star trek how does q die

Star Trek: If Q Is Supposed To Be Immortal, Why Does He Die In Picard?

How does one kill a god?

One of the greatest gifts the Star Trek franchise has given audiences over the years, other than some of the best examples of sci-fi technology beyond its years , is its incredible array of characters. There are, of course, some who never truly sat right with audiences, such as overenthusiastic chef Neelix in Voyager , or know-it-all whiz kid Wesley Crusher in The Next Generation . However, there are many more characters whom even casual watchers fell in love with. Picard, Sisko, Quark are some noteworthy ones, but there was of course the near-omnipotent, immortal Q. As it turned out though, this godlike figure is not so immortal after all.

While the Picard TV show of recent years has been met with mixed reviews, it has done a lot of carry on the stories started during the days of The Next Generation . Life after Starfleet at Château Picard explores the attempted retirement of the famous captain himself, but season 2 decided to show the stories end for one of the franchise's greatest antagonists-turned-friends : John de Lancie’s Q. The Q have always been suggested to be god-like beings of immense power, lording it over the majority of the universe. They have been around for forever, and are suggested to be impossible to kill — except by another Q, a concept explored in a Voyager episode. They neither age nor die, but in Picard, something interesting happened. The series focused around the idea of Q deteriorating and using what was left of his power to do what he does best: mess with Picard while trying to teach him an important lesson .

RELATED: Star Trek: What Would Happen If The Borg Could Assimilate A Q?

There is, with many things Star Trek, an in-universe explanation created to make logical excuses for an out-of-universe explanation. The latter in this case is simple. John de Lancie was not only done with the role, but he was too old to make it believable. Long gone are the years of him jumping around like a kid at Christmas, spiritedly messing with Picard or some other poor captain. (He didn't dare cross Sisko however, whom he avoided after their little ‘incident.’ ) The creators do go some way to explain this is the show. Q appears at first as the young that man Picard and audiences know, thanks to some fancy de-aging CGI . He would then snap his fingers to appear much older to match his old friend Picard, turning himself into de Lancie as he looks today.

The show could have kept this workaround going for future appearances if they wanted. It's a fairly believable explanation that, although Q himself does not age, he can simply look like an old man whenever he wants. However, the reality was that de Lancie didn't want to continue playing Q. He wanted to appear in Picard, but only as a way to end his beloved character's story. And end it did, with a hug between him and his only friend in a strange but emotional moment, before disappearing into the great unknown.

The creators behind Picard could have done something similar to Doctor Who where they replaced the actor . After all, this wouldn't be difficult with a being who can change what they look like at whim. But their decision to kill of this particular Q was likely in the best interest of the franchise. It's likely that nobody could do the role justice like de Lancie did. The Q race, however, surely continues, so maybe other Q;s will appear, but only time will tell.

The in-universe explanation for Q's death is shrouded in mystery, but there are a few interesting fan theories that go some way to explaining it. Q himself states that even he does not know why his power is fading, and he is dying, unaware of what might come next. What’s interesting, however, is that he is kind of excited by this. Living for an impossible amount of time is growing incredibly boring. He has stated multiple times before that life is kind of pointless when a person has seen it all, lived all experiences, and held every conversation infinite times. The novelty of dying actually thrills him.

This concept of being bored with immortality can go a long way towards explaining why he finally dies. It’s established throughout his many appearances that he is one of the oldest of the Qs , having been around a lot longer than the rest of his people. This explains why he is the first to go through this process, of getting so bored by immortality he almost unconsciously wills himself into death. He has seen everything except for death, which is still the biggest unknown to him.

While this is the best explanation as to why he finally meets his end, there is another fan theory that suggests his presence is somewhat akin to that of the Auditors from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. These beings are eternal and immortal up until the point where they gain individuality, a time when they become mortal and eventually die. Q is a lot like this. He starts off his journey as a bored kid messing with people, but slowly changes and becomes more and more human the more time he spends with Picard, war criminal Janeway , and the other Star Trek characters. And what is more human than one day finally dying?

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• View history

Q was a highly powerful individual from a race of godlike aliens known as the Q .

• 1.1.1 Trial
• 1.1.3 Guide
• 1.1.4 Being Human
• 1.1.5 Meeting Vash and acting as benefactor
• 1.1.6 Never-ending trial
• 1.2.1 Quinn
• 1.2.3 Junior
• 1.3 The Cerritos
• 1.4 The Road Not Taken
• 1.5 Visiting Jack Crusher
• 2 Q's disguises
• 3 Locations "created" by Q
• 4.1 Appearances
• 4.2 Background information
• 4.3 Apocrypha
• 4.4 External links

History [ ]

Q appeared to the crews of several Starfleet vessels and outposts during the 2360s and 2370s . As a consequence, all command level officers in Starfleet were briefed on his existence thereafter. One such briefing was attended by Benjamin Sisko in 2367 . ( DS9 : " Q-Less ") Q typically appeared as a humanoid male , though he could take on other forms if he wished, and was almost always dressed in the uniform of a Starfleet captain . ( VOY : " Death Wish ")

In every appearance, he demonstrates superior capabilities, but also a mindset that seemed quite unlike what Federation scientists expected for such a powerful being. He had been described, in turn, as "obnoxious," "interfering," and a "pest." However, underneath his acerbic attitude, there seemed to be a hidden agenda to Q's visits that often had the best interests of Humanity at their core.

On Brax , he was known as "The God of Lies ." ( DS9 : " Q-Less ")

In the 22nd century , Q had "some dealings" with the El-Aurian Guinan . These encounters resulted in strong antipathy between them. ( TNG : " Q Who ")

When temporarily rendered Human by the Q Continuum , Q claimed to possess an IQ of "two thousand and five". ( TNG : " Deja Q ")

Q occasionally used verbal contractions in regular speech, but not often, as part of his chaotic god title. ( citation needed • edit )

By 2401 , Q was, for an unknown reason, dying, something that he had not believed to be possible. ( PIC : " Mercy ") Not wanting Picard to die alone as Q was about to, he endeavored to unshackle Picard from his past guilt so that he could move forward with his life simply because Q genuinely cared about Picard and wished to help his friend rather than for a grander design of some kind. To this end, Q intervened to save Picard and his friends from the destruction of the USS Stargazer and created an alternate timeline by altering the history of the Europa Mission in 2024 . After Picard and his friends restored the original timeline, Q revealed his true intentions and used the last of his power to send them home and to resurrect Elnor . Q's death saddened Picard who had come to see the being as a true friend and who ensured that Q was not alone when he finally met his end. ( PIC : " Farewell ")

In 2402 , despite his apparent death, Q appeared to Picard's son Jack Crusher , simply chiding him for thinking too linearly when asked about his death. Q told Jack that while the trial of humanity had ended for Picard, it had only just begun for Jack. Q's response to Jack's question about his death suggests that either Q never died or Jack was not meeting him in linear order to Picard's last encounter with Q, meaning that this Q may have been a version from before his supposed death. ( PIC : " The Last Generation ")

Picard and the Enterprise -D [ ]

Q was first encountered by the Federation when he appeared aboard the USS Enterprise -D in early 2364 . He warned the crew of the Enterprise that Humanity should return to their home star system or be destroyed.

Q appearing as a soldier of the Third World War

When he encountered resistance, Q placed Humanity on trial, with Jean-Luc Picard and his command crew as representatives. Q accused Humanity of being a "dangerous, savage child-race". Picard managed to strike a deal with Q, however, and submitted to a test of conduct to prove that Humanity had evolved beyond its previously savage state.

The Enterprise 's mission to Farpoint Station served as this test. The Starfleet crew sufficiently proved their evolved state of being by discovering and assisting a space vessel lifeform that had been coerced by the Bandi to take the form of a starbase . Q disappeared, but promised the crew they had not seen the last of him. ( TNG : " Encounter at Farpoint ")

Q explaining to Picard that how Humans respond to a game tells more about them than a direct confrontation

The next time Q appeared on the Enterprise later that year, he created a bizarre and deadly "game" for the ship's crew, in order to demonstrate that he had given Commander William T. Riker Q-like abilities. His motives for this were that Humans had a desire to grow and explore, which the Q did not have or understand. Q wanted Riker to join the Continuum so they could understand and possess this desire because if they did not, Humanity could one day surpass the Q.

Q and Picard settled on a bet that, if Riker rejected his offer, the Q would leave Humanity alone forever. Ultimately, Riker rejected these new powers, and Q was forced back into the Continuum. ( TNG : " Hide And Q ")

Because of those actions, Q was asked to leave the Q Continuum. ( TNG : " Q Who ")

" Do we stay out here years? Decades? "

Q's third appearance on the Enterprise was in 2365 . He presented himself as homeless and expressed an interest in joining Picard's crew, his reason being that Humanity would eventually push into uncharted territory and would need a guide as they were ill-prepared to face what they would find. He even offered to renounce his powers to prove that his offer was genuine. However, when Picard vehemently declined (inspired by thinking that Humanity could handle any threat), Q hurled the Enterprise into the path of a Borg cube . Ultimately, Picard had to beg for Q's help in escaping from the pursuit of the Borg ship. ( TNG : " Q Who ")

In that encounter, Q alluded to a past association with Enterprise bartender Guinan. She declined to elaborate on the nature of their relationship, other than to express an extreme dislike for Q. Based on Q's reactions, the sentiment seemed mutual. ( TNG : " Q Who ")

Being Human [ ]

Powerless, Q meets Guinan in Ten Forward

In 2366 , Q was stripped of his power and immortality and transformed into a Human by the Q Continuum, as punishment for his irresponsibility. He sought refuge on the Enterprise , and requested asylum and protection from the beings in the universe whom he had tormented. Though Captain Picard and the rest of the crew were unconvinced of the sincerity of Q's plea and indeed suspected the entire situation was merely an elaborate prank, Picard agreed to provide Q temporary asylum. During a visit to Ten Forward (almost humorously), Guinan took advantage of the situation and stabbed Q in the hand with a fork. Though not a scientist, Q provided theoretical guidance for Geordi La Forge 's analysis of Bre'el IV 's moon , which was in danger of colliding with its planet of orbit . During that time, Data was assigned to watch Q and Q gained an unusual perspective on Humanity and its condition from observing Data, in turn. However, after a Calamarain attack nearly destroyed Data (who risked his life to protect Q), Q became ashamed of his newly-discovered lack of empathy for other beings, and resolved to leave on a shuttle, allow the Calamarain to kill him, and prevent further risk to the Enterprise crew. Another Q intervened at that point, acknowledged Q's selfless act and restored his powers as a reward. In gratitude, Q corrected the orbit of the moon and also gave a special gift to Data, his "professor of the Humanities", a brief moment of genuine laughter. ( TNG : " Deja Q ")

Meeting Vash and acting as benefactor [ ]

In 2367 , the Enterprise crew encountered a woman claiming to be the mythical Ardra of Ventax II . Her demonstrations of omnipotent power resembled those of Q, to the extent that the Enterprise crew speculated that she might be of the Q Continuum or perhaps Q himself. Picard pointed out that the woman's obsession with the Contract of Ardra was atypical of Q and her powers were later proved to be the product of sophisticated technology rather than any innate ability. ( TNG : " Devil's Due ")

Q and Vash visiting Deep Space 9 in 2369

Later, in 2367 , Q returned to the Enterprise to "properly" thank Captain Picard for his role in helping him regain his standing in the Continuum. At the time, Picard was meeting a past lover named Vash (whom he had met on Risa ) the year before. ( TNG : " Captain's Holiday ") Q resolved to teach Picard a lesson about love, and cast Picard, Vash, and the Enterprise command crew into an elaborate scenario styled by the ancient legend of Robin Hood . Q himself assumed the role of the High Sheriff of Nottingham . Ultimately, Picard learned and everyone was returned to the Enterprise . However, intrigued by Vash, Q offered to take her on a journey of exploration to various archaeological ruins of the galaxy and she accepted. To pay his debt to Picard, he promised no harm would come to Vash. ( TNG : " Qpid ")

