John DeLancie Opens Up About Q's Appearance On Picard Season 2
Over the course of the seven seasons that "Star Trek: The Next Generation" aired from 1987-1994 the series featured many races Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the crew of the Enterprise 1701-D had to face off against — Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians, and the Borg. However, there is only one person singular who put Picard through his paces more than every other one of those previous groups combined — Q (John DeLancie).
Q is, by his own admission, less a person and more an entity with powers so omnipotent they defy explanation. Q is the reason the Enterprise and the Federation wind up fighting their losing battle against the Borg in the episode, "Q, Who?" Q puts all of humanity on trial in the series pilot "Encounter at Farpoint" and nearly sees humanity erased from history entirely in the series finale "All Good Things." Q can be equal parts enemy and ally, but no matter what, he keeps Picard on his toes.
Despite Q's importance to "Star Trek: The Next Generation," he never appeared in any of the show's corresponding four films. And while there were rumors throughout the production and airing of the new Trek series, "Star Trek: Picard," that DeLancie would reprise the role of Q for the first time in decades, he had no involvement in "Picard" Season 1.
However, with the release of the teaser for "Star Trek: Picard" Season 2, we now know DeLancie is finally meeting up again with his old foil, bringing with him the kind of time-traveling chaos you'd expect from the puckish, omnipotent rogue. Recently, DeLancie has begun to open up about what it's like to return to what is undoubtedly his most famous role.
What sort of Q will we see on Star Trek: Picard?
While John DeLancie did reprise the role of Q for one episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and a few episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager," the only way in which he's played the part of Q recently is through voice only as a one-off gag in "Star Trek: Lower Decks." Don't think all that time means DeLancie doesn't still have that omnipotent it factor, though. "It's been 25 years, but I kind of found myself getting into the saddle really easily," DeLancie revealed in a Cameo for one of his fans. "It wasn't difficult at all."
The big reveal was how Q is different on "Star Trek: Picard": "I must say it's not the sort of Puck-ish, Mercutio of old," he said. "It's a different Q this time. It's what they wanted, and I think that it makes sense. But Patrick [Stewart] and I have had a nice opening scenes and scenes with Brent and working with Jonathan Frakes. It's been really interesting, and I am delighted. Who would have thought?"
The question is: What kind of Q have we not seen before? We've seen Q as a villain, as a helpless human, and we've seen him lay in bed with both Picard and Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) on "Star Trek: Voyager." We've seen Q be comical, we've seen him be serious, we've seen him break the rules of the Q Continuum, and we've even seen Q dogmatically try and keep others following those rules.
"Star Trek: Picard" Season 2 is set to air in 2022 on Paramount+, the successor platform to CBS All Access where Season 1 debuted.