A friend of mine met William Campbell (Trelane) in Monterey, CA when Campbell was in the area for his brother's funeral. Although forgetting his name, my friend told him he recognized him as Trelane. He said Campbell was both surprised to be recognized and extremely pleased; actually breaking into the Trelane character during the conversation.
It is true that Trelaine's reaction to the duel was almost a childlike "what game shall we play next? Oh, marvelous idea!" Q was more than refined though, more than cynical. Perhaps it was how inapproachable he was, and maybe it's due to the awkwardness of the pilot episode, but do others agree that the writing made him really stuffy?
In the books, Trelane is considered a part of the Q. In the canon series, it was never fully explained or even denied. But one could say that Trelane may have influenced Roddenberry to use him as a template for the Q.
The notion of Q (and Trelane) using technology reminds me of the Next Generation episode "Devil's Due", in which Picard had to prove that "Ardra" was not a god returned to take over the world... Turned out she had a cloaked ship near by, and was using her eye movement to control her "magic".
If so it's definitely a vastly more advanced technology considering they are capable of creating pocket dimensions, moving almost anywhere instantly and even controlling the very fabric of space and time itself. They must be at a type 3 or even type 4 on the Kardeshev scale. The feats are definitely far beyond Ardra's capabilities by a long shot. At that point does it even matter if their abilities are natural or technological?
Or "Who watches the watcher" where the proto Vulcans accidentally mistake Picard for a God and he has to use the same argument to explain that they're just more advanced
The Q having children was not established in Voyager, but in TNG in the episode of the young girl with magical powers who turned out to be a Q because her parents left the continuum and conceived her sexually. So the Q are able to have offspring in different ways.
I’m disappointed in you Douglas! The “girl” of which you speak was played by Olivia D’Abo! Big sister of Kevin from wonder years... hot chick from Greedy with Micheal jfox... one of the top 10 hottest girls of the nineties! Google before you comment in the future Douglas!!!
More evidence is stayed in the Voyager episode 'Death Wish': "You mustn't think of us as omnipotent, no matter what the Continuum would like you to believe. You and your ship seem incredibly powerful to lifeforms without your technological expertise! It's no different with us; we may appear omnipotent to you, but believe me, we're not!"
The problem is.. it’s a logical impossibility to have 2 omnipotent beings. Think about it. “It’s hard working in groups when your omnipotent” is quite a profound statement made by Q.
That is another way of saying: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Clarke's Third Law, "Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" (1973) by Arthur C. Clarke
@@MgtowRubicon Don't forget the inverse of Clarke's 3rd law mentioned by the 7th Doctor in Battlefield. "Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology."
@@kelvyquayo The single omnipotent being is the great device owned by the Q Continuum. The one the Q don't want you to know about, which is why nobody is allowed to see the Continuum as it is because "you wouldn't understand".
The "mirror device" may have been a spur of the moment creative piece of subterfuge so Trelaine could continue playing his game and let the humans believe they had outmanouvered him. So it was just smoke and mirrors.
I agree. The Q appear to have rules on how they are allowed to interact with "lesser" species. We don't have a clear idea of what these rules are, but we see them hunted down and punished by others of their kind for breaking them. Perhaps Trelaine was adhering to these rules by allowing the Enterprise crew to believe they had discovered the source of his power. I would imagine that protecting the true source of their abilities, and the very nature of their being is what the Q have those mysterious rules for. Don't disrupt the little bugs too much, and don't ever let the little bugs get even a centimeter closer to becoming like us.
The Q continuum manifest itself in Strange ways. It could’ve been a psychic block from his parents. The Q civil War took the form of the American Civil War in a book. Tralane might’ve been the son of our Q even Q said he had a hard time raising his son Q after his wife Q left him.
Or perhaps the device was needed because as a safety mechanism, the young of the Continuum cannot tap the full power until some form of puberty. Trelane figures out how to build the mirror device to tap into it.
Trelane is an early Q child. He doesn't yet know his powers, or he could even be a hybrid, and yes, they had kids. Amanda for instant. She had parents.
This concept was already addressed in the TNG books. Trelane was a child Q that hadn't learned to focus his powers correctly yet and that was the reason for the tech. Now if you look at the Voyager arc that produced a new Q there is the potential argument that they are the same. He went off and played with Kirk, got in trouble and that is why Q took the kid to Auntie Kathy. The Idea of Trelane being an older military officer was taken from a story Q had told the child about one of his early encounters with Picard.