Q encouraging Amanda Rogers to use her Q powers

In 2369 , he once again appeared aboard the Enterprise -D, this time to instruct Amanda Rogers , a seemingly Human female who developed Q powers during an internship with Doctor Beverly Crusher . Shortly after Rogers' birth, the Continuum used a tornado to execute Rogers' parents, two Q who had assumed life as Humans on Earth, for being unable to resist using their powers while in Human guise. Although Q's petulant and acerbic attitude did little to ingratiate himself to Amanda, he eventually convinced her to go with him to the Continuum to learn to use her new-found abilities. ( TNG : " True Q ")

A few months later, Q followed Vash back to the Alpha Quadrant , after the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole created a new avenue of travel between there and the Gamma Quadrant . Having had so much fun with Vash, Q wanted to continue exploring the galaxy , but Vash wanted nothing to do with him. While the two were at Deep Space 9 , mysterious power drains were thought to be Q's doing, but they were, in fact, due to an embryonic lifeform that Vash had unknowingly returned from the Gamma Quadrant. Q had a brief confrontation with Commander Benjamin Sisko during his visit and disrupted an auction that Quark and Vash staged in Quark's . Though he was intrigued by Sisko hitting him as Picard never did, Q eventually became bored because "Sisko was so different than Picard," being so much easier to provoke. One might speculate that Q's actions were intended to ensure Vash's safety in regards to the promise that he had made to Picard two years earlier. In the end, Q and Vash went their separate ways, though both eventually admitted to retaining a certain fondness for each other. ( DS9 : " Q-Less ")

Q appearing to Picard as "God" in the afterlife

Later that same year, Q appeared to Picard when the latter was critically injured in a Lenarian ambush. Appearing as "God", Q told Picard he died because of his artificial heart and offered him the chance to return to the incident in his youth, which allowed him to relive the events leading up to his near-fatal injury and change history. Though Picard was successful in changing history, he eventually realized the event – and his previous nature as an arrogant, brash young man – was a part of his identity, and had helped mold him into the successful Starfleet officer he became. Even though he was uncertain as to whether the experience had been real or simply a vision, Picard was grateful for Q's revelation. ( TNG : " Tapestry ")

Never-ending trial [ ]

Q congratulating Picard for his method of collapsing the anomaly

In 2370 , Q returned to the Enterprise to continue the trial against Humanity. Claiming the seven-year-old trial never actually ended, Q proclaimed Humanity guilty of "being inferior" and informed Picard that his race was to be destroyed. He sent him traveling through time to his own past and present, as well as to a potential future. In all three time periods, Picard was presented with a temporal paradox in the form of an eruption of anti-time in the Devron system . In that paradox, Picard himself was responsible for the creation of the anomaly, which propagated backward in normal time, anti-time having the opposite properties of normal time, thus destroying Humanity in the past.

In addition to sending Picard jumping through time, Q provided him with hints to understanding the nature of the paradox. Ultimately, Picard determined the solution and devised a way to close the anti-time anomaly in all three time periods. Following the success, Q revealed that the entire experience had been a test devised by the Continuum and had been aimed at determining whether Humanity was capable of expanding its horizons to understand some of the advanced concepts of the universe, including the potential of Humanity's own evolution – but helping Picard had been his idea. Q promised to continue watching Humanity and proclaimed that " the trial never ends. " ( TNG : " All Good Things... ")

Janeway and Voyager [ ]

Q debuting on Voyager

In 2372 , Q was sent by the Continuum to board the USS Voyager , whose crew had unintentionally released a renegade Q from confinement in a rogue comet . When the other Q (later known as "Quinn") asked for asylum on Voyager in order to fulfill his wish to commit suicide , an act considered illegal in the Continuum, Q was permitted to represent the Continuum at a hearing to determine whether the requested asylum would be granted. Q argued that permitting a Q to commit suicide would cause unspeakable chaos and disorder – a profound irony, considering Q's own history as a prankster and renegade. When confronted with his past deeds, Q commented that [his] record has been expunged.

Ultimately, Quinn's arguments prevailed and he was made into a mortal being. Q himself was touched by Quinn's dedication and beliefs – Quinn had previously been an admirer of Q's because of Q's propensity to stir controversy and spread chaos – and actually provided Quinn with the means with which to commit suicide. Q resolved to return to some of his old habits and to encourage the Continuum to allow more chaos into their own order. ( VOY : " Death Wish ")

Following the death of Quinn, a massive Q Civil War broke out as the forces of the status quo resisted the calls for change in the Continuum, by a faction led by Q himself. Seeking to end the conflict, Q devised a plan to mate with Kathryn Janeway , the captain of Voyager , in order to create a new Q / Human hybrid – a new breed of Q that would help bring an end to the civil war. However, Janeway flatly refused.

Q kidnapped Janeway and took her to the Continuum, where he again tried to persuade her by explaining the nature of the conflict. However, Janeway again declined, though she openly sympathized with Q for his inability to understand love and tried to negotiate a truce between the two sides. However, those negotiations failed because the status quo faction refused to accept any terms other than surrender. They tried to execute both Q and Janeway, but they were stopped by personnel from Voyager , with the assistance of Q female , an old flame of Q's. Q and the female Q were able to equip Janeway and the rest of Voyager 's crew with Q weapons , which they were able to use to battle the opposing status quo faction.

Q proposed mating with his old girlfriend instead of with Janeway and she agreed. The new child, nicknamed " Q junior ," became the first child born in the Continuum for millennia and his presence brought an end to the civil war. ( VOY : " The Q and the Grey ")

Q giving Janeway a PADD

Regardless, Q's child did not prove to become the perfect "savior" child he was meant to be; he grew into a spoiled brat and caused chaos and disorder. Q tried to briefly leave his son with "Aunt Kathy" aboard Voyager and hoped that Janeway's "vaunted Starfleet ideals" would rub off on him. Q himself began to learn more about the role of being a parent, revealing that much of Junior's actions were not punished properly by Q. However, after spending years with the child, Junior only began to behave worse. As a result, the Continuum stripped his son of his powers, left him aboard Voyager (again under the care of Janeway), and told him to change his ways within a week or he would be sentenced to spend eternity as an Oprelian amoeba .

Though Q was initially unimpressed by his son's progress, he devised a test of "Q-ness" to determine whether his son had improved his attitude. He masqueraded as a Chokuzan captain and threatened Junior and his friend Icheb after they took the Delta Flyer from Voyager . Junior passed with flying colors and offered to sacrifice himself to face the consequence of his actions, which had endangered Icheb.

However, the Continuum was not impressed by Junior's progress and sentenced him to remain a Human. Outraged, Q proclaimed he would leave the Continuum if his son was not allowed to rejoin – the pair was a "package deal". "Begging for [Q's] return" as a deterrent to instability, Q earlier stated that he "holds them all together", the Continuum acquiesced, on one condition – that Q retain eternal custody of the boy. Grateful for her assistance, Q provided Janeway with a map to a shortcut that would shave three years off Voyager 's journey home. Janeway asked Q why he did not send them all the way back to Earth and his response was that it would be setting a bad example for his son if he did all the work for them. ( VOY : " Q2 ")

The Cerritos [ ]

Q aboard the Cerritos

Q's reputation preceded him aboard the USS Cerritos , when in 2380 , he was referenced by Ensign Brad Boimler in a simile explaining the existence of his girlfriend , Lieutenant Barbara Brinson , whom he described as being "as real as a hopped-up Q on Captain Picard Day ." ( LD : " Cupid's Errant Arrow ")

That same year, he made multiple appearances aboard Cerritos . At one point, while wearing a variation of his judge's garb, he abducted four members of the bridge crew to participate in one of his challenges. He dressed the crew up as chess pieces , and put them on a large chessboard, but had anthropomorphic playing cards holding hockey sticks as the opposing pieces, football goal posts at either end of the game board , and a singing , dancing soccer ball .

After the Cerritos left K'Tuevon Prime , Q appeared before Ensigns Beckett Mariner , Brad Boimler, Sam Rutherford , and D'Vana Tendi to challenge them. Mariner told him they were not in the mood and walked away, even as Q followed them and urged them – in vain – to continue, and lamented that he found Picard to be boring. ( LD : " Veritas ")

The Road Not Taken [ ]

Q appears before Picard following the destruction of the Stargazer

At some point prior to 2401 , Q began to experience a change he believed was impossible: despite everything he believed about the Q as a species, Q was not truly immortal, and he realised that he was going to die. Symptoms of this phenomenon were that Q had begun to lose his powers. Q thought of it as being on "the threshold of the unknowable" and believed that he was about to be "enveloped in the warm glow of meaning" now that his life had a definite end in sight. ( PIC : " Mercy ")

In 2401, three decades after their last encounter, Q visited Picard at his home on Earth . After having ordered USS Stargazer to self-destruct in order to stop the Borg from seizing control of the Starfleet armada, Q had intervened to stop Picard's death. ( PIC : " Penance ") Picard had awoken in his home to find that not only was he alive, but several things had changed. Picard turned to face Q, and Q remarked that Picard was older than he imagined. Snapping his fingers, Q updated his appearance to more closely match the aged Picard and reminded Picard about the words that he imparted to him when they last parted ways, " the trial never ends. " Q reminded Picard about how he had talked about second chances and told him that he was now at the " very end of the road not taken. " ( PIC : " The Star Gazer ")

Following Picard's question as to where they were, Q explained to Picard that he had brought him "home". After Picard inquired about the whereabouts of the Stargazer crew, Q admitted that there was no Stargazer . Picard demanded to know what Q had done, to which Q responded that he had merely shown Picard a world of his own making and stated that it was "Human" of Picard to instead blame him. Picard angrily asked if Q had had enough of playing games with other peoples' lives and exclaimed that he was no longer Q's pawn, to which Q answered that Picard was much more than a pawn – he was instead the " very board upon which this game is played ". When Picard told him that he was too old for Q's "bullshit", Q angrily affirmed that Picard was old, and lamented that time was unfair and had presented Picard with " so many wrinkles... so many disappointments. " Picard demanded that Q get to the point, to " cut to the chase ". Q rambled to Picard about the chase bleeding out and how he was a suture on the wound. Noticing Q's odd behavior, Picard asked Q if he was unwell. Q responded by transporting them both to the vineyard.

At the vineyard, Picard asked again what had happened to the crew of the Stargazer , and Q acknowledged that he had intervened because he had wanted to see him. Picard demanded that Q tell him what he wanted, and Q told him that while he could tell him, Picard was too clever to listen. Picard told Q that he had enough of Q's patronizing, and Q struck Picard, angrily telling Picard that he had had enough of Picard's stubbornness, obstinance, and " insistence on changing in all ways but the one that matters ". Q declared the situation was not a lesson but instead a penance. Q explained that in Picard's original history, Humanity had found a way to spare the planet they were "murdering", but in this timeline, Humanity " keeps the corpse on life support ". Q once again transported Picard back inside the château, where he revealed several alien slaves working for Picard. Despite Picard's insistence that he would never do this, Q stated that " such moral convictions are the luxury of the victors ".

Q offers Picard a choice between remaining as he is, or a chance at "atonement"

Q brought Picard inside the trophy room , explaining the life that Picard had led in this new timeline. Q talked through several of Picard's trophies – including the skulls of Dukat , Martok , and Sarek , all of whom this timeline's Picard had executed in brutal fashion. Q called Picard " the most bloodthirsty, merciless, ruthless Human to ever set out to conquer the galaxy " and asked if Picard wished to see what else had been lost thanks to Picard's fear. He offered Picard a choice: he could remain as he was in this world, trapped inside " the body of a madman, in the world of a madman ", and try to " wash the blood " from his hands for the brutal murders committed by his counterpart – though Q deemed that to be "unwashable". Q offered an alternative: Picard could show atonement, possibly forgiveness. When Picard asked what he would be forgiving, Q answered cryptically that Picard already knew. Q stated that he would not let Picard take this on alone. Picard refused Q's choice and Q left him alone.

Picard would later inform Seven of Nine and Raffaela Musiker of his encounter with Q, and explained that Q would in the past put him to the test using "games" such as the situation they found themselves in. He told them that he felt that there was something wrong with Q, as he was acting stranger than usual.

