Harry still an Ensign

sportguy301 · Ensign, Junior Grade Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 30

how come harry never got promoted to Lieutenant even thogh he showed just as much aptitude as say Tom who by the way became a Lieutenant twice. or maybe its just cuz Janeway couldnt get used to Lieutenant Kim

P.S. i havent watched the 7th season yet so maybe he gets promoted there

squiggy · **Sun Aug 26, 2007 12:59 am Re: Harry still an Ensign**

sportguy301 · Ensign, Junior Grade Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 30

Lt. Saavik · Lieutenant Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 196 Location: Europe

Chekov was an ensign in TOS. He first appeared in its second season.
And, Squiggy is right, in my opinion: Kim has always reminded me of Chekov too. Okay, admittedly, maybe Chekov was more clownesque e less shy with ladies, but he and Kim have surely something in common.

sportguy301 · Ensign, Junior Grade Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 30

thanks for the history but i really want to know why you think Harry never got promoted

Lt. Saavik · Lieutenant Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 196 Location: Europe

Only guessing, but the only conclusion I can come up with at the moment is that, likely, Janeway didn't think he deserved a promotion and decided to keep him an ensign. Maybe she thought he was still too immature to get a promotion, and that's why Kim remained in Paris' shadow.

robbiewebster · **Sun Aug 26, 2007 8:50 pm**

Kim was a freaking genius, he should have been promoted. I'm sure he was when they returned home, although they never said anything on the show (as far as I know).

lieutenant may · Guest

i think he didn't get promoted because maybe the captain never got around to it

JimRaynor · **Mon Aug 27, 2007 7:07 pm**

It's mentioned several times that Harry doesnt get promoted because there is no more room for high ranking officers on the ship. It's just like in the real military. The way it works is you have a certain amount of slots for each rank, and when one opens up you can promote. That way you always have a command structure that looks generally the same, and not a bunch of Liutenants or something running around. You dont want everyone to be of the same rank. Now it seems to me that given Voyager's strange circumstances that they could have bipassed some of those regulations, but then again, Janeway was a stickler for doing things by the book.

robbiewebster · **Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:56 pm**

That makes sense, but why didn't Harry get promoted when Tom was demoted.

TrekkieMage · **Tue Aug 28, 2007 6:17 pm**

When Tom was demoted it was still fairly early in the series, and to demote someone then promote his best friend it a huge slap in the face.

As for Harry's promotion - I think that she recognized that nearly everyone on the ship deserved a promotion, but you can't end up with a ship full of Commanders. The only two people who got a promotion were Tuvok and Tom - Tuvok because he'd been in the service so long, and Tom because he'd been demoted before and this was kind of like forgiveness.

Voyager2004 · **Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:01 pm**

Captain Digness · Commander Joined: 04 Dec 2003 Posts: 418

if any of you read books you would know that in homecoming (the first novel when they retuned home) everyone including harry were bumped up a level

Aryeh · **Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:30 pm Re: Harry still an Ensign**

robbiewebster · **Mon Oct 22, 2007 7:42 pm**

TrekkieMage · **Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:18 pm**

Tom was demoted around the second season.

Aryeh · **Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:27 pm**

Zimmerman's Hollogram · **Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:52 pm**

I think they should have promoted him just for coming back from the dead!

robbiewebster · **Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:08 pm**

Aryeh · **Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:47 am**

robbiewebster · **Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:25 pm**

lol, thats right!

antipodean-opaleye · **Tue Nov 20, 2007 4:47 pm**

omg i only just saw that episode this week. Coz I missed it the first time!

Yeah i think Harry was really young... this was his first posting, and heaps of people deserved promotion. And i imagine harry was promoted not long after returning to the alpha quadrant. and come on he was a senior officer and straight out of the academy. That's amazing enough.

Blancie · **Thu Nov 22, 2007 3:48 am**

I do agree with the whole thing about Harry not getting promoted because of there not being enough room for any higher ranking officers, but seriously, I don't think it would have done too much harm if Harry got bumped up to lieutenant. And I must add that Captain Janeway "not getting around to it" most certainly had nothing to do with why Harry was never promoted!

And thankyou, Aryeh! Tom was demoted in season FIVE. He was the PROmoted again in season 6, in what I believe was the first part of Unimatrix Zero? I'll be devastated if I'm wrong...

PaulNEM · Sophomore Cadet Joined: 29 Nov 2007 Posts: 11

I think it's already been pretty clearly explained in the series and by other people here.

Lots of people I'm sure could have been promoted, but due to circumstances could not be. It didn't stop anyone gaining experience and doing a better job, so no real worries.

Omok · Lieutenant Joined: 28 Mar 2007 Posts: 170

Rank and responsibility aren't the same thing, and Harry was often put in charge of serious missions with life and death consequences, for my money he could've been a crewman and still been a badass.

Besides in Endgame he was a Captain...'nuff said.