Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Harry Kim

Harry Kim, the galaxy's most famous forever ensign, more recently promoted, was the freshest

of fresh out of the academy when Voyager set an accidental course to the Delta Quadrant

via the Badlands and Quark's Bar. Of all the intrepid's crew, he was the keenest to get home, if not for Libby, then for his

parents, who nearly had to make a lot of room in their living room. On the other side of the galaxy, death became second nature

Confidence, if not the pips, would slowly follow suit in Operations Gold

Failing a bicycle in the mess hall to pedal home, the ever-evolving ensign eventually learnt that it

wasn't the destination that mattered, but the journey, and more importantly, the people on it

A gifted and loyal Starfleet officer, except on the rare occasions he wasn't

Harry was equally key to that journey's success. Far from his deathly reputation

clarinet in hand, and in monochrome as Buster Kincaid on the holodeck

Harry was forever the most alive. But with little room for advancement on a stranded ship

Echoes of the Void his own concerto composition was also always just that now at ease dear watcher

before you sprain something I'm Sean Ferry for Trek Culture and here are 10 things you didn't know

about Harry Kim number 10 74656 auditions like Harry himself Garrett Wong's career was only just

beginning when he landed the part that would strand him in the Delta Quadrant before Kim Wong had

picked up the role of Raymond Han in an episode of the Margaret Cho-led sitcom All-American Girl

He had also secured a few commercials. Given his relative inexperience, producers put Wong

through the ringer for Star Trek Voyager, as the actor reported on the DVD extra Voyager time

capsule Harry Kim. In fact, he had to audition six times. It was definitely an arduous process

compared to some of the other cast members Wong noted. All in all, according to Wong

it took over two months to decide on him for Kim. My parents were pretty ecstatic, he went on to add

Wong himself was equally excited. I remember thinking at the time that this must have been

a dream that I was going to wake up from soon, he stated in the 50-year mission the next 25 years

The same dreams were dashed for apparent Kim runner-up, Eric Steinberg, as revealed by Wong

on the Delta Flyers podcast. Some consolation, Steinberg was the Ankari captain in Equinox Part 2

having already found out what was at the end of that Jefferies tube as Lieutenant Paul Porter

in Star Trek First Contact. Number 9. EPS is not yet an STD. What Garrett Wong lacked in entries on

his acting CV he largely made up for in knowledge of science and science fiction. I'm a huge sci-fi

fan and someone who paid attention in physics class in high school, he noted in Star Trek Voyager

as celebration. Whilst others tripped over the techno babble, Wong took Star Trek's complex

techno jargon in his stride. As Wong also noted, his fellow actors would come to him for explanations

about the EPS manifolds. Like actor, like character, Harry's first posting might well have been at ops

but he was ultimately a scientist. Speaking in that same Star Trek Voyager celebration

Gerry Taylor described how she, Rick Berman and Michael Piller leaned into that particular trait

in the first season, pairing Harry up with B'Elanna to solve various scientific problems

producers were testing the waters between blank canvas start fleet and hot-headed maquis leading

wong to believe that after we did the pilot belana and kim were going to be in a relationship

of course that liaison never happened leaving the way for paris a little later and with libby

quickly forgotten on screen anyway last mention was the thaw harry's love life throughout the

rest of voyages run turned more turbulent and often more life-threatening than a 0.42 phase

variants. Number 8. The Many Deaths of Harry Kim. It's not for nothing that the French call it

la petite mort. Over the years, Harry has died literally about as many times as he's died that

little death. Freud would have had a field day with him on a shade long. In the disease, for

example, a love sickness for Harry made itself physically manifest via a form of sexually

transmitted infection, the varroes olanvora. As the episode story writer Kenneth Biller commented

in Cinefantastique volume 31 number 11, I wanted to explore the notion that people will stay in

relationships that they know are unhealthy for them because they feel an almost physical need

or compulsion to be with that other person. Then again, Harry seemed to be the only one who needed

to get permission to have sex with aliens. Death is also having to explain your intimate relations

to the captain. She's not a Borg, she's not a hologram, and she's not dead, Tom Paris then

noted as a form of congratulations to his friend in Drive. Unfortunately, she was Irina

a Torellian terrorist seeking to blow up the finishing line of the Antarian Transstellar