A Borg Queen held captive in Agnes Jurati 's laboratory was able to perceive the fracture in the timeline and calculated that Q had implemented a single change in the year 2024 to create the current timeline. ( PIC : " Penance ") Q briefly appeared again to Picard aboard CSS La Sirena to repeat his words about this being the only life Picard understood. ( PIC : " Assimilation ")

Q observing Renée Picard, about to attempt to interfere with her mission

Q later observed Renée Picard reading a book before she undertook the Europa Mission . Q attempted to amplify Renée's fear about the upcoming mission, but his powers failed. ( PIC : " Watcher ")

He next attempted to get assistance from Adam Soong , whom he promised to give a cure for his daughter 's genetic disorder . ( PIC : " Fly Me to the Moon ")

During a gala celebrating the Europa Mission, Q, posing as Renée's therapist, encouraged her not to go on the mission and nearly succeeded. However, Picard successfully foiled Q's plan. In response, a desperate Soong tried to run down Renée, only to have Picard take the hit himself in order to save her life. ( PIC : " Two of One ")

Jean-Luc survived and met with Guinan, who performed an El-Aurian ritual in an effort to summon Q. The ritual appeared to fail, and shortly after, Guinan and Jean-Luc were arrested by a team of FBI agents led by Martin Wells . ( PIC : " Monsters ") Q had heard the summons, however, and visited Guinan in prison, where she realized that Q was dying. Q imparted to her that he was trying to find meaning in his remaining time, and that he was using Jean-Luc as a means to that end. He also demonstrated his loss of power by attempting unsuccessfully to vaporize Guinan. Q left with a parting statement that Humans were " all trapped in the past ", which gave Guinan the clue she needed in order for Jean-Luc to pry into Agent Wells' past in order to secure their release. ( PIC : " Mercy ")

Q later hacked himself into a virtual reality program operated by Kore Soong, to reveal to her the truth and offer himself as an ally, in spite of Adam Soong not keeping his end of their bargain. Kore removed the VR headset to end the conversation, but Q had left the permanent cure – labeled "freedom" – in the airlock for her. ( PIC : " Mercy ")

Q before his "death"

After the success of the Europa Mission and the restoration of the original timeline, Picard encountered Q in his home after leaving the skeleton key for his younger self to find in the future. Q noted that although Picard had the chance to potentially save his mother and change his own future, he instead accepted himself as he was and absolved himself. Because Picard had chosen himself, he may now be worthy for someone else to choose and he may even give himself the chance to be loved. Q reminded Picard that he'd told Picard that this was about forgiveness: Picard's own forgiveness of himself. Q stated that Picard had fixed all of the deaths that Q had caused by altering the timeline aside from Tallinn and Elnor . However, Tallinn was always destined to die in every timeline, but thanks to Picard's intervention, Tallinn had met Renée in this one. Picard asked why Q had taken such an interest in him for over thirty years and Q explained that he was dying alone and he didn't want that for Picard. Q had elaborated: " Even gods have favorites and you've always been one of mine. " As such, he had set it up so that Picard would travel back in time and in a round about way come to terms with his mother's death and absolve himself of his perceived responsibility for the event. " As I leave, I leave you free. " For once, Q was not acting as part of some grander design but simply because he cared about Picard and genuinely wanted to help his friend.

Gathering outside, Q prepared to use the last of his power to send Picard and his friends back to their own time, something that would kill Q in his weakened state. With Rios choosing to stay in 2024, Q told Picard that he had an unexpected surplus of energy that he would use to give Picard one last surprise gift. Stating that Q didn't have to die alone, Picard hugged him and an emotional Q promised to " see you out there " and snapped his fingers, sending Picard, Musiker, and Seven back to 2401 moments before the Stargazer 's destruction, allowing Picard the chance to change his future. Shortly thereafter, the group discovered Q's final gift: Q had resurrected Elnor and returned him to the Excelsior . ( PIC : " Farewell ")

Visiting Jack Crusher [ ]

Q in Jack Crusher's quarters aboard the USS Enterprise -G

In 2402 , Q appeared to Jack aboard the USS Enterprise -G . Jack immediately recognized the being, having heard about Q from his father Jean-Luc Picard . Jack was surprised as Q was supposed to be dead, but Q simply stated that he was hoping that "the next generation wouldn't think [time] so linearly", and told him that Jack had much ahead of him. While humanity's trial was over for Picard, Q was here to inform Jack that his trial had only just begun. ( PIC : " The Last Generation ")

Q's disguises [ ]

Locations "created" by Q [ ]

• A post-atomic horror courtroom of 2079 ( TNG : " Encounter at Farpoint ", " All Good Things... ")
• The planet of the animal things ( TNG : " Hide And Q ")
• Sherwood Forest ( TNG : " Qpid ")
• The afterlife ( TNG : " Tapestry ")
• The puzzle planetoid ( LD : " Veritas ")

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• " Encounter at Farpoint " ( Season 1 )
• " Hide And Q "
• " Q Who " ( Season 2 )
• " Deja Q " ( Season 3 )
• " Qpid " ( Season 4 )
• " True Q " ( Season 6 )
• " Tapestry "
• " All Good Things... " ( Season 7 )
• DS9 : " Q-Less " ( Season 1 )
• " Death Wish " ( Season 2 )
• " The Q and the Grey " ( Season 3 )
• " Q2 " ( Season 7 )
• LD : " Veritas "
• " The Star Gazer " ( Season 2 )
• " Penance "
• " Assimilation "
• " Watcher "
• " Fly Me to the Moon "
• " Two of One " ( flashback ; archive footage)
• " Farewell "
• " The Last Generation " ( Season 3 )

Background information [ ]

Filming Q's scene in The Next Generation series finale " All Good Things... "

Q was played by John de Lancie ; Q as the Chozukan commander was played by Michael Kagan .

The idea of Q was conceived by Gene Roddenberry as a way to help fill out the events of "Encounter at Farpoint" from a one-hour to two-hour running time. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , p. 28) The name "Q" was chosen by Roddenberry in honor of an English Star Trek fan named Janet Quarton. She was the first president of the UK Star Trek fan club, and Roddenberry and many others spent time at her home, in the Scottish highlands. ( Star Trek Encyclopedia  (4th ed., vol. 2, p. 191); [1] )

Immediately after Roddenberry invented the character of Q, the other members of the TNG preproduction staff realized it was very reminiscent of the character Trelane from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode " The Squire of Gothos ". " We're all looking at each other, saying, 'It's Trelane [from the original series] all over again,' " remembered David Gerrold . " We all hated it and very gently suggested to Gene that it wasn't very good. Of course, this fell on deaf ears. He said, 'Trust me, the way I'll do it, the fans will love it.' " ( The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years , p. 67)

In an interview, de Lancie likewise drew parallels between Q and Trelane, feeling Gene Roddenberry had explored his storehouse of effective creations in writing The Next Generation and had found one that would turn out to be highly successful again in The Next Generation . [2] In another interview, de Lancie stated that, upon thinking of ways to describe Q's character, he had remembered a famous quote made about Lord Byron : That he was "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." ( Star Trek 25th Anniversary Special )

Minimal makeup was used for the character of Q. " We always defined Q with a little eye makeup and a little lip color, just to make him stand out, " recalled Makeup Supervisor Michael Westmore . ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , p. 26)

Production designer Herman Zimmerman was influential in the depiction of Q as a judge presiding over a courtroom . In the script of "Encounter at Farpoint," Q seemed to be floating in that area, though none of the production crew could figure out precisely how to show Q floating without resorting to visual effects for every one of those shots. Ultimately, Zimmerman suggested putting de Lancie on a camera crane and bringing him into the courtroom out of a black hole, which was exactly how Q's arrival in that scene was shot. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , p. 30)

The depiction of Q in "Encounter at Farpoint" turned out to be extremely popular. Yar actress Denise Crosby commented, " The character of Q, and the way John de Lancie was playing it, was really interesting. " Rick Berman noted, " I think [Q] was certainly the most memorable element of that opening episode. " "Encounter at Farpoint" Director Corey Allen remarked, " Q was so clearly a wonderful idea of Gene's, about the questions we all ask ourselves; he was the interrogator that each of us carries on our shoulder. " Herman Zimmerman observed that his idea of having Q arrive in the courtroom on a camera crane "worked very well." ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , pp. 19, 28, & 30)

Though a first draft script of TNG Season 1 episode " Hide And Q " that Maurice Hurley penned was substantially rewritten by Gene Roddenberry, the character of Q still intrigued Hurley thereafter. He thought of Q as an unreliable god and subsequently intended for him to feature in a story arc through the second season . Due to a writers' strike though, he was only returned in the Season 2 episode " Q Who " before Hurley left the series. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , pp. 52 & 53)

Rob Bowman , who got an opportunity to direct de Lancie as Q in "Q Who," enjoyed the experience, finding that de Lancie was easy to direct in the role. " He really had a grasp of the peculiarities of that character, " Bowman remarked. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , p. 95)

Though Q was a recurring character over a relatively long time, he was used sparingly by the Star Trek producers in case fans got tired of him. Gowron actor Robert O'Reilly once likened these circumstances to his own situation, regarding his portrayal of Gowron. ( The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine  issue 16 , p. 22) Writing staffer Ronald D. Moore commented, " Q was a fascinating character, but I thought that he should be carefully rationed through the series. I thought if you played him about once a season, that was the most you wanted to use him. " ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 90, p. 17)

Devising Q stories challenged the writing staff of Star Trek: The Next Generation due to the character's omnipotence. Q could not be made completely into an adversary as he could simply wipe all the characters out of existence. The fact he was intended to be all-powerful also raised the question of why he even bothered with Humans and their allies. Both Ronald D. Moore and Jeri Taylor found it difficult to write for the character, though Moore also regarded doing so as "fun" because Q's extreme powers allowed the writers a wide variety of stories they could feature him in. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 113 , p. 68)

Patrick Stewart and John de Lancie during the filming of " Tapestry "

Following Q's appearance in " Q-Less ", the possibility of him making another visit to DS9 was dismissed by Ira Steven Behr , when he remarked, " I don't foresee Q being back on the show. To me, his relationship with Picard was gold. And I don't think we can top it. " ( AOL chat , 1997 ) Ron Moore agreed, " The secret to Q was the Q and Picard relationship. Q was in love with Picard, for some reason. That was the underpinning of the relationship, which was why, when he came to Deep Space Nine , he wasn't as effective a character. The weird love affair that he had going with Jean-Luc made that whole thing work, and it made ' Tapestry ' work, and ultimately it made ' All Good Things... ' work. " ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 90, p. 17)

Q was originally rumored to make an appearance in Star Trek: Insurrection ; however, Michael Piller ultimately put those rumors to rest. ( AOL chat , 1997 )

In 2002 , Q placed eleventh in TV Zone 's list of the top twenty science fiction television villains, along with several other Star Trek characters; the Borg Queen was second, Dukat was fourth, Weyoun was eighth, and Seska was nineteenth. However, despite his listing, Q is not necessarily a villain, but more of an anti-hero.

Along with Quark, Morn , and Evek , Q is one of only four characters to appear in all of the first three Star Trek series based in the 24th century : Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , and Star Trek: Voyager . Of these four, Q is the only one who did not appear in " Caretaker ".

Of the thirteen Star Trek episodes featuring Q prior to Star Trek: Picard Season 2 , eight of them use the letter "Q" in the title, often forming a pun.

In " Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad ", having Harcourt Fenton Mudd say " Adieu, mon capitaine " to Captain Gabriel Lorca was intended as an homage to Q. [3]

Q was the first character to ever use the word "trek" in a Star Trek film or episode, which he does in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series finale "All Good Things...". However, Zefram Cochrane is the only character to utter the phrase "star trek," doing so in Star Trek: First Contact .

Apocrypha [ ]

According to Q in the String Theory books, omnipotent beings were actually rather fond of games of choice and chance as it was only under those conditions that beings such as Q could feel the thrill of not being in total control.