I have ALWAYS thought of Trelane and his "family" as "Q" ever since the first time I saw Encounter at Farpoint. I immediately thought that, and the fact they never did an episode connecting it disappointed me.
I consider Trelane a Q, he is a young Q who still need technological argumentation before they reach their version of puberty (Trelane acted like a winny 8 year old to his "parents").
Joe Pugh Q has been established to be different to others of his species. He did get exiled in one episode for basically being a dick to all lower life forms.
Elsewhere in the Q continuum bar, two figures pause before having a drink. One states " Ahh, Captain kirk, U.S.S. Enterprise ", ........and your problem?." "Ah , you know by now, ...Jean -Luc Picard, .........Enterprise D, come on now drink up!!!". Then Trelane and Q order another drink to forget their problems.😊
A bit more to it than that. Trelane, or Tri-Lane was a quasi-Q whose genesis and existence was non-linear and due to Q antics across three different timelines. Hence Tri-lane, three timelines, Trelane. It's one of Peter David's best, because the other timelines are ones mentioned canonically, too, and it ties several disparate episodes/movies into a single coherent plot and explains how several seemingly inexplicable and unrelated anomalies we see across Trek are actually what happens when juvenile Q go rogue.
Trelaine is explained as being the child that was born to John Delancie's Q in the Voyager episodes, acting out during his rebellious period, this was in a star trek novel I read, ( I can't remember the name of it), where Trelaine explains all of that while he's sending the multi-iverse in to utter chaos a an act rebellion against the continuum. He chose the name Trelaine because he wanted to express his individuality and separate himself from the continuum.
Not at all possible. We were actually shown Trelane's parents at the end of that episode of TOS (The Squire of Gothos). They were NOTHING like the Q in general, and were certainly not the specific Q we know. They looked and acted a lot like the Organians, who could hardly be more different than the Q.
@@jiyu9694 The issue with your argument is that Q are omni-potent. As such, they can chose to look however they want, and do not need to actually present a humanoid form. Typically the Q do so just to make it easier for those they interact with to understand them, but there is no reason they couldn't be a glowing ball of energy if they wanted.
@@mechakid That is certainly possible, but there is no evidence to that effect. The issue with your argument is that the Q have NEVER appeared as a "glowing ball of energy," while Trelane's parents ONLY appeared that way, and the Organians also appeared that way when they showed their true noncorporeal forms (and they SAID that was their true form). The Q are completely different in character, attitude and behavior than Trelane's parents were, but the Organians were very much like Trelane's parents. Ergo, Trelane's species, as far as we have ANY evidence for, appears to be NOTHING like the Q and that's reason to logically conclude that they are two different species. There is no basis in canon (no evidence we have seen in any episode) that would even suggest they are the same species, except baseless speculation and conjecture by some fans. There IS, however, some evidence and very logical argument for the proposition that Trelane's species MIGHT be the Organians, in that Trelane's parents shared many similarities to the Organians. The Q, as far as we have seen, have displayed nothing but DISsimilarities to Trelane's parents. So proposing they might be Q, while interesting to talk about, has no evidence to support it, and significant evidence against it. It's still possible of course, but there's no reason to think it's true. In the real world, we know the writers of the TOS episode Squire of Gothos certainly did not intend Trelane to be a Q. They couldn't have, because the Q hadn't been created yet when Squire of Gothos was written. The Q were created by TNG writers 20 years after TOS ended. BTW, no offense intended, but there is no hyphen in the word "omnipotent." It is a single word, not a hyphenated word.
Actually, the gesture the Q use is more an affectation or grandiose gesture, you can see it in Voyager's episode: Death Wish . When Q is chasing Q, at the final move they all get transported, but Q did not snap his fingers.
In DS9 he doesn’t click his fingers at all. Also he materialises Janeway’s nightgown without letting go of her. So it’s 110% optional, even if maybe it’s a PITA to do it the alternate way or something.
There is a book written, can’t remember the name of it, that covers the fact that Trelane is a Q just an emotionally and intellectually challenged one. John deLancie’s Q is an uncle of sorts to him and is tasked with keeping him out of trouble because his parents are embarrassed by him. It’s a good read with a good plot. (Edit: the name of the book is Q Squared)
I know, (if not the same book) about how the Q or why rather why the Q are so involved in human interest, not so much the Q per say but de lancie ( area of operation) it ties in with undiscovered county with Nil (what does god need with a spaceship) the story on that is amazing, truth of the matter is I think everything the Q have done is all part of the plan (everything with the Q are super convenient (Quinn just happened to be put in an rock 300 years before and just happened to to be in the direct path of voyager in the delta quadrant)?. How convenient; on the outlined documents in Star Trek it is known de lancie character was based off of trelan, head canon the possibilities are endless.
