MovieChat Forums > Star Trek: Voyager (1995) Discussion > Ensign Kim

Ensign Kim

posted 7 years ago by efhartman
9 replies | jump to latest

All those years in space, why didn't he ever move up to lieutenant? I don't recall any big screw ups or disobedience, unlike Tom who got his lieutenant status back after just one year.

[–] Kruleworld 7 years ago

It's the price he paid for being Janeway's whipping boy (figuratively and possibly literally too)

"He's dusted, busted and disgusted, but he's ok"

[–] ryhoyarbie 7 years ago

According to the theory, Rick Berman did not like Garret Wang for various reasons and wanted to kill him at the end of season 3 (hence why his character was messed up by Species 8472), but Wang was voted one of the top 100 good looking actors in 1996 or something like that and decided to keep the man....or something to that effect.

But since Berman didn't like Wang, Harry Kim remained the same rank all seven seasons.

[–] fiero-49251 7 years ago

Kim was truly "cute" as a button! He had his screw ups and put the ship in danger more than a couple times! 

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[–] geirfold 7 years ago

This is basically true. The rest of the reason was that they needed to make room for Seven of Nine. Since it was no longer practical to get rid of Harry, they got rid of Kess.

[–] TMC-4 (19392) 6 years ago

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/16455569-star-trek-voyager

Garrett was underused because he and his character never impressed the writers. He also was not well received by the public so there was no incentive for the writers to invest in him. I still don't get Voyager's criticisms of focusing on three characters (Seven, Doctor, Janeway) when every Star Trek series, except DS9, gives the lion's share to three characters.

—Anonymous

reply 8 02/11/2016

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

And Tuvok received a promotion during their sojourn in the Delta Quadrant.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Janeway wasn't having no affirmative action going on underneath her - she earned that position and she knew Harry's parents shoehorned himm into Starfleet with their contacts.

How she managed to outrank Picard is questionable as all she did was get home and commit genocide while doing so but hey...that's feminism for you these (And those) days!

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

Logically, there would have been few opportunities to move up in rank on the Voyager, since hardly anyone left. Well, some died and the survivors could be promoted into dead person's boots, but on a normal Starfleet ship people would constantly be leaving for other assignments or going on parental leave or quitting Starfleet for regular jobs.

Face it, the Voyager would be a career dead end, and a very frustrating one! Everyone would be stuck in the same job and the same departmental chain of command until they got home, unless someone died or ran off.

[–] Volley (3366) 5 years ago

You know what's freaky is that just like poor Miles O'Brien in DS9, the Ensign Kim at the beginning of the series is not the same as the Ensign Kim at the end of the series, both original characters died.