10 Star Trek Characters More Important Than You Realised

It is fair to say that the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, greener-than-green, young ensign we first saw in Caretaker didn’t have the smoothest of rides through the Delta Quadrant. He dies at least twice (once out of a hull breach into space), is transformed into an alien species, gets eaten alive by a few stray cells after being attacked by Species 8472, is falsely imprisoned, almost drowns in dichromates, and is nearly trampled by a cow. To top all that off, he is never promoted and must overcome Tuvok’s overbearing logic.

The character is more consequential than you think, however. Behind the scenes, Garrett Wang who played Kim was named one of People Magazine’s Most Beautiful People in the World in 1997 and, thus, avoided a departure from the series in favour of Kes. He also broke boundaries as an Asian, and often romantic, lead character.

On screen, Harry was equally fundamental in getting Voyager through more than a scrape or two and, ultimately, as both Captain and Ensign in the crew’s safe return home. Moreover, in Voyager’s 100th episode, Timeless, his future self prevents the deaths of the entire crew and the (spectacular) destruction of the ship, no less, in a feat of last-minute-time-travel-phase-correction magic that shuts down an ill-fated slipstream journey. As Captain Janeway herself noted, "Looks like we’ve got a guardian angel. […] His name is Harry Kim".