Well it seems they tried to do that but weren't allowed. I still think they should have just killed him off in the season finale, ending the season with his space funeral.
The writing is definitely partially to blame for the characters being bland, but the actors/acting are also part of the issue. As an example, Dwight Schultz was brought in to play a one-off character with a holodeck addiction and based upon his neurotic performance, Reg Barclay was born. Similarly, Colm Meaney's character went from a random transporter nobody to a main on DS9. I believe the reason for this is because the actors gave performances that made fans want to watch and writers want to write for them. Even Robert Picardo's doctor could have been dull if he just delivered his lines straight. What makes that character work from day one is the fact that Picardo acted as though the EMH was irritated at being used. In comparison, Chakotay has every reason to be salty at the beginning of the Voyager series, but Beltran's performances are ultimately very bland. Even if the script states he chooses to join Voyager and put on the Starfleet uniform, Beltran never gives any indication that Chakotay is anything but cool with it. Tuvok was a Starfleet spy on my ship the whole time, well ho-hum, okey dokey then. Adding some anger, frustration, or any indication that the agreement to join Voyager's crew is a distasteful necessity could have given the writers a handle to work with for future episodes. Similarly, what makes Harry Kim unique is as much up to the actor as the writers. Harry is fresh out of Starfleet. Is he an overachiever? Is he nervous on the Bridge? Wang could have made choices about his character within the confines of the scripts that make his character interesting without having to beg for a "talent show" on the ship.
His situation doesn't excuse for bad acting and lack of ever writing him anything interesting to act.
A character can simply be trying to find her/his way. The person in the process of defining herself/himself is a staple.
^ This, he didn't seem like a stellar actor either on Voyager(I have never seen him in anything else that I can remember), even in episodes when they tried to give him more to do. Though again the character was so badly written as well that it's difficult to say how much was actor, concept and/or writing. At least Kes was pretty badass in Warlord when she had a battle of the minds with the guy who had taken over her body.
They could have done three things with Harry, all of them entirely acceptable. 1. The Path of Tasha, i.e. terminate him. Harry could have been, in a sense, more valuable dead than alive. The loss of an officer who was so young would be devastating for Janeway. Tom would lose a friend. Voyager would lose a fine officer. As a writer, I have periodically killed off characters who were problematic (a third in a love triangle, for instance). If they weren't going to do anything worthwhile with Harry, why not milk his death for all it's worth? 2. The path of Nog, i.e. take him in a new direction. Nog went from delinquent to Starfleet officer. Harry could have gone from newbie to something else. Having him turn out to be an alien is only one possibility. 3. The Path of Beverly. Have him quietly fade into a background character, but do it realistically. No stupid "Harry's seven years out of Academy but he's still a clueless newbie" crap. Get that out of your system by Season 2 and have Harry become a competent but essentially nonessential officer. And for heaven's sake, if you can't spend 30 seconds with Janeway popping a hollow pip on his collar, just have him turn up with it at the start of "Night". Any of these things would have been fine. What they chose to do instead was an insult to Harry's character and their viewers' intelligence.
So I am going to bring this thread back. It was mentioned that Wang would discuss what happened and he did. He stated on the podcast that he had problems with sleeping and so showed up late on more than one occasion. On one of them he had been in Vegas and wound up showing up hours late. Next thing he wound up in Berman's office and they told him that he had to go to rehab for a few weeks which he did. That's why he wasn't in the episodes that he missed in season three. He said that they didn't give him a chance to explain himself and defend himself and that he didn't have a substance abuse issue. Any thoughts on what he said?
You’re right. I heard him say that. But…I still the the writers felt they ran out of things for Kes to do. Probably a combination of both.
I agree with that. Would love to hear what Lisa Klink thinks about that, but I doubt she will just say it.
I was going to mention bc they needed to add sex appeal. But I seem to recall Braga didn’t think about a “Borg Babe” till hiatus.
I still believe that the decision to axe Kes and keep Harry was made before Season 3 was over. It seemed like "Before and After" was their effort to show a "road not taken" for her.
That is true I think from what Wang was saying. He didn't say it but certainly implied it that his job was on the line when he was called into Bermans office like that and told to go to rehab. I think we could add the phrase "or else' to that one since he was not given any chance to give his side of the story. I think by doing the rehab and not being late after that point he saved his job.
Given the importance of the clock on a hectic TV shoot, it stands to reason that they would need their people to show up on time.
I haven't heard what he said, but just reading that short description, so like an idiot, I'll share what I'm thinking anyway because, well it's the internet.... something doesn't smell right to me. We're also talking about one side of a nearly 25 year old issue from someone who is invested in minimizing his misdeeds, if any - so big grain of salt there... but ... Why mandate someone go to rehab for drugs unless you have good reason to believe there's a drug problem? It only makes sense to me if there's more to this than he's letting on - either he's using his sleep disorder as cover for his lack of work ethic, he actually did have a drug problem, or someone or multiple someones were making up/embellishing stories to make producers think he had a drug issue. On one hand, if he really did have a drug problem, would a couple weeks in rehab be enough to fix it? On the other, he stopped showing up late - so his sleep disorder being the cause was BS. Not to say it didn't affect him, but in the end, he CHOSE to be late when it was within his power to be there on time.
I don't see why they would send him to rehab if he didn't need it, but it scarcely matters. Using controlled substances and not showing up on time are both completely legitimate reasons to terminate an actor's contract. My extreme and oft-stated dislike of what was done with his character does not come from any special regard for the actor (I'm sure he's very handsome, but men aren't my thing) or the character (I liked him, but I liked most of them). I would have been fine if they had killed him off, removed the character from the show non-lethally, developed him, or shifted him to the back burner in a manner that showed respect for the audience. Somehow, they failed to meet even my low standards.
If he'd been eliminated early, few people would have. I mean, the only thing anyone noticed about him are: 1. He wasn't promoted. 2. He and Tom were pals. 3. Uhhh... he played the clarinet (or was it the sax?) The big one being #1. If he'd died in Year 3, when his rank was still appropriate, #2 would probably be forgotten because the Tom/B'Elanna romance would supplant it, and #3 just isn't that memorable.
Yeah, 4. Unlucky in love. But many of his failures were late in the series. If he'd been eliminated before the end of S3, that would have gone unnoticed as well, I think.
When he was told that it is his destiny to bang and marry the child of Tom and Kes, it all became algebraic. If I wait a minute till I parent trap Tom and Kes, then in the end I'll be an old man with an old wife, but if I wamboozle mommy and daddy quick, then in the beginning, I'm a young guy with a young wife. Meanwhile maybe Tom thought that after the shame of harbouringing such a shitty son in law, not that he remembers a thing, maybe its his turn to bed Harry's child? Fairs fair.