Harry was voted one of the most beautiful in the world?
- Thread starter VulcanGuy
- Start date
Apparently so, it's the reason that when they decided to drop one of their cast members and had a choice between two shortlisted people, they got rid of Jennifer Lien instead of Garret Wang. Because he won this completely unrelated award.
From Memory Alpha:
From Memory Alpha:
I think he's cute but not beautiful or anything. 
That's just MHO though.
I remember way back when Voyager was still in first run that he said something to that effect in an interview that he knew he was only still with the show because of People magazine. In media sex sells so having a member of your cast named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People can get more attention (which also led to Barbie of Borg).
Hm ...
I'm homosexual, and I don't perceive Kim to be entirely handsome to begin with.
I did see 'some' appeal in him when Timeless episode aired, but it was minor at best, and after that one it was just back to the usual looks.
Even outside of the show (real world), he didn't look too appealing to me.
It's subject to personal interpretation (as anything else).
He was unremarkable from an aesthetic perspective in my personal opinion.
I would have sooner placed Chakotay on that list.
Lots of teenage masturbatory fantasies about him.
I'm homosexual, and I don't perceive Kim to be entirely handsome to begin with.
I did see 'some' appeal in him when Timeless episode aired, but it was minor at best, and after that one it was just back to the usual looks.
Even outside of the show (real world), he didn't look too appealing to me.
It's subject to personal interpretation (as anything else).
He was unremarkable from an aesthetic perspective in my personal opinion.
I would have sooner placed Chakotay on that list.
Lots of teenage masturbatory fantasies about him.
Yeah, Garrett Wang isn't my type either.
I vaguely remember seeing Chakotay in a full-rear nude scene, I remember thinking he had a cute bum.
I vaguely remember seeing Chakotay in a full-rear nude scene, I remember thinking he had a cute bum.
Saying this strictly has a comfortable about being straight individual, of all the attractive men People could have chosen, they went with kind of a nobody with Garrett Wang? That seems a bit odd. The should have picked someone like Brad Pitt that year or something.
Peopel does (or did) an annual spread on the Fifty Most Beautiful People. And it aimed deliberately at finding relative unknowns, plus a range of ethnic groups, even ages.
Wang was by far the prettiest actor in the original cast. But he definitely looks Chinese. There's a reason the Kim character was never meant to be a major character and why Wang always got short shrift.
Wang was by far the prettiest actor in the original cast. But he definitely looks Chinese. There's a reason the Kim character was never meant to be a major character and why Wang always got short shrift.
He wasn't at the top of the list, just one of the 50.
You're saying he got short sheeted because of being Chinese/Asian... in a character purposefully designed to be Asian (presumably Korean, but possibly mixed or 'generically Asian' like Sulu)? I'm not sure I buy that. I find it all the more likely he was ignored because he was largely a one-note character played by a second-rate actor. But then again no one really received particularly good character development on the show except the Doc and Seven.
Looking back on it there were a few things that bothered me about berman team.
One, Chakotay was kind of generically native american...or south american...I can't even say which because he was so generic. "Acuchi moya"-----what does that even mean? And why does he say it before almost EVERY ritual? Were they all the same ritual or something? His character seemed kinda racist because it displayed little knowlege of his "race", whichever one that was.
Two, Kim's character was supposed to be Korean, yet he wasn't Korean at all. They never explored his culture, and couldn't keep his ethnicity straight according to him. That seems kinda racist too, because it displays an ignorance to it.
Three, to attain ratings, they threw in a woman in a catsuit without throwing in a hot guy who seemingly gets shirtless in episodes. That gender preference in and of itself is sexist, and I think the basis behind 7's character is a little sexist itself considering the first few episodes men oogled her like an object. That said though she ended up being one of my favorite characters thanks to the great acting of Jeri Ryan.
Four, no gays when there could've been. It was 1995, not 1985. There were and had been shows and movies that were successful with gay characters on them. I'm not going into this much more considering in the thread "Voyager, what would've you done differently", I went into it in detail, so reference that if you're interested. But that decision, or fear even, seems a tad homophobic.
And five, it was also sexist to have to alter Janeway's hair style to make her more "appealing". There was an article where Kate Mulgrew said that she wished instead of changing her hair style to make her more appealing they focused on her character instead. And I have to say I 100% agree. If she's not appealing, chances are it's something deeper than a stupid hair style.
Star Trek really dropped the ball on integrity, as much as I love and still love it, towards the end. I mean come on, I've never seen a character with such an OBVIOUS boob job like T'Pol.
Chakotay seemed generic because the writer's couldn't settle on an exact ethnicity for the character. They just made up a tribe for him to belong to instead, resulting in what ends up being little more than a wash of American Indian clichés. Was there even an American Indian writer on staff? It's not wonder that, beyond his murky heritage, the character did little more than say "Aye, sir" and press buttons on his little console, especially after the second season. And true to Voyager form, he was a vegetarian in one episode and a happy meat-eater in the next.
I've already mentioned Kim, who was relegated to being a background performer much of the time and whose ethnicity wasn't even clear to the showrunner. It's possible to partially blame the actor's weak performance, but can you blame him given the material he was given?
The lack of gays is, unfortunately, systemic of every Star Trek series to date. A shame they never had the balls back when it would have been ballsy.
But this is all sliding off topic. Perhaps another thread would be appropriate?
I've already mentioned Kim, who was relegated to being a background performer much of the time and whose ethnicity wasn't even clear to the showrunner. It's possible to partially blame the actor's weak performance, but can you blame him given the material he was given?
The lack of gays is, unfortunately, systemic of every Star Trek series to date. A shame they never had the balls back when it would have been ballsy.
But this is all sliding off topic. Perhaps another thread would be appropriate?
^Frankly, chalk it up to a bunch of white people not knowing jack shit about other ethnicities other than themselves. It would've made more sense if Kim were established as Korean-American, like the actor -- no Korean from Korea would name their son, "Harry," for crying out loud.
And forget about poor Chakotay. Robert Beltran had lobbied for more of a backstory, and he wanted Chakotay to be established as a member of a South American native tribe, owing to his background.
At least in TOS, they established Uhura spoke Swahili, and therefore was most likely Bantu.
Geez!
Red Ranger
And forget about poor Chakotay. Robert Beltran had lobbied for more of a backstory, and he wanted Chakotay to be established as a member of a South American native tribe, owing to his background.
At least in TOS, they established Uhura spoke Swahili, and therefore was most likely Bantu.
Geez!
Red Ranger
I think Ron Moore, in his now-famous essay on why he left the Voyager writing staff so quickly, touched upon the issue of the consistency of character backgrounds. IIRC, he was writing a scene that featured a specific character --I think it was Harry Kim, actually-- and he asked Braga a question about Kim's established background, to which Braga responded, "Oh, it doesn't matter" (or something to that effect). I got the feeling that most of the Voyager writers, by that point, didn't really care enough to keep things straight, and you can bet that would include characters' cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
On topic, with regards to Wang's attractiveness, I have a female friend who finds him quite dreamy (which she told me as she proudly displayed her Harry Kim photo that was autographed by Wang). Of course, she also says that I am very dreamy, so her tastes are a tad suspect.
On topic, with regards to Wang's attractiveness, I have a female friend who finds him quite dreamy (which she told me as she proudly displayed her Harry Kim photo that was autographed by Wang). Of course, she also says that I am very dreamy, so her tastes are a tad suspect.
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