Talk:Hikaru Sulu/Archive 1

L irrelevancies
I'm not going to bother reverting, but I thought the stuff about 'L' in Japanese was trivial and irrelevant. And is it even true? Would they have left it unchanged if his name was "Quezon"? - - Paul Richter 02:34, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Let's see. Japanese has no letter L (this is a fact, that's why Japanese immigrants can't really pronounce it in English), and the name "Sulu" has an L in it. Wow, I wonder why they would change the name when they made a Japanese version of Star Trek? Can anyone guess? Philwelch 04:59, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * I added the fact that Sulu is named after the Philippines because there is ample documentary evidence that Gene Roddenberry did so, and it's relevant to the character. Can you come up with any evidence that the difficulty of pronouncing 'L' was the primary reason, or any reason at all, that "Sulu" was renamed "Kato"?


 * It is FAR more likely that the change was made because the character was pan-Asian, and the producers of the Japanese version found that they could easily make him Japanese and thus popular with the viewers.


 * Can the sarcasm, and back up your claims. - - Paul Richter 05:15, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * I changed it to "at least partly because." I mean, if the name of a character is unpronounceable in a given language then that would at least be a reason to change it in a translation to that language. There should be no canon evidence that Sulu was Japanese even in the Japanese version, other than being named Kato, but that proves nothing, he could still as easy be from San Francisco as McCoy is from Georgia and not Scotland. Philwelch 17:33, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * Sulu, or Kato is defined as at least a part Japanese in the translated version of Star Trek. His name was changed to reflect the fact that "Sulu" is not a possible Japanese name. His family name "Kato" is written in Kanji while "Hikaru" is written in Katakana indicating that he is not a 100% ethnic Japanese.  Reasons of change is that "Sulu" can not be written into Kanji and other being that first "Su-" part is pronounced as a long vowel breaking just about every common senses for a Japanese name.  It is like having someone named "John Johansen(with an umlaut over "o")" and not "John Johnson" as an American character, technically possible, but sounding completely out of place.


 * "L" is pronounceable in Japanese but lacks a difference in the pronounciation between "R". Linguistically, Japanese pronounces a intermidiate "L/R" sound and thus the listener's prejudice determine which sound is heard.  When written, however, Japanese make distinction between "L" and "R".  "Hikaru" is never written as "Hikalu" when using the alphabet. The alphabet became a part of Japanese language in the 20th century and at the time of translation, it was considered better to adjust a character's name into something understandable in Japanese, much like how most of the characters in anime is changed when marketed outside Japan. Revth 02:47, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Does anybody know what the h*** is going on here? 64.107.*.* has been adding vast chunks of text and then reverting them back a minute later? They have done this a lot of times in the last week or so, and also with Leonard McCoy and other Star Trek names. Is this copyvio? Is there someone with a reversion fetish out there? DJ Clayworth 17:41, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The above mentioned user is back, and is banned again. DJ Clayworth 14:59, 2 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Lt.Sulu of the I.S.S. Enterprise
In the TOS episode Mirror, Mirror, Lieutenant Sulu is ahead of Lieutenant Commander Scott ,in the ISS Enterprise chain of command (remember he'd stated that with Kirk & Spock's death he'd be in command). Where's on the USS Enterprise, Lieutenant Commander Scott is third in command (after Kirk & Spock). Is this a script writers blooper or not? Mightberight/wrong 0:18, 12 November 2005 (UTC).

page cleanup
the page needs to be cleaned up. the templates are overlapping.

Lt. Sulu's voice
People tell me that my voice sounds exactly like Sulu's, so I figured, what the hell, why not offer it up for some use. I've attached an audio file which reads this article.Brinticus 12:50 04 Aug 2006 (UTC)


 * haha you do sound like him kind of --E tac 04:57, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

The Captain's Daughter
Having read the book in question, there's no way that backstory would EVER be canon. The novels are not canon in general, and that story is particularly... silly. Shouldn't all reference to the novel be removed from the Films section? The background is given in the entry on Demora Sulu, where it fits better anyway.

After all, we're not putting in comments about his potentially belonging to a group marriage. (Read the novelisation of ST3 and a few other Vonda McIntyre Star Trek novels.)

