Why Didn't Harry Get Promoted?
- Thread starter Akiraprise
- Start date
It was an excellent episode of what might have been. Like Year of Hell highly truncated.
That's Voyager, though. Great premises, reset buttoned out of existence. Their series finale was more of the same. Instead of showing what happened to the main cast, they gave us a bunch of stuff that didn't.
And sadly, where Harry Kim is concerned, the Kurtzman era has picked up where the Berman era left off. They could have smashed the "Harry the Eternal Ensign" trope with one clean swipe by having him appear in an early season of LD or PIC with an appropriate number of pips on his collar. But in PIC they cancel his planned appearsnce and in LD they instead cater to the "eternal ensign" crowd. And just when it looks like they've finally given the character the honor he deserves, they appear to have recanted: the later version of the "wall of heroes" has a whole lot of names erased. Including Harry's.
And sadly, where Harry Kim is concerned, the Kurtzman era has picked up where the Berman era left off. They could have smashed the "Harry the Eternal Ensign" trope with one clean swipe by having him appear in an early season of LD or PIC with an appropriate number of pips on his collar. But in PIC they cancel his planned appearsnce and in LD they instead cater to the "eternal ensign" crowd. And just when it looks like they've finally given the character the honor he deserves, they appear to have recanted: the later version of the "wall of heroes" has a whole lot of names erased. Including Harry's.
But why? Harry's lack of promotion is a running gag at this point in the fandom. You're taking this way too seriously, this is not some great injustice that needs to be rectified.
Because it's stupid
^ Maybe so, but it's generated 19 pages of discussion such that it is. 
^ Maybe so, but it's generated 19 pages of discussion such that it is.
I'd say I'm done apologizing... but I never did so in the first place.
^ And I took care of that argument already. Consider that Janeway forgave Paris after 18 months, even though his actions were far more severe. You do remember that she was going to KILL Tom to stop him. She wasn't locking the ship's phasers on Harry.
If she can give Tom a promotion 18 months after she was ready to incinerate him, she can give Harry a promotion 18 months (or preferably less) after he disappointed her.
If she can give Tom a promotion 18 months after she was ready to incinerate him, she can give Harry a promotion 18 months (or preferably less) after he disappointed her.
Ok, hear me out: the simple fact is that Trek fans take this super seriously. See any example of Trek tech, operational procedures, etc. Two, fans insist that their interest in Trek is based upon the idea that humanity could reach for this in some potential way that is aspirational.
Not rewarding an officer for performance above and beyond their call under difficult circumstances is extremely strange.
The minimum time in grade for a US NAVY Ensign is 24 months, and once they hit that time and their CO recommends it they are able to evaluated and eligible for promotion.
So, on the one hand many Trek fans will insist that Starfleet is an aspirational place were hard work gets rewarded in some measure. And, on the other hand, other fans will insist that the schadenfreude of a character's suffering is somehow a great running joke that in no way takes away from the seriousness of Star Trek.
Mileage will vary as to how this lands. In my opinion, like O'Brien must suffer, it is a poor joke.
As a future where people supposedly don't do things for personal gain (money or advancement) but rather for the love of it or to aid others, the idea is that those who don't increase in power wouldn't complain (unless they're villain of the week).
I think most everyone would stipulate that it's strange and another thing that has some bearing on one's opinion of VOY overall, but I guess I don't understand why anyone would feel so strongly about it as to comment on it off-and-on for 375 posts (oftentimes somewhat repetitively), or why anyone cares whether it's a running joke or not. It's not, AFAIK, hurting Garrett Wang's feelings at this point, so if people want to have a little fun with it, I don't see the harm, and if it annoys other people, they can scroll past.
In the end, I think it would have been nice (and reasonable!!!) if Kim had been promoted at some point, but given how VOY was handled otherwise, I don't think his rank ultimately made that much of a difference to how the series progressed.
I have much more of an issue with the way TPTB would go on to lampshade it. I don't know what the intention there was, but it didn't do either them or the character any favors.
I also don't care for the insinuations that TPTB somehow have set out to sabotage the matter in more recent years. If there's proof of that, present it, but otherwise, it just, to me, sounds like people letting their outrage over the underlying matter cloud their views on anything relating to it.
In the end, I think it would have been nice (and reasonable!!!) if Kim had been promoted at some point, but given how VOY was handled otherwise, I don't think his rank ultimately made that much of a difference to how the series progressed.
I have much more of an issue with the way TPTB would go on to lampshade it. I don't know what the intention there was, but it didn't do either them or the character any favors.
I also don't care for the insinuations that TPTB somehow have set out to sabotage the matter in more recent years. If there's proof of that, present it, but otherwise, it just, to me, sounds like people letting their outrage over the underlying matter cloud their views on anything relating to it.
It's not about an increase in power, it's about being recognized for good (or at least consistent) effort and achievement.
Yeah, but supposedly, we'll be "above" that, too. 
Quite frankly, for me, it ruins the verisimilitude of the world. And the "What's the big deal/jk/lol" attitude of how it's treated just strikes me as odd.
I wouldn't as bothered by it if it wasn't for the running joke and insistence that this is how it should be. As I said, if it's a joke, and humor is subjective, then the feelings on the matter will vary.
The last part of it is the insistence that people should be unbothered. This is a franchise in which debates over what NCC numbers must mean, or stardate numbers must mean yet this is a bridge too far?
I don't really see anyone here arguing that this is how it should be except for those who are proposing reasons why Harry might not have been promoted, which isn't the same as claiming that the character deserves ridicule for it (IMO it's a weakness of the show, not the character).
I guess I also don't see anyone insisting that anyone else should be unbothered by it, but there are perhaps more healthy and understandable levels of being bothered by it, and then less healthy and more difficult to understand levels of being bothered by it.
Frankly I don't really get overly invested in the NCC numbers or stardates either. TPTB didn't put a ton of thought into it, so why should I? I might if I found it fun to speculate about those things, but I don't.
I guess I also don't see anyone insisting that anyone else should be unbothered by it, but there are perhaps more healthy and understandable levels of being bothered by it, and then less healthy and more difficult to understand levels of being bothered by it.
Frankly I don't really get overly invested in the NCC numbers or stardates either. TPTB didn't put a ton of thought into it, so why should I? I might if I found it fun to speculate about those things, but I don't.
