My brain skipped over the Constitution part and went to the Galaxy Class saucer phasers.
I never got why he was an ensign the entire time. Is there some sort of "head count" quota of ensigns that need to exist or something? He was one of the main characters of Voyager, and at least as competent as many captains/commanders and such. Just didn't want as much "title" bloat perhaps? Ensign is shorter and rolls off the tongue I guess.
This is the real answer right here. He was "the ensign," so that was the slot he was stuck in. Essentially a very slight modification of the Wesley Crusher character, because VOY was basically just a lazy reinterpretation of TNG made by people who wanted to recapture the popularity TNG had during its height, but lacked the understanding of what made TNG work and were too lazy to try to figure it out. They did again on ENT, which was basically a lazy rehash of VOY, and in many ways felt just like it, especially early on. There you had Mayweather, who filled exactly the same role, had the same lack of development, and was also perpetually stuck in his rank and position, ending up with the exact same rank and position 10 years after the pilot was supposed to have taken place.He was cast as a naive young ensign fresh out of the academy in the pilot, and like eveyone in the cast who wasn't Seven or the Doctor, his character never developed from there.
That last part is just part of the stupidity of VOY in action. Of course, as a whole it's pretty obvious that the writers had no idea about this kind of stuff, and leaned really hard on the tired old excuse of "it's not a military" to avoid admitting to their ignorance and laziness. In reality, rank and position would go hand in hand, which is why you had stuff like field promotions taking place during wars and the like, simply out of attrition because people got killed in battle and you ended up going with whoever you hoped would be able to do that job because the showed some competence. So really Kim should have been promoted to an appropriate rank to actually be a department head (which was basically how the show treated him), and they even could have done some stuff with that as far as drama, but apparently liked the idea of him being the squeaky clean ensign fresh out of the academy for the entire run of the show.I suppose in universe, the logic would be that the ship's staffing and chain of command are going to be lagely fixed because of the situation, you're not going to be promoting people around and reshuffling things because they're going to be stuck in the same role regardless.....but that doesn't work, because other people do get promoted, and enough people die that thier should be some openings and space to move up. I guess that time he broke regs by sleeping with a space alien really screwed him when it was time for promotions.
That is why I hate Janeway. She promotes every other person including one person who was in Jail. Tom Paris and one person who technically was a Terrorist. Torres. And yet the try not to get into trouble Harry Kim. She snubs. Had this been the old days of the US Navy they would have booted her ass out for undue favoritism.He was cast as a naive young ensign fresh out of the academy in the pilot, and like eveyone in the cast who wasn't Seven or the Doctor, his character never developed from there.
I suppose in universe, the logic would be that the ship's staffing and chain of command are going to be lagely fixed because of the situation, you're not going to be promoting people around and reshuffling things because they're going to be stuck in the same role regardless.....but that doesn't work, because other people do get promoted, and enough people die that thier should be some openings and space to move up. I guess that time he broke regs by sleeping with a space alien really screwed him when it was time for promotions.
That last part is just part of the stupidity of VOY in action. Of course, as a whole it's pretty obvious that the writers had no idea about this kind of stuff, and leaned really hard on the tired old excuse of "it's not a military" to avoid admitting to their ignorance and laziness. In reality, rank and position would go hand in hand, which is why you had stuff like field promotions taking place during wars and the like, simply out of attrition because people got killed in battle and you ended up going with whoever you hoped would be able to do that job because the showed some competence. So really Kim should have been promoted to an appropriate rank to actually be a department head (which was basically how the show treated him), and they even could have done some stuff with that as far as drama, but apparently liked the idea of him being the squeaky clean ensign fresh out of the academy for the entire run of the show.
TNG: Promoted as the plot demands. Riker really should have been told "either accept a ship or resign from Starfleet" with Data taking over as XO. Wesley should never have been allowed anywhere near critical systems or the bridge before he got into Starfleet Academy.
She started the series as a Lieutenant Commander.Also, TNG promoted Trio to Lt Commander.
Okay, so who was in charge of the ship's operations department?I think the issue with making Kim a department head would have been, or at least could have been justified as, there being no room to make him one, and no one to take his place at ops. Looking at the crew causalities (I love that that site exists), while goldshirts do bit it more often than other colors, the actual casualties are mostly shuttle pilots and engineers, and they're most at below Kim's own rank.
You can't make Kim a department head, because there's already a guy above him doing that, and that guy just refuse to fix anything or fly a shuttle and therefore survived the entire trip.
Okay, so who was in charge of the ship's operations department?
Tom Paris and one person who technically was a Terrorist.
Bashir screwed up enough that he wasn't getting promoted past LT
TNG: Promoted as the plot demands. Riker really should have been told "either accept a ship or resign from Starfleet" with Data taking over as XO. Wesley should never have been allowed anywhere near critical systems or the bridge before he got into Starfleet Academy.
* There's that whole Valiant episode, which I like to pretend is a non-canon omake. Here's what should have happened: Nog - the only commissioned officer on a ship full of cadets - takes command and gets them out of there ASAP.
I think the issue with making Kim a department head would have been, or at least could have been justified as, there being no room to make him one, and no one to take his place at ops.
Voyager not picking up additional crewmembers to fill in spots along the way really was a missed opportunity. They didn't need to be main character; they could've been guests who appeared in a few episodes. There would be many aliens who would have wanted off their world or go exploring, or would have travelled a distance along the route Voyager was travelling and would have worked as crew. Could have also had a plot about Voyager being so short handed that they resort to press ganging or trying to find ways to pay people to staff their ship.
The show treated Kim like he was the head of operations. O'Brien was treated like he was the chief engineer and actually had officers working for him. While the writing on DS9 was by far better than VOY, this is another example of the writers not really understanding the military structure they were trying to emulate.I don't think it was ever stated. The only head ops I know of is O'Brien, who was chief of operations despite not even being an officer. Data, as the second officer on the Enterprise, was presumable the chief of operations given there was no one but Riker and Picard ahead of him, but that's just a guess.
The show treated Kim like he was the head of operations. O'Brien was treated like he was the chief engineer and actually had officers working for him. While the writing on DS9 was by far better than VOY, this is another example of the writers not really understanding the military structure they were trying to emulate.
The vibe for DS9 I got back when it was airing: his position outranks yours even though you outrank him on paper.With Kim, yes. With O'Brien, I think they were going for him being a command master chief petty officer/Chief of the boat sort of role, and just slightly botched it.
If I'm remembering the episode right it ends with Nog in an infirmary saying to a fellow survivor who thought highly of her cadet captain: "He may have been a hero. He may even have been a great man. But in the end, he was a bad captain."I actually like that episode. It shows that the "chain of command" and "orders" only exist so long as the people decide it exists. Nog might outrank the people on the ship, and officially they should go back home, but that counts for nothing if the people actually running that ship collectively refuse to recgonize him and invent their own objectives.