@@berryb745 Top it off, .. Head canon. a.) The actress that player Q's wife is also the same actress to play Worf's wife. And on Voyager Q's wife made a remake for having a .. thing .. for Klingons. So Worf's son could be part Q. b.) At the end of S:TNG final ep." End of all Good Things," Q mentions to Picard that Worf traveling through different realities was Q's doing. Testing Picard & Riker for enlisting into the Q order is one thing, but they were also testing Worf ? c.) Voyager End Game, the older Janeway died baiting the Borg Queen, she wakes up with Q handing her a cup of hot coffee welcoming her home. d.) As for Boothy, Star Fleets head gardener, ... As so Amanda's parents.
@@krispalermo8133 that is interesting about worf, I knew the same actress but never tried putting them as the same. There is also apparently a deleted scene a clip from ds9 the very last scene is supposedly a changling seeping up from the floor in the female changling prison cell after she was brought to prison where the goo turned into delancie Q and said I told you so, and that is where it ends, I havnt seen it, nor heard much on it, (it may not exist) but would be really interesting to know if Q was involved in the wormhole opening somehow , or at least Q is why the founders where so scared of the federation.
If Trelane is a younger version of John Delaney's Q, who was allowed to interact with humanity again 100 years later, that would explain why he chose to appear on the Enterprise. And was originally so hostile towards them.
@@SnowDaulphin TOS was a touchy subject in the writers room, despite things like The Naked Now. It wasn't long before TOS references would be embargoed for a good while. So it's hard to say if "Q was based on Trelane" or "if someone had mentioned Trelane being similar to Q we would have never seen Q"
@@joerogers9413 you... doubt that? Both characters dressed like Napoleon, and both characters put members of a starship crew on "trial." They both even forced the captain to participate in some kind of weird "survival game." Q might not have been intended to be a continuation of the same character as Trelane, but Roddenberry definitely based a number of things about Q on that original series episode. Most likely, Gene Roddenberry was trying to recreate some of the magic of the original series when he started TNG, so he dug into the archives to find some things to build on, and he came across Trelane. It's kinda silly to suggest they "didn't even think about it."
Great video! Ever since reading Q-Squared when it came out, I've subscribed to the theory Trelane could be a Q, or a sort of related species. Hell, the Trill as a species appear in one episode of TNG with enough biological and cultural differences from the later DS9-codified species that the differences between Trelane and Q don't seem so pronounced by comparison.
There were several different near omnipotent races in the various Star Trek shows. The Organians, the Greek Gods, the Nagilum, The Prophets, the Douwd, the Thasians.
Many comments here have spoken of Peter David’s TNG novel _Q Squared_ which covers the topic of this video, but since you mentioned the Greek Gods, you may want to know about another of his novels. Peter was arguably the first _Trek_ novelist to be given a specific “corner” of the Trek universe to play in. He did the novel series *_Star Trek:_*_ New Frontier_ which is set in the time of DS9 and features supporting characters from TNG and DS9 (and even a couple from the old animated _Star Trek_ series featuring the TOS ship and crew!). One new character Peter created for this series (which takes place aboard a ship known as the _U.S.S. Excalibur_ which patrols Thallonian space) was an Earth human who had the seemingly supranormal ability to calculate warp fields and the like in his head. It turns out he was - more than that. Remember how Apollo left a woman pregnant? Guess who his descendant is? The story is told in the two-part novel storyline “Being Human” and “Gods Above.”
Frankly its pretty clear to me that Trelane is the Q (Junior) from the Q2 episode of Voyager. The Trelane incident was the reason for him being sent to Voyager.
In TNG two Q became human and Rogers was their human offspring that had some residual powers that Q elevated, while in Voyager the first Q conceived by Q in their Q form was born.
They didn't have children at first. The Voyager episode showed that at some point, the Q started having children, since the Q's had a baby. Since time means nothing to the Q, this would mean that there could be offspring of Q in any point in time.
I like to think that Trelawny is Q as a kid. By Q standards, even by human time, he's only late twenty's early thirties, and he never quite got over his fascination with humans that he developed in his "play room" on that planet
Bingo...during the Q civil war, my character highjacked the source of the Q's power and fixed all the supernovas they caused. He then destroyed all the weapons they were using because they were his fault. He then gave the power back to Q because of how much he grew...especially after his encounter with the Q he helped commit suicide.
