Star Trek: Voyager Cut A Huge Harry Kim Twist, Says Garrett Wang

Summary Harry Kim was almost permanently an alien in Star Trek: Voyager, but the studio intervened.

The alien twist in Voyager season 3's "Favorite Son" would have made the episode more impactful and potentially improved its reception.

The removal of the alien twist resulted in "Favorite Son" being one of Voyager's worst episodes with poor pacing and plot execution.

Star Trek: Voyager cut a huge Harry Kim twist in season 3, according to Garrett Wang. Although Harry was part of Voyager's main cast of the characters, the show often struggled to find long-term storylines that worked for him. As the youngest and least experienced Starfleet officer on Voyager's crew, Harry was sometimes relegated to being the character with the least interesting arcs in any given season. However, season 3 almost introduced a huge arc for Harry that would have made him far more nuanced.

In one of Voyager season 3's few Harry Kim episodes, "Favorite Son," Harry began experiencing strange symptoms that led him to an alien planet. There, Voyager's crew encountered the Taresians, who claimed that Harry was one of them, sent to Earth as a baby but implanted with the drive to find his way home. As it turned out, the aliens had altered Harry's DNA with a retrovirus that would make him appear Taresian to lure him to their planet and feed off his life force. Once Harry had escaped, his human physiology reasserted itself, but this almost wasn't the case.

Garrett Wang Explains Harry Kim’s Huge Dropped Alien Twist In Star Trek: Voyager Season 3

Harry Kim was almost an alien for the rest of the series

Close

In an interview with The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine while season 3 was airing, Garrett Wang revealed that Voyager's creative team had originally intended for Harry's alien heritage to be permanent. Wang stated that the writers of "Favorite Son" had been working on a way to keep Harry as a Taresian for the rest of the series before the studio intervened and offered some heavy rewrites to the episode that cut the premise. Read Wang's full quote below:

"They were going to keep it that way. They were talking about keeping me in alien spots for the rest of the series. Some big-wigs looked at it and said, 'More sex, more action,' and suddenly, it became convoluted. The arc wasn't clear. They added in the vampire-like, blood-sucking women. But they didn't go all the way with it."

From his remarks, it seems as though Wang was disappointed that Voyager didn't push harder for Harry's alien twist to become permanent. Although it would have completely changed his character and likely affected his story arcs in the future, making Harry an alien would have added an interesting element to the character that could have led to some different growth for him in later seasons. This was sorely needed in Voyager, as the show often sideline Harry in larger storylines. Likewise, the twist would have made "Favorite Son" a better episode.

Harry Kim’s Alien Twist Would Have Made “Favorite Son” A Much Better Star Trek: Voyager Episode

The twist would have pulled the episode together

Once the twist about Harry being an alien was removed from “Favorite Son”, the plot rapidly went downhill. "Favorite Son" is one of three episodes in Voyager season 3 dubbed the “trilogy of terror," a group of episodes that audiences thought were the worst of the season. Out of the three, "Favorite Son" has the least redeeming qualities and is the most badly executed in terms of pacing and plot. This is likely because of the rewrites that the studio requested, as Wang illustrated in his interview, which made the creative team lose track of a coherent plot thread.

Watching Harry grapple with the fact that he wasn't human, and come to terms with what his people had done to him, could have at least provided some material for Star Trek: Voyager to explore for the rest of the season.

Keeping the twist about Harry being Taresian might not have solved all these issues, but it would have at least made "Favorite Son" a more impactful episode for Harry as a character. Watching Harry grapple with the fact that he wasn't human, and come to terms with what his people had done to him, could have at least provided some material for Star Trek: Voyager to explore for the rest of the season. Ultimately, "Favorite Son" has been relegated to one of the show's worst episodes when it could have achieved higher status.

Source: The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue 17

Star Trek: Voyager is available to stream on Paramount+.