At the Star Trek: Section 31 premiere in New York City, TrekMovie had a chance to briefly interview Discovery‘s Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets) and Wilson Cruz (Hugh Culber) as each of them walked the red carpet. With the show’s finale now over seven months in the past, we asked the actors to look back at what they left behind.
Anthony Rapp
So Discovery is over… do you feel that you left anything on the table that you’d still like to do?
Oh, yeah. I mean, there was this whole new—what else is Stamets really going to work on? That’s always interesting to me. So that’s that’s left on the table. And then I think the stuff that Culber and Stamets went through was so rich, and we were just beginning this new chapter again. So that’s on the table. Yeah, he’s not cooked!
Every Star Trek character contributes something to the legacy. Looking back, what do you think that your character contributed?
Well, I mean, the spore drive is its own thing, of course. I think part of what was really fun is it’s like the new era of the kind of the edge… Back in the early days, Bones had some edge, but I don’t think there had been a little… as there hadn’t been a character with a little bit of a more jagged side to him interpersonally in a while, and so that’s one of the things that Stamets contributed, and then also grew his softer side, so that that kind of transformation was something that I’m proud of having contributed.
Was it more fun to be cranky Stamets?
Sure! They’re both fun, though. The banter stuff with Tig [Notaro] especially, was probably some of the most fun I had.

Tig Notaro as Reno and Anthony Rapp as Stamets in Star Trek: Discovery, episode 4, season 5, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Paramount+
Wilson Cruz
So now Discovery is done—
I heard! [laughs]
Do you feel that you left anything on the table there for Culber?
Yeah. I mean, we only got 10 to 15 episodes a season. Other Star Treks had 26 a season? Lots of stories that we could have told about Hugh and his family and his relationship and his work in the in the in the medbay, you know his work as a counselor. I wanted to see more of that. Lots of opportunities.
What do you see as the legacy you’ve left in Star Trek?
Two things: One, that everyone deserves a second chance, and two, that all of us are capable of choosing to create the life that we deserve at any given moment, and to do anything and everything that it takes to make that real for yourself,
That’s a very Star Trek philosophy. Have you seen Section 31 yet?
I have not. I’ve seen large snippets of it because I introduced it at out fronts—up fronts! Out fronts are something else. I’ve seen some of it.
I know there were different iterations of it… Was there ever an iteration that involved some of the Discovery cast?
That is above my pay grade! They only call me if they’re going to hire me. They’re like, “Well, we’re thinking about hiring you”—no, they don’t do that. [laughs]

L-R Wilson Cruz as Culber and Anthony Rapp as Stamets in Star Trek: Discovery, episode 6, season 5, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+
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Personally, I would have preferred Discovery using its ending to give a proper sendoff for these characters rather than shoehorning in a followup to a Short Trek that only a fraction of the audience saw, while also doing absolutely nothing to resolve the mystery of said Short Trek.
Exactly: the Dharma initiative did experiments with Polar Bears, it wasn’t that difficult.
I love Wilson Cruz. I’ll say it again, I love Wilson Cruz!
He seems like a really cool guy. I’d love to see him in some other production. And Anthony Rapp, you can tell, is a good actor too.
in a better timeline, Alan Tudyk would have been cast as Stamets and far more likeable
Good call, there.
With how much the people behind Discovery patted themselves on the back for their LGBT representation casting a straight actor to play the first gay main character in Star Trek would have been an disaster.
How about just making the character straight? See, problem solved!
or you know…he’s an actor. I’ve got no beef with whatever representation they want to do in universe.
It’s not like they hired a 24th century mycelial scientist to play a 24th century mycelial scientist
Or, yeah, he can play a gay character too. Whatever.
‘problem solved….’????
The whole point of Stamets was that he would be Trek’s first gay character. That doesn’t preclude him being played by a heterosexual actor, but they saved some media grief by not having to address that with Rapp’s casting.
You know, I think you’re right! He could’ve been Stamets and I think he could’ve been funnier.
He sure does look like Rapp.
But the point is that Stamets wasn’t *supposed* to be likeable; he was supposed to be a bit of a jerk, like Rodney on Stargate.
I don’t think that likable is what they were going for in regards to, Stamets.
I agree regarding the character flaws; I just believe Tudyk would have made a better connection as a flawed individual who is a jerk with a hidden heart. I find Rapp to be just a tool
Jeffrey Combs would have been even better. It seems that every race in the galaxy has a Jeffrey Combs except for humans. He was great in every Trek role he was given.
if Benny’s world was the real one, then Combs was a dirty cop
As has been pointed out, Stamets wasn’t supposed to be likable at first. For me, his conversion to a sort of bland warm and fuzzy father figure made him harder to like. Part of that could be down to Rapp’s performance, but the writing was hard to salvage.
