Why does Harry Kim never get promoted?

[Oddish]

Yeah. Torres should have spent some time in the brig for slugging him, instead she gets promoted over him. And for the next year, he's thinking "what a crock of @*#$!" So, when he sees the chance to jump ship, he says "Adios, Voyager!"

To drag things back on topic, here are the possibilities associated with MIDDLE Voyager, or when it should've happened anyway.

Warlord: Harry just commanded the ship successfully for the first time in "Future's End". So, he could be celebrating his promotion in the Paxau Resort.

Hunters: With Starfleet now aware of Voyager's survival, they approve Tuvok's ascension to LCDR and grant Janeway permission to make more field promotions at her discretion.

Night: The golden opportunity, because nothing needed to be done. Two months have passed offscreen, so any rank advancements would be long forgotten. Harry just shows up at the staff meeting with that extra pip on his collar. This even allows the showrunners their puerile little "revenge" on Garrett Wang, since he's still the only character who didn't get a proper ceremony.

Thirty Days: While I find the term "command structure" to be the military equivalent of technobabble, let's just sat it really exists. Well, Voyager's lost a lieutenant and gained an ensign. So, it stands to reason that the process could be reversed. Plus, imagine the awkwardness Harry feels when he visits Tom wearing "his" rank pip. Though of course Tom would assure Harry that he deserves it and he's happy for him. Tom could still be put back to LTJG later on, of course.

Late Voyager is next...

 

[DonIago]

While it wouldn't have been groundbreaking, there could have been some potential for an episode where Harry and Tom were on a mission for the first time where Harry outranked Tom.

 

[Oddish]

Voyager and Enterprise were two shows that could have broken new ground. And very much didn't.

 

[Guy Gardener]

While it wouldn't have been groundbreaking, there could have been some potential for an episode where Harry and Tom were on a mission for the first time where Harry outranked Tom.

Just being a dick, but Tom didn't become a lieutenant until the end of the pilot, and even without rank, and a prisoner, Harry was still Tom's bitch.

 

[Oddish]

But wouldn't that be part of the fun of it? Harry, the sidekick, suddenly outranks Tom, the erstwhile leader.

 

[DonIago]

DS9's "Hippocratic Oath" dealt with the same situation in a sense, except that there wasn't really a role-reversal from the standard; it was just the first time O'Brien and Bashir had come into conflict.

It might have put some meat on Harry's bones if he'd had to assert command over his friend and former superior officer.

Or if they wanted to go really dark, it would have been cringe-inducing to see Harry realize that he wasn't cut out for command because he didn't have it in him to give his friend orders even when he outranked him..and would explain why he remained an ensign...there's ways that could work out voluntarily or involuntarily.

It does beg the question of how often people who've entered the command track transfer out of it because they realize it's not for them.

 

[Oddish]

They could have tweaked "Nightingale" to go there as well. More on that episode when I get to Late Voyager.

 

[Lynx]

I'm inclined to disagree, simply because I didn't buy that every single person onboard would choose a long perilous journey over making a new home on the 37's Planet.

Personally, I would have developed Carey a little more in S1, then had him unexpectedly take a hike with a few discontented Maquis. A bit of a betrayal, but a much better use for the character than just having him vanish for six years and redshirting him a few weeks from home.

I can give you some points when it comes to every single person staying on the ship instead of settling on the planet.

But I must also point out that "the long perilious journey" may have been a better option than staying on a planet about 70 000 lightyears from home in an area where kazon and Vidiians could create a lot of problems for the inhabitants.

When it comes to Carey, I totally agree.

A great character who should have been used more in the series and who shouldn't have been killed of.

Next after the total destruction of Kes, Carey's death was the most unnecessary in the series.

 

[DonIago]

If the Kazon and Vidiians were a threat to the planet, why didn't they seem to be a talking point while Voyager was there?

 

[Oddish]

If the Kazon and Vidiians were a threat to the planet, why didn't they seem to be a talking point while Voyager was there?

And why didn't any of the planet's denizens want to join Voyager, to get out of harm's way?

 

[DonIago]

...this is actually a good question. Did the planet have some sort of super duper defenses?

 

[Summer Solstice]

I don't think we were told where the Vidiian home world was. They seemed to have ships travelling over quite a large area to harvest people's organs. It seems like everyone should know about the Vidiians and that they are a threat. But what if they never leave any witnesses?

