Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 3 – “Jinaal”
Wilson Cruz’s Dr. Hugh Culber gets temporarily possessed by an 800-year-old Trill in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 3, “Jinaal”, and Cruz absolutely kills it with his performance. In its fifth and final season, Discovery sends Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of the USS Discovery on an intergalactic treasure hunt to find the ancient and powerful treasure of the Progenitors. In a story that began in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “The Chase,” Burnham and her crew must follow a series of clues that lead to the technology the mysterious Progenitors used to create all humanoid life.
In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 3, “Jinaal,” written by Kyle Jarrow and Lauren Wilkinson and directed by Andi Armaganian, the USS Discovery travels to Trill to find an 800-year-old symbiote whose original host helped hide the Progenitors’ technology. In a variation of the Trill ceremony known as zhian’tara (first introduced in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Dr. Hugh Culber allows his body to be inhabited by the consciousness of a Trill host named Jinaal. Written by Kyle Jarrow and Lauren Wilkinson and directed by Andi Armaganian, the third episode of Discovery season 5 reveals more information about the Progentiors’ treasure and the six scientists sent to find it.
In the Star Trek aftershow, The Ready Room, hosted by Wil Wheaton, Wilson Cruz said he was “extremely excited” when he learned he would get to play a character other than Dr. Culber. Cruz revealed a little bit about how he imagined the character of Jinaal, saying:
Cruz went on to say that he wanted to make sure Jinaal was “distinct from Culber,” and the actor certainly accomplished this. Because Dr. Culber has been struggling with his traumatic experiences, it was great to see Wilson Cruz express real joy as Jinaal. In only a few scenes, Cruz made Jamaal feel like a completely realized character, who was entirely separate from Hugh. From the way he talked and moved to the way he interacted with the world around him, Jinaal felt like someone who was savoring every second he had in this temporary body. From the moment Jinaal opened Culber’s eyes, it was clear he was his own character with a big personality.
Dr. Culber is far from the only Star Trek character to be inhabited by another consciousness, as the practice has become something of a Star Trek tradition. From Star Trek: The Original Series through the modern day, nearly every Star Trek show has featured one of the main cast members being possessed or inhabited by an alien presence. The word possession has a negative connotation, and this holds true for many of the possessions in Star Trek, while others are merely alien beings seeking to learn. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, for example, had Trill transfers using the same zhian’tara ceremony used on Dr. Culber, and the villainous Pah-wraiths, whose possessions were much more destructive.
Storylines involving alien possession also allow actors to play different characters, which, with Star Trek’s talented crop of actors, is always fun to see. On Star Trek: The Next Generation, Brent Spiner got to play numerous characters, as Lt. Commander Data seemed to get possessed or otherwise inhabited more often than most. From dead ancestors to parasites to ancient gods and every kind of non-corporeal alien in between, Star Trek has dipped into the possession well many times, for both good and ill. Thankfully, Jinaal causes no harm to Culber, although the experience does seem to have a profound effect on Star Trek: Discovery’s doctor, the full repercussions of which remain to be seen.
New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery stream Thursdays on Paramount+.