Sulu after Excelsior?

[JD]

I was looking through Hikaru Sulu's entry on Memory Beta and I noticed that there was no information on him after The Sundered. So I was wondering, have we seen or heard anything about what he did after his command of Excelsior?
It does say that he became UFP Pres. in The Return, but I was wondering about the main TV and(/or) Lit universe(s).

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Sulu is alive and in command of the Excelsior into the 2320s, per Transformations and Burning Dreams.

Sulu may also appear in Armageddon Sky, the DS9 Day of Honor novel under the assumed name, "George."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Sulu lives at least long enough to sponsor Chakotay's application to Starfleet Academy.

 

[Christopher]

^^All we know is that a captain named Sulu sponsored Chakotay's application. We don't know it was Hikaru. In fact, Pathways claimed it was his grandson Hiromi Sulu who sponsored Chakotay, while Christie Golden's Tales From the Captain's Table story claimed it was Demora Sulu (and came up with an interesting way to reconcile that with the use of "he" to refer to that Captain Sulu in "Tattoo").

 

[Turtletrekker]

Actually, Sulu's MB entry does indeed mention that he was Captain of the Excelsior until 2320 per Burning Dreams.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ But I'm sure Chakotay wasn't even born by 2320.

The first season of VOY took place in 2371, and I doubt Chak was 51 at that point.

 

[William Leisner]

FWIW, MA says Chakotay was born in 2329, and Sulu in 2237, meaning Hikaru would be pushing 110 when Chuckles was ready for the Academy. It's not entirely impossible that he could still be captaining a ship at that point, but Demora or Hiromi seem more likely candidates.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Babaganoosh said:
^ But I'm sure Chakotay wasn't even born by 2320.

The first season of VOY took place in 2371, and I doubt Chak was 51 at that point.

Uuuuuhm, what? I was responding to JD's comment that Memory Beta didn't have any information about Sulu post-The Sundered.

 

[AN_D_K]

People in them days seem to make it to at 150 years old. It's around about 90-100 when the aches and pains of 55-65 start kicking in. It's likely that Sulu could have been a flying a desk when he was 110.

 

[EmperorKalan]

Chakotay was born in 2329, and would have been 15 years old (about the time he met "Captain Sulu", going by Pathways ), in 2344. Maybe we can extend this meeting to his age 17 (2346).

If Chakotay's "Captain Sulu" was a grandson Hiromi (per Pathways), to make captain by then he would have had to have been born not long after the Tomed Incident in 2311 (and more likely prior to that, since thirtysomething captains are supposed to be a rarity).

(Christie Golden's story with Demora conflicts with Chakotay referring to Sulu as "he" somewhere, though there's a Strange New Worlds story that tries to reconcile the two.)

There's nothing in Serpents Among the Ruins nor nor any other "Demora" story that indicates her having children. (Then again, grown children popping up out of nowhere may just be a Sulu family tradition )

 

[Christopher]

EmperorKalan said:
(Christie Golden's story with Demora conflicts with Chakotay referring to Sulu as "he" somewhere, though there's a Strange New Worlds story that tries to reconcile the two.)

As I said above, Chakotay referred to Captain Sulu as "he" in the "Tattoo" flashbacks, and it's actually Golden's own story that reconciles the reference, so there's no real conflict. In her version, Chakotay's tribe is fairly traditionalist about gender roles, so his father just assumes Captain Sulu is male, and Chakotay doesn't want to get him even more upset by admitting that she's female, so he just goes along with it.

 

[BrotherBenny]

After commanding the Excelsior, Sulu delevops an unknown ability and travels back in time to save the Earth from itself along with a group of like-minded people.

 

[Captain59]

I would guess Hikaru made quite a name for himself being the helmsman for Captain Kirk, and also commanding the Excelsior for such a long time. For Chakotay to simply say "Captain Sulu," would history dictate that means Hikaru if no first name is mentioned? (Unless the person he's talking with knows for sure he meant another Sulu.) For instance, if someone mentions President Roosevelt without a first name, I would think most people would assume that person is talking about FDR just from the history impact of both President Roosevelts.

Ahhh, crap, I don't know. I would like to think it's Hikaru who sponsored Chakotay to link TOS with VOY, but I guess we really don't know.

 

[foravalon]

Re: Sulu after Excelsior? *DELETED*

JD said:
I was looking through Hikaru Sulu's entry on Memory Beta and I noticed that there was no information on him after The Sundered. So I was wondering, have we seen or heard anything about what he did after his command of Excelsior?
It does say that he became UFP Pres. in The Return, but I was wondering about the main TV and(/or) Lit universe(s).

The Return is a Shatnerverse book and exists outside of the common continuity of the majority of the other trek books. (Which is actually a bit of a bummer since the Return is the only Shatnerverse book I really liked and I thought it went a long way toward making up for the awful Generations.) So that puts that right out.

It was established in the Tales from the Captain's Table that it was in fact Demora Sulu who persuaded Chakotay into Starfleet Academy.

