This week, I open a channel
with the U.S.S. Discovery's chief medical officer
and ship's counselor, Wilson Cruz,
to talk about the latest explosive episode
of Star Trek: Discovery.
Plus, we have an exclusive sneak peek
of next week's installment of Star Trek: Discovery.
Run, don't walk to The Ready Room for all that and more.
Hey, nerds! I'm Wil Wheaton
and this is The Ready Room,
your official behind-the-scenes hub
for all things Star Trek Universe.
Today, we're taking a look at the latest episode
of Star Trek: Discovery titled, "Rubicon."
Which, fun fact, is a title that refers
to Julius Caesar's decision to cross the Rubicon river,
thus changing ancient Rome forever.
Where are my history nerds at?
I love you.
Now, this episode was all about tough choices,
but there's one choice that shouldn't be difficult.
Make sure you're all caught up on Disco
because we're heading into full spoiler territory.
If you haven't watched Season 4, Episode 9
of Star Trek: Discovery, go catch up,
and then meet us back here to debrief.
And look, we have all just been through a lot
with this latest episode.
So I am both relieved and delighted to say
we have the ship's own counselor joining us today.
That's right.
Wilson Cruz is beaming in for a virtual discussion
of this week's episode of Disco,
as well as his storyline this season.
We're gonna get through it together, y'all.
Then starships aren't the only "ships" on Star Trek.
Later on, we'll take a look
at some of the swoon-worthy romantic relationships
on Star Trek in honor of Saru's new love interest.
Plus, we have an exclusive first look
at the next episode of Star Trek: Discovery.
But before we get to any of that,
we have a brand new behind-the-scenes video for you,
and this one's extra special
because we'll both be watching it
for the first time together.
I have no idea what this is gonna be.
It's so very exciting.
I'm boldly going where no one has gone before.
Control room, engage.
Commander, will you please join us?
Commander Nhan.
Captain.
I'm losing control.
Just take the stick manually.
You mean manually, manually?
[ships whirring]
Would you like to join me in making Leland scream?
Yum yum.
[phaser fires]
Your augmentation allows you to breathe
in our atmosphere?
And why are you asking?
Curiosity.
There is no way Book was responsible for that attack.
I lost half my team on my last mission
waiting too long to make a call I knew needed to be made.
I will not let that happen again.
What the hell was that?
[phasers firing]
[Nahn gasps]
Barzan an atmosphere lends itself
to more accelerated plank growth.
Your eyes!
Real air, real me.
Leland, you look well.
For a couple of batteries and a data core
stuffed in a meat sack.
Kind of like an AI sausage.
Ew!
[Burnham] Looks like a Barzan family was most recent.
We joined the Federation?
In the 25th century.
Never imagined.
Haven't seen a Barzan since I joined Starfleet.
Nhan, if you stay,
you'd be giving up your career.
Let's just say I'm good here.
You know I have never forgotten
what you said at Airiam's funeral,
that one of the reasons we joined Starfleet
is to reach for the best in ourselves and each other.
I am now joined by Star Trek: Discovery's
primary physician and new ship's counselor,
Dr. Hugh Culber himself,
Wilson Cruz is with us onscreen.
Wilson, thank you for spending some time with us today
in The Ready Room.
Hi Wil, I'm so happy to be here with you.
So Culber has always been Discovery's resident doctor,
but this season he is now officially the ship's counselor.
Has exploring this new side of your character informed
or changed your performance
or your relationship to Hugh at all.
You know, one of the things that I've loved
about Culber is his bedside manner.
His taking on this new role as counselor
is an extension of that.
Everyone in Starfleet brings their own genius.
I think Culber's genius is really his emotional genius.
We've seen him do that with Michael Burnham
before she was captain in Season 3,
but I love this official position for him to do this.
And it also has brought out
even a few more of his vulnerabilities.
There is a tendency to forget to take care of yourself,
you know, when you are taking care of others.
He has always teased Paul
about being too focused on work and not about his life,
and we see that he's in danger
of doing that himself sometimes.
In my attempt to continue to make Hugh
three-dimensional and multifaceted,
it's been a great way to fill him out many ways.
There's that old saying
that the shoemaker's children doesn't have any shoes, right?
