Why does Harry Kim never get promoted?

[Oddish]

Then if there was only one captain, Janeway wouldn't need to be upped to fleet captain. Her plain rank of captain would do.

And Harry still might get that field promotion, with two ships active and the command structure seriously shifted.

 

[at Quark's]

Not necessarily. We've seen non-captains in charge of starships before (e.g. DS9's "Second Sight").

The equinox is so small that probably Ransom never should have been a captain-by-rank in the first place.

 

[Oddish]

Except for the Defiant, which is attached to DS9, most Starfleet ships seem to be piloted by full captains.

Really, given that its complement was one-seventh of Enterprise's, Voyager would seem to be more suited to have a commander in charge rather than a captain. The XO, after all, was a lieutenant commander, one rank below Riker's.

But even if you drop everyone one rank level across the board (aside from the captain), with Worf being the lowest ranked member of Enterprise's senior staff, Voyager's bottom person should have been at least a LTJG.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The equinox is so small that probably Ransom never should have been a captain-by-rank in the first place.

Young Riker turned down a bunch of shitty little ships because he had a lot of self worth. Some might say that he had too much self worth, but then the Borg attacked and he did fine.

Also there is a lot more little ships than there are big ships. Priced in resources you can make 20 nova class vessels for the same price as one galaxy class ship, and considering that the Galaxy Class are maybe 20 years older than Nova class, despite being 1/8th the size they are maybe 4 times as fast with 5 times as much firepower.

 

[DonIago]

Except for the Defiant, which is attached to DS9, most Starfleet ships seem to be piloted by full captains.

We have a very small sample size. Probably smaller than a single fleet seen in DS9, where for all we know almost all of the captains didn't hold the rank.

 

[Guy Gardener]

We have a very small sample size. Probably smaller than a single fleet seen in DS9, where for all we know almost all of the captains didn't hold the rank.

Did TNG Command Crew get a promotion during the Klingon Civil War?

 

[Oddish]

If you mean Data and the Sutherland, he was given command but not actively promoted; ditto with his status as acting first officer in "Chain of Command". He certainly deserved to be at least a commander, but it never panned out. He was to TNG what Harry was to Voyager: the guy who got shafted.

 

[Guy Gardener]

If you mean Data and the Sutherland, he was given command but not actively promoted; ditto with his status as acting first officer in "Chain of Command". He certainly deserved to be at least a commander, but it never panned out. He was to TNG what Harry was to Voyager: the guy who got shafted.

I seem to recall Picard saying "there's a shortage of experienced officers" so I imagined everyone got a ship, maybe even Dee and Bev, but only Data had a story worth pursuing.

As far as that tachyon detection grid went, couldn't Deanna have done exactly the same thing by squinting at the view screen and opening up her feelings?

 

[Farscape One]

If you mean Data and the Sutherland, he was given command but not actively promoted; ditto with his status as acting first officer in "Chain of Command". He certainly deserved to be at least a commander, but it never panned out. He was to TNG what Harry was to Voyager: the guy who got shafted.

Data was shafted in an even worse than Kim.

 

[Oddish]

Data was shafted in an even worse than Kim.

Yes, it's true. Data had 37 years in Starfleet before Riker was finally ready to shove off and let Data get that third pip. And then... he gets killed off, in that abomination of a last movie.

And Mayweather on Enterprise (the most competent person on that crew) and Boimler on Lower Decks (demoted to ensign because... well, for no good reason, really) are on my list as well. Say what you want about Deep Space 9, every single person on that show ranked up properly.

 

[Farscape One]

Agreed on all of that.

 

[Oddish]

However... while Data could have at least gotten a third gold pip on his collar (if Deanna could get one for killing a hologram of Geordi LaForge, Data could certainly get one for saving the Federation from the Borg), I understand that he couldn't get that first officer slot because Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes were both popular. Contrastingly, there was no reason whatsoever not to give Harry the promotion he deserved.

 

[DonIago]

The novel "The Buried Age" states/implies (it's been awhile since I've read it) that Data didn't advance largely because for a long time he expressed no interest in doing so and was placed in a position where he didn't really have any opportunities to distinguish himself.

Possibly not so unlike alternate-Picard.

 

[Oddish]

So... saving the Federation from the Borg and stopping the Romulan involvement in the Klingon Civil War are not sufficiently "distinguished"?

 

[DonIago]

"The Buried Age" is set before either of those events.

Heck, it's set before TNG.

 

[Oddish]

The timeline for Data, as best I can figure, is:
Activated: 2338
Joined Starfleet: 2341
Graduated Academy: 2345
Promoted to Lieutenant: 2348
Promoted to LCDR: 2360
Posted to Enterprise: 2364
Stopped Borg invasion: 2367
Ended Romulan involvement in Klingon civil war: 2368
Lost in action (Nemesis): 2379
So after 7 years as a LCDR, he basically saved the Federation. A perfect time and pretext for promoting him to commander.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

I would imagine this to be her letter to his parents once they came into contact with the Federation

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Kim,

I wished to contact you to tell you how marvelously and exemplary your son has been fulfilling his obligations as Head of Operations. Of course -- no one is perfect, he was almost on the point of mutiny for a few times, but on the whole he went above and beyond his responsibilities.

