Why does Harry Kim never get promoted?

[DonIago]

I might have been able to let the Harry thing go if the writers themselves hadn't seemed to be making fun of the situation. Between Paris getting demoted and promoted while Harry's stuck at the same rank, and Harry's parents commenting on the situation...it's impossible for me to believe the writers didn't know they had a problem, which begs the question of why they didn't do anything about it.

I'd love to see this get addressed in the upcoming documentary, frankly.

 

[Oddish]

The only rationale we can get, repeated by both Wang and Kate Mukgrew (when an audience member demanded to know why she didn't promote Harry) was Berman's utterly ridiculous utterance: "someone's gotta be the ensign".

Yeah... like on "Next Generation" (had a commissioned ensign in the main cast for 12 episodes) and "Deep Space 9" (never had an ensign in the main cast period). Did they REALLY think we wouldn't notice?!

 

[DaystromDropout]

Back-burnering a less popular character is common in the Trek franchise. Uhura, Chekov, Dr. Crusher, Geordi, Travis, Hoshi... they all dealt with that. But certainly, they could have spared 30 seconds for Janeway to pin a black pip on Harry's collar, tell him "congratulations, lieutenant", then send him back to his background character duties.

I'd like to see him make a reappearance in Picard as a Section 31 agent, revealing that he was Section 31 the entire time and the only one on board that knew it was Janeway, who promised out of duty never to promote him in order to keep his name off the starfleet records as much as possible.

 

[Oddish]

Keeping him at ensign would draw notice, though. I certainly has drawn ours! Any time Harry is discussed, the first thing people mention is how he was never promoted.

 

[fireproof78]

Yeah, there's no rationale aside from largely punitive for remaining in grade for 5 years, accounting for being a ensign for two years which I would think would be appropriate. It would stand out to any one, if Starfleet was competently run, once reports were sent back by Voyager.

 

[Oddish]

The only thing that might save Harry is that Janeway doesn't appear to have promoted anyone else other than Tom and Tuvok. With 100 or so other Starfleet officers stagnating at whatever grade they were at, it might be something like "Ensign Muggybug was at Ensign for 8 years? Oh, he was on Voyager, never mind."

One book had everyone on Voyager getting two-grade promotions upon their return to the Alpha Quadrant. All the long suffering ensigns skipped the JG grade entirely. I think that's probably what would have happened.

 

[fireproof78]

The only thing that might save Harry is that Janeway doesn't appear to have promoted anyone else other than Tom and Tuvok. With 100 or so other Starfleet officers stagnating at whatever grade they were at, it might be something like "Ensign Muggybug was at Ensign for 8 years? Oh, he was on Voyager, never mind."

One book had everyone on Voyager getting two-grade promotions upon their return to the Alpha Quadrant. All the long suffering ensigns skipped the JG grade entirely. I think that's probably what would have happened.

I mean, I can certainly see that happening. I would just hope that even connecting with Starfleet Command would allow them the opportunity to say he could be promoted, even while on Voyager. He was acting as a department head for a while after all.

 

[Kor]

Harry was a "department head," but did we ever actually see anybody reporting to him? He seemed to be head of a "department" of one person.

Kor

 

[Oddish]

Harry was a weird animal... he was a newly minted ensign, and should have started as what I call a "Lower Decks Special". That is to say, unaware of what was really going on, and not invited to Janeway's "grownup table" staff meetings.

A good story for him would have been that he was supposed to be Voyager's assistant operations officer (much more appropriate for a new pup like him), but they dropped off their old ops guy at DS9 and were supposed to scoop up the new one after the brief Maquis hunt... they figure that Harry will do fine for that milk run.

But suddenly, they're in the Delta Quadrant, and Harry Kim is what they've got at Ops. And he has to struggle with the rigors of actually doing a job that he was supposed to be learning, and maybe managing a couple of unruly Maquis crewmen. But by Year 3, he's grown into the job, and he's gained some much needed seasoning. At the start of some S3 episode that needs a little filler, Janeway sticks a lieutenant's pip on his collar and everyone claps.

 

[jackoverfull]

Harry was a "department head," but did we ever actually see anybody reporting to him? He seemed to be head of a "department" of one person.