Besides the character of Trelane having been an inspiration on the conception of Q in reality, they were both featured in Q-Squared , in which Trelane was actually described as a "child" member of the Q Continuum, even implied to be Q's own illegitimate son.

The reason for Q's original interest in Picard in particular was explained in the novel The Buried Age , which also revealed he chose to call himself "Q" as he felt that his original choice of 'The Inquisitor' would be too complicated for Humans to say regularly, speculating that, if ever asked why he called himself 'Q', he would reply, "Because U will always be behind me."

The audio play " Spock Vs. Q: The Sequel " suggested there was at least one individual "above" Q, naming herself "Petunia", who, in the play, seemed to have taken Q's powers and placed him, together with Spock, on an asteroid.

In the novel Q-in-Law , Q meets Lwaxana Troi who developed romantic feelings toward him when the two came to the Enterprise during a significant wedding in 2366. Q used this to his advantage to perform a cruel experiment on the nature of the Human emotion of love and Q briefly shared his vast power with Lwaxana. When Q was finished with his experiment to prove that love made others blind to faults in their chosen partner and fixated on their own desires, citing as proof how Lwaxana had ignored all the warnings that he would do exactly this, he tried to take the power back without success. Lwaxana used her power to thoroughly humiliate Q as he had humiliated her. It was later revealed that Q2 was responsible for preventing Q from removing Lwaxana's powers as a way to teach Q another lesson about interfering in the lives of mortals.

Q returned in the Star Trek: Ongoing story arc The Q Gambit . Beginning shortly after the events of Star Trek: Countdown , Q visits Picard on board the USS Enterprise -E , informing Picard that Spock was still alive and that the black hole he was pulled into actually sent him into an alternate reality . When Q tries to discuss this timeline, Picard cuts him off, believing that the various timelines should remain separate from one another. Annoyed, Q reveals he had come for Picard's counsel as Spock had set off a chain of events that would doom that timeline. But since the former captain was uninterested, Q took his leave for the other timeline despite Picard's attempt to call him back. Materializing aboard the USS Enterprise on Stardate 2261.34 , Q introduces himself to James T. Kirk by way of masquerading as a security officer (and complimenting the shiny aesthetic of the ship).

To test Kirk's established lack of belief in a " no-win scenario ", Q replicates the Kobayashi Maru scenario in an attempt to teach Kirk that no-win scenarios are a reality. Kirk is undaunted and reveals that no matter what, he does not believe in a no-win scenario. Q takes them both back in time to when Kirk died saving the Enterprise . As the two watch the event, Q asks Kirk if this constitutes Kirk beating the ultimate no-win scenario before revealing he will show Kirk a scenario where failure is a certainty. He then sends the Enterprise and its crew over a hundred years into the future where the Federation no longer exists and the Dominion established an alliance with the Cardassian Union and took over the Alpha Quadrant while existing in a state of cold war against the Klingon Empire .

Q sporadically appears to Kirk throughout the adventure, offering vague advice as well as assuring that he and his crew would not be confined to these dire circumstances forever. After Gul Dukat had merged with a Pah-wraith and intended to ascend to godhood, Q finally appears to Kirk and reveals to him the true magnitude of the stakes: The higher species are at war and the Q Continuum is on the verge of defeat. Galvanized by their victory over the Prophets , the Pah-wraiths have turned on their other neighbors. Not even the Q can stop their onslaught because in spite of all the power they wield in the three-dimensional universe , they are as powerless and clueless as Humans in their own realm. Unable to find a path to victory, Q left to seek the counsel of Picard on what action to take. But when he could not get an answer, Q intended to instead seek the counsel of Kirk for his experience in triumphing over no-win scenarios.

When Q, Kirk, Spock , and Sisko are brought aboard the Enterprise as prisoners, Dukat kills Sisko, who transfers the last Prophet to Spock, and Spock then transfers the Prophet into Q through a mind meld . This causes the two to merge into an even more powerful entity, one readily capable of quelling the Pah-wraith threat. After returning the Enterprise and its crew back to their proper places in time and making it so that only Kirk and Spock remember what happened throughout their ordeal, Q returns to Picard to inform him of his latest adventure. Flatly, Picard said he did not want to know.

In " Connection, Part 1 ", Q is mentioned when Kirk switches minds with his prime timeline counterpart and Kirk initially assumes Q was messing with him again, with a confused Chekov asking who Q is.

John de Lancie shared his own origin story for the Q in an interview following the conclusion of his arc in Star Trek: Picard : " I gave myself a story, which was, Plato’s Cave. “There’s a cave with an entrance [that] the sunlight goes through, there are humans who are chained inside the cave and can only see the wall of the cave. Therefore, everything that goes in front of the cave becomes a projection on the wall. So they are only seeing shadows. Continuing the story, one of them breaks his chains, goes out to the entrance, goes outside, and goes ‘Oh, my God, that is reality – that is truth out there.’ Comes back, [and] tells the humans, ‘These are just shadows, I’m a philosopher now, I’m giving you the truth.’ And of course, they kill him. So I had in my head, what are the Q? The Q are in fact the [people] who are chained, who watch the wall. We are the witnesses, but we are only seeing the shadows. So what have I done? I’m the one who has broken out. And I’m traipsing through the universe trying to actually get the real deal. That was my backstory. " [4]

Q and the Q Continuum appeared in the following non- canon works:

• Spock Vs. Q
• Spock Vs. Q: The Sequel
• Star Trek: Borg - Experience the Collective
• #9: Requiem
• #13: Gods Above
• The Buried Age
• The Eternal Tide
• Encounter at Farpoint
• All Good Things...
• Q's Guide to the Continuum
• " All Good Things... "
• #3: " Q Factor "
• #4: " Q's Day "
• #5: " Q Affects! "
• #33: " The Way of the Warrior "
• #34: " Devil's Brew! "
• #35: " The Dogs of War "
• #79: " Artificiality "
• #80: " The Abandoned "
• Annual #1: " The Gift "
• Star Trek Unlimited #7: " An Infinite Jest "
• " The Q Gambit, Part 1 "
• " The Q Gambit, Part 2 "
• " The Q Gambit, Part 3 "
• " The Q Gambit, Part 4 "
• " The Q Gambit, Part 5 "
• " The Q Gambit, Part 6 "
• Star Trek: Borg
• Star Trek: The Game Show
• Star Trek: ConQuest Online
• Star Trek Online
• Star Trek Timelines

External links [ ]

• Q at StarTrek.com
• Q at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Q at Wikipedia
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

Den of Geek

Star Trek: Picard – Finale Explained and Season 3 Teases

Executive Producer Akiva Goldsman breaks down the big reveals of the Star Trek: Picard season 2 finale and what they mean for the show’s final season.

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Warning: This artic​​le contains Star Trek: Picard season 2 finale spoilers. 

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 10

Star Trek: Picard season 2 started with small, intimate moments, and in the end that’s where it ended. Along the way though Picard and the rest of the gang (are they even technically a crew?) went to an alternate universe, time traveled, prevented history from being altered, and even gave us some perfect moments where Raffi and Seven lived up to the motto, “be gay, do crimes.”

The final episode answered most of our questions but it’s fair if some of the big twists and reveals left you a bit confused. We sat down with Picard executive producer (and co-writer of the season finale) Akiva Goldsman to clear up some of these points. He even gave us some little hints of how it all will tie together with the show’s third and final season.

Does Q Love Picard?

Picard and Q have shared a strange relationship since the beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation . For all the grief Q’s given Jean-Luc through the years he’s also helped him learn more about himself, such as the classic episode “Tapestry” where he let Picard see where another path in life would have taken him. This season of Picard started with the two at each other’s throats but ended with something that felt strangely tender, as Q tells Picard that even god’s have their favorites, as he warmly holds Picard’s face. 

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So is Q… in love with Picard?

Goldsman agrees that the final scene the two shared was supposed to be tender.

“I think he always has [loved him].”

Many of the ideas for the season sprung out of, as Goldsman explained to us when the show premiered , Picard’s lack of long term relationships. The writers realized that Picard and Q, as antagonistic as they’d been, had shared a long term relationship.

“Why is Q constantly chasing after Picard?” Goldsman asked himself. “I think it is because in his own god-like way, Q loved him.”

That love manifested in sending Picard on this mission through time in order to give him the “wisdom of insight.” The experiences as a whole helped Picard learn to love again and open himself up to others. 

Is Q Really Dead?

Q confirms to Picard that he’s dying and his last act before that is to send Picard and the others back, along with reviving Elnor. Does this mean Q is gone for good? Goldsman believes that “for now, Q is gone.”

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Of course in a long running franchise like Star Trek , death, especially for a god being, isn’t always permanent. However for the purposes of Star Trek: Picard , it seems Q is finally gone.

Picard and His Mom

That “wisdom of insight” Q gave Jean-Luc centered on learning more about his father and particularly his mother. For years Picard blamed his father for her death but it was revealed that she had actually committed suicide. All of this left deep scars on Picard, ones the writers were eager to explore as they hadn’t been previously touched on in the franchise.

“Trauma’s always a nice source of storytelling,” Goldsman explains. “It’s a strange thing to say but when you’re dealing with a character who’s 100, you can’t be facing something that happened last Thursday. You need to really be looking into something that’s going to impacting a life lived for that long.”

The time travel element of the story also helped reflect how people can get, “stuck in places in our life. By solving that trauma, we solve the story then we move forward.”

Some hardcore fans were left scratching their heads at this new backstory for Jean-Luc, particularly because in the first season TNG episode “Where No One Has Gone Before” we were shown a vision of Picard’s mother who was noticeably older. In Picard season 2, his mother died at a much younger age.

Goldsman reveals that they had planned to reference this discrepancy, with Picard imagining his mother as we’d seen her in the vision but it was “scrapped.” Goldsman and the other writers reasoned that the vision Picard had in that first season TNG episode, “was a fantasy” of what Picard had wished his mother had been like. (Some fans may point out a photo of Picard’s mother that depicted her as older was in Picard’s family album in Star Trek: Generations but it is barely seen on screen if at all.)

The Return of Wesley Crusher

Like all Star Trek these days, Picard was filled to the brim with Easter eggs and references but one that took everyone off guard was a cameo by former Next Generation character Wesley Crusher. At the end of that series he went off with The Traveler to explore the universe and, barring a blink and you’ll miss it cameo in Star Trek: Nemesis , hasn’t been seen again.

Here he reappears to Kore Soong and offers her a chance to work with him. It seems in the years since we’ve seen Wesley he’s not just been traveling the galaxy but keeping an eye on the timeline as well. 

The return of Wesley was an element the producers of Picard had been discussing for a long time but it wasn’t easy. Goldsman previously explained to us that all the showrunners of the various Trek shows get together and lay out their plans and during some of these meetings Goldsman and the Picard team had to fight to use Wesley.

“Never ever have I seen shows be fighting over a character the way they were Wesley,” he says. “Getting Wesley was such a big deal because he’s for us really important.”

But would all this fighting over the character happen for just a cameo? Does this explain why actor Wil Wheaton was noticeably absent from the returning TNG cast members for Picard Season 3 ? Was it all to disguise this cameo and Wesley will have a bigger role to play next season? Goldsman wouldn’t say but we have a suspicion this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Wesley.

The Travelers and Gary Seven

This season of Picard hasn’t just mined the well of TNG’s history but all of Star Trek. An intriguing pull was the idea that time traveler/secret agent Gary Seven, a famous one-off TOS character who was set to star in his own spin-off, was part of a much larger group that we got to see more of in Picard . Wesley’s appearance and the recruiting of Kore into the same group Gary Seven was a part of seemed to indicate that the beings overseeing it are The Travelers.

Goldsman confirms that this was the intent and that it’s part of trying to line up some of the different time traveling groups over the franchise.

“There are so many folks out there who seem to be screwing around with the timeline. Let’s at least line them up. That’s our full on retcon.”

The Transwarp Conduit

The biggest dangling story thread of the season involves a newly opened Transwarp Conduit thanks to the Federation and the Borg teaming up. A Transwarp Conduit that’s so big it’s something even Seven has never seen before. Goldsman is very tight-lipped about what this will mean for the future but hints that, “maybe there’s some setup there” for the future. 

