Star Trek: Lower Decks' fans were surprised tonight to hear a familiar voice and see an animated version of a character that had been gone from our screens for a long time—Garrett Wang's Harry Kim from Star Trek: Voyager. While it was great to hear his voice, we haven't seen him in live-action since Voyager ended in 2001.
Speaking to All Access Star Trek [via Screenrant], Kim said he would be sad if this was the last time that Kim appeared in Star Trek. The actor would love to appear in something else Star Trek-related and even came up with the idea of Harry Kim and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) working together in Section 31. While that didn't come to fruition onscreen, it did happen in IDW Publishing's comics, which surprised the actor.
"In the Trek comic book world, Harry Kim is a Section 31 agent. I’m like, ‘What the heck?’ It was my idea, you put it in the comic, you didn’t put it in live action, that’s fine," Wang said.
But by putting Kim in the comic book world, Star Trek has possibly opened up a unique way for the character to come back to the franchise. And we would be seeing a completely different side of Harry Kim. On board Voyager, Kim was a hardworking forever ensign who we couldn't imagine would ever be involved in a nefarious agency like Section 31. And that's what makes it so brilliant.
It's great to see Kim in the comics, but we'd love to see this side of his character coming to life onscreen. Forget giving him his own ship; give him his own team of agents that can uncover mutinous officers, stop enemy encroachments that could destroy the Federation, and ferret out moles in Starfleet Intelligence. That would be a Harry Kim I'd love to see!