Rally and but for a last change of co very nearly Harry along with it at least the delaney sisters were somewhere out of the way as for actual death harry first was in emanations

though he was promptly revived a little later harry and the rest of the crew of voyager all

theoretically died in an explosion in the 29th century the future's end of future's end similar

cause same effect over and over in relativity different cause singular explosion in timeless

duplicate death in course oblivion then probably only counts if you're really counting of course

there's one death missing on that list and it's a big one out into space in deadlock of all the

many deaths it is also the one that still rankles for garrett wong number seven deadlock poets

society on the delta flyers podcast hosts and best friends in real life garrett wong and robert

Duncan McNeil, typically begin with a haiku and a limerick about that week's episode. For Deadlock

one of Wong's haikus, largely the work of his partner Megan, and also inspired by McNeil's

self-confessed dad joke on the two Ds in pad, was as follows. I died, and no one cared

Sob, bub, bub, bub. Oh, Captain, my Captain, and if not quite carpe diem, then at least try to

seize B'Elanna's hand and or the rungs on the ladder, one of the Ensign Kim's death in Deadlock

was certainly sudden. Wong's perspective, rightly or wrongly, is that Janeway in particular seemed to

move on awfully quickly after the announcement. It's not like they could hold a memorial service

mid-crisis, but it is true that once the other Kim had made it across the threshold

Harry floating in space was promptly forgotten about. Or was he? In an interview with Cinema

Blend's Mick Jost in 2024, Wong gave his own intriguing pitch for what might have happened

to Prime Kim after being blown into space. My imagined storyline was the Prime Harry is actually

beamed aboard a floating Borg sphere that is actually kind of hanging out nearby. Borg Kim

then ends up becoming the secret weapon of the Borg Queen to get Seven of Nine back. Even more

on what might have happened to the other Kim later in this video. As for Prime Harry, or the original

versus the copy, debate when it comes to deadlock, it's all a moot point beyond any helpful distinguishing

terminology. When it gets to that level of, albeit in this case made up, quantum physics

there is no coherent answer that will satisfy our macroscopic rationalities. In this case

instead of the cat, the divergence of subspace fields had superimposed Harry both dead and alive

For the moment, in canon, don't expect the wave function to collapse. Number six. What follows does not follow. Non-Seciter is not an episode we would have

done in the first season, Jerry Taylor admitted in Cinefantastique volume 28, number four and five

By season two, however, Taylor and fellow producers felt they could tantalise people a little bit with

a glimpse of home. In that, Harry got the chance to go back to Earth, ish, for a while. Technically

in that reality, Tom Paris had barely left Marseille. Non-secretor is also the indirect

result of Garrett Wong's desire to see Harry kick butt. As Wong noted on the Voyager time capsule

Harry Kim, he had paid a visit to Branham Braga's office at the start of the year to ask if the

writers were planning on having Kim doing any action whatsoever. According to Wong, up until

then, every other actor had a stunt double apart from him. During the same meeting with Braga

Wong also wanted to know if Kim could have a little romance too. What he didn't expect was

for all his queries to be realised at once. After Wong read the script for Non-Secondure

he called Braga to thank him for following his suggestions, adding jokingly

I thought just maybe you could have spread it out of the course of the season instead of giving me

everything in one episode. Number 5. Jaywalking. Completed by Michael Piller at the end of September

1993, the very first draft of the Star Trek Voyager series Bible gave the following. Ops

