Why does Harry Kim never get promoted?

[Crazy 4 Xmas Lights]

And he had to eat Neelix's cooking for a week to replicate a replacement.

Depending on what the bar rodent was serving up that week, that might have been quite a culinary trauma!

 

[Guy Gardener]

Admiral Janeway put a seed bank on every ship after she got home.

 

[Summer Solstice]

Admiral Janeway put a seed bank on every ship after she got home.

And hopefully the blueprints for the shuttlecraft replicator too!

 

[Dee1891]

Because Janeway doesn't see him as a future starship captain. Also, B'Elanna Torres, Chakotay and most of the Voyager crew never received a promotion as well. Tom Paris merely got demoted and regained his old rank over a year-and-a-half later. Only Tuvok had received a genuine promotion.

 

[at Quark's]

Because Janeway doesn't see him as a future starship captain.

No wonder Admiral Janeway sacrificed herself to erase that timeline in which he achieved it after all.

 

[DonIago]

Because Janeway doesn't see him as a future starship captain. Also, B'Elanna Torres, Chakotay and most of the Voyager crew never received a promotion as well. Tom Paris merely got demoted and regained his old rank over a year-and-a-half later. Only Tuvok had received a genuine promotion.

They were promoted from "Brig Guest" in "Caretaker".

 

[Crazy 4 Xmas Lights]

Chakotay was a lieutenant commander. Many very adequate officers never advance further. And in any case, his commission was provisional.
B'Elanna was promoted, early on, to chief engineer. Over a guy she frickin' ASSAULTED, for that matter.
Tom was demoted. He wasn't an acting ensign, he was an ensign. Whatever Janeway said, when she returned his hollow pip, she was PROMOTING him, for 1-1/2 years of outstanding service. Harry had given her four times that, as of that episode.
Tuvok was indeed promoted, as indicated.
Janeway could obviously not promote herself.
Kes, Seven, and Neelix were probably considered civilians.
The EMH was a computer program.

That leaves Harry as the one who got shafted.

 

[at Quark's]

It's hard to run the ship without a chief engineer, so that one could not be avoided. I also think the Lt. Jg. promotion came with it, as you'd probably like your Chief Engineer to command a certain general level of authority and to avoid strained situations where a crewman Chief engineer gives orders to an ensign engineer working under her.

I see Tom's promotion not as a genuine promotion, but more as the end of a temporary punitive reduction in rank. I'd rather say his 'real' promotion was in Caretaker (even if we don't know whether he held a Lieutenant rank already before he was booted out of starfleet), and perhaps that promotion was also necessary to give the pilot a certain level of authority (can't say). Also, did Tom really do enough in Caretaker to earn that Lt. field commission?

So in that sense, perhaps it's Tuvok (and perhaps Tom) that's the odd one out rather than Harry.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Janeway could obviously not promote herself.

With the Dauntless or Equinox to staff, if they had stayed around for longer than two minutes, there would have been a need for a Fleet Captain. The rule book says that fleet command goes to the more powerful ship. If Chakotay was given the Dauntless, he would have been Janeway's Superior unless she upranked to Fleet Commander. Although Janeway would have obviously taken the Dauntless and left Chakotay to plod about at mere warp speeds.

 

[Crazy 4 Xmas Lights]

In a similar vein, once Voyager was discovered, Starfleet sent a couple of high speed deep space vessels to rendezvous with her. If that had actually happened, they would have had a little fleet out there. And presumably, one of the captains would have been fleet captain then.

So in that sense, perhaps it's Tuvok (and perhaps Tom) that's the odd one out rather than Harry.

Tom received an increase in rank from ensign to lieutenant for, in Janeway's words, a year of exemplary service. If he could get a hollow pip for that, there's no reason why Harry couldn't get one for six. Indeed, there's no intelligent reason for him not to.

 

[Frostscape One]

Janeway, Kim, and Tuvok were the only Starfleet Academy graduated senior officers alive when they entered the Delta Quadrant. Tuvok was promoted, and she couldn't promote herself.

Chakotay and Tom were given a commission, presumably with the last rank they held when they left or were kicked out of Starfleet, respectively. Torres got one, though she never finished the Academy.

There is no precedent in the books for giving a hologram a rank, so The Doctor couldn't have a one.

Neelix, Kes, and Seven were all civilians.

Harry Kim truly was shafted. With the exception of DS9, every Berman era series had a promotion shafted character.

TNG... Data. (Seriously, by the time of NEMESIS, every character got a permanent promotion except Picard and Beverly, and both understandably so. Geordi and Worf got it twice.)

VGR... Kim.

ENT... Mayweather, and arguably Hoshi. (Mayweather was probably the only senior officer who never did a bad thing on the job, and had the most space experience in the pilot. I say 'arguably' for Hoshi because she did have a couple black marks on her record, mostly from her Academy days and it looks like Archer might have had to pull a few strings to get her aboard at first. I will say shafted though because she proved herself well from the pilot to the end, and actually you can tell she had character growth despite the lack if writing. Credit to Linda Park for subtly giving a varied performance each season to show growth despite not actually receiving the scripts to do it with. She goes from screaming in terror in "FIGHT OR FLIGHT" to standing up to the Earth President in "TERRA PRIME". Great job!)

 

[Captrek]

There is no precedent in the books for giving a hologram a rank, so The Doctor couldn't have a one.

If you can give an android a rank, why not a hologram?

Also, when he becomes the ECH, he has four pips on his collar. Do those denote a rank, or are they just decorative?

 

[Crazy 4 Xmas Lights]

Janeway, Kim, and Tuvok were the only Starfleet Academy graduated senior officers alive when they entered the Delta Quadrant. Tuvok was promoted, and she couldn't promote herself.