What if Tilane was using technology in order to remain under the radar from the other Q (his parents)? He obviously was hiding from them, so instead of using regular Q abilities he set up a machine to get similar results without alerting his parents that he was abusing his powers.
Actually, that's not a bad theory. The destruction of the mirror didn't undo Trelane's powers, but it may have undone the "jamming signal" that Trelane was using to avoid detection. That thing behind the mirror might have been a "Q cloaking device" of some kind, and the Q parents were able to locate Trelane after Kirk destroyed it.
I remember when I watched this episode for the first time thinking, either he's a Q, or the TNG writers drew inspiration from this episode when they created the Q character.
Peter David wrote a book about this, that basically implied that not only was Trelane a Q, but was "Q" 's bratty little child. I know the books are not considered "cannon", but as far as I'm concerned.... yeah. That's the truth I cling to.
When you said that the Q could very well be using technology, I thought of the TNG episode "Devil's Due". Just as Ardra used technology to trick the people of Ventax II into believing she had great powers, the Q could be using technology sufficiently beyond that of 24th century Starfleet / Federation tech to make people believe they have great powers.
Good point.... Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.... To caveman a match is magic, to a 13th-century man a cellphone is magic, ...To starfleet Q are magic... they might know enough to suspect its something non-mystical but cant comprehend how it works. At one point Q does casually suggest changing the gravitational constant of the Universe...
Ardra would blink when she used her power so you could say she copied I dream of Jeanie that blinked when she used her power and Samantha on Bewitched wiggles her nose. So could say they copied those shows.
@@hydrolito Why do people think that just because two stories have something similar in them that one author "copied" the other? People come up with completely original stories all the time that coincidentally have similar themes. It doesn't necesarily mean they copied or were inspired by any other person's story element. It's like the Dr Who fan who insisted the Borg are a rip off of the Cybermen, completely oblivious to the fact that the idea of cyborgs predates both Trek and Who by decades.
When I first watched Q on TNG I believed her was of the same spices as Trelane in TOS. My friend argued about the mirror, but I pointed out the "parents" and how they were light and not an actual humanoid. I am glad you see them similar, if not the same, to how I have always under stood them.
Same. Watching the finale of TNG as a kid, it's what I thought. Q pops in to check on humanity/give em a nudge. Mainly because of how in the final judgement scene, Q tells Picard that he was able to think outside of his limited/current realm of understanding. Sorta alluding to humanity evolving in that direction. I always imagined that Q actually told him that humanity would become the Q in that end scene where he's about to whisper something in Picard's ear.
@@rizikram3897 and that might be the ultimate goal. the Continuum sent Q not as a judge but as a guiding hand. His tactics may be out of hand but in the end he does care for them. Previously in the background as has been displayed in the voyager Q episode where one of their kind wanted and end to his life. You see how both Q's helped humanity along. It wasn't until the time of TNG that Q had to step in hard so that we didn't screw it up. We'd never had a chance against the Borg if he hadn't introduced us to them the way he did. In the end it would be interesting to find out.
@@rizikram3897 In one episode, "Q" does drop-in on Picard and offer Picard guidance and other services, like as if the "Q" were to "Teach" Humans. Perhaps in a strange way, they do (at least they prepared StarFleet for possible invasion from the Borg). The perhaps, since the "Q" have been watching humans, maybe we are the "Teachers". Remember Picard quoting Shakespeare hinting at "mans" possible future. Personally I think Shakespeare was quoting the Apostle John. Perhaps the "Q" were directed to learn from "humans" by an even more powerful group of individuals.
That particular plot line originates in Voyager, concluding the Q Civil War. de Lancie/Q first propositioned Janeway to carry his child before turning to Plakson/Miss Q. TNG saw the introduction of Amanda Rogers in True Q (s6e6) born to Q parents in Human (flesh and blood) form. If Trelane is in fact a Q, he is the third known Q child, or first or whatever. The whole Q Jr plotline is a continuity problem, "first Q child" and all. Continuity over 50+ years, 12 different TV series, 13 different theatrical movies, multiple conflicting timelines, and 800+ literature spin offs is pretty darn near impossible to properly reconcile.
In the ST - The Next Generation episode “True Q” in which Q tries to determine if Amanda Rogers is a Q she exhibits powers that appear to be a part of her biology and not set off by a trigger? Thoughts?