It seems that in the year 2320 Hikaru was still the Captain of the Excelsior in Burning Dreams, which would be about the 30th year of his captaincy, and which is pretty much the last time we've directly seen or heard from Hikaru.

Other then that the only clues we've had as to the fate of Hikaru are some hints dropped by Demora Sulu in the David R. George III stories that some incident befell their relationship. Whether that was death or something else, only David knows for sure.

The seems that the fate of Hikaru Sulu is being deliberately left vague so that if a really good story of the Captain's latter years comes along, then the telling would be facilitated.

I certainly embrace the possibility that the Captain met with a strange or heroic demise since it seems that almost every main character from the Original Series is alive, kicking, and (Wow!) still in Starfleet well into the 2370's. In a story-telling sense, this is just lame and reeks with far too much of the "so-kewl!" factor. These people live hard and dangerous lives in a space-faring pseudo-military that has seen countless battles and engagements, they're fan-favorites so they just all happen to survive, c'mon. Why don't we just take a Constitution-class museum ship, haul it out of mothballs, recommission it with the name Enterprise, and give them all a brand new five-year mission! So Kewl!

While I like some of the things which have been done with these characters, like Scotty or Uhura, I enjoy the fact that Hikaru is the one TOS crew member who hasn't succumbed to this.

Of course, I think that character deaths are things which are necessary and should be meaningful; but I may be in the minority with that sentiment. Regardless I love the Captain Sulu Excelsior stories which are out there and I can't wait to read Forged in Fire!

 

[Christopher]

Captain59 said:
I would guess Hikaru made quite a name for himself being the helmsman for Captain Kirk, and also commanding the Excelsior for such a long time. For Chakotay to simply say "Captain Sulu," would history dictate that means Hikaru if no first name is mentioned? (Unless the person he's talking with knows for sure he meant another Sulu.)

He wasn't speaking to "history," he was speaking to his father. Here's the actual discussion from "Tattoo," courtesy of Chakoteya's transcript site:

YOUNG CHAKOTAY: I'm leaving the tribe, Father.
KOLOPAK: What?
YOUNG CHAKOTAY: I got to know a lot of the Starfleet officers patrolling the Cardassian border. I asked Captain Sulu if he would sponsor me at Starfleet Academy.
KOLOPAK: And he would do such a thing without even discussing it with me?
YOUNG CHAKOTAY: I told him I had your approval.
KOLOPAK: Ah.
YOUNG CHAKOTAY: I kept him as far away from you as I could.
KOLOPAK: I take it you've been accepted by the Academy. Well, you've never fully embraced the traditions of our tribe. I know that. And you've always been curious about other societies. And that is why I allowed you to read about them. Because I believe that ignorance is our greatest enemy. But to leave the tribe--
YOUNG CHAKOTAY: Our tribe lives in the past. A past of fantasy and myth.
KOLOPAK: That past is a part of you, no matter how hard you try to reject it.
YOUNG CHAKOTAY: Other tribes have learned to accept the 24th century. Why can't ours?

http://www.chakoteya.net/Voyager/205.htm

What this tells us is that Kolopak wasn't very familiar with life outside his own community. It wouldn't have made any difference to him whether this "Captain Sulu" was the famous one or not, because he probably never heard of the famous one to begin with. All he knew or cared about, all Chakotay needed him to know, was that Sulu was a Starfleet captain who was willing to sponsor Chakotay's entry into the Academy.

(Besides, who's to say that Demora -- or Hiromi -- Sulu isn't as famous in the 2350s as Hikaru was a couple of generations before? Or even more famous, by analogy with your example about the Roosevelts?)

 

[ClayinCA]

foravalon said:
I certainly embrace the possibility that the Captain met with a strange or heroic demise since it seems that almost every main character from the Original Series is alive, kicking, and (Wow!) still in Starfleet well into the 2370's.

[snip]

While I like some of the things which have been done with these characters, like Scotty or Uhura, I enjoy the fact that Hikaru is the one TOS crew member who hasn't succumbed to this.

I agree, and I was a little dismayed to learn that Uhura was still active - it just strains credibility a little. I'm ashamed to say I'm not as current as I'd like to be in the 24th-century timeline, though - outside of the Shatner books, what is Chekov's status in "current" 24th-century Trek? I didn't know he was still around...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

ClayinCA said:what is Chekov's status in "current" 24th-century Trek? I didn't know he was still around...

In the Vulcan's Soul novels, Chekov is still alive and kicking. He is an Admiral.

 

[Ronald Held]

I find it difficult to accept that Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov would be alive in the 2370's.

 

[Skywalker]

Ronald Held said:
I find it difficult to accept that Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov would be alive in the 2370's.

Why? McCoy was alive in the 2360s, and he was at least a decade older than all three of them.

 

[Defcon]

^ I think he means that all of them have survived so long despite being on the frontlines so often in their lives.