Chakotay and Tom were given a commission, presumably with the last rank they held when they left or were kicked out of Starfleet, respectively. Torres got one, though she never finished the Academy.

There is no precedent in the books for giving a hologram a rank, so The Doctor couldn't have a one.

Neelix, Kes, and Seven were all civilians.

Harry Kim truly was shafted. With the exception of DS9, every Berman era series had a promotion shafted character.

TNG... Data. (Seriously, by the time of NEMESIS, every character got a permanent promotion except Picard and Beverly, and both understandably so. Geordi and Worf got it twice.)

VGR... Kim.

ENT... Mayweather, and arguably Hoshi. (Mayweather was probably the only senior officer who never did a bad thing on the job, and had the most space experience in the pilot. I say 'arguably' for Hoshi because she did have a couple black marks on her record, mostly from her Academy days and it looks like Archer might have had to pull a few strings to get her aboard at first. I will say shafted though because she proved herself well from the pilot to the end, and actually you can tell she had character growth despite the lack if writing. Credit to Linda Park for subtly giving a varied performance each season to show growth despite not actually receiving the scripts to do it with. She goes from screaming in terror in "FIGHT OR FLIGHT" to standing up to the Earth President in "TERRA PRIME". Great job!)

Wonderfully stated! I couldn't have said it better myself.

you can give an android a rank, why not a hologram?

If the hologram attended Starfleet Academy, no reason at all. However, the ENH might have been programmed with certain Starfleet knowledge, but he did not attend the Academy. He wasn't ever designed for long term use.

 

[Frostscape One]

If you can give an android a rank, why not a hologram?

Also, when he becomes the ECH, he has four pips on his collar. Do those denote a rank, or are they just decorative?

Because hologram rights were never established by the time VOYAGER premiered. Data was able to attend the Academy only because he was initially voted as sentient... Maddox was the only vote against Data. "The Measure Of A Man" firmly established his rights completely.

Regarding the holographic pips of the ECH in "TINKER TENOR DOCTOR SPY", Janeway called them a 'nice touch'. It clearly wasn't an official rank.

Plus, as stated by Oddish, he never went to the Academy. Granted, he has the equivalent knowledge in his database, but no one has ever been given an officer's commission who didn't go to tje Academy.

(And yes, I am aware that the Maquis crew were all made Starfleet provisional ranks, but except for Chakotay and Torres, who both DID go to the Academy even though only Chakotay graduated, they were all just crewmen.

And yes, Wesley was given a field commission to ensign, but by that time he had already been an acting ensign for over 2 and a half years, had taken the exams, and later did go to the Academy.)

 

[DonIago]

Data was able to attend the Academy only because he was initially voted as sentient... Maddox was the only vote against Data. "The Measure Of A Man" firmly established his rights completely.

I'm not entirely sure about this. Maddox opposed Data's admittance to the academy on the grounds that Data wasn't sentient, but that doesn't necessarily mean that whoever supported his admittance believed he was sentient. It could be, "we don't believe he's sentient either, but let's see what happens..."

 

[Frostscape One]

Whatever the reason, the vote was everyone was for Data except Maddox.

 

[at Quark's]

Regarding the holographic pips of the ECH in "TINKER TENOR DOCTOR SPY", Janeway called them a 'nice touch'. It clearly wasn't an official rank.

Of course it wasn't. Janeway was witnessing nothing more than a daydream of the EMH. So she could have said that, even if granting holograms officer's commissions in itself would have been a somewhat commonplace occurrence in Starfleet.

Plus, as stated by Oddish, he never went to the Academy. Granted, he has the equivalent knowledge in his database, but no one has ever been given an officer's commission who didn't go to tje Academy.

(And yes, I am aware that the Maquis crew were all made Starfleet provisional ranks, but except for Chakotay and Torres, who both DID go to the Academy even though only Chakotay graduated, they were all just crewmen.

And yes, Wesley was given a field commission to ensign, but by that time he had already been an acting ensign for over 2 and a half years, had taken the exams, and later did go to the Academy.)

Lt. Ayala, ensigns Hogan, Seska, and Tabor. All former Maquis with rank Ensign or higher (i.e. officer's commissions). I think it's unlikely Seska ever went to Starfleet Academy. The others perhaps did, or perhaps not.

 

[Crazy 4 Xmas Lights]

I could see not promoting the Maquis; their commissions were provisional regardless.

What I'm getting is that it was very important to TPTB at Voyager that Harry remain an ensign... the stupidity of "someone gotta be duh ensign" was matched only by their determination to stick to it even when it became impossible to justify. They even came up with inane excuses for it in "Blight-ingale" and "Awful, Awful"...

"If this is your way of bucking for a promotion..." no, you idiot, he's reminding you that in the Alpha Quadrant, a halfway competent officer (which he is) would have made lieutenant years ago.

"There's very few senior officer slots on the ship..." Yeah, and you've been in one the whole time. I didn't see Ayala or Carey at any of those senior staff meetings.

Given that Chakotay, as captain, readily promoted Harry in "Before and After"... suddenly, the theory about Janeway secretly hating him makes more sense than it should!

 

[DonIago]

It would have been interesting to see Harry become so jaded by his career stagnation that he decided that if he was only going to be ranked as an ensign then he might as well do ensign-quality work.

Sort of like Tom's resurgence of bad boyness when they were trying to out Jonas, but with a more sincere motivation.

 

[at Quark's]

^We already saw him give up on Starfleet altogether in Timeless (even if for different reasons).

One of his best performances, by the way, imho, playing this cynical, older version of Harry.