The people on the 37s planet should know about the Kazon though. They have a nice planet that the Kazon must surely want for themselves.

 

[Oddish]

I can imagine Harry there, if only he had known...

"Hey, Harry, if you stay on Voyager, you're going to suffer all manner of nastiness and humiliation: die multiple times, get beat up in an alien prison, eaten alive by some weaponized bio-goo even the Borg are afraid of, and a bunch of other nasty stuff. Plus, seven years of high-pitched sonic showers, and you're going to have your Starfleet career trashed by being stuck at ensign for the whole trip. Sure you want to go through with this?"

Of course, given the events of "Non Sequitur", he probably would have.

 

[at Quark's]

...this is actually a good question. Did the planet have some sort of super duper defenses?

I think the more likely explanation would be that these people don't have interstellar capabilities (yet), and they aren't aware of the Kazon roaming around in that region of space. They came from the 20th century and while they were able to reverse engineer some Briori technology, they still have only three cities (though the dialog could perhaps be interpreted differently). That would seem insufficient as a base to develop space capabilities first, and then interstellar capabilities later on.

I can imagine Harry there, if only he had known...

"Hey, Harry, if you stay on Voyager, you're going to suffer all manner of nastiness and humiliation: die multiple times, get beat up in an alien prison, eaten alive by some weaponized bio-goo even the Borg are afraid of, and a bunch of other nasty stuff. Plus, seven years of high-pitched sonic showers, and you're going to have your Starfleet career trashed by being stuck at ensign for the whole trip. Sure you want to go through with this?"

Of course, given the events of "Non Sequitur", he probably would have.

(This is a somewhat dark thought) Janeway knew for almost certain that Harry wouldn't leave Voyager because it was still his best option by far to ever return home- and he desperately wanted to be reunited with his family - more so than many others in the crew. Perhaps Janeway figured she could get away with not promoting and even promote others over him for that reason, people that perhaps needed a bit more 'motivation' ...

 

[DonIago]

I think the more likely explanation would be that these people don't have interstellar capabilities (yet), and they aren't aware of the Kazon roaming around in that region of space. They came from the 20th century and while they were able to reverse engineer some Briori technology, they still have only three cities (though the dialog could perhaps be interpreted differently). That would seem insufficient as a base to develop space capabilities first, and then interstellar capabilities later on.

But if the Kazon, and especially the Vidiians, were aware of the humans on the planet, it doesn't seem likely they would have been left alone either.

 

[Oddish]

And if only that subject (that the planet was unsafe) had been brought up, it could have been a legitimate reason for the entire crew to stay aboard. However, it was not. As far as we know, the planet was completely safe. Returning us to the original problem

 

[at Quark's]

But if the Kazon, and especially the Vidiians, were aware of the humans on the planet, it doesn't seem likely they would have been left alone either.

The Kazons would probably only be attracted by significant resources they could extract from the planet. As for the Vidiians, I agree.

However, it brings up the question: why do the Vidiians bother with pillaging technologically advanced species (starships) in the first place? Why not go to all those primitive worlds where they could offer no resistance to speak of to begin with ? Or would they have exhausted those already?

(That would be a sad division of 'harvest' in that region -- all species below warp threshold get harvested by the Vidiians, all species above get assimilated by the Borg).

Also, neither the Kazon nor the Vidiians would have recognised the signal as an SOS signal- the reason VOY checked it out was because they recognised it and were intrigued as to how an SOS signal could come from deep within the Delta Quadrant (also, after having found that truck). The Kazon and the Vidiians might have simply dismissed it as an automated signal of most probably just a crashed probe of some alien civ, not worth their time to check it out - also because it was the only signal from that planet, so no potential clue there was an entire civilization there.

 

[DonIago]

Now it feels like a missed opportunity for deeper storytelling that there was never any intersection between the Kazon and Vidiians. They seemed to occupy the same space, so...what the heck?

 

[Summer Solstice]

Now it feels like a missed opportunity for deeper storytelling that there was never any intersection between the Kazon and Vidiians. They seemed to occupy the same space, so...what the heck?

Perhaps the Kazon were able to fight off the Vidiians. Perhaps the Kazon preferred to live on planets and the Vidiians preferred to live in space.

 

[Farscape One]

That planet... Voyager didn't even detect human lifesigns there. Either in orbit or while they were on the ground. Something in the atmosphere probably shields them a bit.