... Kathy probably wasn't pregnant in the 4th grade.