There have been some minor trifles and hiccups on the way you perhaps should know about, though - he got replaced by an other-dimensional duplicate, the original version being sucked into the vacuum of space screaming for help, he was eaten alive one cell at a time by a species 8472 infection without us even being able to sedate him, he was tortured in an alien prison camp more than once, infected by a few alien diseases, altering his genetic code, making him glow, or having viruses that eventually grew to the size of multispectral deep space probes escape from his orifices, he might have died and be resurrected, oh I believe, three, four times, a few run ins with the Borg with the Borg Queen personally telling him she would see him later, and other species hunting on us for our organs or flesh, but nothing too strenuous or outrageous, I assure you. However, should he start acting up weirdly at some point, the cause might be found somewhere between those - telling you just in case. We have often seen people are not quite as sound psychologically as they should be and are still complaining about such things two weeks later.

Should he ever need a glowing letter of recommendation for his next post, you can always write me for that, I would be most pleased to provide that for him. Even though I do think he is not quite ready for promotion yet. Yes, he has commanded the bridge at times, and also has been captain of an alien vessel, but on the whole, I think that before I can recommend that promotion to Lt. Jg., he would need at least a full year of full time experience commanding a fleet of at least 20 ships. I have such high expectations of him that I can't start lowering my bar now. For Tom Paris, for example, that bar would be much lower; not commiting crimes for some period of time would be sufficient to earn him that promotion. Some may call it unfair; I call it "personalized profile policy" trying to give everyone maximum incentive to stretch for more.

This way, I feel I'm doing the best for his future potential.

Yours faithfully,

capt. Kathryn Janeway.

Another possibility: Lt. Commander Cavit put a demerit on Ensign Kim's record from the get go.

Not only was he hanging around with disgraced Starfleet cadet and Maquis traitor Tom Paris, he was also severely tardy his first day.

Remember, Kim's on DS9 getting shit faced drunk, fucking around with Quark, then it's only after he gets in a spat with said Ferengi barkeep that he finally decides to saunter to the docking pylon to board Voyager. At this point, Janeway's already been buzzing comms around the ship seeing if Kim happened to come on board without telling anybody.

This is the point where he does a meet and greet with Janeway, who he immediately offends by calling "sir" and "ma'am" (did he not ask ANYBODY what his new skipper was like?). After said meet and greet, she shows Kim to his station and immediately signals to Cavit to take off. Which suggests Voyager's just been hanging around waiting for Ensign Kim to show up already so they can get on with their mission.

Not a good look for a new Operations officer

 

[Oddish]

Another possibility: Lt. Commander Cavit put a demerit on Ensign Kim's record from the get go...

Well, sorry to break this to you, but...

Actually, no. Not sorry. That argument is the equivalent of a high, floating set that sent the volleyball drifting over your net with "SPIKE ME" practically glowing on it in red neon.

That simply does not jibe with established evidence. Harry is tightly wound (like any newbie meeting his CO), but obviously sober. This was his first time aboard Voyager, so he had no opportunity to learn Janeway's preferred title, and his initial use of "sir" was correct according to protocol. And finally, what really kills that theory is this exchange from "Twisted", emphasis mine.

JANEWAY: "...Harry?
KIM: "Yes, ma'am."
JANEWAY: "I just want you to know you've been one of the bright spots of this whole mission. You've exceeded any expectations I might have had of you."
KIM: "Thank you, Captain. I appreciate that."

 

[Guy Gardener]

I'm sure pretty much everyone who was on Voyager got two promotions when they got home.

But not from Janeway, which is the Point.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Well, sorry to break this to you, but...

Actually, no. Not sorry. That argument is the equivalent of a high, floating set that sent the volleyball drifting over your net with "SPIKE ME" practically glowing on it in red neon.

That simply does not jibe with established evidence. Harry is tightly wound (like any newbie meeting his CO), but obviously sober. This was his first time aboard Voyager, so he had no opportunity to learn Janeway's preferred title, and his initial use of "sir" was correct according to protocol. And finally, what really kills that theory is this exchange from "Twisted", emphasis mine.

JANEWAY: "...Harry?
KIM: "Yes, ma'am."
JANEWAY: "I just want you to know you've been one of the bright spots of this whole mission. You've exceeded any expectations I might have had of you."
KIM: "Thank you, Captain. I appreciate that."

You have me on that point, but you can't argue that he single handedly delayed Voyager's launch fucking around on the Promenade. They literally launched as soon as he finally reported to his station