Voyager would have been better if Harry had left instead of Kes

[G2309]

I've heard that the orriginal plan was to get rid of Harry Kim at the beggining of season 4. Why this changed is a mystery to me. For one thing Harry's character never developed (even by Voyagers standards) over the first 3 years and this didn't change.
Secondly 7 of 9 basically took his job making him pointless in most future episodes. At least with Kess there had been some good stories and she fufilled a role on the crew. It would have been interesting to se how a character who was all heart would interact ith 7 of 9.

 

[Finn]

Probably not. The ratings would have declined anyway, because we would have had the same writers.

 

[vas2009]

Oh jeez just another reason to bash Voyager and it's poor character development

I hardly think that changing one character would have made Voyager a "better" show. There are so many other things wrong with it.

(I'm laying the sarcasim on reeaaaaalllyyyyyyyy thick here)

 

[Neutral Zone]

It would not have made any difference as to whether harry went or Kes. Harry stayed and played a good part on the ship and their are charcaters in manyshows that stay the same. Personaly, Im glad it was Kes that went her character got to a bore after a while, at least when Harry teamed up with Tom there was some fun. Besides Janeway had a soft motherly spot for him!

 

[Rek]

And what about Tom Paris? I think keeping Harry around was to keep the dynamic between the two alive - it may not of added anything to Harry but it added to Tom development in my own opinion. Which I personally enjoyed seeing Tom grow into a loyal friend, a husband and soon to be father.

Kes, although was in a relationship, it would of gone down a strange road when she got older. I don't know if I would of stayed interested in her later on.

Anyway, one minor character change wouldn't of made or broke Voyager.

 

[G2309]

I know it wouldn't have made much difference, but why do you think they didn't let Wang go.

 

[henbane]

I think the character Harry had more potential than Kes (didn't they want to get rid of Garrett Wang rather than the character as Garrett was unreliable?)

 

[Kai Winn]

there's nothing wrong with harry, and his best epsiodes (timeless, workforce) were in the late seasons. there's little wrong with voyager compared to the other shows. mcneill is a lot more influential than garrett, just look up how many voy and ent episodes he directed. he also underwent quite some 'character developement', which seems to be important for some watchers. voy improved greatly w/o kes, so the decision to let her go was the right one. voyager already had the most women amongst the main cast, 3 at any given time. out of the 3 characters the show focused on in the late seasons, 2 were women.

 

[Cornholio]

Harry died and came back to life twice. that sucked.

I really hated Harry. he was like, just another bad Trek kid or something. I wish they woulda let him die.

not sure if it woulda made Voyager any better or worse.

woulda made me happy though.

 

[Purdy Bear]

I think if they had all stayed and with Seven coming in as well. Then the Kes emapthic stuff mixed with Sevens logic would have been very interesting to see.

I think Harry stayed as he was really the only low rank they had in the top characters.

 

[RegFan]

I've heard that the orriginal plan was to get rid of Harry Kim at the beggining of season 4. Why this changed is a mystery to me.

I've heard somewhere that they didn't want to kill off the only Asian looking character.

I personally think that they should have killed off either Harry Kim or Chakotay. Both were boring, although Chakotay did have some potential until Seska's death.

 

[exodus]

Nope, I still liked Harry more than Kes.
Harry worked when he was teamed up with Tom/Be'Lanna.
The interaction between those three felt real.
Besides with the Doc., Kes came off very distant too me.

 

[RyuRoots]

It's really a crying shame. Harry was such a worthless, static character. I would say it's a tie between him and Chuckles who was worse, but at least Beltran was phenominal on his A-game.

Harry was still the same green noob in Endgame that he was in Caretaker, though I had to pause and laugh hysterically for a minute when he tells Tom he's changed (sometime in S6 or S7 I think).

Kes' case is unfortunate, because she was an interesting character to me, especially after Cold Fire, but she was often used very poorly despite having a lot of potential and a good actress. I think that Kes and Seven would've had an interesting dynamic, as well.

 

[Lynx]

I don't want to see Harry dumped, nor anyone else of the original characters but I do think Harry was the weakest of the main characters.

He was sort of the "whipping boy" of the series, the one who couldn't go and fetch a bucket of water before getting into trouble. The young, unexperienced kid who gets beaten up and who the viewers should feel sorry for. He never developed beyond that despite some premise.

He is definitely better in the books, even if he often ends up in sickbay there.

Kes was a much better and interesting character and should have stayed in the series. But I don't want Harry or some other character dumped either.

 

[Kang]

Harry was the only recurring asian character, they had some extras(either one of the maquis or one of the people that joined from that "other" uss ship that was being destroyed by aliens) though

 

[scout]

I don't think Harry was a victim of lazy writing, he was a symptom of it. A puppet they could have spout the token note of dissent in an episode, of which the only purpose was to increase dramatic tension, along the lines of ... "But captain! If we continue with this course of action, we could very well DIE!"

I think if Kes had remained, her character could have very well been reduced in a similar way, to garner sympathy through hackneyed story premises. In the end, no matter who left at that point, there would probably have still been one character relegated to that kind of tokenism.

 

[exodus]

I don't think Harry was a victim of lazy writing, he was a symptom of it. A puppet they could have spout the token note of dissent in an episode, of which the only purpose was to increase dramatic tension, along the lines of ... "But captain! If we continue with this course of action, we could very well DIE!"

I think if Kes had remained, her character could have very well been reduced in a similar way, to garner sympathy through hackneyed story premises. In the end, no matter who left at that point, there would probably have still been one character relegated to that kind of tokenism.

Well said.
I agree 100%.
Be it Kes or Harry, both would have fallen victim to lost potential underdeveloped character syndrome. With Mulgrew& Picardo fighting for equal screen time with Ryan, what hope did Wang or Lien have? If Tim Russ, who's been part of every Trek production since TNG couldn't get a bigger piece of the pie, it's a pipe dream to believe Wang or Lien would. Kes would have ended 7 years making as little difference as Harry. She was better off leaving when she did. "The Gift" & "Fury" be it seen as good or bad, still made a bigger impact for Kes than 7s for Harry.

 

[Jeri]

To answer the question, I heard that the OP is correct; they intended to let Harry go, but that he appeared in the People Magazine issue of 50 Most Beautiful People at an opportune moment, and they decided to keep him.

 

[maneth]

The show could well have supported another main character. Nobody had to leave to make room for Seven...

 

[exodus]

Has anybody ever considered that maybe Jen Lien also didn't wanna be part of the show anymore either? Hasn't she said in interviews that the decision was mutual?