And earlier this season,
Culber needs to get some help for himself,
so he goes to Kovich. The person who loves Discovery,
the fan in me thinks,
well, this is gonna be something.
The person in me who is an actor
and knows what it is like to have a one-on-one
with David freaken Cronenberg for several pages
was just in awe and a little envious of you.
Would you talk about that
from maybe the perspective of Hugh,
but also from Wilson's perspective
of working with him in that scene?
Working with David Cronenberg, as you're saying,
is, I mean, an out body experience, right?
He's given us so much.
Yeah.
And I find myself, you know,
talking to him about The Fly all the time,
because it's one of the movies that I'm obsessed with.
Yeah.
David will tell you himself personally,
he's not an actor, so this is new territory for him.
But you know, he brings so much to those,
to every performance.
And he's so invested in it.
But you know, that relationship,
Dr. Culber needs someone who is not Paul.
Yeah.
That he can reach out to
and trust that he's gonna get the absolute truth from.
In this episode that we just saw this week,
the stakes are so high,
the stakes are high for Discovery.
The stakes are high for Star Trek.
And I'm sure Hugh's just as amped up
and just as nervous as absolutely everybody else.
And he is this incredible, beautiful,
calm in the eye of that storm.
Would you talk about approaching that performance?
Yeah, I think you're right.
He is the calm in the eye of that storm.
But the thing that I think is true
and I think is important for all of us to remember
is that even the people who are the calm in our storms,
find ways to suppress in a useful way
their own anxieties and uncertainties
in order to serve the greater good.
This is Star Trek.
This is Starfleet.
We are the best of the best.
We are the best among us.
And he knows that in order for us to navigate
this uncertainty and this anxiety,
everyone has to be in a place
and a healthy place where they can bring
their strengths to bear in order to solve this problem.
What Hugh wants to exude
and to convey to the entire crew at all times
is that he is a safe space.
Whether the stakes are incredibly high in the moment or not,
that he is a place where they can come
and lay all of their burdens down
and that he will he will carry them for them
for as long as he needs.
Yeah.
We all need that.
We've been through so much in the last two years.
Yeah.
And I am a huge advocate for mental health
and therapy and counseling.
I think we should all be doing that.
We all need a place that we can feel safe
telling our truths.
We talk a lot about representation on Star Trek
and that's a big important part
of the Star Trek conversation.
It's one of the things I really love about Star Trek.
What you're talking about right now
is also in my opinion modeling behavior.
I hope that there is at least one young person
in the audience somewhere who is watching you,
who has made the decision,
I'm gonna be that person in my real life,
sort of related to that.
We are in the midst of a trauma.
Humanity is living through a trauma
and a crisis real similar to the crisis
that the Discovery crew is experiencing right now
in that there's a large scary thing
that we cannot seem to do very much about.
And we're doing our best to get through it.
As you have put Hugh on this season,
if it has given you as a person any insights
or given you any sense of connection
to our real life frontline workers
who are challenged in similar,
and in some cases, even more intense ways
than we see Hugh being challenged this season on Discovery?
Absolutely.
I wanna be very clear about this.
I only found Hugh this season
because I paid attention to the real distress
and vulnerabilities of our essential workers in real life.
You know, the courage, the true sacrifices that were made
throughout the world by medical workers and counselors
in order to see us through this incredibly difficult time.
I looked to them as the models of how does one live through
an anxious and vulnerable time themselves
and still find the capacity
to extend themselves in that moment?
And it has been a traumatic time.
You know, I also wanna say,
it's not lost on me that this is a gay man
who is acting as counselor here
during this very traumatic time.
You know, as a gay man of this generation,
I have lived through a different trauma,
a different epidemic.
I came to be as a man at a time
when my community was losing people
in numbers that were devastating
and the government response was lacking even then.
So, you know, we as a queer community
have our, you know
lived experience through trauma
and understand that the way through that trauma
is through each other.
Which is why it's so important
that we see this chosen family,
that we choose to support each other
and these young people on the show,
as an example of how the queer community
has survived these traumas.
I'm so glad you said chosen family.
Sometimes we make a chosen family out of our castmates.
It's a beautiful gift when we can do that.
Within the family of Discovery,
there is this amazing family unit of Paul and Hugh,
and Grey and Adira, and it is a beautiful queer family.
