Let's list everything that's happened to Ensign Kim

[Odon]

One of the disappointing aspects of Voyager was the lack of a character development arc for Ensign Harry Kim. One would think that after all he's been through over the past seven years the poor lad would at least have earned a promotion.

Let's list all of Harry's significant life experiences on Voyager. Exactly how many times has he died? On what occasions did he 'take charge' and show his chops? Did Harry ever get laid? Did he ever kill anyone? How many fights (phaser and hand-to-hand) did he get into? When was he crucial to solving a Problem Of The Week? In short, the kind of experiences that turn someone from a naive rookie to a self-confident veteran.

Please note that this isn't a thread on whether or not you think Harry Kim did develop. Open another thread if you want to debate that.

I'll start the ball rolling with:

Harry was eaten alive by Species 8472 cells in "Scorpion".

 

[dave_R_treker]

I never understood why he never got a promotion. While there were serveral promotions to officers on DS9 in less amount of time. Nog made it from cadet to Lt.(jg) in less then two years.

 

[MMCL]

That was the war... they had a shortage of peoples in the Alpha Quadrant because of the war.

EDIT: Oh, and Harry Kim 'came back from the afterlife' when he switched places with a dead man.

 

[anais]

Harry and Tom were accused of being terrorists and imprisoned in The Chute. Paris gets stabbed, leaving Kim to fend for them both.

He kind of saved the day in Timeless, only he made the mistake that caused Voyager to crash in the first place.

He was harvested for fatal breeding purposes in Favorite Son.

 

[exodus]

Harry forgets he's engaged and his girl disappears soon after.

Harry Kim, a Soprano?

 

[B_L_T]

Poor Harry, he goes through too much negative and never gets promotions for it

 

[Good Will Riker]

The fact of the matter is that both Garrett Wang and Connor Trinneer are born in 1968, yet Wang finished out his show as an ensign while only 4 months later a new Star Trek show premieres where Trinneer is a full commander on that show.

ensign = child

commander = adult

Come to think of it, both non-caucasian characters on ENT remained as ensigns during the entire course of that show + the events of "These Are the Voyages." (Hmmmm...)

How demeaning.

 

[jgdst]

The fact of the matter is that both Garrett Wang and Connor Trinneer are born in 1968, yet Wang finished out his show as an ensign while only 4 months later a new Star Trek show premieres where Trinneer is a full commander on that show.

ensign = child

commander = adult

Come to think of it, both non-caucasian characters on ENT remained as ensigns during the entire course of that show + the events of "These Are the Voyages." (Hmmmm...)

How demeaning.

Hmmm I wouldn't go reading into the fact that Mayweather and Hoshi are only ensigns. It's nothing more than an age thing. As I understand it, Mayweather was supposed to be a lieutenant on account of his experience as a boomer, but it didn't tally up because of the age difference between him and Reed. (I don't remember any onscreen reference on Enterprise to them having a Lt junior grade).

Just remember, while both them and Kim remained Ensigns, every other non-caucasian character in the franchise has received at least one promotion.

The reason for Kim never being promoted might simply be that if everyone's career had progressed as normal, by the time they got home (assuming a 70+ year journey) there'd be no-one other than Fleet Admirals and Captains on the ship.

Considering the amount of trouble he seems to get himself into (up to about the end of season 5), he might be considered too "high risk" to be given any more responsibility

 

[jgdst]

A post that is actually on topic now...

Just off the top of my head: He's the one the Caretaker pays special interest in when Voyager arrives in the Delta quadrant, he dies in Deadlock, he falls in love with a hologram, a Borg, a corpse and the wrong twin, he's the Hirogen's whipping boy in The Killing Game, he gets the equivalent of VD when they encounter that generational ship, he's responsible for bringing an intelligent bomb on board, he gets trapped in an alternate relaity in Non Sequitur, and he suffers post traumatic stress syndrome in Memorial.

That's all I can remember, but, yeah, the dude doesn't have a good time of it

 

[CDP]

He took command of the Nightingale and pissed everyone off to the point of mutiny.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Didn't he get captured by giant amazon women and sentenced to death by snoo-snoo?

 

[Good Will Riker]

Didn't he get captured by giant amazon women and sentenced to death by snoo-snoo?

Unlike Fry and Zapp, Harry would never want to leave that planet!

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

I do wonder if Harry is getting close to using up his alotted regenerations

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

He got blown out into space in the episode where there were 2 Voyagers, slightly out of phase, and then took himself and baby Naomi (they could've stayed dead for all I cared ) to the Voyager not being attacked by Vidiians.

He was also thrown into an alternate timeline where he was back on Earth with his lady friend, and eventually restored the timeline (rescuing Paris from prison and that other guy in his place on Voyager)

 

[Space Lizard]

Technically, I've always found it interesting that the Kim we see in the first episode never got home and died...and we watched a copy the rest of the series. Same with O'Brien, though since that was just himself from a different time it's not as important.

And don't forget getting imprisoned with Paris in that one episode. The Chute, I think...?

 

[Lucy of Nine]

Poor Harry! He really should have gotten a promotion at least near the end of the series...

 

[LeadHead]

Technically, I've always found it interesting that the Kim we see in the first episode never got home and died...and we watched a copy the rest of the series. Same with O'Brien, though since that was just himself from a different time it's not as important.

Not to get overly Philosophical on ya, but how do we know that His Voyager was the copied Voyager? For all we know he was the only REAL original one.

 

[Odon]

In "Warhead" he's placed in command of the night shift despite the lack of 'night' in space, talks a sentient bomb into blowing itself up instead of Voyager and, if I'm reading the end scene right, has hot sex after his duty shift with a grateful Bridge Babe.

 

[AuntKate]

Harry is also partially assimilated in one episode, which earns him a special "Hi, Harry" from the Borg queen later on. He is also infected by Species 8472 and nearly dies (saved by People magazine, so I hear). And he was trapped in the virtual world with the clown in "The Thaw." He was also directly propositioned by Seven of Nine and turned her down--that might be reason enough to leave him an ensign. LOL

 

[Good Will Riker]

He was also thrown into an alternate timeline where he was back on Earth with his lady friend, and eventually restored the timeline (rescuing Paris from prison and that other guy in his place on Voyager)

That was the dumbest reason I have ever seen anybody do in restoring the timeline.

So what if his friend is lost out there in deep space and not him?

It is him back home and his friend who is assigned to USS Voyager in this reality.

Besides, he got the alternate-reality Tom Paris killed, so he actually made things worse than better if you think about it?

The viewer has to wonder if Harry Kim really wants to come back home at all, considering what he went through in this episode "Non Sequiter" and "Timeless" just to put himself back in the situation he longed to get out of in the first place.