The Enterprise's helmsman, later captain of the USS Excelsior.
Hikaru Sulu is the helmsman of the USS Enterprise in the original series and the first six films, played by George Takei. In the second pilot he is the ship's physicist before taking over the helm, and he is a calm, skilled pilot with hobbies that include botany and fencing.
In The Naked Time he is affected by an intoxicating contagion and roams the ship bare-chested with a fencing foil, one of the series' best-remembered moments. He remains with Kirk's crew through the early films, including the theft of the Enterprise in The Search for Spock.
By The Undiscovered Country he has become captain of the USS Excelsior, and he brings his ship to help Kirk and Spock at the Khitomer peace conference. He appears again as Captain Sulu in the Voyager episode Flashback, with Tuvok as one of his junior officers. He does not appear in Generations, where his daughter Demora is helm officer of the Enterprise-B. John Cho plays the character in the Kelvin timeline films.