Welcome to this shrine dedicated to my favorite Star Trek: TOS character!
Hikaru Sulu is a character in Star Trek, namely The Original Series, The Animated Series and the movies. Sulu is the senior helmsman on the Enterprise, although he was chief of astrosciences in the pilot episode. He is played by George Takei.
He's a bit of a serial hobbyist, always shown having a new interest when the narrative focuses on him. He's a skilled pilot obviously, but he's also a botanist (he even names his plants!), he is quite athletic and is trained in martial arts and enjoys fencing. He's also an antique weapons enthusiast and seems to overall be a nerd for 18th century stuff. He walks the line between being a jock and being a nerd which is pretty neat. He also tries to get his friends to try his hobbies.
As for his personality, he's friendly, intelligent, professional and also incredibly chill. He's super calm when under pressure, often making sassy quips and cracking jokes during stressful situations. He's also quite outgoing, having many friends among the crew of the Enterprise.
Look! I compiled some of his friends here!
A trailblazerIn real life, the character of Sulu was really important for Asian representation in media. Taking into account that this show came out in the 60s, and the US had been hostile towards various Asian countries in the past few decades, extending that hostility to the Asian Americans living in the country. George Takei himself spent his childhood incarcerated in an internment camp just for being a Japanese American in the 40s. In media of the time, Asians were mostly portrayed as either villains or idiots. So when Star Trek hit the airwaves and there was an Asian character who was smart, competent and one of the good guys, it meant a lot for a lot of people.
Sulu was specifically designed to be pan-Asian, and more specifically Asian American, as Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home establishes he was born in San Francisco. The novelization of that same movie establishes he's mixed, with most of his heritage being Filipino and Japanese. The character of Sulu, much like the character of Uhura, was a breath of fresh air in the very racist television landscape of the time.
Since all the big storylines were given to Kirk, Spock and McCoy, he didn't really get to be the central character in any episode. (And also both him and Uhura didn't get much character exploration from part of the writers, I wonder why -_-) but still, the things that we do know about him have captivated me, he's such a fun character. If I were on the Enterprise, the member of the bridge crew I'd love to hang out with the most would be Sulu.
After the EnterpriseWhile Sulu stayed on the Enterprise under the command of Jim Kirk for about 20 years, he eventually climbed up the ranks and became captain of his own starship, the USS Excelsior, a research vessel assigned to the Beta Quadrant. He drank a cup of tea every morning, and he even had a little tea table on the bridge. His friend Janice Rand was his chief communications officer.
In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, he attempted to rescue Kirk and McCoy from a Klingon prison, but he was unsuccessful. But this shows he still cares about his friends to the point of disobeying orders to try and rescue them. This movie was also the first time we hear his first name, which is Hikaru. This name was given to him in a 1981 novel, and got officially canonized in The Undiscovered Country.
As for his personal life, he had a daughter named Demora, who eventually became helmsman on the Enterprise-B under the command of Captain John Harriman in the 2290s! When Kirk met her, he said "It wouldn't be the Enterprise without a Sulu at the helm". She only showed up for a little bit at the beginning of Star Trek: Generations, so we don't know much about her, but the novels have various interpretaions of her. One of them even made her queer and polyamorous, which is really cool.So, is he gay or what?
(AKA the hottest Trek discourse of 2016)
People mostly headcanon Sulu as gay because his actor, George Takei, is gay. The Star Trek reboot movies made the character gay in 2016, again as a nod to Takei's sexuality, but he was actually kind of upset by it, saying he played Sulu as a straight man and felt they were senselessly changing him too much. So a lot of people felt Sulu's sexuality rewrite was disrespectful to his OG actor's wishes. But at the end of the day, the reboot movies are set in an alternate universe, so while AOS Sulu is gay, TOS Sulu can be any other sexuality.
But of course, fans headcanoning him as anything other than straight is different than an official movie making him gay because well, fan interpretations don't usually have much say in the canon. If you want my personal take? He's probably bi/pan. Despite not really getting a real love interest in any episode, he does show interest in women on the show, but personally he still doesn't give me 100% straight vibes. That's just my personal take, you're free to disagree. I just think no one will be 100% straight by the 23rd century.
The Star Trek: Year Five comics (my favorite comic adaptation!) seem to lean into this reading, since they gave him a genderfluid love interest, and in the epilogue he and another woman agree to go on a date after the events of the comic.
• The Man Trap: We see him in the botany lab taking care of his plants. Janice Rand brings him a tray of food and they talk about this specific plant that is totally not a hand puppet.
• The Naked Time: This is THE Sulu episode. Here's where he takes off his shirt and starts running around with a fencing foil and laughing like a maniac. This was George Takei's favorite moment. There's a moment where he grabs Uhura and says "I'll protect you, fair maiden!" and Uhura claps back saying "Sorry, neither". They were both soooo iconic for that.
• The Enemy Within: He finds an unicorn dog on a planet. He also almost freezes to death. But we get to see how he's able to crack jokes even in the most dire of situations.
• Shore Leave: While on a planet that makes all their thoughts real, he starts firing an antique gun he found (because he thought about it) and it scares everyone and his gun gets confiscated by Kirk. He's later chased by a samurai. He just vibes and gets into hijinks like everyone else in the episode. I'ts fun.
• Tomorrow Is Yesterday: He goes with Kirk to an Air Force base in the 60s and steal some film. Sulu hides in a darkroom while Kirk fights some guards.
• The Return of The Archons: While he's not in many scenes, we do see him in a cool old timey outfit. He gets hypnotized by a computer though. But he ends up being fine.
• This Side Of Paradise: We learn that despite enjoying botany he has no idea how farming works, making him a certified city slicker. He later fights another crewman while on the farm. It's funny.
• Mirror, Mirror: When Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura get transported to a parallel universe where everyone is evil, they have to blend in. A total highlight of this episode is the evil version of Sulu. He's security chief, he has a gnarly scar on his face and he's a total piece of shit. It's fun to watch, even if it's uncomfortable at times.
• And The Children Shall Lead: He gets mind controlled by children and we learn that he fears driving the Enterprise into a bunch of swords and knives.
• That Which Survives: He gets to go on an away mission with a couple other people on a planet where the sky looks like the bisexual flag and a holographic lady messes up his shoulder.
• Turnabout Intruder: While this is a controversial episode, we get to see Sulu and Chekov preparing to stage a mutiny when they realize there's something wrong with Kirk (whose body has been swapped with an evil lady's).
Oh myyyyyy
(AKA other things I couldn't fit anywhere else)
(This shrine is perfectly formatted, what do you mean?)
• Fun fact: He's the only character out of the main cast to have worn all three shirt colors!
(Ok. The red shirt was his evil Mirror Universe self but still.)
• He's had two cameos in other Trek shows, once in Star Trek Voyager's episode "Flashback" as captain of the Excelsior, and more recently in Star Trek: Lower Decks' episode "Crisis Point: Paradoxus" as part of a hallucination one of the characters is having. They had George Takei reprising the role on both occasions. They're both very fun episodes, totally reccomend. He also recently cameo'd in the Very Short Treks short "Holograms all the way down", which I found funny because it depicts a young TOS-era Sulu, but he sounds like an old man because well. George Takei is an old man. His cameo is like 5 seconds, not much to say about it tbh.
• I honestly think Sulu is neurodivergent. The way he's just switching hyperfixations every week... Relatable.
• There's a deleted scene in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home where he comes across a boy who he realizes is one of his ancestors, but they ran into trouble when the kid who was going to act in that scene ended up having stage fright, so the scene was never filmed. I'm kinda sad about the fact that it didn't end up happening because it sounds like a fun scene.
