10 Times Star Trek Showed Us That There Is A Chance At A Progressive Future
3. If Culber And Stamets Are Supposed To Be A Normal Married Couple, Why Did You Bury Your Gays?
Star Trek Discovery faced serious behind the scenes issues before its first season even made it air. Bryan Fuller was coming from a Star Trek history with his work on Voyager and seemed a good fit to bring the franchise back to its television roots. Then quite suddenly he was gone and with him went some of his direction. The showrunners who took over for him lasted the first season and then were out the door after him.
With this in the background, the show suffered and the first season was rocky. One bright spark in that first season was the depiction of Culber and Stamets, a married couple who both happen to be men. Infuriatingly, Culber is killed off in the latter half of the season. Immediately, the decision was met with cries of 'Bury Your Gays', the trope that has existed in Hollywood of gay characters being killed off.
However, for the missteps that Discovery has made, Culber returned in season two. He isn't a clone, there was no time travel involved (ok there was a lot of fungus but they were raising the dead!) and he was back on the ship. And, continuing the trend that season two had set up of vastly improving the quality of the show, his return is treated with respect and nuance. By season's end, Culber and Stamets are established as the main couple again on board ship.