A giant transwarp conduit, the Borg joining the Federation, and Picard finding new love? Plus we’ve got the announced return of the TNG cast? Picard season 3 has a lot of ground to cover.

Shamus Kelley | @ShamusWrites

For more from Shamus including original TV scripts visit www.ShamusKelley.com. He’s been a TV writer since 2009 when he created and executive produced the 21 JSR…

Q’s Plan in Star Trek: Picard, Explained

With Star Trek: Picard Season 2 having ended, what exactly was Q's master plan in the Paramount+ series and why did it ultimately fail?

The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 10, "Farewell," which premiered Thursday, May 5 on Paramount+.

From the first minutes of Star Trek: The Next Generation , Captain Jean-Luc Picard has been plagued by the cosmic entity known as Q. It was no surprise to fans when John de Lancie reprised his role as Q opposite Patrick Stewart's Picard to renew their rivalry with a season-long arc in Star Trek: Picard . With Season 2 having concluded, fans can now look back on Q's master plan to literally change space and time.

The second season of Picard has been difficult for fans to followbecause of the time-travel scenarios therein. Some time-travel shows (such as 12 Monkeys , the series co-created by current Picard showrunner Terry Matalas that included an Impractical Jokers cameo ) have very strict rules. They take great pains to explain how and why certain things work and don’t work. In Picard , the rules remain vague. How or even why Q changed the past to create the nightmarish future the crew of La Sirena fled is elusive, even after the finale. Q's seemingly magical behavior is at odds with the science of Star Trek .

RELATED: Star Trek: Picard Fundamentally Changes Q

Season 2 eventually reveals that Q is dying. It seems like it’s just de Lancie's Q, but then it may be the entire Q Continuum facing its mortality. This wraps up a possible future plot hole for Star Trek: Discovery or any other post- Picard series. The Q have only been active in the known galaxy for about 30 years. To an eternal, omnipotent being, 30 years is a short distraction at the end of the line. As the Q “move on,” as the character puts it in the finale, it will explain why there are no Q in the future. An increasingly unstable Q simply messed with Picard and Captain Kathryn Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager a few times because they interested him.

After showcasing cruel fates for many familiar faces , Q reveals that his main goal was to get Picard to accept himself. Q has always been that kind of adversary that is as much friend as he is foe. Yet when Picard puts the skeleton key behind that loose rock in the past for him to find in the future, it’s a big moment. Picard Season 2, Episode 9, "Hide and Seek" reveals that key was used to free his mother from a locked room -- before she took her own her life. Picard blamed himself for that, and much of his story during the season focused on him forgiving himself.

RELATED: Star Trek: Picard Provides Tragic Motivation for Jean-Luc's Heroism

Naturally, Picard asks Q the questions that fans ask every time he shows up: why is he doing what he’s doing, and what is so special about Jean-Luc Picard? The answer to both is simply that he “matters’ to Q. “Even gods have favorites,” he says, “and you’ve always been one of mine.” He wanted to give Picard the chance to free himself from a lifetime of grief and regret over his mother’s death. In hiding the key for his younger self to find in the future, Picard accepted his fate and freed himself from that blame. To Q, this is an important step that Picard needs to take to move forward.

“You chose the Jean-Luc you are….and because you choose him, perhaps he will now be worthy of someone else to choose,” Q tells him. Q doesn’t want to die alone; he also doesn’t want that for Picard who throughout canon has mostly avoided the kind of romantic entanglements other Enterprise captains sought with vigor. “Maybe you will give [yourself] the chance to be loved,” Q says. Season 2 seems like a lot to go through just to get Picard to forgive himself. Tallinn and Elnor -- who both died on this mission -- may think so. But Q has an answer for that, too.

RELATED: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Is The One We've Been Waiting For

Picard explains that Tallinn “dies in every timeline,” but the one that just unfolded in Season 2 is the only one in which she meets the woman she protected for decades. Elnor? Well, since Rios decided to stay in the past when Q sent them all home, he had some spare energy with his dying gesture to revive him. The moment Rios returns them to is the one viewers left in Picard Season 2, Episode 1, "The Star Gazer." The Borg have arrived, and Picard is about to blow up the USS Stargazer to prevent them from taking the ship.

One difference this time is that Q's dealings with Dr. Soong freed Kore from him and gave her a life of her own. In their conversation, Picard asks Q if there is a matter of galactic import he’s needed for in the future. Q chastises him, asking if one life is not “enough” to justify saving it. But there is a bigger development at hand -- a trans-warp tube opens in the center of the galaxy. It’s much larger than any the Borg have ever used, and it's about to expend a massive amount of energy throughout the galaxy, killing trillions.

RELATED: Is Star Trek: Picard Ruining Its Own Redemption Story?

The Borq Queen is revealed to be not the original Queen but the object of her obsession Agnes Jurati, now fully integrated into the Collective but still herself. Jurati's Queen has a plan to “harmonize” the shield of the Starfleet and Borg ships in the area to absorb the energy from this trans-warp tube. Her plan works and also ends with the Borg -- the most hated and evil villains in the Star Trek franchise -- being given provisional Federation membership to help stand guard against this new, mysterious threat.

Q is the closest thing that Star Trek had to a god, and Star Trek: Picard Season 2 made it seem as if he was finally going to conquer time and space. However, the latter half of the season revealed the truth. He was helping Picard move forward in his life while also preparing him and his allies to save the galaxy. Not a bad last run for the mischievous antagonist -- something fans might even call heroic.

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is now streaming on Paramount+.

The Untold Truth Of Q From Star Trek

He's an enigmatic, seemingly omnipotent being who manipulates people like they're chess pieces. He's a mischievous trickster who can go anywhere and be anything in our three-dimensional space. He's Q — no other name necessary — and he's proven himself to be both a  great ally and antagonist within the Star Trek franchise .

Played by classically trained actor John de Lancie, Q is easily one of Star Trek 's most iconic creations — even though he's only appeared in 13 episodes to date in multiple Star Trek television series. Nevertheless, it sometimes seems Q is everywhere, thanks to all the Star Trek novels, comics, audio books, and video games he's popped up in.

With John de Lancie set to reappear as Q in  season 2 of Star Trek: Picard , now's a perfect time to get up close and personal with this omnipotent trickster and find out what makes him tick. Be warned though: de Lancie himself has claimed that Q, much like the infamous English poet Lord Byron, is "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." With that in mind, let's delve into the many secrets of Star Trek' s Q.

Q is named after a Star Trek fan

At first glance, Q's name seems ridiculously simple. It's just one letter — how hard could it have been to come up with? But according to the 4th edition of the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the story behind Q's designation has a curious link with the Star Trek fandom.

Q was named by none other than Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who chose the unusual alias in honor of his friend Janet Quarton. A  long-time Star Trek fan , Quarton was the president of the Star Trek Action Group (STAG), an early Star Trek fan club. She also helped publish  Star Trek fanzines and organize Star Trek conventions in Britain. Her involvement in the Star Trek fan community caught the attention of Gene Roddenberry who corresponded closely with Quarton over the years.

Later, when Roddenberry helmed Star Trek: The Next Generation, he decided to name the new series' first antagonist after the last initial of his friend — and John de Lancie was dubbed "Q" for the series' pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint." Given how much future Star Trek fandom would embrace the superbeing, it seems only appropriate that a fan helped name him.

He's not the only Q

John de Lancie may be the face of Q for Star Trek fans, but the truth is he's not the only member of his species — nor do all members of the Q act like him. Over the years, fans have seen many different "Q" entities who all belong to the "Q Continuum," an extra-dimensional plane of existence.

Where de Lancie's Q comes across as a trickster figure, other Qs are more benevolent. In the  Star Trek: Voyager season 2 episode "Death Wish," the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager encounters a Q who's been subtly influencing human society for the better — making sure an apple fell on Sir Isaac Newton's head to inspire his theory of gravity and saving Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes)'s ancestor during the Civil War. Other Q members prefer to live quietly, including a couple who disguised themselves as humans and had a daughter,  Amanda Rogers (Olivia d'Abo) , in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6 episode "True Q."

In fact, in "Death Wish," it's revealed that most of Q society is bored with their immortality and power, which helps explain why de Lancie's Q likes hanging out with human beings so much — they're much more fun than his own people.

Q is very similar to a classic Star Trek antagonist

When Gene Roddenberry first came up with the idea to put Q in the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, other members of the writing team hated the character and advised him not to use him in the pilot.

Why? According to the Star Trek reference book, The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years — From the Next Generation to J.J. Abrams, the team saw Q as a copy of Trelane, a character who appears in the original Star Trek season 1 episode "The Squire of Gothos." In the story,  Captain Kirk and his crew encounter a powerful alien named Trelane (William Campbell) who makes the Enterprise crew his playthings. Although Trelane appears all-powerful, we learn he's the child of two other omnipotent beings who make him stop bothering the U.S.S. Enterprise.

While similar to Trelane, both Roddenberry and de Lancie worked to make Q a unique entity. Nevertheless, fans continue to see the parallels and non-canon Star Trek media makes links between the two. In his novel Q-Squared, writer Peter David reveals Trelane is, in fact, another member of the Q Continuum. Then in the Star Trek comic book storyline "The Q Conflict," Q assembles a team of omnipotent beings including Trelane to make multiple Star Trek crews battle in a cosmic-level game.

Q can make other people omnipotent

Q's powers are immense, which he's repeatedly demonstrated throughout his appearances throughout the Star Trek franchise. With a snap of his fingers, Q can teleport himself and anyone else to any place or time. He can rewrite the very fabric of our universe — moving asteroids or even creating pocket realities. And he's nearly omniscient, claiming in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3 episode "Deja Q" that he has "an IQ of 2005."

And thanks to his powers, Q can give anyone the abilities of a god — which he does to  Commander William Riker in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 episode "Hide and Q." Riker gains the ability to transport his crew mates anywhere he wants without relying on their usual transporter technology. He resurrects Worf (Michael Dorn) from the dead, ages teenager Wesley Crusher (Will Wheaton) to an adult, and even gives blind Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) natural vision.

However, every member of the Enterprise rejects Riker's "gifts" (although Worf does get to stay alive), causing Riker to reject his new powers. And it's a good thing too. Q only gave Riker god-like abilities as part of a bet he had with Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). By choosing not to be a Q-level entity, Q is forced to leave the Enterprise alone — although he does find enough loopholes to make multiple return visits.

Q isn't all-powerful

While Q might appear to be an all-knowing and all-powerful god to some, the truth is he doesn't have limitless powers. Other members of the Q Continuum can overpower Q or even strip him of his powers, as they did in the episode "Deja Q" by turning him into an ordinary human being with back problems.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 4 episode "Qpid," Q transports the Enterprise crew to a pocket reality where Picard becomes Robin Hood, his crew becomes his Merry Men, and Q himself adopts the guise of the Sheriff of Nottingham. As he explains the rules of his new game, Q reveals that he's given this reality a life of its own and not even he can predict what will happen. This shows that Q is not omnipotent or omniscient, as a truly all-powerful being could not create something capable of overpowering or outsmarting him.

Indeed, this quasi-omnipotence may be the one saving grace for the Q, as involving themselves in games of chance gives them the thrill of not knowing what will happen next.

Star Trek's Q once became super-omnipotent

Q may have been at the mercy of the Q Continuum in many of his early appearances, but a non-canonical comic book storyline shows that he once became super-omnipotent — thanks to  J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot .

In the IDW Star Trek story "The Q Gambit," Q journeys to the Kelvin timeline of the Abrams' films where the younger alternate versions of Captain Kirk and Spock are having their own adventures. Q transports the crew forward into the future where they meet alternate versions of Benjamin Sisko and the crew from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

Although this seems to be another one of Q's games, the trickster later reveals the Q-Continuum is in a war against another extra-dimensional race, the malevolent Deep Space Nine  villains, the Pah-Wraiths, whose power allows them to fight the Q. To stop them, Spock engineers a situation where Q merges with a member of the Pah-Wraiths' ancient enemy The Prophets. Q evolves into a supremely powerful being who eliminates the Pah-Wraiths with a wave of his hand, and then pops back into the Prime Star Trek universe to show off his super-godly powers to Jean-Luc Picard.