These guys were great in seasons one and two, before every character who wasn’t Michael the Superhero was sidelined so she could have more time to whisper-cry and save the day. I miss the early scenes of Stamets and Culber together.
I think you have a relevant point there.
They could and, I think, should have dialed the Burnham hero stuff down. I think they did lay it on too thick too. She got results by being mutinous and emotional and lucky. When the president of the Federation called her out that time for trying to save Tilly and risking her ship, I was with the president. Burnham showed, not just that one time but others, that she was incapable of making the hard decisions. I still am not convinced she can.
Actually, I thought Saru was a better captain than Burnham.
And, the other thing is, I don’t think they really had, or maybe it didn’t come across, the same kind of peer to Burnham that Spock was to Kirk on Star Trek. I just don’t think the Burnham-Saru chemistry worked that well. It didn’t seem as natural, it seemed kind of forced. That Shatner-Nimoy-Kelly chemistry just wasn’t in Discovery. There were some other great pairs like Odo-Quark or Janeway-Seven too, but Disco, I think, was too much centered on Burnham’s journey, which, I guess was exactly the way it was tailored, to see her rise from the ashes of her mistakes to becoming captain. The thing is, it still doesn’t feel right to me. It has nothing to do with Sonequa-Green, who I think is just wonderful, it’s the writing I think.
I agree with all of this. Sonequa seems like a great person, and I have no issue with her. But I also think she’s an over-actor who received bad dialogue.
The Burnham character was partially raised on Vulcan and, at the beginning, was shown to have embraced many of their characteristics. That largely disappears as the show continues. She is VERY emotional. She couldn’t bring herself to kill the cyborg officer, endangering the Federation. She kills T’Kuvma, thereby ruining her own plan after Captain Georgeo is killed by him. She saves Till by risking the entire ship. She stabs Saru in the back by being insubordinate. And she so very emotional.
She is more like a peer to her crew than a captain, which she was initially. She doesn’t maintain a remove from her crew, as you figure someone who was raised by a Vulcan would do. She also showed, under 2 captains, that she would go behind their backs. Finally, she showed that her emotions would override good judement again and again.
Maybe should always have stayed as the science officer.
Stamets and Culber were two good characters. I didn’t think either of them rose to the level of Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Picard, Riker, Data, Worf, Janeway, Seven, Quark, EMH, etc. but they were good.
I just didn’t like the Discovery characters as much as the casts of TOS, TNG, DS9, and even VOY (at least 1/2 of that cast). I really liked the stories, the sfx, the production, and the action, it was just the characters.
Of course, I don’t think I disliked any of the characters either, except for Adira. She’s in the box with Neelix, Kes, Kim, and Chakotay.
Talk about bastardizing a character: in the early seasons they talk about how Stamets was an Einstein-level intellect, the next Elon Musk, and so on. And in the final season, they…go with a different design for the next-generation warp drive.
Either they needed to explore that, or not do it. Awful way to wrap up the character’s arc, worse than Trip (which we can at least attribute to being a holo-novel, not what really happened).
Elon Musk does not have an Einstein-level intellect nor had he developed any technology – he’s a manager, and often not a good one.
Musk is a genius at buying other people’s inventions and talent and spinning it as his own.
You’re right.
Elon got accepted to Stanford for grad work after getting a bachelors in physics. He had no intention of continuing his studies, only using them to stay in the US since he wasn’t yet a citizen. I think after he left school IIRC he was here illegally, ironically enough.
He hired the real engineers to from Boeing and/or Lockheed to develop Falcon 1.
Elon’s intelligent, but he’s not a genius at all and he does not know everything. The people who do the actual work that he abuses are the ones who have the real knowledge and problem solving skills.
And, yes, he’s a terrible manager and an evil man. I’m so glad I don’t have to work for him.
I’d wager I know far more about physics, math, and launch vehicles that Elon does.
In fact, I know I do.
Now he’s going to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds. Nice guy.
I got about half way through season 3 before I switched off for good, not to return. Michael whisper-cry. I love it 😂. The constant Disney deaths and the minor key cello scenes just had me feeling like they were trying to constantly milk me for emotions.
But I think I’m just off modern Trek. And can f right off with modern cartoon Trek too. And what a disaster s31 is.
Picard? You get a nostalgia pass.
SNW? Ok, I’m interested. Keep it up.
There is no more Discovery left. I need a future writing team to have Q snap his finger and say, “I thought I would mess with the timeline a little bit Jean-Luc but turns out that era was sappy, boring, and preachy. Sorry about that. Spock with a sister? I thought it would be fun. Starfleet fan fic”
yeah because if there is one thing Star Trek has never been it’s preachy (◔_◔)
A legacy of helping kill Trek once and for all. Well done.
Star Trek Legacy? Is a new spin off? What legacy, man?