Hikaru Sulu

Hikaru Kato Sulu is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. A member of the crew in the original Star Trek series, Sulu also appears in the animated Star Trek series, in the first six Star Trek movies, in one episode of Star Trek: Voyager, and in several books, comics, and video games. Originally known simply as "Sulu", his first name, "Hikaru", appeared in a 1981 novel well over a decade after the original series had ended.

Sulu was portrayed by George Takei in the original Star Trek series. John Cho took over the role of the character in the 2009 film Star Trek and its sequels, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond.

George Takei recalled Gene Roddenberry wanted the character to represent all of Asia, which symbolized the peace of the Trek universe in spite of the numerous wars in the continent. Roddenberry did not want a nationally specific surname, so he looked at a map and saw the Sulu Sea in central Philippines. "He thought, 'Ah, the waters of that sea touch all shores'," the actor recalled, "and that's how my character came to have the name Sulu."

In the book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, the character's name is noted as a pun on the name of vice president of Desilu Studios, Herb Solow.

Novelist Vonda McIntyre first presented "Hikaru" as the character's first name in the novel The Entropy Effect. McIntyre derived the character's first name from The Tale of Genji. Although McIntyre was unaware at the time of any controversy surrounding her giving Sulu a first name, editor David Hartwell had to clear the name with Gene Roddenberry and Takei in order to assuage Paramount's objections. However, the name did not become canon until its mention in Star Trek VI. Peter David has written about making the suggestion to director Nicholas Meyer at the urging of Takei during a visit to the set.

In some Japanese dubs, Commander Sulu's family name is changed to Katō. According to Bernardi, Sulu, being a Filipino noun and not a Japanese surname, would likely be unpronounceable by Japanese speakers as the language has no "l" sound distinguished from "r". Ojaste attributes this to a lack of effort at cultural accuracy by the writers at the time in portraying a veritable Japanese character. However, in recent movies, it is only slightly changed; the name スールー (Sūrū, with long vowels) is used, rather than スル (Suru, with short vowels). Although the latter would be a closer transliteration of the name "Sulu", it might sound odd to Japanese audiences because "Suru" (する) with short vowels is the verb "to do" in the Japanese language.

Hikaru Sulu was born in San Francisco, and is of Japanese heritage. His birthdate has not been established definitively, but the book Star Trek Chronology by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda speculates that he was 29 at the time of the first season of Star Trek (as was the actor himself), putting his birth in the year 2237. He was shown as the USS Enterprise's staff physicist in the pilot episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (1966).

An early Paramount press release described this initial conception of his character as follows: "Physicist Sulu is the trim, soft-spoken chief of the Enterprise's Astro Science Department. Frequently it is his assessment of the conditions on unexplored planets that finally determines when and how they will be approached, or if they can be explored at all." However, throughout the rest of the series, he served as third officer and senior helmsman, holding the rank of lieutenant. Throughout the series, Sulu is shown having many interests and hobbies, including gymnastics, botany, fencing, and ancient weaponry. In the episode "The Naked Time" (1966), Spock observes that Sulu "is at heart a swashbuckler out of the 18th century".