Ensign Harry Kim

[LeonardsLady]

I started watching VOY from the first episode a few months back and I only have 4 episodes to go! No spoilers, please!

Anyway, the character of Harry Kim is not one of my faves on the series and I usually don't feel sympathy for him. Most of the time my husband and I mutter, "Loser," after a typical Harry plot line (e.g. falling in love with unattainable women or playing the clarinet) but as I have watched VOY, I have noticed that Garrett Wang really kicks ass whenever Harry is portrayed as a bad ass or someone with emotional hang-ups. The two episodes that come to mind are "Timeless" (perhaps my fave episode of VOY) and "Author, Author" where the Doctor portrays him as a mobster-esque Trill (?) security officer working alongside Mr. Tulak (nice hair, Harry). He only has a few lines of dialogue as the security officer, but he delivers them perfectly IMO.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting. I don't know if anyone else had noticed this and I was curious if anyone had other examples.

Just a few more nights and I will move on to Season I of ENT...



LL

 

[exodus]

"Living Witness"

Harry plays the ship's torturer.

However, I did think Harry was cool in "Deadlock" when he does that tumble/flip/fire phaser thing in sickbay against the Viidians. I've meet Garrett Wang during the start of Voyager and he personally wanted to do more action scenes like that one. He knew Harry was kinda wishy-washy and wanted to give Harry a more visable skill, like skills as a hand to hand fighter.(Garrett Wang is great at sports and has Martial Arts training) I wish they had, I think it would be cool to know Harry could kick some ass.

 

[LeadHead]

I would have liked to se Harry get something to give him greater dimension too. (But don't know the clarinet!) I think they realy could have done a lot after season 4, in "Demons" he was talking about really coming out of his shell, rather than expanding on that to a good degree,it became the "I wanna be Captain" Complex that led him to "Nightingale"

His relationship with Tom Paris was really the key to it. He wanted to be more like Tom, it would have be good to see him take that to far and not because of the girlfriend of the week. Sadly both of them wound up being neglected characters during the 2nd half of Voyager.

 

[exodus]

I would have liked to se Harry get something to give him greater dimension too. (But don't know the clarinet!) I think they realy could have done a lot after season 4, in "Demons" he was talking about really coming out of his shell, rather than expanding on that to a good degree,it became the "I wanna be Captain" Complex that led him to "Nightingale"

His relationship with Tom Paris was really the key to it. He wanted to be more like Tom, it would have be good to see him take that to far and not because of the girlfriend of the week. Sadly both of them wound up being neglected characters during the 2nd half of Voyager.

I'm not sure there was much you could have done with Tom Paris after he and Be'Lanna started their relationship. There wasn't much trouble he could start on Voyager, so he just had to grow up.

With Harry, he went from being a mama's boy on Earth to being one on Voyager. The ship was never in enough danger to cause him to ever really mature.(Keep in mind, half the eps. that the ship was getting it's ass in kicked never really happened) Harry never grew because there were no goals or obsticals put before him to over come. Nothing ever required him to use skills he didn't know......or didn't know he had.

 

[kimc]

The ship was never in enough danger to cause him to ever really mature.(Keep in mind, half the eps. that the ship was getting it's ass in kicked never really happened) Harry never grew because there were no goals or obsticals put before him to over come. Nothing ever required him to use skills he didn't know......or didn't know he had.

I've been re-watching some of the earlier episodes and it struck me how Harry was always the "idea guy" on the bridge. That seemed to go away in later years though.

 

[exodus]

The ship was never in enough danger to cause him to ever really mature.(Keep in mind, half the eps. that the ship was getting it's ass in kicked never really happened) Harry never grew because there were no goals or obsticals put before him to over come. Nothing ever required him to use skills he didn't know......or didn't know he had.

I've been re-watching some of the earlier episodes and it struck me how Harry was always the "idea guy" on the bridge. That seemed to go away in later years though.

Yeah, I think I remember reading the original idea for Harry was to be this prodigy when it came to Engineering.

 

[Ro_Laren]

I started watching VOY from the first episode a few months back and I only have 4 episodes to go! No spoilers, please!

I am assuming that the "4 episodes to go" are the last for of the series? If not then I recommend that you clarify so that someone doesn't inadvertadly give you a spoiler. Just a thought...

 

[Red Ranger]

People,

I think Harry's problem is he suffered too much from a case of "Wesleyitis" and "Geordiitis." He was too much like a slightly older version of Wesley Crusher on one hand, the good-natured, naive boy genius. And he was too much like Geordi LaForge's persona of the lovelorn brainiac, unlucky in love but loved by his colleagues.

Having him take an interest in command was a good idea, but not stretched often enough. I think him demanding a promotion from Janeway -- "I can't stay an ensign for seven years, ma'am" -- would've gone a ways toward moving him away from the captain's pet he became.

Also, it would have been cool if in that ep where B'Elanna becomes a Klingon messiah, he would've still been afraid of the Klingon woman who wanted to mate with him, but decided to suck it up and have a wild fling with a crazy Klingon warrior. Would've built his character, and he would've gotten laid, for crying out loud!

I do know Garrett Wang supposedly stirred some trouble on the set, but perhaps it's because the writers took the lazy, stereotypical way out with his Southeast Asian character -- the lovable, nerdy, emasculated Asian type. How bold would it have been if Harry had, because of facing the possibility of being in the Delta Quadrant all his life, become the rebellious bad boy of the ship? Have him grow a mustache, refuse to cut his hair, refuse to say, "captain on the bridge," refer to other officers by their first names instead of ranks, stuff like that. He'd do that because he'd be so good at his job that they couldn't demote him just for being a smart-aleck.

Don't get me wrong. The eps where Harry was allowed to shine were good ones. They didn't happen often enough, which is too bad.

Red Ranger