My thought on this was always that IF the Q have some technology involved, it would be something that is triggered via brain waves of the Q (like in the book "Sphere", where if a sentient being encounters it, they access the power automatically as a result of having higher brain functions, and chaos ensues). If you are a Q at a certain stage of growth, this technology automatically starts working for you whether you are aware of it or not. With Amanda, she has reached that stage of development and so manifests things by simply thinking of them, the pile of puppies for example. She didn't intend it, they just appeared because her emotions were high at the moment. The gestures that the Q use to do things wouldn't be so much an activation signal as the result of a mental training to not allow every aberrant thought to manifest. Like wizard incantations or the like. It's them focusing on allowing their mental control to release enough to let whatever they are thinking of be caused by the technology.
Q: I remember how terrible Captain Kirk was! Picard: Starfleet captains don't act like that anymore! Q: You mean you don't have treesomes with green chicks? Picard: No... we still do that.
A real Q can time travel not only himself but others as well. On TNG the Q took Picard back to the beginning of Earth's birth of life. Trelane appeared not to have that ability. Trelane had no knowledge of what food or water had taste like.
My theory: Trelane is Q junior. Time has no meaning for the Q. He goes back to mess with Kirk until his parents corral him. Also, the "technology" is all for show. He's playing a game with Kirk and what fun would a game be if not for the ability to lose.
I agree because the last thing you want being with unlimited power accidentally wiping out The universe. I to believe that this is q jr. Perhaps like his father fascinated with human history. So he journeys back to be one of the greatest captains of all time.
my thoughts exactly. The parents kirk saw would be de lancie Q and the Q wife coming to catch the kid after he had escaped. The Q send the kid to janeway to teach him a lesson after that.
@@TentaclePentacle Exactly, In fact even after Kirk had destroyed the device he still was able to fight Kirk with abilities. He just seemed to not have as much control over it. The q Is not restricted by time or space. It would not be a surprise if they suddenly appeared in the dimension of star trek they're putting on TV now, Rather than stick to just the original dimension timeline. Not that I really watched the new stuff but still.
I did watch the episode and I watched delancey's interview where he admitted that q is based on Trelane... so I agree with the notion that trelane is q from past or Just in disguise
A couple of weeks ago, John Delance was commenting about re-appearing on PICARD as "Q" on a Star Trek related blog. I sent him a comment stating that I looked forward to John further developing the "Q" character and that "Q" always reminded me of the Norse God "Loki." I also mentioned that there are beings more powerful than "Q" as perhaps "Q" are to "humans. Trelane, on the other hand, always struck me as a 5 year old child in a Grown Man's Body and a dangerous amount of power. Although, I do like the line from Trelane's parents, "They have souls, they are superior." I'd like to think that they are right. Also, remember the "Organians." Although similar to "Q" in many respects, but quite different. John Delance did make several guest appearances on Stargate SG-1, playing a colonel with less than honorable aspirations. He ends up becoming the host to a Goa'uld and ends up taking an unexpected last walk into space (curiosity of Jack O'Neill). It would be fun to ask John Delance if that is how "Q" got born.......just kidding........maybe.....
@@stephenberry1622 I too, though John's version of Q as Loki. I would imagine that Starfleet would have to give the various members of the Q, that they've encountered, additional names to help identify them. Like they would nickname John's Q as Loki Q.
Someone else said they saw an interview where DeLancie DENIED that Q was based on Trelane, and said he in fact had never even heard of Trelane before playing Q. We met Trelane's parents in the same episode we met Trelane (the only episode any of them ever appeared in), and they were absolutely nothing like the Q.
John Des Lancie's Q sired a son in the Voyager series. Also, in TNG and in Voyages we learn that the Q can be stripped of their power but retain the knowledge. That coupled with the fact young Q was too much like his father and was stripped of his power he could have the knowledge to build device to duplicate the powers of the Q.
On the TNG episode where the blonde girl becomes (or rather discovers) she is a Q - her "Parents" are killed by an unusually strong tornado which - precedes Voyager's; "Q becomes a daddy episode," by quite a while. Trelane was obviously the prototype for the Q character - and if we say he is in fact a Q we are probably safe in that assumption. Also if we say he isn't quite a Q we miss the bigger picture. His mastery of what he is doing is approximately on par with a somewhat uninitiated Q. Between the mirror and the sword being breakable fixtures that; "concerned him somewhat," We can assume he had some difficulty getting them right. This mirrors the suicidal Q's revelation that they are indeed fallible creatures that present themselves as omnipotent.