Communication, Jay Osaka, SF, Young Human Male. A name change would have to wait until February 1994

but that was the first glimpse of the character Harry Kim. In an even later version of the series

bible exact date unknown harry kim is described in much more the same way that we would know him

in the beginning an academically brilliant individual with loving if slightly overbearing

parents thoroughly likable and professionally diligent but inexperienced with some growing up to do when i first came aboard voyager i was pretty green right harry then admitted down the

road in demon a deep almost fluorescent green replied good buddy tom in the episode harry had

found a new no Vulcan nonsense confidence that was more than earned In barely four years the still ensign had done more than most Starfleet officers He fought the Borg been transformed into an alien helped defeat the Hirogen and as we know even come back from the dead

It was the third element on that list that helped convince writer-producers Joe Minoski and Brannan

Braga that Kim was the one to lead the 100th and standout episode of Star Trek Voyager

Timeless. Speaking in Cinefantastique Volume 31, Number 11, Minoski conceded that, a year ago brannon and i were as down on kim's character as any character kim just never did it

for us if someone would have said to me the 100th episode next season is going to feature garrett and

ensign kim i would have just laughed it was inconceivable the killing game changed their

minds however the two-parter had come up short and without the possibility to add to the world

war ii sequences writers were left with a missing few minutes and only one senior officer not already

part of the holodeck scenarios ensign kim in the new scenes written harry was forced to work under

the brutal and large thumb of the hirogen but he also proved rebellious against his predatory

overlords it was a tough side to him that we had never seen before and we really liked monosky went

on to note in cine fantastique it was this edgy version of kim from the killing game that became

the direct inspiration for the out and out temporal lawbreaker kim in timeless harry had quite

literally lost his squiggy clean image jay was walking number four cake in the console back to

before the very beginning there is a grim irony to a set of notes provided by research company

joan pearson associates on a draft script for caretaker from 1994 cited in star trek voyager

a vision of the future page reference 1824 reads ensign kim new operations officer this is a very

responsible job for an ensign even on a smaller vessel a higher rank will be indicated lieutenant

unfortunately for harry the running though not completely funny gag was better instead the

forever ensign was destined to spend the journey home playing second fiddle or in this case second

clarinet the buster kincaid to captain proton back in the alpha quadrant we do know promotion was

forthcoming for kim by 2384 at the latest on an elkars panel in the transporter room of the uss

dauntless scene in Supernova part 1 but released in greater detail online by Star Trek prodigy

motion graphic designer Dominique Rossier, Kim is listed as serving tactical officer of that ship

and with one extra pip. After that, prime, non-alternate and canon Kim's career remains a

mystery, that is except for an oblique reference in the 32nd century. Pause between 45 and 47 seconds

of the Star Trek Starfleet Academy first look teaser trailer you'll see Admiral Harry S.L. Kim

engraved on the wall beyond a group of assembled cadets. As Harry himself might put it Admiral is

quite a few more boxes on his chair and cake in the console too. Number three mystery is his middle

names. Mysterious middle initials are somewhat of a tradition in Star Trek. All the way back in

where no man has gone before, Kirk's tombstone read James R, a mistake in retrospect on the part

of the godlike Gary Mitchell, to be replaced by the much more famous James T. T was then officially

Tiberius in the Star Trek the animated series episode Bem. The R went on to appear in Wesley

R Crusher and Jack R Crusher, father moreover. Of course there's always William T for Thomas

at first harry kim was just harry kim but move over turkey platter there were two letters to add

in non-secretar when harry pulls up his own service record the screen reads harry sl kim

there are caveats not the least of which is image quality and the finest distinction not unironic in

l cars between capital l and i that's not to forget that this particular service record was

from an alternate timeline created by an accident when Harry's shuttle intersected a temporal

inversion fold of the space-time matrix. Nonetheless, SL has stuck, as we saw in the

teaser trailer for Star Trek Starfleet Academy. The initials could also be seen on the transporter

room panel of the USS Dauntless, as created by Dominic Rossier for Star Trek Prodigy. SL has

never been indicated in dialogue, however, and no one, not even Garrett Wong, knows what either

letter stands for. That hasn't stopped Wong from coming up with his own creative suggestions

