Why does Harry Kim never get promoted?

[Oddish]

True. It would have been a simple matter.

Janeway enters the bridge in full icy "let's snuff someone" mode.
JANEWAY: "Mr. Tuvix, will you come with me, please?"
TUVIX: "Computer, execute transport program Tuvix-1."
Tuvix materializes on his (well, Neelix's) ship.
TUVIX: "Computer, initiate departure procedure. And execute program Tuvix-alpha."
Neelix's ship departs Voyager. And the tractor beam is out of commission, thanks to Tuvix's cunning computer program.
Tuvix escapes!

 

[at Quark's]

Anything around Tuvix is an insoluble conundrum, of course.

I agree that probably if he were on the Baxial in free space, captaincy of the vessel would devolve to him. Even then, I'm not sure Janeway would let him go easily just like that. She probably would claim that anything happening on the Baxial while stored on Voyager is still under her authority, and this was therefore an illegal escape. She might also consider this an abduction of Tuvok.
(Not saying I would agree with her but I could see her seeing it that way). Tractor beams can be repaired and the shuttle is no match for Voyager.

 

[jackoverfull]

More just ownership, I think. It's like being the driver of a car vs being the driver of a school bus. I am driver of my car because I actually own the car. I am driver of the bus because its owner, the school district, entrusts me with the job of operating it.

Not in maritime law, as far I understand it: if you own and act as captain of your vessel you have full authority on it and the people aboard, especially in international waters.

Federation Law almost certainly gobbled up Maritime Law.

https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/who-s-really-in-charge-of-the-ship-1#:~:text=It's his word, on board the ship, that is law.&text=5.2 and in the International,or to safeguard the vessel.

If Tuvix had retreated to the Baxial, where he was the Captain, his sway over life and death was legally equal to Captain Janeway, and he could have murdered any one that tried to drag him to sickbay to split.

As the Captain, he could have demoted Janeway to Cabin Girl and locked her in a closet.

In theory yes, but Janeway might infer that until the ship leaves Voyager it’s still under her jurisdiction. Also, the ship belonged to Neelix, it may be said that Tuvix was a different person and was stealing it.

Third, and much more importantly, might makes right. If Janeway locker the Baxial in a tractor beam and boarded it who would have Tuvix turned to to counter this illegal action?

 

[Oddish]

Hence, to make his escape, Tuvix would need to be prepared to strike quickly and decisively. Site to site transport, quick departure, and neutralizing Voyager's tractor beam would all be in order.

 

[DonIago]

I wonder whether Janeway would have opened fire at that point.

 

[Oddish]

I doubt it. She wanted to restore Tuvok and Neelix, not incinerate them. Though she probably would have followed their warp trail. But Tuvok has 100+ years of experience and vast knowledge of how Starfleet operates. Neelix has years of experience surviving in the Delta Quadrant. Combine that knowledge into one brain, and you have a diabolically clever adversary. He will not be caught easily, especially since he has to be captured unharmed.

 

[Oddish]

As much as I like discussing alternative universe plots where Tuvix lived (and maybe helped Tom work out the kinks in his warp 10 lizard drive, getting Voyager home in six hours with no salamanderization)... this is about Voyager's long suffering ensign.

This review of a late episode featuring him pretty much indicates how the show runners regarded Harry's character. They weren't developing a character, they were creating a meme (punch "Harry Kim meme" into Google if you don't believe me).

https://www.jammersreviews.com/st-voy/s7/nightingale.php

The reviewer states that "Janeway could have field promoted him anytime but never mind". Well, maybe we need to mind, since Harry's low rank was not about career stagnation. Evidence suggests that it was about the showrunners being unwilling to remove his character, so they opted to crap on him instead.

 

[B'elanna_Torres]

Harry's too cute to be promoted.

 

[Guy Gardener]

All Tuvix had to do, to live, was delete the Doctor.

That's it.

It would take Tom ten years to go to medical school and acquire the skills to replicate the doctors research and methodology.

Then Tuvix just has to kill Tom.

Not hard at all.

 

[Oddish]

Harry's too cute to be promoted.

Hoho, B'Elanna... considering a little polygamy, there?

All Tuvix had to do, to live, was delete the Doctor.

That's it.

It would take Tom ten years to go to medical school and acquire the skills to replicate the doctors research and methodology.

Then Tuvix just has to kill Tom.

Not hard at all.

Even easier, actually.

The doctor is bound to do no harm. Simply explain to him that Janeway will force the procedure on him, unless he destroys the isotope and deletes all record of it from his and Voyager's memory. The doctor's ethical subroutines should do the rest.

 

[B'elanna_Torres]

Hoho, B'Elanna... considering a little polygamy, there?

I considered him in that cute gown when we first met aahahaha

 

[Guy Gardener]

Even easier, actually.

The doctor is bound to do no harm. Simply explain to him that Janeway will force the procedure on him, unless he destroys the isotope and deletes all record of it from his and Voyager's memory. The doctor's ethical subroutines should do the rest.