Yeah, but there's a *lot* of glossing over the *other* highly advanced beings that get encountered, especially in TOS, so saying that Qs would be the only player on that scale is a bit presumptuous
Q had a son with Q in voyager. That son was left with Janeway to teach him to behave, because Q and Q just couldn't handle it. Trelane had tools limiting his power that were foisted upon him by the very same parents that took him away at the end of the episode. The Q exist everywhere and everytime. Q has an affinity for humanity and Trelane had knowledge of Earth his "telescope" would not have given him access to according to it's stated ability. Is Trelane the baby version of Q's son to whom Janeway teaches some sort of platitude? Just my opinion, but it seems more likely that Trelane is baby Q who after being a brat in his playpen is then taken back, but Q and Q can't control him as his powers grow amongst a society who hasn't dealt with children in eternity, not since the "beginning" of the universe since we have no evidence they can go back further than hiding in the big bang. The mirror itself is one of the keys, a baby seeing itself and beginning to form the concept of it's individuality, the fighting, tricking it into feeling. Trelane is baby, one on a level that is beyond comprehension and how do you limit a baby's powers when a tantrum could end the universe. You cannot simply remove them at this stage, the baby's growth will be stunted much like the daughter of Q on TNG, who would be an illegal Q baby born before Trelane. Trelane was a legitimate Q born of Q parents. Evidence points to Trelane's parents being beings who simply can, much like Q and the only child of Q who was legitimate and would have been disciplined is Voyager's teenage Q. The pieces fit together even more nicely than Trelane simply being an early Q which does nothing to explain the power displayed by his parents or his knowledge of events that his telescope would not have allowed him to see.
I agree. And Q's trial always annoyed me. Never once did Picard say that the Q have no authority over humanity to hold a trial of any kind, much less to scapegoat the first ones he met. Such a protest wouldn't do any good, but the audience and crew would've thought it was a good point. He was subservient and pathetic the whole time rather than approach from a position of strength like Kirk would've.
In the early-90s, I was at a Trek convention in Maryland and found myself seated in the audience next to a kind older gentleman and we got to talking. I recognized him fairly quickly and told him about my interest in moving to California to become an actor, which I remember him encouraging. Then John de Lancey called him up on stage so they could do a panel on whether one of the Trek character's he'd played (not Koloth) was related to Q. William Campbell was a good guy.
Now I remember a fanfic where the TOS era crew ends up in the TNG era, and when Kirk meets Q he starts to realize it's the grown-up Trelane and calls him that the rest of the story.
The time issue could be explained away as the Q Continuum was an extra-dimensional plane of existence like the Profits plane is outside linear time Also we've seen that many worlds move at various rates like in Voyager's "Blink of an Eye" where the surface goes from stone age to space travel in a few days in orbit... But most important is they travel in time, so they could could of formed in the future and traveled to the past. Measurements of time for immortal time travelers are ify at best...
Yeah Q was able to take Picard billions of years into earths past to show Picard the primordial ooze in the final TNG episode...so I don't think linear time is a concern to them. ;)
But not Q, which are omnipotent and therefore do not evolve from an "earlier" version. Just similar characters with similar powers, but obtained by different means
I like John DeLancie’s take on it. When writing the character of Q, Gene Roddenberry went back to Trelane and fleshed out the character and lore behind him and developed the Q Continuum.
Yes...also, having Shatner somewhere play the older version of Kirk would be interesting to say the least ... As Spock always says it... "Fascinating.. "..🖖
the new season of picard suppose to heavy involve q and time. According to the trailer something picard says or do triggers Q saying "the trial never ended" He snaps his finger and the timeline has changed where the federation is more of a authoritarian state and seven of nine does not have her implants. They wind up going back in time to try to correct what ever Q changed. Comes out next month. Looks really good!
@@jiyu9694 I really hope we get some flashbacks in Picard season 2. I wanna see the Q's and Guinan's people clash. It's like how Disney doesn't give us Old Republic lore. I WUNT IT.
@@KryptonianChaos1 It could be interesting, since Whoopi has reportedly been asked to appear as Guinan on Picard. This season or next, I don't know. Q is supposedly a very big part of this season, so I doubt he will be on next season. So if Whoopi isn't on until next season, then we probably won't see any interaction between them. I'd like to see it happen, if only to settle some of the fan speculation about whether or not Guinan really has much ability to resist the Q. I don't think she or her people have that kind of power (if they did, the Borg shouldn't have been able to conquer their planet) but that remains to be seen. As for SW, I thought I read there's going to be a new series that takes place in the Old Republic?
