The key difference is that VOY's premise leaned towards a high(er) number of recurring characters as they weren't likely to get any crew transfers anytime soon. In the case of the TOS/TNG/DSN a lack of recurring crew can be explained away as crew transfers.
Why does Harry Kim never get promoted?
- Thread starter B. L.
- Start date
The key difference is that VOY's premise leaned towards a high(er) number of recurring characters as they weren't likely to get any crew transfers anytime soon. In the case of the TOS/TNG/DSN a lack of recurring crew can be explained away as crew transfers.
Getting back to Harry as Taresian, the "retrovirus" explanation could have been made to work: Harry was still born human, he just contracted this retrovirus that is rewriting his DNA. The effect is so sophisticated and insidious that the Doctor can't counteract the effects. Harry escapes being "consumed", but he still transforms into a Taresian.
This allows for:
1. Discovering the new abilities of his race, most notably the mysterious hunches he has, and how his relations with the crew change.
2. He's still being pursued, both by his own people (i.e. hot women) and the enemy. Tom could say that it was like "Captain Proton and the Sensuous Sirens of Saturn".
3. A potential resolution, in which the Doctor develops a way for women to conceive without killing their males. Once Harry has done his manly duty, he is allowed to remain on Voyager.
It would all be irrelevant to his rank, but I think that as a more central character, and with the focus being his alien nature rather than his naivete (which stopped making sense around the second season), he'd probably make LTJG as a matter of course.
This allows for:
1. Discovering the new abilities of his race, most notably the mysterious hunches he has, and how his relations with the crew change.
2. He's still being pursued, both by his own people (i.e. hot women) and the enemy. Tom could say that it was like "Captain Proton and the Sensuous Sirens of Saturn".
3. A potential resolution, in which the Doctor develops a way for women to conceive without killing their males. Once Harry has done his manly duty, he is allowed to remain on Voyager.
It would all be irrelevant to his rank, but I think that as a more central character, and with the focus being his alien nature rather than his naivete (which stopped making sense around the second season), he'd probably make LTJG as a matter of course.
Okay... I'm sure if I phrased it wrong, or you're missing the point, so I'll make it a different way:
If establish a benchmark of ten appearences for a "recurring character" then:
TOS: 2 characters -- Leslie (57) and Christine Chapel (17).
TNG: 9 or 10 characters -- Darien Wallace (66), Russell (62), Jae (62), Diana Giddings (58), Miles O'Brien (52), Gates (45), Dr Pulaski (22), "Computer voice" (16), Alyssa Ogawa (15), Guinan (13).
DS9: 13 characters -- Nog (46), Skrain Dukat (35), Rom (33), Elim Garak (32), Martok (25), Weyoun (24), Corat Damar (23), Keiko O'Brien (19), Leeta (16), Kasidy Yates-Sisko (15), Winn Adami (14), Female Shapeshifter (14), Bill Ross (12).
VOY: 3 characters -- Naomi Wildman (14), Seska (12), Icheb (11).
ENT: 5 characters -- Forest (14), Soval (11), S. Money (10), Jannar (10), Shran (10)
So not only does VOY make less use of recurring characters -- which is completely contrary to the premise! -- but they also use their recurring characters far less often than previous shows, though ENT has a similar issue in this regard.
What I find funny is that Neelix who's the ship's cook (if that) after only two years on the ship is given charge of about a third of the crew and ordering them around (sometimes to their death) "Pick up those bones Lieutenant dead meat."
I am surprised that he didn't replace Chakotay as Janeway's number one after a couple more years.
I am surprised that he didn't replace Chakotay as Janeway's number one after a couple more years.
You left out Icheb. And technically with the Equinox Five that would count as seven. Although only four of those were recurring or mains.
And ENTERPRISE can be explained by having 3 full seasons less than TNG, DS9, and VOYAGER. They could very well have had more if given a 7 year run like the others.
VOYAGER had no excuse for not having just as many, if not more than, DS9 simply because of the premise of the show.
It's like preparing game meat, you have to remove the small pieces of metal from it or you'll chip your teeth.
It's like preparing game meat, you have to remove the small pieces of metal from it or you'll chip your teeth.
I am ashamed that I laughed at that... but I laughed at that.
Seriously, would it have been that difficult to shoot a 20 second scene where it is explained that they found the Borg Baby's home planet and are ready to send her home. Then cut to the Doc in Sickbay, where he makes sure the infant is secure in her carrier and says "ready for transport, Captain." Then, the carrier disappears. That's all they needed to do.
Of course, considering that they couldn't be bothered to shoot another 20 second scene where Janeway sticks a hollow pip on Harry's collar, it's par for the course.
Has it already been mentioned that maybe he didn't deserve a promotion?
If not here, I've seen the argument. One of the easiest to defeat. Harry has...
* Done lieutenant level work for years, serving as senior officer on Voyager despite being very junior.
* Been commended by Janeway as having "exceeded expectations" ("Twisted")
* Aided in the design and construction of Seven's astrometrics lab and Tom's Delta Flyer, engineering projects that might influence Starfleet for years to come.
* Provided such uniformly exemplary service that it took him over four years to make a misstep (when under alien influence). And that should have been irrelevant to this argument, because he should have had JG pips on his collar two years before.
Another one down...
No fear, friend.
I am lethally precise, obliterating your arguments but leaving you without a scratch.Consider this exchange from "The Disease"...
JANEWAY: "...I can't help wondering if my response would have been the same if it had been, say, Tom Paris instead of you. Oh don't get me wrong, I still would have been angry and disappointed, but I wouldn't have been surprised."
KIM: "Because Ensign Kim doesn't break the rules."
Harry says it, but he's only summarizing the reason for Janeway's special ire toward him. If he was a habitual rulebreaker, Janeway would have had no reason to say that.
Given that Tom was able to score a promotion after having been demoted, that just seems like Janeway admitting her own hypocrisy. And worse, if it is Janeway admitting her own hypocrisy, she never does anything to make it right afterward.
It reminds me of an argument I got into with my parents when my grades dipped a bit, where I noted that if I'd deliberately underperformed earlier and then my grades improved to the same level, I'd be lauded instead of criticized.
It reminds me of an argument I got into with my parents when my grades dipped a bit, where I noted that if I'd deliberately underperformed earlier and then my grades improved to the same level, I'd be lauded instead of criticized.
Sad but true. Janeway was a great character played by a brilliant actress, sabotaged by writers who... I can't decide if they were inept, mean-spirited, or both.
After "Night", I think they had made the active decision to commit to Harry's eternal ensignhood, and in "Unimatrix Zero" and "Nightingale", they very deliberately rubbed our noses in it.
It would have been amazing if Wang had ad-libbed the line about how there wasn't a little box on his chair, but I can't imagine TPTB letting it stand at that point. Still, one kind of wonders what the point of that line was since it comes off as the writers calling out their own poor writing.
It was worse than pointless. It did just that, for one thing. It also pretty much character assassinated everyone in the room. Harry, after all, should have been a good friend and let Tom have his moment in the sun*. And the others totally acted like he was wrong to want to be anything more than a long-suffering ensign.