Let's be real: Q is in love with Jean-Luc Picard

Jean-Luc Picard may treat Q with annoyance, but Q has a unique affection for Picard. In "Deja Q," Q admits, "in all the universe, you're the closest thing I have to a friend, Jean-Luc." Data (Brent Spiner) also observes in the  Star Trek: The Next Generation series finale "All Good Things..." that, "Q's interest in you has always been very similar to that of a master and his beloved pet" before hastily adding, "That was only an analogy, Captain."

However, in the season 6 episode "Tapestry," Q indicates his interest in Picard goes beyond mere fondness when he  shows up in Picard's bed and wakes him with the words, "Morning, darling." The same episode has Q transport a dying Picard back to his Starfleet Academy days so the captain can gain a better appreciation for the mistakes of his past. This indicates Q views himself as Picard's guardian angel, albeit an impish one, who has a special love for the one he calls "Mon Capitane."

Screenwriter Ron Moore agrees, noting in Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection #90 that, "Q was in love with Picard, for some reason. That was the underpinning of the relationship... The weird love affair that he had going with Jean-Luc made that whole thing work."

Q is a lousy boyfriend and father

Sadly, when it comes to showing affection, Q's ego inevitably gets in the way of his relationships. In the Star Trek: Voyager season 3 episode "The Q and the Grey," Q's girlfriend "Lady Q" (Suzie Plankson) shows up when Q flirts with Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). The two have been a couple for four billion years, but Q emphasizes, " I never said it was exclusive " while bragging that he uses his omnipotence to seduce females across the galaxy.

In the episode, Q and his girlfriend are on opposite sides of a Q civil war, causing their relationship problems to threaten the universe with multiple supernova explosions. Q's idea to end the war is to impregnate Janeway and adding human DNA to the Continuum — an idea the Voyager captain roundly rejects. However, Janeway convinces Q to have a child with Lady Q instead, leading to a truce between the two factions.

Unfortunately, Q turns out to be a lousy father and in the Star Trek: Voyager season 7 episode "Q2," his son "Q Junior" (played by de Lancie's real-life son Keegan de Lancie) becomes a juvenile delinquent who starts wars, tampers with gene pools, and punches holes in space time. To get him to reform, Q strips Junior of his powers and dumps him on Voyager, where Junior makes friends and learns to value life. While this is good for the universe, it shows Q still tries to get other people to solve his problems instead of dealing with them himself.

Q really hates the Enterprise's bartender (and she hates him back)

Q's antics have earned him plenty of enemies across the universe, but oddly enough, one of the people who hates him the most is the  Enterprise's beloved bartender Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) . One of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's most serene and level-headed characters, Guinan reveals in "Q Who" that she has had "some dealings" with Q during the 22nd century that left them enemies. Q himself dislikes Guinan, calling her an "imp" and warning that wherever Guinan went, trouble follows.

Guinan gets a chance to strike back at Q in the season 3 episode "Deja Q" when the Q Continuum strips Q of his powers and renders him a mere human. Taking the opportunity to taunt the powerless Q, Guinan takes a fork and stabs him in the hand. Shortly after, one of Q's other enemies, the Calamarain, attacks him. As he screams in pain, Guinan only smirks and comments, "How the mighty have fallen."

Q gave Starfleet a head start against the Borg

Q once put the  U.S.S. Enterprise through a hellish experience that, strangely enough, turned out to be a favor in disguise. After Picard arrogantly tells him that his crew is prepared to deal with any dangers the universe might hold for them, Q transports the Enterprise into an uncharted sector of space where they encounter  the Borg, a powerful cybernetic race intent on assimilating all useful life and technology into its collective consciousness.

Unable to adequately counter this advanced form of life, Picard loses eighteen members of his crew to the Borg and admits his crew's shortcomings to Q, who transports the Enterprise back to the Alpha Quadrant. While Q's actions appear cruel and vindictive, Picard later realizes that the trickster gave Starfleet a "preview" of one of the biggest threats they would soon face — granting the Federation time to prepare an adequate defense. it seems appropriate that the Federation is one of the few galactic societies to have successfully fought back the Borg time and time again — probably due in part to Q giving humanity a glimpse at the threat the Borg would eventually pose.

Q has been out-debated by Spock

If there's one Star Trek character who's the antithesis of Q, it's  Spock — the cool, logical Vulcan immortalized by actor Leonard Nimoy . While Spock and Q were introduced in two separate series, they get to spend some time together when Nimoy and John de Lancie teamed up to produce the audiobook Spock vs. Q . Recorded in front of a live audience, the performance sees Ambassador Spock attempt to warn humanity of an approaching asteroid, only to be stopped by Q who believes humanity is not worth saving.

The two get into a lively debate over humanity's strengths and flaws, with Spock's clever logic ultimately triumphing over Q's chaotic ego. In the end, the Vulcan manages to convince the trickster to push the asteroid away so it'll hit Earth a several years later, buying humanity enough time to work together and stop it when it finally does arrive.

The audio drama proved popular and was followed by a sequel, Spock vs. Q: The Sequel . Weirdly, in this new story, Spock and Q switch personalities, causing Spock to become goofy and silly while Q gains a more logical perspective. More of a comedy routine than a debate, this audio performance ends with the two realizing there are higher powers in the universe than the Q.

Q appears in five different Star Trek shows

While Star Trek fans may love Q, the producers and writers tend to use him sparingly, arguing that the super being is more effective when he only appears every now and then. Nevertheless, Q has managed to appear in four separate Star Trek television shows — and will appear in a fifth when season 2 of Star Trek: Picard comes out.

Unsurprisingly, most of Q's appearances are in Star Trek: The Next Generation where he manages to annoy or threaten Picard and the Enterprise crew on eight separate occasions, including in the series pilot and the series finale. Q also appears in the  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 1 episode "Q-Less" where he meets (and boxes with) Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks).

Q is reimagined in the three Star Trek: Voyager episodes he appears in, which portray him as a reluctant family man as well as a representative of the Q Continuum rather than a wandering rogue. His most recent appearance is an extremely brief cameo in the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks season 1 episode "Veritas," where he shows up just to poke fun at (who else?) Jean-Luc Picard.

Given all the different ways Q has been portrayed over the years, it's anyone's guess how de Lancie will play the trickster in Star Trek: Picard. Considering that Q's main appeal has always been his unpredictability, here's hoping his next appearance will show us some new truths of the enigmatic Q.

Star Trek: How John De Lancie's Q 'Broke' The Fourth Wall

F or all his grand schemes and plots against the Enterprise, John de Lancie's Q from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" is as iconic as the rest of the crew. Q is introduced in the 1st episode of the series as a god-like trickster with ambiguous morals, and there is no other character more apt to break the fourth wall. A technique used more and more in popular culture these days, breaking the fourth wall shatters the illusion that the piece of media the audience is watching is separate from the audience itself. "Fleabag" and "Deadpool" have utilized this by showing their characters address the audience directly.

In "Star Trek: Picard," Q does this by making a meta-reference to the series itself. In the series finale, "The Last Generation," Q shows up after his seeming demise in Season 2. When Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) points out that he should be dead, Q responds, "Here I was hoping the next generation wouldn't think so linearly." With a not-so-subtle wink at the audience, Q is the one character to refer to the title of the series where Picard and his crew first debuted. Though "The Next Generation" may be over, the end of "Picard" seems to be setting up more stories with the remaining characters.

Read more: Star Trek Stories That Are Actually Horrifying

Jack Crusher Went Out On A High Note

The ending of "Star Trek: Picard" is the final farewell these familiar characters deserve, but it also signals the beginning of something new. After Picard saves his son, Jack, from the Borg assimilation -- like father, like son -- the latter gets assigned to the Enterprise. This monumental moment wasn't lost on Ed Speleers, who was aware of the legendary John de Lancie when he shot their scene together. Though it was a short scene, this was a significant moment for the younger actor.

"I was intimidated by him at first, but in a good way," Speleers shared with Collider . "I was like, 'Oh my God, this guy's the real deal.' He's tall and he's eloquent and he's no-nonsense, and he just looks at you, and it's a warm look, but it's intense, which I love. I relished doing this scene with him...He's great." If this is the end, then there is no better way to put a cap on the story. Q has been a part of the Star Trek legacy for decades, and passing the torch to Picard's son is a thoughtful and satisfying way to say goodbye. But Paramount+ is also the central hub that all Star Trek series call home, and this could be the beginning of another adventure.

Star Trek Has A Short List Of Fourth Wall Breakers

In just about every sci-fi franchise, the ability to achieve light-speed capabilities makes the story possible. In the case of the Star Trek universe, Zefram Cochrane is the one who invented the Warp Drive and made first contact with Vulcans. After first appearing in "Star Trek: The Original Series" briefly, Cochrane is explored in more depth in "Star Trek: First Contact." Portrayed by James Cromwell, the character is far from the mythical legend that the Federation has propped him up to be. However, he does join Q in breaking the fourth wall of the franchise.

The crew of the Enterprise time travels to the day of first contact to stop the Borg from destroying the Federation. When they reveal themselves to Cochrane, he notes that they seem to be astronauts on "some sort of star trek." This is a significant line not just because of its meta nature but because saying the title of the series has been done on only one other occasion. 

Interestingly enough, Q is the other character to mention the series by name. In the series finale of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Q announces his intention to "put an end to your trek through the stars." The character has always been a fickle one, and giving him such a line was one of the best ways to put the show to rest -- at least for a time.

Read the original article on Looper .

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Picard says goodbye with a mysterious hint at Star Trek’s future

The finale has one of Star Trek’s only credits scenes

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Never let it be said that Paramount Plus hasn’t brought the Star Trek franchise into the modern era of interconnected television: Star Trek even has credits scenes now.

And while the award for “first credits scene in Star Trek” would go to Star Trek: Lower Decks , with its season 3 finale, “The Stars at Night,” the award for “first Star Trek credits scene to point at a mysterious future installment of the franchise” can go to Star Trek: Picard and its finale.

[ Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for the final episode of Star Trek: Picard season 3, “The Last Generation.”]

The denouement of “The Last Generation” makes sure we know exactly where our faves old and new have wound up. While the Next Generation crew largely wound up with promotions, renewed relationships, or just a return to their peaceful lives, Picard built a new future for some of its younger old characters.

Former borg drone Seven of Nine was promoted to captain of the Titan, which was renamed Enterprise. Thanks to some calculated intelligence leaks, her girlfriend Raffi’s record was cleared, freeing her up to act as Seven’s first officer, and Jack Crusher — son of Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher , interstellar adventurer, recently freed from Borg control — was fast-tracked to the rank of Starfleet ensign to serve as captain’s counselor.

The credits scene takes us right back to Jack, in his quarters on the newly christened Enterprise, as he’s visited by none other than the cosmic being known as Q (John de Lancie). Q was thought to have died at the end of Picard season 2, but when Jack points that out, Q admonishes him for thinking so linearly. The long and the short of it is: Q is eternal, and he has something in mind for the progeny of his longtime fixation, Jean-Luc Picard.

Does this mean Star Trek: Legacy is real?

About a month ago, Picard showrunner Terry Matalas tweeted that “#StarTrekLegacy is what I’d call a spin-off show from #StarTrekPicard. A 25th Century show that explores the Last Generation and the Next.” Since then, he’s been either teasing an upcoming show or just having a hearty good time retweeting coverage of his tweet and clips of veteran Star Trek actors agreeing that a nostalgic spinoff for 1990s Trek fans sounds like a good idea .

So it’s not entirely clear whether “Star Trek Legacy” is a real show or what. But it’s hard to imagine what else Picard ’s final moments could possibly be pointing to. The next Star Trek show on the Paramount Plus lineup is the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , then the fourth season of the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks , and then the second season of all-ages cartoon Star Trek: Prodigy . None of those seem like a good fit for Picard ’s hints, being set in completely different eras or produced in a completely different medium.

