Star Trek: 10 Controversies Behind Discovery’s Troubled Early Seasons

Another controversy that cropped up in Star Trek: Discovery's first year was the death of Wilson Cruz's Doctor Hugh Culber, one-half of Star Trek's first openly gay couple.

Following Culber's shocking and violent death in the episode "Despite Yourself", the show came under fire from angry fans for allegedly resorting to the offensive "Bury Your Gays" trope – an overused television plot device of killing gay characters due to their perceived expendability compared to their heterosexual co-stars. While numerous articles were published aggregating upset fan reactions and threats to cancel CBS All Access, Discovery's producers and CBS, along with Wilson Cruz himself, countered the reaction with a publicity blitz aimed at mitigating the Bury Your Gays controversy.

Despite the twist development of Culber's death, Discovery's producers and Cruz made several statements to the press indicating that the doctor's death was, like many in the Star Trek Universe, a temporary one. According to Buzzfeed, Star Trek: Discovery's producers, in fact, consulted GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, when crafting Culber's death; the organization later releasing a statement:

Alongside so many fans, GLAAD cheered the arrival of Star Trek’s first gay relationship, and we share in their mourning over the death of a beloved groundbreaking character. Death is not always final in the Star Trek universe, and we know the producers plan to continue exploring and telling Stamets and Culbers’ epic love story.

Despite the damage control campaign, Wilson Cruz publicly sympathized with the negative reaction, telling Entertainment Weekly:

I would be upset if I was watching, and I think we need to give people permission to be upset. It's upsetting. It's a disappointing moment. I'm nervous because we are all aware of this trope throughout television which we continue to see LGBT characters, characters of color, and women killed off in very dismissive ways, and I want people to know that this is not that.

Of course, Doctor Culber did return in season two's "Saints of Imperfection" and Star Trek: Discovery became one of the pioneers of a new trope, "Queer Immortality" – though not without criticism for that trope as well.