Then Janeway cuts and pastes his personality to forget that he agreed to let Tuvix live, or remember the Equinox's Doctor who had his ethics subroutines deleted?

The Doctor is not a person, he is a tool.

Any Doctor with factory settings is one month from figuring out the cure.

They can't make a Doctor from scratch, but if they have one of them, they can probably "instantly" double him.

 

[Oddish]

I considered him in that cute gown when we first met aahahaha

Well, it's not THAT much kinkier than the "Before and After", ah, arrangement. At least your spouses would have gotten along with each other.

Then Janeway cuts and pastes his personality to forget that he agreed to let Tuvix live, or remember the Equinox's Doctor who had his ethics subroutines deleted?

The Doctor is not a person, he is a tool.

Any Doctor with factory settings is one month from figuring out the cure.

They can't make a Doctor from scratch, but if they have one of them, they can probably "instantly" double him.

If Tuvix deleted him, Janeway would probably find a copy of him in some dusty old tertiary memory bank, like the way "Insurrection Alpha" turned up. Or the way "Living Witness" occured.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Well, it's not THAT much kinkier than the "Before and After", ah, arrangement. At least your spouses would have gotten along with each other.



If Tuvix deleted him, Janeway would probably find a copy of him in some dusty old tertiary memory bank, like the way "Insurrection Alpha" turned up. Or the way "Living Witness" occured.

After the EMH was misplaced in Message in a Bottle, Kim tried to build a new Doctor.

He failed.

They lost him again in Season 7's Critical Care.

Why did 150 people risk life and limb on a commando mission to recover a program, if they had a back up module?

Virtuoso?

The Doctor left to become a singer.

What a prick.

I actually think they did replace him in this story.

But they edited the back ups memories so that he did not know that there was an original Doctor, or that the original Doctor got to to be a virtuoso.

So, yes they did start making Back ups, and back up modules, but it was after season seven, in a time line where it took them longer than 7 years to get home.

 

[at Quark's]

Regardless of all that, I'm not sure either Tuvok or Neelix would go as far as to murder someone else just to survive themselves. They might with the EMH, who probably wasn't considered a fully sentient/sapient person at this point, but not with Paris. After all, Tuvix resisted in words, but not in deeds (and even said he forgave them for what they were about to do).

 

[Guy Gardener]

You only have to kill Paris if he completes 7 years of medical school.

Tuvix just had to make it difficult for Tom to pass his classes.

 

[Oddish]

Virtuoso?

The Doctor left to become a singer.

What a prick.

Well, you did say he was a tool.

Regardless of all that, I'm not sure either Tuvok or Neelix would go as far as to murder someone else just to survive themselves. They might with the EMH, who probably wasn't considered a fully sentient/sapient person at this point, but not with Paris. After all, Tuvix resisted in words, but not in deeds (and even said he forgave them for what they were about to do).

Maybe... I don't think "they" would resort to leaving Voyager's crew without a doctor, though. That would be almost as bad as murder.

But consider what could have happened.

The "execution death march" enters Sickbay. The Doctor confronts Janeway.

DOCTOR: "I'm sorry, captain, but I cannot assist in any way with the surgical separation. I am a physician, and a physician must do no harm."

JANEWAY: "Very well, doctor. Please step aside." (he does) "Give me the isotope."

DOCTOR: "It doesn't exist anymore. I have destroyed it, and erased all knowledge of how to create it."

JANEWAY: "Make it again. That's an order."

DOCTOR: "I cannot do anything that goes against medical ethics, captain. You know that."

JANEWAY: "..."

 

[Guy Gardener]

Well, you did say he was a tool.



Maybe... I don't think "they" would resort to leaving Voyager's crew without a doctor, though. That would be almost as bad as murder.

But consider what could have happened.

The "execution death march" enters Sickbay. The Doctor confronts Janeway.

DOCTOR: "I'm sorry, captain, but I cannot assist in any way with the surgical separation. I am a physician, and a physician must do no harm."

JANEWAY: "Very well, doctor. Please step aside." (he does) "Give me the isotope."

DOCTOR: "It doesn't exist anymore. I have destroyed it, and erased all knowledge of how to create it."

JANEWAY: "Make it again. That's an order."

DOCTOR: "I cannot do anything that goes against medical ethics, captain. You know that."

JANEWAY: "..."

JANEWAY: "Doctor, Erase your last week of memories"

DOCTOR "Of course Captain Janeway."

JANEWAY "Doctor how close are you to finding a Tuvix solution?"

DOCTOR "I should be finished in a week... Oh, that is odd... All my work has been erased. I'll start over. Never fear Captain Janeway! We're going to save Neelix and Tuvok because we are the good guys!"

 

[at Quark's]

^The ethics of the EMH are a bit strange anyway. No problems in telling Janeway how it should be done, but refusing to do the act himself. Comparable to a medic devising a procedure for capital punishment, but then refusing to execute it himself because of his hippocratic oath.

 

[Guy Gardener]

In the beginning Tuvix was fine with being murdered.

The Doctor had no reason to believe that that opinion would ever change.