Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Hugh Culber

10. Pathways To Medicine

When we met Doctor Hugh Culber for the first time in the second most lengthily titled episode in Star Trek history, The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry, he was fixing his husband's broken face. Counterposing Stamets' somewhat more 'prickly' nature, Culber's sense of humour and boundless compassion were immediately apparent. By the time it came to the pyjama toothbrush scene in Choose Your Pain, fans were hooked on the character.

Clearly a skilled physician, Culber had a rather distinctive reason for getting into medicine. At just 16 years old, he was hiking the cliffs of Cabo Rojo in Puerto Rico alone when the path beneath him gave way, causing him to fall 15 metres. He would have died from a shoulder wound had it not been for the intervention of one Doctor Kashkooli who risked her life to save his. This heroic act inspired the young Culber to go to medical school, and to keep the ("sexy," to quote his husband) scar as a reminder.

In an interview for TrekMovie, Culber actor Wilson Cruz spoke about the equally perilous road the wartime doctor would have to walk during Discovery's first season. He pointed to previous Trek doctors — McCoy and Crusher in particular — as providing a path to find the "heart" for his character.