"Trelane could convert matter and energy" ......so could Ardra, that old guy in The Survivors, that kid in Future Imperfect, the gamblers in Move Along Home, and probably half of the Delta quadrant as well.
Read "Q Squared" the TNG novel. It explains much. Also, remember the ending of "Squire of Gothos", the two energy beings asking forgiveness for their kid. One more, the TNG trilogy, about Q, his beginnings, and his family (yes I said family). All these novels are good reads. Ooh, I almost forgot, the last novel that mentioned Q and q, "I. Q.". Now that's a title.
This was out of continuity proven in the 1994 novel "Q-Squared' by Peter David. I guess there's also some evidence in current continuity that Q is in fact his father.
Well, since the idea of the Q as a species didn’t exist until long after this episode, I would say no, Trelane is not a Q. However it’s possible the writer of Encounter at Farpoint was inspired by the Squire of Gothos episode to create the Q.
Trelane needs technology to use most of his powers so I always imagined that he's an ancestor of the Q probably from when they were starting to transition from being a very highly advanced alien race to omnipotent beings.
But he doesn't need the tech for his powers. He believes he needs the tech. There is no evidence his parents need anything for their powers and there is ample evidence Trelane doesn't need the tech, but believes he does and is acting out of impulse not thought at the end. Trelane is a baby learning what I, you and we mean at a fundamental level for an intelligence so beyond us that even imagining the story is difficult to grasp. Trelane is Q's son, Trelane is the only Q other than the illegal Q of TNG who refused her Q powers, to be born. Trelane is the only Q whose entire existence has been Q and learning what that means and Trelane is humanity's final form in current star trek, or more precisely the Q we leave after Janeway educates and spanks him and sends him on his way is the final form of Trelane we know of. Because de Lancie played off Trelane, because junior Q played off de Lancie and did a good job...
@@kevg1617 If the technology was a booster, so, yes he could do without it, it just made things easier. And who's to say that was the only one he had available.
@@colinmoore7460 perhaps, just no evidence for it or for his parents needing anything to whisk him away. His situation fits Q's affinities, he has foreknowledge of events relating to humans that his "telescope" could not have given him due to his distance and the stated capability, said telescope which was conveniently pointed at Earth. While certainly not flat out stated that Trelane is the basis for Roddenberry's Q, it was certainly for how de Lancie wished to portray Q.
I think Trelane "needed" technology the way Thor in the MCU "needed" his hammer. Not as the source of his power, but as a focus and control aid for power that he possessed. Also, we don't know for a fact that the Q do NOT use technology, either.
@@arekpetrosian4965 indeed. If they were depicted in a "real" galaxy that had a galactic opera functioning along logical technological lines. Star trek has shown strong evidence for spiritual woo type evolution as the "ultimate" goal of existence, whatever that means. In that sense they are very similar to star gate, the whole premise of Wesley's power is mind over matter, it is a defining feature of Star Trek that the mind has an evolutionary path distinct from that of the body.
The comm badge in discovery is kind of on its way to a "snap your fingers and make anything happen" matter/energy device, having an entire intra-ship ranged transporter system built in. There may be many species that arrive at that technology including the Q.
To me, the greatest mystery in all of the clips shown is this: Why is Kirk thinking of the prank of dipping girls' pigtails into inkwells? This would make sense for someone who was a child in the 1940s, but inkwells in desks vanished once ballpoint pens came into existence and I'm pretty sure that they don't even use ballpoint pens in the era of Star Trek, so why would he even be thinking of inkwells and pigtails? Is this an image that has somehow lasted through the centuries despite the obsolescent technology that is being referenced?
Pretty sure it was the imagery written up by Gene Roddenberry's childhood as most of the viewers from his generation could still remember inkwells. A great example of a writer's own life experiences and memories accidentally dating a show
Good point about Kirk. However for accuracy I point out that when I was in primary school in the early 1960s in Australia we were still using inkwells with nibbed pens (there were also fountain pens of course), and as Star Trek was also 1960s, most people of the time would be familiar with the concept, so this was a joke aimed at contemporary audience.
Well, "double dumbass on me!" We know that Kirk's knowledge of history is a crazy-quilt of detailed information and amazing gaps. He doesn't know what a Clark Gable movie is. He can't drive an internal combustion automobile with a damn, but he is an expert on Abraham Lincoln, for example.