Name stuff
I have removed the following:


 * It should be noted that the name "Sulu" is not a Japanese name but also impossible to render identically in Japanese (the katakana for the name comes out as "Suuruu", and even as "Suru" kanji for use as a person's name are impossible). This is a moot point, however, as in English the character is half Filipino and so his surname can be thought to have come from that side of his family, and the character was renamed in the Japanese dub of the series to simply "(Mister) Kato."
 * While this negates the old joke about Star Trek being called "Master Helmsman Hikaru Sulu" in Japan, it should be noted that Episode 44 of Star Trek Voyager, "Flashback," in which Sulu appears, was titled "The Legendary Mister Kato" in Japanese.

as it seems speculative fancruft. We cannot include this sort of uncited stuff. - Arcayne   (cast a spell)  16:22, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

John Cho
Shouldn't we be using an in-character representation of Cho instead of a generic image? 70.29.212.131 (talk) 04:29, 16 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I agree; the other character articles have one of each, so it would seem smart to follow that precedent. The problem with this is that in those articles, we are using non-free images of Pine and Quinto as Kirk and Spock, respectively - something we actively seek to avoid if at all possible. In this case, we have a free image of Cho, and we don't need him to be in ST gear to know who is portraying Sulu in the film. We just need to see his face. All in all, this article is stronger, image-wise than the others. - Jack Sebastian (talk) 13:54, 16 June 2010 (UTC)
 * The uniform has appreciably changed several times, so it might be fitting to show him with his sci-fi sword in spacediving gear. 70.29.212.131 (talk) 05:57, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
 * That would be a judgment call, and mostly beside the point. Whatever image you use, you are going to need a pretty good reason for using it. Choosing one based solely upon the costuming won't be sustainable. For what its worth, I think showing him in the traditional costume might be more effective. - Jack Sebastian (talk) 13:42, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Relationship with Uhura in Mirror, Mirror
I think it should be noted that in the Season 2 episode Mirror, Mirror, Mirror-Sulu was flirting with Uhura and thus may have some hidden interest in her in the real universe. Superk1a (talk) 16:57, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
 * It's speculation. Unless you have a solid source that states that, we cannot draw that conclusion. As the actor is a confirmed homosexual, I think it unlikely. - Jack Sebastian (talk) 19:23, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

No consensus to move. Vegaswikian (talk) 22:29, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Hikaru Sulu → Sulu (Star Trek) – Per WP:UCN. The character is invariably referred to as "Sulu" in the Star Trek TV series and movies themselves. According to the article, the first name "Hikaru" wasn't "revealed" until the 1981 novel The Entropy Effect. This move proposal rationale is similar to those that resulted in moves of Abraham Simpson to Grampa Simpson and Philip J. Fry to Fry (Futurama) Good Ol’factory (talk) 09:57, 29 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Oppose. No "(Star Trek)", please! The disambiguator is supposed to be a category that the subject is an item within, in this case "(character)." See WP:NCDAB. Move to Mr. Sulu. This is the true WP:COMMONNAME of the subject, as you can see here and here. Kauffner (talk) 14:51, 29 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Support. "Mr" would be unnecessarily contrary to WP practice, and hardly any help. Editors, please explore such DAB pages as Sulu (disambiguation) before forming an opinion and voting. Do some broader exploration of current titles also, with this internal search for example. We should consider the whole picture at RMs. N oetica Tea? 23:26, 29 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Given that disambiguation is needed (which isn't in question, so Sulu (disambiguation) is rather irrelevant here), we prefer natural disambiguators (such as first names) over parenthetical ones.  The recent Philip J. Fry move is, as far as I can tell, an abberation influenced by other titles of Futurama characters.  That shouldn't be a problem here, as we have James T. Kirk, Leonard McCoy, and Pavel Chekov already.  Powers T 02:01, 3 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Oppose. The name appeared in a ST movie, it's "canon", and unambiguous. Every character listed in Template:Star Trek: The Original Series is just the name, no "(Star Trek)" added. (Christine Chapel · Pavel Chekov · James T. Kirk · Leonard McCoy · Janice Rand · Montgomery Scott · Spock · Hikaru Sulu · Nyota Uhura). And not "Mr Sulu" either, as the character has higher rank in some appearances.  Barsoomian (talk) 19:11, 15 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Oppose - the character's name is "Hikaru Sulu" - this has been spoken onscreen and is about as official as you can get. MikeWazowski (talk) 19:16, 15 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.