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Ensign Harry S. L. Kim is a fictional character who appeared in each of the seven seasons of the American television series ''Star Trek: Voyager''. Portrayed by Garrett Wang, he is the Operations Officer aboard the Starfleet starship USS ''Voyager''. There was some difficulty in casting the part prior to the start of the series in 1995, with a reported lack of young Asian actors to choose from. The character first appeared in the pilot episode of the series, "Caretaker". The character continued to appear throughout the series in a main cast role, with his final appearance in the finale, "Endgame". In that episode, an alternative future version of the character is seen as a Starfleet Captain. He is typically shown as being naive, especially in romantic situations, but gifted. The character finds the ship's first possible route home, and in one alternative future, he manages to develop a transwarp drive which allows him and Chakotay to travel home in a matter of hours but kills the rest of the crew. The producers had considered whether or not to kill off Kim during the third season. Wang subsequently reprised the role of Harry Kim for the fan-made ''Star Trek: Renegades''. Reviewers said that Kim represented one of the elements of multiculturalism in the crew of ''Voyager'', which also represented a proxy family for Kim. The storylines featuring Kim frequently had the character captured by aliens, something which was described as a typical ''Voyager'' storyline by critics. "Timeless" has been ranked as the best episode to feature Kim, and also the third best of the series, but holodeck episodes featuring Kim have also been listed by Io9 as some of the worst of their type in the franchise. ==Concept and development== The character went through more than one name prior to casting, with it being called Jay Osaka at one point. The series bible for ''Star Trek: Voyager'' described Kim as being a sheltered individual who had sought to repay the love of his parents through fulfilling their expectations for him at Starfleet Academy.〔Berman; Piller; Taylor (1995): p. 13〕〔Berman; Piller; Taylor (1995): p. 12〕 Winrich Kolbe, the director of the ''Voyager'' pilot "Caretaker", was involved in the casting process and found Kim difficult as there wasn't a great number of young Asian actors to choose from. He said that the role was an "inexperienced, naive character", and that the actor cast as Kim would need to fight to stay in the forefront of episodes.〔 At the time of the casting, Garrett Wang had only been acting for about a year and a half,〔 and after he was cast in the role he was described by Kolbe as a "young, up-and-coming actor, but he needs to learn, and that's going to take some time. He's one of the actors who has to really work hard on his craft in order to keep up with the others."〔 The naivety of the character was emphasized in the media reports, with ''TV Guide'' describing the character prior to the launch of the series as "green-around-the-gills". Wang was enthusiastic about his new role, describing Kim's background by saying that "I had a stellar Starfleet Academy career and am basically the rookie on the bridge. I'm an Asian-American. There's the professional competence, but also the inner fear, 'Oh my God, are these britches too big for me?' His heritage is one of focus, of Zen and martial arts". Of the casting, he said that "My goal now is to do the best job possible playing Harry Kim and to begin repaying my parents for the unaccountable financial support they have given me throughout the years." The pilot of ''Voyager'' was broadcast on January 16, 1995. Wang had initially gone along with the writing on the show until towards the end of the second season when he asked the production writers if he could have some actions scenes and perhaps a romance. He had realised at the time that he was the only member of the main cast without a stunt double as he had never had an action scene that required one. This resulted in the Brannon Braga penned "Non Sequitur", to which Wang said to Rick Berman that there wasn't a need to give him all his requests in a single episode. Following that, he became more involved in suggestions for character direction, but the writers avoided giving Kim more of a comedic element similar to The Doctor (Robert Picardo) and Neelix (Ethan Phillips). Wang described himself as someone who tells jokes and makes impersonations on sets and was disappointed at not being able to utilise this nature. The producers at one point had planned to permanently kill off Harry Kim during season three, but after Wang was included in the ''People'' list of sexiest people alive 1997, the plan was abandoned. By season five of ''Voyager'', certain characters were seen by the production staff as being under-utilised, Kim amongst them. This led to episodes placing Kim, Chakotay and Tuvok in central positions, including the episode "Timeless" for the character of Kim. Wang was pleased with the episode, and felt that being able to act as the two different versions of Kim showed "a great dichotomy". Following the end of the show in 2001, Wang had felt that the character should have been promoted during the course of the series, but was told by producers that "someone's got to be the ensign". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Harry Kim (Star Trek)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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