I've had the privilege of speaking
with Ian and Blu and Anthony about this.
I am so excited that I finally get to round out the family
and ask you to weigh in a bit about this extra family unit
that is within the existing family structure
of the Disco cast.
I'm scared that I'll break out into tears about it,
but it's really important to me.
You know, throughout history it is a tradition
in the queer community throughout millennium
that we have always had to create a support network,
a chosen family to support us through issues
that our blood family or communities that we're a part of
couldn't understand or chose not to or rejected us.
Right?
So we have found ways to rely on each other,
to educate each other, to step in.
And it's incredibly moving to me that here we are
on a show that takes place a thousand years in the future
and we are modeling, as you say,
that this is a need we will always have,
but also the guidance that you can get
from someone older than you who's been through it.
I can't talk about it without talking about
how Anthony and I have also stepped in in real life
because we see ourselves in these two young people
who are taking on these historic roles on television.
Something that he and I understand at a visceral level
because we went through it ourselves.
We're talking about an historic franchise
that has meant so much to so many people
that comes with an inordinate amount of pressure
that we want to be able to help them navigate.
And we do it with with great pleasure
because we love them so much.
And one of the things that I absolutely love
about the familial relationship,
and I love this about Hugh and Paul's relationship,
is it's a relationship.
It's like, hey, straight folks,
we've been here all along.
We love each other, just like you love each other.
And there is something about that
and I struggle to articulate it.
There is something about almost like--
Ordinary
The ordinariness of it.
Yes, thank you.
The ordinariness of it that I absolutely love.
And I feel if I feel that as a straight dude
what that must mean to a young queer person
who is maybe struggling with their identity
and looking for acceptance in their world.
It's the power of just acknowledging the fact
that we are part of the world.
- Yeah. - Right.
Without having to explain it, like I said earlier.
Yeah.
Or make a fuss about it.
It's why I think that moment
when our relationship is revealed in Season 1
is so powerful,
and I think iconic is that we didn't explain it to you.
We let you experience it.
This is just two grown-ass men who love each other,
who wanted to love more people
and found someone who needed it.
Love is love.
Absolutely.
And that's how it should be.
[Will] Yeah.
That's how we should be seeing it.
We've talked about love being love.
Right?
And here's Hugh counseling a Kelpien
about how he can best express
and explore a little bit of a crush he has on a Vulcan
who's the president of Ni'Var, P.S.
Right.
[laughs] It's not just some random person,
you know, from the canteen at work.
And I think that's a great Star Trek message,
that love is so universal that it can transcend species.
Yes.
And it's always crazy to me
when, you know, every now and then
when someone decides that they're upset
about two men loving each other on Star Trek.
And I'm like, so you had no problem
with Captain Kirk and that alien over there.
I know!
It's definitely a metaphor.
But I will also say,
it's says something about existence, right?
That even here where the stakes are so high
and the threat to the galaxy is so real,
that you're still capable of feeling love
and wanting connection
and wanting to share that feeling with someone
that Saru is finding himself in that position.
It's life affirming, I think.
I would like to end our time today with a question
which I hope will be fun and light [laughs]
as we have touched on some,
we've touched on a few heavy things today.
In the entire Star Trek canon,
there have been a few counselors, official counselors.
There are also characters who are not counselors,
but maybe they could have chosen that path.
And I would love for you to share who you, Wilson Cruz,
would choose from the canon of Star Trek
to be your counselor if you had a choice.
Well, I've thought about this.
And I would give one of my appendages
to do a scene with Whoopi Goldberg, any day, anywhere,
anytime I can.
That is I think the best answer.
I hear that, you know,
she might be part of the Universe again somehow, some day.
You know, I don't know if she finds herself
a thousand years in the future, but I would--
I would die.
I believe that I can officially on behalf of Star Trek,
in my role as host of this show,
confirm through trailers that Guinan does appear in Picard.
I cannot confirm or deny that she appears in Discovery,
but she could go just about anywhere.
Who knows?
I'm obsessed.
That is a thing that I'm really glad we share, Wilson.
Thanks so much for your time.
Thanks for all of your work on Star Trek: Discovery.
Wil, I just want to say thank you publicly
for helping support an organization
that's really important to me, GLSEN.
