Harry remaining an ensign is the dumbest idea in the history of Star Trek, and that's saying something!
Why does Harry Kim never get promoted?
- Thread starter B. L.
- Start date
I honestly don't understand why it's such a sticking point for some people. I never thought about it while the show was going on, and quite frankly, the people writing it probably didn't either LOL. The only promotion I can think of is Tom Paris and yeah, they made it an issue of him going back down to Ensign, but I think it was just to fill space with that silly episode where he flies down and saves the ocean planet.
It breaks suspension of disbelief for me.
Mileage will vary for others.
Mileage will vary for others.
I'm Shocked
Stupidity can be measured by three factors:
1. Severity (this was moderate, not as bad as an abomination like "Threshold" but definitely noticeable).
2. Duration (it ran five years or so, Harry SHOULD have been an ensign for at least two)
3. Necessity (there was no intelligent reason, no justification for it whatsoever).
So yeah, pretty frickin' dumb.
How can you say Threshold was an abomination? It was great. We all came from fish (check out the documentary "Our inner fish")
Fair point on Threshold. That definitely strained believability too. But Harry basically got ignored for 5 years, while a convicted criminal who was serving time gets promoted, demoted, and promoted again. Figure that one out.
Seriously what's y'alls deal with Threshold? We know if Warp 10 ever was to happen that a bend in the universe would occur, thus potentially messing with our evolutionary genomes. When Tom Paris achieved it in the Delta Flyer, he messed with evolution and started to revert back to a tetrapod.
It's an example of an episode that actually motivates a person to learn about stuff, and I remember learning about how every species can trace itself back to a fish (actual science). Compare that with Discovery where an episode would have a lot of "like, you good?" and excellent special effects and people would say oooh that was the greatest episode ever.
It's an example of an episode that actually motivates a person to learn about stuff, and I remember learning about how every species can trace itself back to a fish (actual science). Compare that with Discovery where an episode would have a lot of "like, you good?" and excellent special effects and people would say oooh that was the greatest episode ever.
There is nothing in Threshold except a comedy of errors. It did not inspire.
You see as far as a Takarian with his face in Algae Puffs
IDIC.
What does that mean?
Infinite Diversity. Infinite Combination.
Let's be nice, you guys.
Oh, I agree. Harry's treatment was utter stupidity, and it infuriates me (maybe more than it should) that professional writers pulled that... crap. It was an insult to our intelligence that those muttonheads who ran the show actually thought we wouldn't notice.
If it wasn't the stupidest thing in all of Trek... well, once you factor in duration and the sheer unnecessity of it... it was damn close.
Oh, I agree. Harry's treatment was utter stupidity, and it infuriates me (maybe more than it should) that professional writers pulled that... crap. It was an insult to our intelligence that those muttonheads who ran the show actually thought we wouldn't notice.
If it wasn't the stupidest thing in all of Trek... well, once you factor in duration and the sheer unnecessity of it... it was damn close.
I think it is more the syndication expectation that bit them hard and they did not know what to do with Harry.
Except the episode is clear that Tom isn't reverting back, he's going through a speeded-up evolution.
I said this in another recent thread, but the Star Trek writers seem to have no idea what evolution actually is.
Evolution is simply the gradual adaptation of an organism to its environment. Our future evolution is not set, because it will be based on how our environment treats us, and what traits facilitate survival. Take five groups of humans and place them on a desert planet, an ice planet, a jungle planet, a forest planet, and a swamp planet. Come back in a couple hundred thousand years, and those five groups will have evolved very differently, through gradual natural selection.
Maybe the swamp planet dwellers will have some salamander-ish characteristics.
QUOTE: I think it is more the syndication expectation that bit them hard and they did not know what to do with Harry.
Back-burnering a less popular character is common in the Trek franchise. Uhura, Chekov, Dr. Crusher, Geordi, Travis, Hoshi... they all dealt with that. But certainly, they could have spared 30 seconds for Janeway to pin a black pip on Harry's collar, tell him "congratulations, lieutenant", then send him back to his background character duties.
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