Undoubtedly... but they couldn't punish Harry for advocating disobeying the captain's order, without punishing Tuvok for actually disobeying said order!
Garrett Wang
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I love Garrett and understand his complaints very well, but "The Disease" really answers just about any questions about why he wasn't promoted in-universe. I would include "Resolutions" too but Janeway says in "The Disease" that, in essence, his record is spotless.
Actually... gonna have to torpedo that one too.
"The Disease" was a mid 5th-season episode. So, about 4-1/2 years had passed. According to Data, ensigns are generally promoted after three years. So, Harry should have been Lieutenant Kim by the time Kes swapped out for Seven. Especially since he was an officer with a spotless record who exceeded Janeway's expectations.
"The Disease" answers why he wasn't promoted after that. The small nature of the ship and the fact that Janeway had other things on her mind take care of the rest.
Starfleet officers just don't get promoted that quickly. Tuvok as a lieutenant for much of Voyager's run was pretty silly, as was Data remaining an LCDR forever.
Tuvok was promoted to lieutenant-commander in the early Season 4 episode, "Revulsion". He is the only Voyager crewman who had a genuine promotion. Tom Paris had simply regained his old rank of lieutenant junior grade after being demoted for over a year-and-a-half.
Being an Ensign for 7 years is absurd.
Uhhh... nope. Gonna hafta torpedo that one as well, though I'll spare you the YouTube vid this time. Tom got busted to ensign and thrown in the brig. Janeway forgave him in 18 months. And Tom was not in an altered state; Harry was (given what Janeway did in "Scientific Method", even the reprimand was hypocrisy). I say that if Tom could be forgiven for stealing the Delta Flyer and going rogue, so could Harry for mere unauthorized horizontal mambo.
Tuvok was a lieutenant for 3-1/2 years, and par in the USN is five. DS9 handled promotions superbly, with most of the uniformed crew receiving them either during the show's 7-year run or immediately before they started on it (in Worf and O'Brien's cases).
Agreed 150% about Data, though. He had more command potential in one cheek of his smoother than Riker's chin in "Insurrection" android backside than Troi had in her whole body; if she deserved three pips, he sure did!
Tom was an ensign in the previous episode, he was a lieutenant JG in that one. That. Is. A. PROMOTION. End of message.
And when the fans complained about it, the producers doubled down hard on it, with Janeway getting downright accusatory when Harry pointed it out in "Nightingale". Far as I'm concerned, that was basically a raised middle finger to the viewers: "we're gonna do this and you can't stop us, so ha ha ha."
As far as I know, we don't know what rank Paris had reached the moment he was booted out of Starfleet. If he was an Ensign, I would count his field commission to Lt. in Caretaker as a genuine promotion, not if he was booted out as a Lt. Jg.
First, according to Memory Alpha, he was a lieutenant when he was booted, just as Chakotay was a LCDR. I consider both of them reactivating existing commissions. Contrastingly, B'Elanna, Ayala, Seska, and a few others received field commissions. It's possible that B'Elanna's appointment as chief engineer could be considered an early field promotion, similar to Tuvok's and Tom's. Since Starfleet presumably did not approve either promotion*, they were field promotions, which Starfleet later confirmed.
It's strange that Janeway didn't hesitate to do all those things, but was unwilling to give one of her own people a normal, scheduled rank increase. In the USN, an ensign makes LTJG in two years, basically by not dying or being court martialed.
*Voyager was not in touch with Starfleet as of "Revulsion", and I like to think that if Janeway discussed promoting Tom with them, they would demand to know why in the Vault of Eternal Destitution she was promoting Tom for a year and a half of good work but passing over Harry who'd given her six.
As far as I know, Paris being promoted to LtJG in his 'first starfleet career' only happens in a novel, and I don't therefore accept that as necessarily being true (though not necessarily untrue, either). (Mem Alpha lists it under 'apocrypha' as well, at least the reference I found). To me, these things are only 'factual' when they appear (or are mentioned) in the series itself.
If Paris outranked B'Elanna, which he did, then he should have been in charge of Engineering.
Yeah, I really don't care that other people didn't get promoted. 5 years and ensign is absurdist on it's face, as it is the most junior rank of commissioned officers, and Harry served as a department head in unusual circumstances. That doesn't indicate promotion material? Really? WTF?
I agree, it would have been far preferable to show him getting a 2nd chance. If only that wouldn't have meant paying royalties to TNG...
And, I don't buy for one minute the notion that Lacarno was an irredeemable character, as is sometimes postulated. The fact that he sacrificed himself for his teammates at the end of "The First Duty" showed that he understood the need to look out for his own.
Tom was a similar character: decent but fallible. I do not for one minute oppose Janeway's decision to restore his rank in "Unimatrix Zero", especially given that he lost it for trying to save a shortsighted society from self destruction.
Indeed, I agree with every personnel decision Janeway made over the course of the series, save two: promoting B'Elanna to chief engineer after she assaulted a superior was questionable... but I can understand it in light of B'Elanna's extraordinary talent. Contrastingly, her decision regarding Harry was impossible to justify.
Tom was a similar character: decent but fallible. I do not for one minute oppose Janeway's decision to restore his rank in "Unimatrix Zero", especially given that he lost it for trying to save a shortsighted society from self destruction.
Indeed, I agree with every personnel decision Janeway made over the course of the series, save two: promoting B'Elanna to chief engineer after she assaulted a superior was questionable... but I can understand it in light of B'Elanna's extraordinary talent. Contrastingly, her decision regarding Harry was impossible to justify.
It is impossible to justify so I just don’t. For whatever reason TPTB were dead set on keeping Harry an ensign. I don’t know why. I wish they hadn’t stuck with that decision for seven years. It’s such a peculiar decision that I can’t make it make sense in universe. If I was forced to do so, I’d postulate something in universe that was akin to TPTB shaping reality as they see fit. Some alien force or technobabble that means people on Voyager perceive Harry’s rank in passing but when confronting it fully something causes them to forget what they were doing and carry on the status quo.
Carey outranked both Paris and Torres, so actually it's Carey who should have been Chief.
Which is what Janeway thought, until she realized that B'Elanna was the more talented engineer. And if one is going to complain about B'Elanna becoming Chief Engineer, why not complain about Tom becoming the Chief Helmsman? You mean to say that he was the highest-ranking pilot aboard Voyager at the rank of lieutenant junior-grade and later ensign? Why not complain about Harry being the ship's Operation Officer and a member of the command staff, despite being an ensign fresh from the Academy?
I'm still complaining about Montgomery Scott being the Enterprise's third officer, despite the fact that he was not a Bridge officer. Sulu should have been Kirk's third officer. The Trek franchise tried to cover its ass with this mistake by allowing Charles "Trip" Tucker to be the original Enterprise's third officer, despite him not being a Bridge officer. Reed should have been Archer's third officer. The Chief Engineer might be part of the Command staff, but he or she is not a Bridge officer. Which means, he or she has no business being in command of a starship, unless all of the Bridge officers are disposed or unavailable.
That's about the size of it. And when people called them on it, they clung to it like a two-year-old with someone else's toy.
Paris was not an engineering officer. Upon the death of his superior, Carey should have ascended to that post. As for B'Elanna... if she hadn't assaulted Carey, I could have seen some justification in her getting the job, since it made political sense for Janeway to give the Maquis some status. But given that she should have been thrown in the brig for assault, it gets way harder to justify.
Thanks again to @DonIago for this magnificent meme!
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