@@lillyanneserrelio2187 That's the Doylist interpretation, the Watsonion one would be that old fashioned devices came into fashion in the federation. Say a traditionalist movement making older more romantic technology more of a norm, not hard to do if you live in a post scarcity environment.
Techno-primitivism is a thing even today. Maybe in the 23rd century there was a fad of using old fashioned ink pots. We know there are some people who prefer paper books. It might even be similar to teaching long division even though we have calculators. The real reason of course is that it would have made sense to viewers in the 1960s.
I guess she disproves the idea that the Q need technology or Machinery to work their hocus pocus . She didn't even know she was of the Q and could still do "magic tricks". The Q seem alot like the witches on the old sitcom Bewitched from the 1960's.
1:24 "No. It's the same old story as the one we're meeting now... self-righteous life forms, who are eager not to learn, but to prosecute, to judge, anything they don't understand or can't tolerate." Hmmm. This seems like a fitting description of...
TRELANE: Is Actually A “Q” Entity. AT: The Time Of The Original STAR TREK: He Was Really Immature And Childish Let Alone Not Developed During The Original Run Of The Original Star Trek. STAR TREK: The Next Generation. Involving “Q” As A More Developed Version Than TRELANE Was In That Earlier Episode Of The Original STAR TREK Series’s History Etc.
People rarely consider the fusion of tech and biology, cybernetics and biomechanics Q may be the evolution of both where they rely on neither exclusively.
In one of the Star Trek novels, if they are canon, Q tells Picard that he isn't God, but knows him and his contribution to the Earth was the platypus. I guess time isn't linear for Qs per se, but that would put him in existence millions of years ago.
In the original Star Trek another episode had the tralane juvenile powers and Q like guardians. The episode, Charlie X. Nicely done. A young human boy given Q type powers. He can do or have anything...and doesn’t want it. Good script.
As PeaceCommando pointed out, the novel "Q Squared" by Peter David makes a direct connection between Q and Trelane, and that the Q do have parents. Q do have kids, as shown in Q2 in Voyager. Outside of the Prophets, Nagilum is a close second. Though Q is more a trickster than a info seeking entity. Kevin Uxbridge the Douwd simply wanted to live peacefully with his human wife, though did display near omnipotent abilities.
I worked at Paramount Studios for 21 years from production assistant to cinematography. I had the pleasure of a nice chat with Mr. Campbell addressing to proposal idea in having a war between Tralane and Q. Can you imagine the special effects! Most liked it but Rick Berman didn’t. We suspected it was the money, most of it going to the Roddenberry side of Star Trek if produced. Berman hadn’t a clue the philosophy of Star Trek anyway. When Gene passed, so did Star Trek.
From the first time I saw Q in the TNG, my mind quickly slipped back to TOS and the squire. He (it) was a form of Q in my mind, just a writer’s early version of Q. Just as all the characters and technology evolved as the production quality improved after TOS, so did the character of Q. To me, it is the only logical Path. In addition, this is a TV show, not real life. Script writers are usually writing to make money to pay the rent, not delving into cerebral and philosophical details, however still interesting material to ponder, which is why I am a subscriber to this channel. :)
I think that perhaps Trelane is the same Q we see in TNG. He is so immature and underdeveloped emotionally. He may have grown a special attachment to human voyagers in his childhood (TOS) and is toying with them in his adolescence (TNG). Also, his apparent use of technology could easily be a roleplay. After all, once his technology is thwarted, the rules of how it works suddenly shift such that suddenly it's all fine again. Exactly what a child would do.
It would be interesting to have an episode where the Q, the Organians and the Wormhole Aliens had to collaborate with agents of the Federation to solve a problem.
Perhaps young Q require some mechanisms near them until they mature, when they can stand on their own and tap into the power source mature Q use/create.
I believe that the little gestures made by the Q are there for the sake of the audience - a visual cue (pun intended) to attribute a current development to the character. I'm not sure one could honestly cite this as evidence that the Q are interacting with some sort of tech, like the Ardra imposter used, for example. It's possible, but it could just as easily be there solely as a story cue.
Having just recently seen a 'first time viewing' review of this episode, I am now a believer in this theory. It just pretty much fits... if you see the broken mirror as a red herring. After all, the whacky sounds of the machine breaking never really stopped the strange activities in the slightest. And to think, this episode just originally confused me. No longer.
