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Ensign Kim (Star Trek: Voyager) may be the most useless character of any long running TV series

Sephzilla

Sephzilla

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This is Ensign Harry Kim of the USS Voyager. And he is the most useless character of all time.

Kim has basically no memorable personality traits to him what so ever and most of his notable story moments revolve around him failing in some capacity, whether it's having the worst luck in the galaxy with women...

Kim had many failed relationship attempts while aboard Voyager. He confessed to a long-held infatuation with Academy classmate Lyndsay Ballard, who died during an away mission and was then revived by an alien race known as the Kobali. Kim's other failed infatuations include crewmate Megan Delaney, a holographic character named Marayna, and an alien terrorist named Irina. In 2374, Kim became infatuated with Seven of Nine shortly after she was released from the Borg Collective. Seven, however, did not return the affection due to her incomplete understanding of Human culture. When she confronted Kim regarding his feelings for her, she attempted to initiate an intimate encounter with him, forcing an awkward Kim to defuse the situation.
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...Or causing the destruction of Voyager itself...

In yet another timeline, Kim and Chakotay flew the Delta Flyer to Earth after Voyager was destroyed due to a mistake of Kim's, an erroneous phase correction to the slipstream threshold of the quantum slipstream drive he chiefly designed... After Kim failed yet again to save Voyager, and with the Flyer, damaged by the USS Challenger, three minutes from a warp core breach, he completely fell apart, bursting into tears and bitterly accepting his final failure. The Doctor, however, would have none of it, and gave Kim the idea (which, due to his obsession with trying to get Voyager home, had not even crossed his mind) that, rather than preserving the slipstream, he should try to avoid the disaster by ending the flight before it was too late, a suggestion Kim excitedly realized was in fact possible. His broken spirit rejuvenated by the knowledge that, while a return to the Alpha Quadrant was out of the question, the ship and crew could still be saved, Kim succeeded at the last possible second by using The Doctor's mobile emitter to power the transmitter and send a message to Voyager, dying with his arms raised in triumph
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He can't even properly fix his own mistake without needing someone else to suggest the actual idea that saves lives.

Harry Kim is so pathetically worthless that he straight up dies at one point, gets replaced with a duplicate of himself, and nobody cares enough to ever mention it again.

This dude is on the show from episode 1 until the very end of the series and never gets promoted. Tom Paris, his best friend over the course of the series, starts off in fucking Starfleet Jail, gets reinstated, gets demoted, and then gets promoted above Kim's rank all over the same period of time while Kim does jack squat. B'Elanna Torres starts off the show as an enemy of Starfleet and instantly outranks Kim by the time she puts on a proper Starfleet uniform. By the time Voyager ultimately returns to the Alpha Quadrant, Kim technically needs to address the bus boy from Quark's Bar as "sir".

Kim is the most worthless character I've ever seen in a TV show. I welcome you to talk about anyone else you think is this level of useless to their show.
 
Huey

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Apparently the showrunners were going to get rid of him for this very reason (and they were adding Seven of Nine and felt the show didn't have room for an additional character without getting rid of one) but then he was featured in... People's?... sexiest people alive issue and they reversed the decision and booted Kes (Jennifer Lien) off the show instead.
 
The Adder

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As far as I know Garret Wang, his actor, is the only Star Trek actor to request a chance to direct an episode of his own series and be denied.
 
Excuse me

Excuse me

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Man, Voyager sure was full of boring and useless people. Harry Kim should have taken another job, like Neelix. Neelix had like four different jobs at Voyager, from cook to security. What a terrible show... And I still need to rewatch it after I'm finally done with my TNG rewatch.
 
Robin

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B-b-b-but he's there to remind Janeway that we're all a family

except for you, Tuvix.

also he play a mean clarinet, just like Riker, right? .....right?
 

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When bad shit went down on Voyager, Kim ALWAYS got locked out from his control panel. My brother and I used to joke about it since it happened so often.
Episode 100 where he saved everyone from another timeline did, for one moment, make him seem cool.
 
Big-E

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Can't remember but did he never get promoted during the show? Like they start the show with them losing officers and he goes the whole journey as a fucking ensign. Dude must have been the oldest ensign in Star Fleet.
 
VorpalNonsense

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His duplicate should have been sucked into space with him.
The only character on that show really worth anything is the Doctor.
And maybe Tuvok if I'm feeling generous.
 
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NCR Ranger

NCR Ranger

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Oct 25, 2017
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As someone who finally managed to watch all of Voyager not too long ago, it did stick out to me just how worthless Kim was in the show. With that said I still liked him more than at least half of Voyager's crew.
 
Praetorpwj

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Nov 21, 2017
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Apparently had significant addiction problems but due to favourable demographics he was retained over Kes.

I don't think anyone on that show was having much fun though.
 
knightmarre

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I like Ensign Kim. He felt like a real dude who was just a fuck up in life.

Also the real Kim is dead and his place was taken by a Kim from an alternate dimension.
 
OP
OP
Sephzilla

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Zabo said:
Man, Voyager sure was full of boring and useless people. Harry Kim should have taken another job, like Neelix. Neelix had like four different jobs at Voyager, from cook to security. What a terrible show... And I still need to rewatch it after I'm finally done with my TNG rewatch.
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Go to DS9 after you're done with TNG.
 
deimosmasque

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Big-E said:
Can't remember but did he never get promoted during the show? Like they start the show with them losing officers and he goes the whole journey as a fucking ensign. Dude must have been the oldest ensign in Star Fleet.
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He was still an ensign when the show ended.