Paramount has also confirmed at least two more future Star Trek projects, but they also don’t seem likely as answers either — Starfleet Academy will take place the better part of a millennium after Picard , while the recently announced Section 31 film starring Michelle Yeoh just simply doesn’t seem particularly relevant.

It’s possible that Paramount is sitting on a Star Trek: Legacy show about Jack Crusher, Seven of Nine, Raffi, and Sidney La Forge (the Titan/Enterprise’s helmswoman and daughter of Geordi La Forge) going on some epic Q-uest. But we won’t know until it’s actually announced — and so far, Paramount is keeping quiet.

Update: Speaking to Entertainment Weekly , Matalas said “Jack’s got a lot to do, let me tell you.” The showrunner confirmed that Paramount does have a plan for Jack Crusher’s character moving forward, but declined to elaborate or confirm the existence of another new Star Trek show.

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Star Trek: Q Episodes In Order

A complete list of episodes that the character "Q' made an appearance, in order.

• Movies or TV
• IMDb Rating
• In Theaters
• Release Year

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Encounter at Farpoint (1987)

TV-PG | 92 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

On the maiden mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), an omnipotent being known as Q challenges the crew to discover the secret of a mysterious base in an advanced and civilized fashion.

Director: Corey Allen | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Denise Crosby

Votes: 7,318

2. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Hide and Q (1987)

TV-PG | 46 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

The Enterprise encounters Q again, and he tempts Riker by endowing him with the powers of the Q.

Director: Cliff Bole | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Denise Crosby

Votes: 4,003

3. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Q Who (1989)

Q tries to prove that Picard needs him as part of their crew by hurling the Enterprise 7,000 light years away where they encounter the Borg for the first time.

Director: Rob Bowman | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn

Votes: 5,060

4. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Deja Q (1990)

Much to Picard's displeasure, Q reappears on the Enterprise, claiming to have been ejected from the Q Continuum, and therefore, lost his powers.

Director: Les Landau | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn

Votes: 4,271

5. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Qpid (1991)

TV-PG | 45 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Aiming to get out of Jean-Luc's debt, Q forces Capt. Picard and his officers to live out the Legend of Robin Hood - with a past acquaintance as Maid Marian.

Director: Cliff Bole | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn

Votes: 3,411

6. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: True Q (1992)

When an honor student in the medical field is assigned to the Enterprise in an internship manner, she begins to demonstrate powers of the Q, prompting you-know-who to show up.

Director: Robert Scheerer | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn

Votes: 3,163

7. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Tapestry (1993)

When Captain Picard's artificial heart fails, he is offered the rare opportunity to go back in time and set right the mistake that led to his demise.

Votes: 4,287

8. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999) Episode: Q-Less (1993)

Q, the Enterprise-D's consistent omnipotent annoyance, comes to harass the DS9 crew when his traveling companion, Vash, refuses to travel with Q any longer.

Director: Paul Lynch | Stars: Avery Brooks , Rene Auberjonois , Alexander Siddig , Terry Farrell

Votes: 2,559

9. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: All Good Things... (1994)

TV-PG | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Capt. Picard finds himself shifting continually into the past, future and present and must use that to discover a threat to humanity's existence.

Director: Winrich Kolbe | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn

Votes: 9,250

10. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Death Wish (1996)

As Voyager's captain, Janeway conducts a hearing for asylum tied to a suicidal Q's right to die.

Director: James L. Conway | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Jennifer Lien

Votes: 2,417

11. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: The Q and the Grey (1996)

Due to the death of the Q in their last encounter with Voyager, a Civil War has broken out among the Q continuum. A new Q needs to be produced and the mischievous Q known to the USS Enterprise has chosen Janeway as his mate.

Director: Cliff Bole | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Jennifer Lien

Votes: 2,002

12. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Q2 (2001)

TV-PG | 43 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

When Q finds his rebellious son too much to handle, he brings him to Voyager in the hope that Captain Janeway can teach him responsibility and compassion.

Director: LeVar Burton | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 1,805

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Star Trek Just Doubled Down on Its Wildest Body-Switching Concept

Welcome back to Trill.

Body switching is a classic sci-fi trope. From Freaky Friday to Farscape , and of course, most of Quantum Leap, the idea of the consciousness from one person inhabiting the body of a different person will never stop being the fuel for speculative stories that are both hilarious and profound. But, when Star Trek invented the “joined” species of the Trill in 1991, it took the body-switching/body-surfing trope to a new level. While a specific Trill symbiont might live for several hundreds of years, this slug-like creature generally inhabited a humanoid host. This “joining” often created a new hybrid personality each time, sort of like Time Lord regeneration from Doctor Who mashed up with internal alien parasites from Alien; a chest-burster that never burst, but just stayed in you forever.

And if all of that wasn’t wild enough, on June 12, in the episode “Facets,” 1995, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine added a new wrinkle to Trill canon. Not only were the memories of all the previous hosts alive and well in the current symbiont, but, through a process called “zhian’tara,” a specific host’s personality could leave the symbiont and enter into the body of... anyone! Basically, this was Trill joining via spacey magic, and now, 29 years after “Facets,” Star Trek: Discovery is doubling down (tripling down?) on this very specific form of consciousness transfer in the Season 5 episode “Jinaal.” Spoilers ahead.

The Trill host trick

Dax and Odo discuss sharing memories in “Facets.”

Although the Trill were established in The Next Generation episode “The Host,” the vast majority of Trill canon comes from Deep Space Nine , thanks to the presence of Jadzia Dax, who later, in Season 7, switched hosts and became Ezri Dax. But, in the memorable Season 3 episode “Facets,” Jadzia’s previous host, Curzon, left her body through the zhian’tara process and settled in the body of the station’s resident shapeshifter, Odo. From that point, Odo’s entire personality was merged with Curzon’s, which put everyone on the station in a deeply uncomfortable position.

As a stand-alone episode of DS9 , “Facets” remains a fantastic story about memory, regret, and what one generation owes the next. But, the legacy of “Facets” is easily the concept of zhian’tara, which was used to save Gray Tal’s consciousness in Discovery Season 4, and now, in Season 5, is being employed again to unravel an 800-year-old mystery.

Discovery’s return to Trill

Cubler (Wilson Cruz) takes on an ancient Trill tradition in Discovery Season 5.

The planet Trill was first seen in DS9 in the episode “Equilibrium,” but Discovery has actually visited the planet more times, starting in the Season 3 episode “Forget Me Not,” and now again, in “Jinaal.” This time the need to transfer the memories of one previous Trill host into someone else is all connected to the secrets Jinaal Bix has about researcher of the Progenitors in the 24th century.

After transferring Jinaal’s consciousness into Culber, the entire personality of our stalwart Starfleet doctor changes, and, just like “Facets,” he suddenly becomes cockier, and more evasive. If you watch “Facets” right after watching “Jinaal,” the parallels are clear. While Curzon’s secret was connected to something personal, Jinaal’s secret has broader implications. Turns out, Federation scientists were working on cracking the Progenitor tech during the era of the Dominion War, and so they decided to bury any knowledge of the technology to prevent any planet or government from weaponizing their research.

Interestingly, this detail dovetails with Picard Season 3 a bit, in which we learned that Section 31 was pushing different Federation scientists to weaponize the organic nature of Changelings. Basically, the Dominion War created a lot of corrupt scientific research within the Federation, making the top-secret Daystrom labs that Riker, Raffi, and Worf raided perhaps just a small sample of the horrible top-secret weapons the Federation has developed.

What Discovery does is make it clear that Jinaal did the right thing at the time by hiding the research — even if that doesn’t help our heroes at the moment.

A classic Original Series nod

Sargon enters Kirk’s body in “Return to Tomorrow.”

Of course, within the canon of Trek, the Trill weren’t the first time the franchise explored the concept of sharing consciousness. Spock transferred his katra to Bones in The Wrath of Khan , and Kirk switched bodies with Janice Lester in the controversial final TOS episode “Turnabout Intruder.”

But, one wonderful 1968 episode from TOS Season 2 — “Return to Tomorrow” — featured ancient beings borrowing the bodies of Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Ann Mulhall in order to build more permanent, android bodies. When the ancient being of Sargon enters Kirk’s body, one of the first things he says is: “Your captain has an excellent body.”

Now, 56 years later, when Jinaal finds himself in Culber’s body, he says something similar: “Wow, this guy really works out!”

Across decades of internal canon, Star Trek can make the same body-switching joke, and make it work, in any century.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 drops new episodes on Fridays on Paramount+.

• Science Fiction

'Star Trek: Discovery' season 5 episode 4 uses time travel to remember the past 5 seasons

It's pretty obvious watching this episode that the cast and crew, at the very least, strongly suspected that this was going to be the last season of "Discovery" when it was written.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Discovery" season 5, episode 4

With the news that "Star Trek: Lower Decks" is ending after its current season, that really only leaves "Strange New Worlds" as the last remaining Nu-Trek series currently airing on television. 

And, a word to the wise: If you're a die-hard fan of " Discovery ," make sure you have your own physical media, 'cause no one likes being at the mercy of whatever an overpaid television executive thinks. You're welcome. Moreover, after this final season of "Discovery," we're going to have until wait until next year for the next season of " Strange New Worlds ." It's all starting to feel a bit like "Game of Thrones" all over again.

Episode four, entitled "Face the Strange," is without a doubt the best entry so far in the fifth season, and one can't help but wonder after watching exactly when the cast and production crew were first informed that this would be the last season, because it was definitely before this episode was actually written. The reason? It is, for all intents and purposes, a 60-minute, time-travel-powered, postscript-style reminiscence of all elements of all five seasons — or as much as you can cram into an hour — and what a rollercoaster ride it's been.

So when Alex Kurtzman or Michelle Paradise or whoever it is that actually has authority in the writer's room entered said room, put down their grande iced sugar-free vanilla half-double decaffeinated half-caff latte with soy milk and a twist of lemon in their Paramount-branded 40oz Stanley Clean Slate Quencher H2.0 Flowstate™ Tumbler and announced, "Wouldn't it be great to revisit chapters from seasons one, two, three and four?" no doubt everyone cheered. "And how will this be possible?" asked Kurtzman, to which an eager-beaver intern no doubt excitedly thrust their hand up into the air and exclaimed, "Why, time travel , of course!"

Related: ' Star Trek:' History & effect on space technology

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"Quite right," replied Kurtzman (in our imaginations, at least), adding, "But it can be for one episode, so it has to be an isolated, self-contained form of time travel." Thus was conceived the "Time Bug," and with it came a ton of technobabble to precisely explain its parameters. Although quite why Zora didn't detect it was not addressed. Also, you know, transporters. 

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But this clever Time Bug, which can manipulate time in just about any way that's convenient for the writers to overcome any potential chronological complications — like life-changing paradoxes — came onboard the USS Discovery by way of that shifty Malinne "Moll" Ravel (Eve Harlow), who managed to infiltrate the Trill homeworld undetected, as we saw last week .

As a result, we get reminder glimpses of Michael Burnham's first coming aboard the USS Discovery way, way, way back in season one, complete with appropriate uniforms and everything. We get a fleeting reminder of the Red Angel and the battle with Control , naturally The Burn gets a mention, and there's even a not-very-subtle nod to the short-Trek " Calypso ." It's all a little bit like a Greatest Hits album that doesn't include any of the tracks that you actually liked, being played at 45 instead of 33. Remember vinyl?

Since it's now obvious that this season was written after the cancellation announcement had been made to the cast and crew, the single most important question is, Will the show benefit from that, or will it suffer? Are the remaining six episodes going to be a drawn-out epilogue, tied loosely together with a mostly lame plot? Or, will advance knowledge of the show's future actually serve the writers well, allowing them to produce something above and beyond the normal level of writing? 

There's even a very entertaining scene, in which 23rd-century Burnham must fight her 32nd-century self. Of course, the illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator fitted to the space bug prevents any changes from affecting the timeline, so you know, phew . 