So thank you for all of the ways
that you've helped me in that organization.
It is an honor and a privilege.
Let us share with the audience some information on GLSEN.
Let them know where they can find out more about GLSEN.
You can go to GLSEN.org,
and you can find out all about GLSEN
which is an organization that exists
just to make every school in our country
a safe space for queer people.
Awesome.
Wilson, it is always such a pleasure to speak with you.
Have a wonderful afternoon and I'll see you next time.
Thanks, Wil, muah!
As I mentioned earlier,
in this week's episode of Discovery,
Mr. Saru decides to pursue the connection he feels
with president T'Rina of Ni'var,
his first romantic interest on the show.
And that development is just the latest
in a bevy of romances blossoming in
the dark vacuum of space.
Who knew the dark vacuum of space
was a romance-blossoming rich environment?
Well, let's go on this voyage through the stars
and relive some of the dreamiest ships in Star Trek.
These personal feelings have little import.
Such feelings are always of import.
[Narrator] Even in the nothingness of space,
love can bloom in the most unexpected of places.
While Mr. Saru and President T'Rina's budding relationship
is still in its infancy...
She asked me to join her for dinner.
[Narrator] ...the Star Trek Universe
is full of romance amongst the stars.
These are a few of the relationships in Star Trek
that have set our hearts to stun.
Commander Riker, this is our ship's counselor,
Deanna Troi.
A pleasure, Commander.
Likewise, counselor.
[Narrator] Deanna Troi and William Riker.
Maybe we could go dancing?
And after that, I suppose you'll expect me to kiss you?
Well, it's possible.
But then who needs dinner?
Why don't I just get it over with and kiss you right now?
Well, why don't you?
[Narrator] Kira and Odo.
That sounds like baseball.
You know about baseball.
It's my favorite sport.
[Narrator] Kasidy and Benjamin Sisko.
Excuse me, miss.
Where are we?
[Narrator] Edith Keeler and James Kirk.
I'm ready to get back to work.
Oh, no, no, no.
I had to use all of my influence
to extend your accommodations at the lagoon.
We'll drop you off on our way home.
But we haven't any bags! No holocam.
I have nothing to read.
[Keiko] Perfect.
[Narrator] Keiko and O'Brien.
I guess we proved it again.
Proved what?
That you and I make a hell of a team.
[Narrator] T'Pol and Trip Tucker.
Maybe that's why I fell in love with you.
We have the same pathology.
Making you either a total narcissist
or a glutton for punishment.
A little column A, a little column B.
[Narrator] Paul Stamets and Hugh Culber.
I do not deserve you.
You're right about that.
[Narrator] B'Elanna Torres and Tom Paris.
Anyway, I kind of like the sound of Tom Torres.
I hope your kidding.
Hey, it is the 24th century.
This is not the science lab [groans].
[both laughing]
We have these new badges.
[Narrator] Michael Burnham and Cleveland Booker.
These Star Trek couples prove that when love warps in,
it's best to lower your shields.
Do you have feelings for her?
Perhaps, I do.
Okay, we have come to the time travel portion
of The Ready Room
when we get to watch an exclusive clip
of next week's episode of Star Trek: Discovery.
So if you think about it,
it's like this clip is traveling backwards in time
while we are traveling forwards in time
and we're kind of meeting in the middle, right?
Wrap your head around that and watch this clip.
It's a hell of a thing.
Yes, it is
Admiral, it's my constitutional duty to inform you
that I'm transferring power to the vice president.
Excuse me.
I'll be joining the mission.
Madame President.
I was the Federation's top ambassador for 20 years.
Given the complexities that we'll face,
I believe my skills will be needed.
They're leaving the galaxy.
We've never done that.
You know as well as I do,
Discovery might not be coming back from this.
Which is why I am counting on you
to support the vice president in my absence,
however long it may be.
Laira, you are the Federation now.
What your presence means,
what you represent--
Makes it all the more crucial that I be there
when we make contact.
Thank you all so much for joining me
in The Ready Room today.
Next week, Season 4, Episode 10
of Star Trek: Discovery drops,
and you better believe we'll be back here
to talk all about it.
There's a lot going on
and we're gonna need a minute.
Until then, I'm Wil Wheaton, live long and prosper.