Stardate: Confused. Author: A Concerned Federation Citizen.
Let’s talk about Ensign Harry Kim. You know, the perpetual ensign, the guy who never gets promoted no matter how many times he dies, saves the ship, or gets hit on by alien princesses with questionable consent issues.
But here’s the real question: Is the Harry Kim who returned from the Delta Quadrant the same Harry Kim who left?
Spoiler: Nope. He’s not. And it’s weirdly fine.
And for extra fun, let’s throw in Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG-1, who’s a champion of dying, coming back, and generally making “ascension” look like a part-time hobby.
Deadlock: The Moment Everything Got Weird(er)
In Season 2, Episode 21, “Deadlock,” Star Trek: Voyager gets duplicated by some temporal-space voodoo. One ship is in shambles, the other’s doing fine, except for a weird case of ship-mirroring and space poltergeists. During all the chaos, our original Harry Kim gets blasted out of an airlock like yesterday’s replicator leftovers. Oops.
But never fear! Alt-Voyager’s Harry Kim volunteers to jump over to the original (and now very slightly Harry-less) Voyager to fill the dead Harry void. Naomi Wildman’s alt-self tags along because apparently, timelines are like socks—just mix and match.
And nobody talks about it again. Ever.
Seriously, Is Anyone Going to Talk About This?
Let’s recap:
- Original Harry Kim: Dead. Floated into the vacuum of space. Super dead.
- Replacement Harry Kim: Different timeline, different ship, same haircut.
He gets beamed over, acts like nothing happened, and everyone’s just… chill about it? Like, “Hey Harry, glad you’re back. Sorry about your alternate corpse.” Shouldn’t Janeway have at least written a condolence letter to herself?
Also: Did they update his personnel file? Because if not, Starfleet has a guy on the roster who technically doesn’t exist anymore. Good luck explaining that to HR.
Meanwhile, Over in Stargate SG-1…
While Harry Kim’s getting recycled like an old uniform, let’s talk about Daniel Jackson. This guy’s dedicated to the art of dying. He’s not just a one-time casualty—he’s the king of resurrections. Here’s how many times he’s died (and come back) on Stargate SG-1:
- Season 5, Episode 21 (“Meridian”) – Daniel dies from radiation poisoning and ascends to a higher plane. But hey, he’s “ascended,” so it’s cool… right?
- Season 3, Episode 22 (“Nemesis”) – Presumed dead in a ship explosion… only to reveal he’s just… kinda hanging around. Oh, just a typical Tuesday for Daniel.
- Season 4, Episode 2 (“The Other Side”) – He’s almost dead, tortured, but manages to survive through sheer stubbornness and plot armor.
- Season 4, Episode 14 (“The Serpent’s Venom”) – This guy just refuses to stay in the “alive” column. He’s almost killed AGAIN. Seriously, this is getting ridiculous.
- Season 9, Episode 20 (“Camelot”) – Season 10, Episode 1 (“Flesh and Blood”) – Dies and is revived by ascended being Oma Desala. He’s back, baby!
- Season 10, Episode 17 (“The Shroud”) – Becomes a Prior, gets nearly killed in an epic showdown with the Ori, and survives.
- The Ark of Truth (movie) – Yep, he dies again in the Replicator fight but pops right back up, thanks to the magic of “plot twists.”
Total deaths for Daniel Jackson? At least 2 real ones (Meridian, Ark of Truth), but the guy’s been in a death-like state so many times, I lost count around four.
Does Harry Know?
He must. How could he forget? One second you’re fine, the next you’re watching your doppelgänger get spaced while you step into a universe where you just died and everyone acts like you didn’t. Imagine the survivor’s guilt. Imagine the therapy bills.
Yet he just keeps doing his job, playing the clarinet, and getting passed over for promotions by literally everyone (including Neelix, probably). That’s some solid Federation work ethic.
Meanwhile, Daniel Jackson’s busy having mystical experiences with ascended beings, refusing to stay dead no matter how hard the universe tries to get rid of him. He’s like the universe’s very own zombie, but with more philosophy and less eating brains.
The Philosophical Quandary
So who is Harry Kim?
- The man? The myth? The many corpses?
- A constant across realities like a caffeine-dependent quantum particle?
- Or just a plot device for existential dread and bad luck?
And what about Daniel Jackson? The man who’s cheated death so many times that he might as well be a professional ghost? Is he the same person after every resurrection, or is he just playing with the idea of immortality like an intergalactic rock star?
Whichever way you spin it, Harry Kim and Daniel Jackson might be the most resilient not-technically-the-same-persons in sci-fi history.
Final Thought: Give the Man a Promotion
The guy’s died like, what, six times? He’s been cloned, zombified, time-looped, infected, erased, duplicated, and body-snatched—and now he’s also technically not even the original person.
Meanwhile, Daniel Jackson’s still figuring out how to be both an ascended being and a regular human at the same time, and it’s getting hard to keep track of where he ends and the plot begins.
The least Starfleet could do is promote Harry Kim to Lieutenant Junior Resurrected, and maybe they could send Daniel Jackson a certificate of “Most Likely to Return From the Dead in Style.”
#JusticeForHarryKim #FloatingHarryDeservedBetter #DanielJacksonCantStopDying #StillAnEnsignInThisTimelineToo
What do you think? Is the Harry Kim who returned to Voyager the same as the one who left? And is Daniel Jackson actually immortal at this point? Share your thoughts, or maybe we’ll need to do some time-traveling to find out!