During the panel for ‘Star Trek Discovery’ at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), Anthony Rapp teased that the return of Culber in Season 2 will be related to “the nature of the mycelia.”
The romance between Rapp’s character Lt Paul Stamets and Wilson Cruz’s Dr. Hugh Culber took a tragic turn halfway through Season 1 when Culber was murdered by a Klingon sleeper agent. The reaction from fans was swift and furious. The two made up the first gay couple in ‘Star Trek’ history and many found the storyline to be a cop out for the historic pairing. ‘Discovery’ showrunners defended the plot and promised fans that this was not the end of their story.
Now, it would seem, they meant what they said. Culber will be resurrected in Season 2 of ‘Discovery.’ While Rapp would not offer a direct answer to the comeback during the panel, he did say that the resurrection will be tied to “the nature of the mycelia.”
For those of us who are unfamiliar, the mycelia spores of the fungus prototaxites stellaviatori are spread across the ‘Discovery’ universe. In the first season, the spores were used to travel through space and hop between dimensions. There was even a time travel element to the spores, when the Discovery attempted to jump back to its own dimension, the ship “overshot,” emerging several months into the future instead.
Stamets works closely with the mycelium network, having used himself as a navigation computer to allow Discovery to pass through the network. It would bring the story arc full circle if Culber’s resurrection is tied to Stamets’s experience with the mycelium network.
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Season 2 of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ premieres in 2019.