For example, during Harry Kim's Latinum Trek trivia evening at DragonCon 2017

Wong reportedly and humorously offered up Sushi Lovin' as an option. We're back to Turkey Platter

Number 2 Dex the Hall with Bows of Harry Out of the 12th door of the Star Trek Advent calendar last year poured a cornucopia of Kim The Lower Dex episode Fisher Quest marked Garrett Wong return to canon and to several all but one unprompted

Harry's aboard the universe-hopping USS Anaximander. In an interview with Trek Movie at the time

Wong revealed that the writers had devised several unique descriptors for each of the

Harry's in Fisher Quest, such as Two Pip Kim, Tall Socks Kim, and Drive Uniform Kim

a helpful anchor for the actor to separate his performances. Though not part of the line-up

Wong also stated that Prime Kim, or Kim Kim, hadn't been promoted by that point, i.e. by 2382

Speaking of promotions, in February 2024, Star Trek Picard third season showrunner Terry Metallis

also revealed that the original draft of the finale had featured Captain Harry Kim of the Voyager B

Kim was ultimately written out because, as Metallis pointed out, he didn't want to step

on the toes of Star Trek Prodigy at the time. In the interview with Trek Movie, Wong didn't hide

his disappointment. According to him, the conversation about Picard had gone all the way

to his manager saying, you've been cast, initially for three episodes, then two, then one, then none

Of course, Wong never did appear in Prodigy either. As for Kim at Frontier Day, it was perhaps

better safe than assimilated, as they say, and for Admiral Shelby, his replacement. Not even that

number one rhode island is not the smallest state you can see the joke if not necessarily the refit

nova class coming a mile off confirmed as much by a comment left by larry nemecek in 2009 on

doug drexler's former wordpress drex files it's straight from the writers they always enjoyed

tweaking harry kim and so it's the finale you have to do a flash forward but harry finally gets seen

with a command. Even so, of course, it's named for the smallest state in the Union. Get it

Smallest by area, that is, not by population. The Rhode Island, and the alternate Captain Kim

of it, featured relatively briefly in Endgame. In Star Trek Online, the vessel and its captain

have a prominent role to play in several missions of the 2014 Delta Rising expansion

all voiced by Garrett Wong. Captain Kim and Garrett Wong would also return to lead Star

Trek Online's 2023 story update Incursion, fighting the Borg in new ship, the USS Inue

It is the final mission of Delta Rising, Dust to Dust, which is the most interesting for the

purposes of this video. You can probably see where this is going to. In it, and spoiler alert

Captain Kim returns to Kobali Prime to find out the species whom we met in the Star Trek Voyager

episode Ashes to Ashes had actually got their hands and technology on the out of the hole breach

Kim from Deadlock to reanimate him as one of their own, called Caton. For what it's worth

in-game, Captain Kim states that he is from the duplicate ship, thus suggesting that the other

Harry Caton is the original. Moreover, and back full circle to a former love interest

Lindsay Ballard, now Jet Leia of the Kobali, had known about the other Kim's resurrection

for a long while. That is beyond weird, but apparently still part of the job

Hi, I'm Duncan Relic, no relation, and I collect relics from before the burn

Thanks to a temporal wormhole, I now have an unlimited supply of Trek culture t-shirts

and I'm selling them to you! You could be wearing this stylish down and up t-shirt

Or, how about this fish washing design? yellow on black. The colours I'd use in thumbnails, I tell you that for nothing

I plan to take these designs and transfer them via quantum duplication onto hats, mugs, and

posters. So look out for those. Back! Treat this unlimited supply as a limited time deal. Get your t-shirt quick! Who's your daddy

and that's everything for our list today folks thank you so much for watching along thank you

so much to jack who wrote the article this is based on you can check that out over on whatculture.com

until i see you again please make sure you're looking after yourself please follow us on the

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a break take one you deserve it thanks very much everyone