Star Trek: The Original Series didn't focus much on the characters' personal lives. At the time, the show was about the science fiction and the drama taking place in space. People wanted to see the new aliens and planets the Enterprise visited, and most were okay with not knowing Dr. McCoy's [DeForest Kelley] ex-wife's name or other little details about the characters.
But some of the actors themselves wanted more for their characters. They wanted them to grow and become more well-known to the audience. Perhaps in doing so, the characters would become more three-dimensional and necessary in the scripts.
One particular actor who lobbied for such changes was George Takei. He wanted Lt. Sulu to have a family. In a 2010 interview with Startrek.com, Takei talked about how he suggested a family for Sulu, someone for him to connect with. "I suggested Sulu having a family that he connects with. I suggested a lot of ideas to develop Sulu that never really happened. It was only after I turned down a role inStar Trek 7(Generations) that they gave all my lines to a relative that I had lobbied for, my daughter. When the series ended and the films began I was lobbying for parents, brothers, sisters, lovers, maybe a wife, all of that, but none of it ever happened. I wanted to see Sulu more dimension-ed, but that’s not news, I’m sure," said Takei.
Star Trek: Generations, however, gave the actor what he'd been looking for all along when it introduced his daughter, Demora Sulu [Jacqueline Kim]. Unfortunately, though, we didn't learn much about her or her mother. And since Takei doesn't appear in Generations, we don't get a scene between the two. So while it's good that the writers gave us a small piece of Sulu's background, it really wasn't enough to fill in the gaps in his story.
Fortunately, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has the chance to do that if it introduces Sulu at some point in the future as well as others like Dr. McCoy and Ensign Chekov. We don't necessarily need these characters' entire family history, but it would be nice to know they had more in their lives than their jobs and committment to Starfleet.