LogFAQs > #933170503

41. Hikaru Sulu
Oh my.

There are four Asians in Star Trek, and all four have gone down for me in the space of ten rankings, none above Filler Tier. I just noticed that three of them have first names that start with H, good for Phillipa Georgiou for finally breaking that awful stereotype only the second letter of her first name has an H.

Anyway, Sulu. Hes another of those classic Im here to say Yes captain characters who barely counts as a character at all. Can anyone name a defining Sulu moment besides the one time he grabbed a sword and ran around the ship? He wasnt even specifically interested in swords, theres another episode where he has a 17th century gun. He was just interested in old weapons, but the 09 movie was so desperate for something for him to do that hes revealed to be a master swordsman or whatever, then is no more useful than Kirk armed only with his fists.

It makes perfect sense that Sulu is the only one of the TOS cast besides Kirk who goes on to captain a ship. Spock and McCoy are too useful to the story and have to be kept in orbit of Kirk and Scotty is established as only caring about engines, which just leaves Uhura, Chekov, and Sulu. Chekov managed to get all the way to first officer, then when his ship got blown up by Kirk, returned to serving under Kirk. Thats how the Federation rolls. No one cares about Uhura, so it had to be Sulu. And look how Takeis career blossomed under that! He got to be in an episode of Voyager! Albeit, that was only because it was the thirtieth anniversary of Star Trek and the DS9 celebration episode (i.e. the good one) had all the TOS cast except Sulu and Rand, so they had to shoehorn those two in somewhere, and where better than a memory of a guy who was retconned into being on their ship? Seriously, was it too much to ask for a time travel or alternate dimension episode or something? Just say that the Excelsior was caught in an inverse tachyon storm and landed ten feet away from Voyager because it was interphasically tethered to Tuvok or something. Seven of Nine has to open a polarized neutronium vortex to send them back, and the Doctor erases their memories of the future. Janeway is momentarily tempted to take Voyager back to the Federation, but realizes she cant go 100 years back in time and everyone is disappointed again.

I guess I should talk about Sulus possible gayness. George Takei has always maintained that Sulu is straight and that Takeis own sexuality should not be read into the character. Within the actual text of Star Trek, I guess you could argue that its ambiguous, since while Sulu has a daughter, hes literally the only main character in all of Star Trek to never have a love interest or show attraction to any other character (dont give me the time he got drunk and called Uhura a fair maiden), but if Nichelle Nichols gets to approve of Uhuras first name, I think were all fine with Takei deciding this. Then Star Trek Beyond (bonus points if you remember the plot to that movie without having to look it up) was like WE NEED A GAY, so theres a five second scene where Sulu is with his husband and daughter. I have to assume Takei hates them for that.

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Started: July 6, 2005