Why Didn't Harry Get Promoted?

[Oddish]

Since Joe Carey and Ahni Jetal are also on the list, it may not exactly be considered canonical.

USS Dauntless personnel

List of personnel assigned to the USS Dauntless (NCC-80816). This Bolian command ensign was featured in the holo-recording of the USS Protostar's christening as Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway watched it. (PRO: "Asylum") Later, while aboard the Dauntless, he was walking down the hall as Janeway...

memory-alpha.fandom.com

 

[FederationHistorian]

Since Joe Carey and Ahni Jetal are also on the list, it may not exactly be considered canonical.

USS Dauntless personnel

List of personnel assigned to the USS Dauntless (NCC-80816). This Bolian command ensign was featured in the holo-recording of the USS Protostar's christening as Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway watched it. (PRO: "Asylum") Later, while aboard the Dauntless, he was walking down the hall as Janeway...

memory-alpha.fandom.com

Or, provided that they are the exact same people that served on Voyager, they were resurrected using Seven’s nanoprobes. Or they are mimetic simbiots.

 

[mithril]

Or, provided that they are the exact same people that served on Voyager, they were resurrected using Seven’s nanoprobes. Or they are mimetic simbiots.

Maybe they became Kobali?

 

[Oddish]

Maybe they became Kobali?

Much as I like that idea, they'd be using Kobali names if they were.

However, the nanoprobe theory holds, at least for Carey. If Seven could restore Neelix after 18 hours, she could probably restore Carey far sooner.

 

[at Quark's]

If the ship wasn't actually shown to exist (as I believe it is, I never have seen the series), I'd take it a veiled reference that Harry had died while doing his duty ('they're all serving on the same ship now ... in the afterlife').

 

[Oddish]

Or that Harry died from a delayed result of something that happened to him in the DQ. He was pronounced dead at 11:57 PM, with his promotion to lieutenant set to go officially active at midnight the next day. So, the Forever Ensign crowd still gets what they want, since his promotion was posthumous.

 

[at Quark's]

Or that Harry died from a delayed result of something that happened to him in the DQ. He was pronounced dead at 11:57 PM, with his promotion to lieutenant set to go officially active at midnight the next day. So, the Forever Ensign crowd still gets what they want, since his promotion was posthumous.

Yeah, and I could even buy him dying an ensign, but then be promoted two ranks (i.e. to full Lt.). One rank as the standard posthumous promotion, one rank as acknowledgement that he really should have been promoted during his life at some point.

 

[at Quark's]

It's too bad the producers didn't make Harry a junior grade lieutenant in the first place. It wouldn't be a problem to remain that rank for the entire series.

Yes, except that then they'd have to ditch the 'straight out of Starfleet Academy- green, wide eyes filled with wonder about his first assignment' part- after all he should have spent some time on an assignment to merit that Lt. Jg. promotion.

 

[Oddish]

Yes, except that then they'd have to ditch the 'straight out of Starfleet Academy- green, wide eyes filled with wonder about his first assignment' part- after all he should have spent some time on an assignment to merit that Lt. Jg. promotion.

The best way to use him would have been to have Durst be the chief of operations, with Harry as his assistant. Then, Durst goes down in "Faces", and Deputy Chief of Operations Harry Kim is what they have to do the job. He struggles for a season or two, then grows into a capable officer, and that's when Janeway promotes him.

 

[Oddish]

Latest news...

Check out the Starfleet Academy trailer. 0:46, to be precise. There's a Wall of Heroes, with a long list of names on it. Including Harry S. L. Kim. And it reveals that YES, Harry finally got the promotion he so richly deserved.

After 31 years and multiple shows, the Voyager showrunners' wrong has FINALLY been set right.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[DonIago]

Could be a different Harry Kim!

 

[Oddish]

With the same middle initials?

 

[F. King Daniel]

What on earth does the S.L. stand for?

 

[Oddish]

What on earth does the S.L. stand for?

We never found out.

 

[DonIago]

What on earth does the S.L. stand for?

Second Life

 

[F. King Daniel]

We never found out.

You're telling me a featured Star Trek character, who did seven seasons had initials all this time and we never knew what they stood for? Even in a novel or something??

 

[Oddish]

You're telling me a featured Star Trek character, who did seven seasons had initials all this time and we never knew what they stood for? Even in a novel or something??

I'm saying just that. Harry was the quintessential underdeveloped character. The reason his lack of promotion is so often the first thing mentioned about him, is because there's not much else to mention.

 

[Dee1891]

I think Harry just suffered from the same ailment that Chakotay, Paris, Torres, Neelix and Tuvok suffered from: They weren't Janeway, Seven, or the Doctor. Because by at least the 5th season, the show only centered around those three. Sure, one of those other six people might have gotten an episode or two focused on them, but by and large, it was the Janeway/7/Doctor show. So nobody really cared about Harry getting promoted, much less UPN who just wanted the show to end so they could start producing the next Trek show.

That doesn't really wash with me, because Tuvok was the only one who had received a real promotion during the ship's journey through the Delta Quadrant. Tom Paris had merely regained his old rank after being demoted roughly a year-and-a-half earlier.

Why wasn't Harry promoted? I have an answer. His behavior toward Tuvok in the Season Two episode, "Resolutions". Although Tuvok had promised not to mention it again, I suspect Janeway and Chakotay had managed to learn about it anyway.

 

[Oddish]

Why wasn't Harry promoted? I have an answer. His behavior toward Tuvok in the Season Two episode, "Resolutions". Although Tuvok had promised not to mention it again, I suspect Janeway and Chakotay had managed to learn about it anyway.

I dropped a torpedo on that one long ago. Harry was urging Tuvok to violate Janeway's orders and contact the Vidiians, yes. But Tuvok was the one who actually did it, and he was promoted barely a year later. Why would Janeway squash an officer who advocated an action but leave the officer who carried out that action unpunished?

 

[Farscape One]

What on earth does the S.L. stand for?

Shitty Luck.

He was stuck in the Delta Quadrant for 7 years. He was still an ensign when they got home, and 24 years after they get home, we STILL have no idea if he ever got a promotion, despite knowing Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, and Paris got one. (Even Icheb was a Lt. when he was killed in PICARD.) It took Nog less than 4 years after starting Starfleet Academy to get from cadet to Lt. j.g. (Though Sisko was very good at promoting his people in a reasonable time. Even Picard did, with the VERY glaring exception of Data.)

He also had bad luck with relationships.