Kor

I guess that whoever manned his station when he wasn’t on duty were in his department.

Harry was a weird animal... he was a newly minted ensign, and should have started as what I call a "Lower Decks Special". That is to say, unaware of what was really going on, and not invited to Janeway's "grownup table" staff meetings.

A good story for him would have been that he was supposed to be Voyager's assistant operations officer (much more appropriate for a new pup like him), but they dropped off their old ops guy at DS9 and were supposed to scoop up the new one after the brief Maquis hunt... they figure that Harry will do fine for that milk run.

But suddenly, they're in the Delta Quadrant, and Harry Kim is what they've got at Ops. And he has to struggle with the rigors of actually doing a job that he was supposed to be learning, and maybe managing a couple of unruly Maquis crewmen. But by Year 3, he's grown into the job, and he's gained some much needed seasoning. At the start of some S3 episode that needs a little filler, Janeway sticks a lieutenant's pip on his collar and everyone claps.

this would have been a much better start, yes. Even better: kill off the ops officer in the caretaker incident.

 

[Oddish]

Even better: kill off the ops officer in the caretaker incident.

I thought of that, but they'd already killed the helmsman, the engineer, the first officer, and everyone in Sickbay. Another death would have been pushing it.

 

[DonIago]

I was thinking about this, and maybe the Caretaker incident should have involved a hull breach or other catastrophic damage to the bridge as a way of explaining away a good number of the senior officer deaths.

It might have been kind of cool if the first few episodes were (gasp!) serialized in the sense of showing the crew still repairing some of the damage from the Caretaker, including getting the bridge back to the point where it could be manned safely.

 

[DaystromDropout]

Harry was a "department head," but did we ever actually see anybody reporting to him? He seemed to be head of a "department" of one person.

Kor

This is a great point. He was an "ensign" involved in the ready room discussions. Only officers in other series had such access. Perhaps she couldn't promote him because there wasn't anyone beneath him and that section needed someone below him to be a lieutenant? Who knows

 

[fireproof78]

Ensign is an officer.

Promotions are as much about responsibility, time in grade and a sign of professional growth. Keeping him an ensign basically said "Eh, your experience doesn't really count."

 

[plynch]

I also never noticed; or knew this was egregious; until TrekBBS.

A number of things there are, I didn't know I was supposed to care about or be upset about till being here.

 

[fireproof78]

I don't know if I would use the term "upset" but it is something that stands out to me when discussing Voyager. It's a similar small pet peeve with Riker as well staying stagnant in his position and turning down promotion. It's just an oddity that stands out.

As I mentioned up thread it's one of those details that strains my suspension of disbelief, largely because it really makes little sense in the context of the organization.

 

[Oddish]

Riker's situation I can at least excuse: there was a reason for it (both Frakes and Stewart were popular with the fans). Not so with Harry... all they needed to change was the collar of his uniform. That and have everyone call him "lieutenant" instead of "ensign".

 

[jackoverfull]

I was thinking about this, and maybe the Caretaker incident should have involved a hull breach or other catastrophic damage to the bridge as a way of explaining away a good number of the senior officer deaths.

It might have been kind of cool if the first few episodes were (gasp!) serialized in the sense of showing the crew still repairing some of the damage from the Caretaker, including getting the bridge back to the point where it could be manned safely.

This. But voyager has never been a series to take risks and explore new grounds in storytelling unfortunately.

I also never noticed; or knew this was egregious; until TrekBBS.

A number of things there are, I didn't know I was supposed to care about or be upset about till being here.

well, when Paris is promoted again I think many wondered what was going on with Kim.

It's a similar small pet peeve with Riker as well staying stagnant in his position and turning down promotion. It's just an oddity that stands out

Riker was justified in universe, though, and his situation pointed out as very unusual.

 

[fireproof78]

Riker was justified in universe, though, and his situation pointed out as very unusual.

Yes, it was unusual. Even if there is a rationale it stands out as quite odd. At least for me. People can rationalize it away all they want and I can think of several but this one area where my brain goes...

 

[jackoverfull]

Well, to quote picard “what the hell are you still doing here, will?”