Most of the original Discovery bridge reappear, as close to how they looked seven years ago as possible, and even Lt. Cmdr. Airiam (played by Sara Mitich in the first season and Hannah Cheesman in the second) makes a cameo, so that's nice. Also, we can really see as Sonequa Martin-Green flips between her two Burnhams just how effective that dreadlock hair piece that she wears through this season actually is. Half the show's budget probably went to that. 

 —   Watch the bittersweet trailer for 'Star Trek: Discovery's final season (video)

— Star Trek streaming guide: Where to watch the Star Trek movies and TV shows online

—  Star Trek's Seven of Nine returns in new novel 'Picard: Firewall' (exclusive)

It's a fun filler episode, and, even if it doesn't advance the plot an inch, it does allow character development to take place, particularly between Burnham and Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie). Arguably the biggest surprise was that the writers were able to resist putting Captain Pike (Anson Mount) into this episode. 

The fifth and final season of "Star Trek: Discovery," and every other episode of every "Star Trek" show — with the exception of "Star Trek: Prodigy" — currently streams exclusively on Paramount Plus in the U.S., while "Prodigy" has found a new home on Netflix.  

Internationally, the shows are available on  Paramount Plus  in Australia, Latin America, the U.K. and South Korea, as well as on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. They also stream on  Paramount Plus  in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In Canada, they air on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and stream on Crave.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

When Scott's application to the NASA astronaut training program was turned down, he was naturally upset...as any 6-year-old boy would be. He chose instead to write as much as he possibly could about science, technology and space exploration. He graduated from The University of Coventry and received his training on Fleet Street in London. He still hopes to be the first journalist in space.

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• EFH Dreadlock hair piece? Really? Before you publish, please do your research. Those are not dreadlocs. She is wearing braids. Yikes and cringe. I'm embarrassed for you. Reply
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O.J. Simpson, NFL star whose murder trial gripped the nation, dies of cancer at 76

O.J. Simpson , the former NFL star who was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend in a televised trial that gripped the nation, has died of cancer, according to his family.

"He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren," the family said in a statement posted on X . "During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace."

Reports circulated in February that Simpson had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and was in hospice care as he underwent chemotherapy. He denied that he was in hospice in a video posted on X, but did not address whether he'd been diagnosed with cancer.

“Hospice? Hospice? You talking ‘bout hospice?” he said in the video with a laugh, adding that he doesn’t know who started the rumors. 

Orenthal James Simpson played 11 seasons in the National Football League and was known as "The Juice" to his fans, but his sports legacy was tarnished forever in the 1990s after his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were killed.

Brown Simpson, 35, and Goldman, 25, were found stabbed to death outside her Los Angeles home in 1994.

On June 13, 1994, Goldman was returning sunglasses that the mother of Brown Simpson had left at a restaurant where he worked. The two were stabbed and slashed dozens of times, and their bodies were found the next day.

When Los Angeles police officers went to Simpson's home to speak to him about the slayings, Simpson did not answer the door but officers noticed a trail of blood leading to his car, as well as blood on his car.

Once a revered athlete, Simpson went from a Hall of Fame icon to a murder suspect.

Days later, officials charged Simpson with the murders and he attempted to evade arrest, resulting in an infamous hourslong police chase along Southern California's highways in his white Ford Bronco .

Simpson's case went to trial in 1995 and was broadcast to millions of viewers across the nation. The court case was dubbed the "trial of the century" as it dragged on for months and transformed into a public spectacle.

Feelings over the trial have remained mixed over the years, with many accusing the Los Angeles Police Department of racism in its handling of the case. Others believe that Simpson's ability to retain high-powered attorneys allowed him to get away with murder.

The trial made prosecutors Christopher Darden and Marcia Clark household names, in addition to Simpson's defense attorneys Johnnie Cochran, Alan Dershowitz and Robert Kardashian.

He was acquitted of both murders in a controversial verdict. Two years later, he was found civilly liable for wrongful death in the double homicide case.

Despite his acquittal in the criminal trial, many still believed Simpson was guilty, a belief bolstered by a jury ordering him to pay $33 million to Goldman's family in the civil case — damages that were never paid in full.

Goldman's father, Fred Goldman, spoke to NBC News by phone Thursday and described Simpson's death as "no great loss."

“The only thing I have to say is it’s just further reminder of Ron being gone all these years," he said. "It’s no great loss to the world. It’s a further reminder of Ron’s being gone.”

Bob Costas, the sports broadcaster who worked with Simpson for years at NBC Sports covering the NFL, said Simpson leaves behind “a complicated legacy, to put it mildly.”

“I can’t think of anyone historical or someone that we may have known where the first chapter and the second chapter of their lives are such a stark contrast … revered and then reviled,” Costas said on NBC’s “TODAY” show Friday.

In 2007, Simpson led an armed robbery attempt of a sports memorabilia dealer in Las Vegas. He argued in court that he was recovering his own stolen items, but his defense failed to sway the jury.

He was convicted and sentenced to 33 years in prison, of which he served only nine before he was released on parole .

Simpson spoke to The Associated Press by phone in 2019 , telling them that he was healthy and happy living in Las Vegas. He maintained that he believed his robbery conviction was unfair, but said: “I believe in the legal system and I honored it. I served my time.”

The Simpson murder trial was re-enacted and relitigated decades later in FX’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” an installment of the network’s popular “American Crime Story” series in 2016. Released that same year was the Academy Award-winning documentary "O.J.: Made in America," detailing Simpson's rise and fall.

Simpson was born in San Francisco and raised in public housing, going to a local community college before transferring to the University of Southern California. He was part of the school's national championship in 1967 and earned the Heisman Trophy the next year.

He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 1969 as a No. 1 overall pick.

According to NBC Sports , Simpson was the first player in the league to rush for 2,000 or more yards in a season and is considered the best running back of his era.

Simpson had three children from his first marriage to Marguerite Whitley, one of whom died in a drowning accident as a toddler.

He also shared two children with Brown Simpson.

Following her murder and his acquittal, Simpson won custody of their shared children and moved to Miami with them. His custody fight with his former-in-laws also drew headlines as the children's grandparents took him to court in a bitter legal battle.

Doha Madani is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News. Pronouns: she/her.

Screen Rant

Star trek theory: q's illness is picard's fault.

Something is very wrong with Q in Star Trek: Picard season 2 and his illness could be directly tied to Picard's lifelong choice to remain alone.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 2 - "Penance"

Something is very wrong with Q (John de Lancie) in Star Trek: Picard season 2 and it may be directly connected to Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) himself. Q's meddling in time resulted in a new Star Trek reality where, instead of the United Federation of Planets, the human race founded the Confederation of Earth, which conquered the stars and eradicated alien races like the Klingons, the Cardassians , and even the Borg. Q calls this new reality Picard's "penance" but there's more than meets the eye and there could be a direct link between Picard's dark new world and the ailing omnipotent being.

Q made an unwelcome reappearance in Jean-Luc's life at the end of Star Trek: Picard season 2's premiere, "The Star Gazer." Before Q popped back into Picard's life, the Starfleet Admiral was tricked by the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) to return to the USS Stargazer, which is now under the command of Captain Cristobal Rios (Santiago Cabrera). With most of Picard's season 1 motley crew now assigned to the Stargazer and the Starfleet armada that assembled to meet the Borg, the Queen beamed onto the Stargazer and assimilated the starship. This was due to the Stargazer being built with Borg technology the Federation harvested from the Borg Cube Artifact left derelict on Soji's (Isa Briones) home planet of Coppelius. The only way to stop the Borg Queen from taking control of Starfleet was for Picard to activate the auto-destruct. But instead of dying, Picard awoke back home at his chateau in La Barre, France, only in a different reality thanks to Q.

Related: Picard Season 2's Alternate Reality Completely Rewrites Star Trek History

Q was darker and on edge when delivered quite a bit of exposition at the start of Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 2, "Penance," but much of what he told Jean-Luc was obfuscated by riddles. When Picard reunited with his crew at Confederation Headquarters in San Francisco, they determined that Q meddled with time in the past - specifically, Los Angeles in 2024 - which is what birthed this dark, Confederation reality. But while Q's omnipotent powers appear to be intact, he himself seems to be silently suffering some sort of illness, and it could all be tied to Jean-Luc Picard.

What's Wrong With Q And How It May Tie To Picard

It didn't take Picard long to notice that Q is "not well" and the omnipotent being went silent instead of denying "mon capitan's" diagnosis. Q is more mentally unbalanced than he ever was in Star Trek: The Next Generation . But Q could also be suffering from a physical ailment or deterioration of some kind, even if his godlike powers remain somehow unaffected. When Q reappeared in Picard's chateau, he resembled his normal, youthful self, and then he instantly aged as "a courtesy" to the older Jean-Luc, to make them "even." But what if the young Q was really a temporary illusion and Q's older form is how he actually is now? And, if that's the case, Q's aging (and potential death) could be because of Picard, which would explain his anger and desperation at the Starfleet Admiral.

Q's taunts aren't particularly veiled; he accuses Jean-Luc of not changing in the only way that matters and he blamed the Confederation reality on Picard. Q claims "the chase is dying in your arms and I am but a suture in the wound." Q did say he had to intervene to rescue Picard from death when he destroyed the Borg with the Stargazer's self-destruct, but it's possible that by leaping into Earth's past to perform the rescue, Q's literal being and his physical health was bonded with the changes to Star Trek history caused by his interference. Q may have also realized the only way to save himself is to coerce Picard into making different choices that will prevent the Confederation's reality from ever happening.

The Confederation Reality Is Tied To Picard Choosing To Be Alone

Star Trek: Picard season 2 will ultimately be a look inward at Jean-Luc's heart that will answer the pivotal questions about the choices he made in his life. The most pertinent question is why Picard chose to spend his life alone and never committed to a long-term relationship that could have given him a family of his own? Picard couldn't even bring himself to act upon his feelings for Laris (Orla Brady), despite the former Tal Shiar agent being blunt that she was romantically interested in Jean-Luc now that her husband, Zhaban (Jamie McShane) is dead .

Related: Star Trek: Picard Confirms Q & Guinan Age Theories

If Q's hints pan out, then the dark reality of the Confederation is somehow tied to Picard's life decisions. Q showed Jean-Luc a sadistic and twisted version of himself who is the worst result of Picard choosing to be alone and eschewing love and happiness. In the Confederation's world, Jean-Luc is General Picard, the most bloodthirsty "hero" of the xenophobic Earth who wiped out countless alien species, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's Cardassian Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) and General Martok (J.G. Hertzler), and the Ferengi. Because the Confederation is at war with the Vulcans, Sarek (Mark Lenard) was even decapitated by Picard in front of Spock (Leonard Nimoy). For decades, General Picard struck terror throughout the galaxy with his flagship, the CSS Worldrazer. Somehow, preventing General Picard from ever coming to be is the key to reverting the timeline back to the optimistic reality of the United Federation of Planets.

The Confederation Reality Is Picard's Penance... And Q's?

If Q is right, then the Confederation reality may be Picard's "penance" for choosing a life without a lasting relationship, but it could also be Q's penance as well. What if by deciding to alter time to save Jean-Luc's life, Q inadvertently bound himself to Picard so that he's now suffering a deterioration as a result of the Confederation reality's existence. For Q, the only way to save himself is to manipulate Picard into finally answering the question he's avoided his whole life: What made Jean-Luc choose to be alone instead of settling down with one of his love interests like Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) ?

As a result, Picard is the only one who can restore the timeline back to its original state. And, if Picard succeeds, he would also save Q from the illness that's afflicting the omnipotent being. Q mused about how "unfair" time is to Picard, but he may not have just been talking about Jean-Luc getting older. Time may have also been corrupted for Q, rendering him vulnerable to aging and inevitable death. Q could even be rapidly aging so that Picard and his motley crew don't have a lot of time left to reverse the Confederation reality and also save Q. But to do so, Jean-Luc has to honestly face the riddle of his own heart in Star Trek: Picard season 2 and that's the only way to heal both Q and the timeline in order to bring back the Federation and Star Trek's history as we know it.

Next: Picard Reveals Star Trek: DS9's Darker Timeline

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.