Why was Harry Kim NEVER promoted?

[Cky]

I'm sure this has been asked before but I don't want to look through all of the pages of threads about it .

How come Harry was never promoted? I know that in an alternate future he's made the rank of Captain, but in 7 years (and Tom being demoted and then repromoted), why was he never made anything more than an Enisign?

 

[ThunderAeroI]

The Produceres didn't like him because he had a bad atitude.

No seriously, thats probably the only reason. I think his behavior improved after season 3, but the bad blood was always there.

 

[Akiraprise]

I'm not quite sure why he didn't get promoted. Seven years was an awful long time to go without, and he was a capable senior officer. I don't know of any behind the scenes reasons why he wouldn't get one either. They did make a joke out of it when Tom got re-promoted to lieutenant.

 

[Cky]

It's a bit unfair to be kept as an Ensign, especially after everything that happened.

 

[Silversmok3]

I remember an episode where Kim was responsible in a leadership position,with the point of the episode acknowledgeing the fact that in 7 years Harry Kim has been passed over for promotion by Maquis members and an ex-con.

And they f'ed up by NOT promoting him at the end of the episode.Weak.

 

[Kirk1980]

Yeah, honestly... Voyager was kinda weak with promoting anyone.

Hell, poor Tuvok started out a Lt. Commander (look at his pips) and then somewhere towards the end of the first season, was 'demoted' to Lieutenant and never went higher.

 

[Akiraprise]

Tuvok did wind up getting promoted to Lt Commander again. The episode name escapes me, again. I must be getting old. I used to be able to rattle off VOY trivial facts immediately.

 

[Kirk1980]

No kiddin'. Must have been a seventh season episode b/c I honestly don't remember it and I just got done with seasons 1-6.

At least I hope so or my memory sucks!

 

[Akiraprise]

Episode 5 of Season 4 Revulsion.
Tuvok is promoted to LtCdr.
I had to look it up. It was bothering me.

 

[Spock-2012]

Seriously, EVERYONE except for Harry got a promotion. Tom was demoted and then re-premoted. Tuvok was promoted. B'Elanna and Chakotay were technically promoted. But Harry? No.

Although, he DOES get to be captain at night shifts or something, so that's kind of a promotion.

 

[Dane_Whitman]

I bet he was promoted to lieutenant-commander shortly after returning to the AQ. It would seem only fair to poor Harry.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I never saw a reason for Harry to be promoted. He was ably filling his position. Yes, a promotion would have been recognition of his work and job well done, but there wasn't a pressing need for a higher rank.

 

[jgdst]

Seriously, EVERYONE except for Harry got a promotion. Tom was demoted and then re-premoted. Tuvok was promoted. B'Elanna and Chakotay were technically promoted. But Harry? No.

Although, he DOES get to be captain at night shifts or something, so that's kind of a promotion.

That's not strictly true, as the Maquis crew were given provisional ranks in Caretaker that never changed in seven years.

The only reason I can think of for never promoting him was if he followed a normal career path, then assuming it took Voyager 75 years to get home, the entire ship would be full of Admirals and Captains (Janeway would probably have to appoint herself God or something)...

If it's assumed that Tuvok was demoted after trying to steal the transporter technology to get Voyager home, then the only promotions we saw were Tom and Tuvok reclaiming their former ranks after indiscretions.

So that would mean no-one on Voyager got a promotion to a whole new rank in the seven years, not just Harry.

 

[2 of 10]

He was promoted unoffically though, he was given command of the night shift and got to sit in the Big Chair in the PM hours. Also, in "Futures End"
Janeway gave him command of the ship. Although in "Workforce" pts 1 and 2 Janeway promoted the EMH into the ECH, at that time however, no humans were on Voyager. When Harry and Chakotay got back to Voyager Chakotay did keep the Doc in charge...

Resistance is Futile

 

[voyagerfan]

Yeah that was the episode Tuvok got promotion as there was a big to do about it

 

[Silversmok3]

Harry Kim may not have deserved second-officer rank,but he sure did earn a bump to 'Lieutanant' at least.

Actually,Janeway would want to promote deserving crew.Its better to have a loyal crew of Admirals and Captains versus a disgruntled group of 10 year Ensigns.

When you're decades away from extra people,you gotta make the most of the crew ya got.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

So that would mean no-one on Voyager got a promotion to a whole new rank in the seven years, not just Harry.

Technically, Janeway could only give field promotions, that would have to be either confirmed or denied by Starfleet Command. As a morale booster, giving field promotions (which is essentially what she did for the Maquis) has merit. But it's also, ultimately, rather pointless.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

As far as I understand it, Tuvok and Tom Paris never got "demoted" in Season 1. It was probably a costume error. For example, Tuvok was being referred to as "Lieutenant" from the beginning. At some point during Season 1 this was appparently noticed by the production crew and Tuvok's and Paris's rank insignia were adjusted accordingly (Tuvok went from "Lieutnant Commander" to "Lieutenant" and Paris from full "Lieutenant" to "Lieutenant, junior grade").

In my opinion, this was a pretty silly (albeit minor) mistake and it's hard to understand why it took weeks for anyone to notice. But that's how it is. I think there's even a mid-Season 1 episode were either Tuvok's or Paris's rank insignia kept constantly switching throughout the episode.

As for the original question... yeah it was awkward that Harry never got a promotion. It's not like Voyager would have been overcrowded with senior officers if Harry had been made a Lt. j.g. As long as there's only one Captain, one Commander and not many Lieutenant Commanders around, I'm perfectly cool.

The latter TOS movies became a bit ridicilous in that respect... with the command crew consisting of several Captains and several Commanders. (Yeah, I know that's how it's done on bigger ships in today's U.S. Navy, but for Star Trek it was extremely unusual.) Realistically speaking, Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and Sulu should have commanded their own ships in TUC with Chekov being Kirk's XO and Uhura being Spock's XO or something along those lines. But I guess that was hard to put into practice... can't have a movie with four separate storylines. Not unless Quntin Taranatino directs.

 

[Finn]

Actually, I would think Tuvok got demoted after helping buying a black market version of that special transporter technology.

 

[My2tailwaggers]

I have always wondered about this myself! No one is an Ensign for 7 years!! At least get him thru Lt JG and Lt. That would have been normal. (husband was a LCDR in Navy).