Top 10 Deaths and Resurrections in Star Trek History
Star Trek Discovery The Wolf Inside Hugh Culber and Paul Stamets
#9 – Hugh Culber
The depiction of his death during the Star Trek Discovery episode The Wolf Inside was one of the most jarring in Star Trek history, and his loss one of the saddest, despite his loss after less than one season of his series.
It was a strange decision by the writers of Star Trek Discovery to kill off the first openly gay character of colour to be a part of the main crew of a Star Trek series, and the decision sent fans into a frenzy, however there were clues right from the beginning that this may not be the end for the lovable Dr. Hugh Culber.
At the time of his death his partner, Paul Stamets, was partly trapped within the Mycelial network and unable to come to his aid when he was brutally attacked, however there were signs that something stranger had happened, when Paul saw Hugh appear to him within the network.
How it happened:
Ash Tyler was once known as the Klingon torch-bearer Voq, but after he was surgically altered, and his conscious overlaid with that of Ash Tyler he became a sleeper agent ready to strike at Starfleet when the time was right, unfortunately for all involved Dr. Culber inadvertently triggered him and in a brutal scene he grabbed Hugh by the head and snapped his neck, leaving him to drop lifeless to the ground in Sick bay. Hugh was discovered by his disoriented and partly lost partner Paul who sat on the ground cradling Hugh’s body and drifting in and out of reality.
How he returned:
During the second season episode The Saints of Imperfection during a mission to rescue Ensign Tilly from the mycelial plane Stamets and Burnham are faced with a supposed beast that has destroyed the environment and killing the mycelial’s, when they approach the beast they discover that it is actually Hugh Culber.
Hugh had passed through the conduit that was Stamets while he was connected to the network and been recreated in spore form, thanks to some fancy mycelial organic transporter pod technology Hugh was reanimated with a brand new body and returned to the USS Discovery.