It’s all happening, folks!!! After much speculation, it’s now official that actor John de Lancie will be reuniting with Sir Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: Picard. A teaser trailer released from Paramount makes it abundantly clear that de Lancie is returning as the fan-favorite character Q.
Q (also the name of the character’s alien race) is a troublesome being of immeasurable power over time, space, and the very fabric of reality. He’s long been a thorn in Jean-Luc Picard’s side, while the two characters enjoy a crackling chemistry and complicated history.
The trailer is certainly a teaser in that it doesn’t actually show us any of the Picard cast in action, but instead opens with a voice-over from Stewart as the camera pans across various items in Picard’s cabin. We end with a single playing card face-up on a chess table—the Queen of Hearts (I love this choice for Q). The card disintegrates, leaving only the “Q” for the queen behind, and then we hear de Lancie’s voice saying, “The trial never ends,” followed by a deliciously ominous laugh.
De Lancie has stayed active and involved in the Trek world, appearing as Q on other shows after The Next Generation, co-writing a novelization involving Q, and most recently, voicing the character on the animated Star Trek series Lower Decks. But Q fans like me have long been hoping to see a reunion of Q and Picard in the flesh, and now it seems like our dreams have been made manifest. The Q news came on First Contact Day (April 5th), and you can watch special programming celebrating the day here.
In addition to Q, I’m also crossing fingers that we get to see other important TNG reunions—we need LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, and Gates McFadden on the show, stat, just to name a few. But I’m extremely thrilled at the de Lancie news. Whether he’ll end up with a cameo episode or figure in prominently throughout the season, I’ll take all the Q that I can get.
(via Variety, images: Paramount/Paramount Plus)
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