By the time he returned he would have to call the kid who served him drinks at Quark's (Nog) "Sir"
 
Officer Big Mac

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Sephzilla said:
Harry Kim is so pathetically worthless that he straight up dies at one point, gets replaced with a duplicate of himself, and nobody cares enough to ever mention it again.
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He is literally the same person that died except for a couple hours of memories. Janeway and Kim talk about it in the coda. Theres no real reason to being it up again.
 
Meows

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HueyFreeman said:
Apparently the showrunners were going to get rid of him for this very reason (and they were adding Seven of Nine and felt the show didn't have room for an additional character without getting rid of one) but then he was featured in... People's?... sexiest people alive issue and they reversed the decision and booted Kes (Jennifer Lien) off the show instead.
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tbh both Kes and Kim should have been booted.
 
Dice

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Zabo said:
Man, Voyager sure was full of boring and useless people. Harry Kim should have taken another job, like Neelix. Neelix had like four different jobs at Voyager, from cook to security. What a terrible show... And I still need to rewatch it after I'm finally done with my TNG rewatch.
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Yeah I think Neelix takes the cake for being a nice character that's still somehow too much and annoying.

Kim somehow got a big speech at the end. That's a valedictorian who never earned it.

Loaded sentence warning: I weirdly like Voyager episodes (ugh, mostly) ("Threshold" : F-), but yeah the cast is just not as fun outside Janeway, 7 of 9 (who joins in so late), and the Vulcan and Doctor ...sometimes.

SirMossyBloke said:
I still think Kes was way, way worse. Her useless whispering everywhere on the ship bothered me to no end.
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Pairing her up with Neelix did her no favours and her magic powers usually just contributed to episode cheese.
 
Mugsy

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Apparently he was told to act a bit awkward and woodenly so I blame the show creators and writers having nothing for him to do and no personality in mind rather than the actor himself.
 
acheron_xl

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Still think Mayweather was worse.

But yeah, the Voyager cast pales in comparison to the great TNG cast, and the fucking loaded DS9 cast.
 
Excuse me

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Dice said:
Yeah I think Neelix takes the cake for being a nice character that's still somehow too much and annoying.

Kim somehow got a big speech at the end. That's a valedictorian who never earned it.

Loaded sentence warning: I weirdly like Voyager episodes (ugh, mostly) ("Threshold" : F-), but yeah the cast is just not as fun outside Janeway, 7 of 9 (who joins in so late), and the Vulcan and Doctor ...sometimes.
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Doc and Seven of nine have some great moments. Doc and Seven of nine really are the salt of the show, their interactions were always funny. Tuvok has his moments as well. Harry actually ranks quite high on my top Voyager characters. Which, again is bit sad.
 
Rookhelm

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I think Barclay may have had a bigger arc than Kim, even if you only look at his time on Voyager.
 
Officer Big Mac

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A fun game would be to try and list any character traits for Voyagers cast. The number of interests or hobbies would be extremely limited.

Even TNG had lame characters like Crusher and Geordi.
 
Hasseigaku

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acheron_xl said:
Still think Mayweather was worse.

But yeah, the Voyager cast pales in comparison to the great TNG cast, and the fucking loaded DS9 cast.
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It's weird to realize that I think that Enterprise had a better cast overall than Voyager.

Edit: Also it's harder to like Janeway now thanks to her apparently being a huge asshole to Jeri Ryan.
 
rjinaz

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I liked Kim. The writers treated him like shit. Not promoting him or giving him any kind of purpose on the show seemed to be the point. He was the nicest and most sincere person on the show though. Shame.
 
Balphon

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I totally forgot that he was replaced by an alternate universe version and nobody cared.
 
gforguava

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Rookhelm said:
I think Barclay may have had a bigger arc than Kim, even if you only look at his time on Voyager.
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There are literally dozens, if not hundreds of characters, from Trek who appeared in only a single episode and yet are more interesting and well realized than good ol' Harry Kim.

I guess the one virtue of eternal-Ensign Kim is that he makes the rest of the Voyager cast look better in comparison because they mostly suck too.
 
nekkid

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shawnlreed said:
When bad shit went down on Voyager, Kim ALWAYS got locked out from his control panel. My brother and I used to joke about it since it happened so often.
Episode 100 where he saved everyone from another timeline did, for one moment, make him seem cool.
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I'm not even sure what his fully-functional control panel even did.
 
excelsiorlef

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shawnlreed said:
When bad shit went down on Voyager, Kim ALWAYS got locked out from his control panel. My brother and I used to joke about it since it happened so often.
Episode 100 where he saved everyone from another timeline did, for one moment, make him seem cool.
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He saved everyone from something that was his fault lol
 

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Remember when he was replaced with an alternate universe version that was exactly as boring as the original?

His boring transcends dimensions.
 

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Almighty said:
As someone who finally managed to watch all of Voyager not too long ago, it did stick out to me just how worthless Kim was in the show. With that said I still liked him more than at least half of Voyager's crew.
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Harry Kim was the disappointing younger brother (Tom)
The son who never lived up to his fathers expectations (Chakotay)
The immature always crushin on the girl next door (Any woman, mostly Seven)
The son who needed protection because he was too fragile for the world (Janeway)
The kid down the street who didn't understand jack shit about anything and should keep off the lawn (Doctor)
The student who learned fuck all in any lesson (Tuvok)
The kid who was weird friends (Neelix)
 
Huey

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shawnlreed said:
When bad shit went down on Voyager, Kim ALWAYS got locked out from his control panel. My brother and I used to joke about it since it happened so often.
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As a silly aside, it bothers me to no end that, no matter what happens to the ship, the rear monitors on the bridge always puff out smoke. Who built this fucking thing?
 
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