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 reader, before you sprain something!

Like Harry himself, Garrett Wang's career was only just beginning when he landed the part that would strand him in the Delta Quadrant. Before Kim, Wang 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 Wang through the wringer 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," Wang noted. All in all, according to Wang, it took over two months to decide on him for Kim. "My parents were pretty ecstatic," he went on to add.

Wang 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 Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years. The same dreams were dashed for apparent Kim 'runner-up', Eric Steinberg, as revealed by Wang on The Delta Flyers podcast. Some consolation, Steinberg was the Ankari captain in Equinox, Part II, having already found out what was at the end of that Jefferies tube as Lieutenant Paul Porter in Star Trek: First Contact.