John de Lancie Reveals He Is Shooting Two Seasons’ Worth Of A “Very Different Q” For ‘Star Trek: Picard’

Last week we reported how John de Lancie is peppering his video messages on Cameo with news on his return as Q in Star Trek: Picard. This week he’s still at it, revealing more about his character and about how much Q we can expect in season two and beyond.

Picard is getting a lot of Q

John de Lancie was part of the Star Trek: Picard teaser trailer and the Paramount+ First Contact Day panel from the beginning of April. We learned a little bit about his return as Q that day, but he has revealed more via his Cameo videos posted in April. Whether you ask for it or not, if you order up a special greeting from de Lancie and reveal you are a Star Trek fan, he is going to talk about how much fun he has been having with his return to his iconic role.

Last week, de Lance talked about how Q was “annoying the s#!t out of Picard” in season two. In multiple videos posted this week, the actor jokes about how Q’s needling is wearing thin on Picard star Sir Patrick Stewart. And as he told his tales of set life, he let it slip just how much Q we can expect in terms of episodes and even seasons. Here is an example from a Mother’s Day greeting posted today

Q is coming back. As a matter of fact, for the last two weeks I have been filming on Picard and really annoying Picard – really annoying him. [laughs] Patrick was delighted to see me for the first couple of days and after a couple of more days of really annoying scenes, he said, “SO, how many episodes are you doing?” In other words, ‘When are you going to get out of my face?’ And the answer is six episodes. I think they are going to be coming out – actually I don’t know. But we are shooting season two and three all at the same time right now.

And de Lancie mentioned he is appearing in a total of six episodes in a separate video, which means we are getting a good deal of Q in Picard. While producers have talked about the series running for three seasons, Paramount+ has not officially announced a third. It has been previously rumored that during the pandemic-forced hiatus, producers moved ahead with developing the third season to be shot back-to-back with the second season. When co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman was asked about this earlier in the month by The Hollywood Reporter, he demurred. But now it appears de Lancie has confirmed this two-season production plan is happening.

On Cameo, de Lancie also talked about what it’s like working on Picard with the strict COVID protocols:

And it’s really quite unusual to be shooting a television show during all this COVID stuff. It’s like walking into a surgical suite. We are masked and checked and rechecked. This morning I was checked to go back on Monday, tested. And when I get there on Monday I will be tested again. It’s quite an operation.

A different Q

While Q “annoying” Jean-Luc Picard does sound like a classic situation from his recurring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation, de Lancie has indicated he is actually playing Q differently Q on Picard. For example, he had this to say in another Mother’s Day greeting:

It’s a very different Q this time. They wanted to go with not kidding around not as much. We will see if the audience enjoys it. I think they will.

And in a wedding congratulations video he had this to say about Q on Picard:

They wanted a different Q and they got a different Q. Not the least of which is I am thirty years older. The first thing I said to them when they asked me to do the show, I asked them, “You are not going to have me in those tights again, are you?” You just don’t want a 70-year-old guy running around in tights. And they said, “Oh, no, no. It’s very different.” I went, “Okay, as long as I’m not in tights.”

John de Lancie and Patrick Stewart in “Tapestry”

Chewing the scenery with Sir Patrick

While there may not be as much kidding around for Q, de Lancie did reveal that he and Stewart have some good material to work with. For example, he had this to say in a birthday message:

I have making Sir Patrick Stewart’s life VERY difficult. Really annoying. He was happy to see me at first, but I don’t know if he is happy to see me now. In all seriousness, we have been having a really good time and the scenes have been really tip-top.

He followed that theme up in another birthday message as well:

Patrick and I have had a really good time. So good meaty scenes. It’s been fun chewing the scenery.

Picard on trial

Q famously put humanity on trial in the series premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and in his final appearance in the series finale he tells Picard “The trial never ends.” This line is also echoed in the Star Trek: Picard season two teaser (see below). One of his Cameo videos was for a fan of this trial storyline, and so de Lancie discussed how the trial has changed in Picard:

It says that you particularly love the fact that I have put humanity on trial. Oh my god, excuse me but humanity really needs to be put on trial right now. But this might come as a surprise to you, I don’t particularly put humanity on trial as much as I put Picard on trial. I’m back on the show in Picard and I make his life REALLY annoying, so tune in.

ICYMI – Season two teaser

Star Trek: Picard season 2 will arrive in 2022. Here again, is the teaser released on First Contact Day.


Find more news and analysis on Star Trek: Picard.

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Q Grew

I’m sooooo unbelievably stoked about this!

Wow, this is some pretty meaty news! So Q will be in seasons 2 AND 3? If so I wonder if both seasons will be one long continuous story or will it be two different stories, just tied into each other like Avenger’s Infinity War and Endgame was? And 6 episodes next season will be a lot of Q. I’m getting pretty excited, especially after seeing some of the behind the scenes pics shot in L.A. It looks like they are going to go ALL in with Q and the story line. But that’s why it’s great you have a Q to begin with, you can go big!

Season 2 seems like it’s going to be trippy weird Star Trek again with a either a time travel or alternate reality type of story. Those are the stories I love most in Star Trek and exactly why I been wanting to see Q back the day they announced the Picard show.

Maybe its 6 Episodes for Season 2 and 3 in total

That’s how I took it but who knows?

Certainly possible. Hopefully it will be more per season though.

Knowing this lot they film 2 season worth of footage because they forgot to write the scripts and had to have massive reshoots so that the story make sense even by there low standards for season 2.

What are you talking about, homeboy???

Are you OK? Do you need an Adult?

BTW, I mentioned in my OP about the behind the scenes pics that all are over YT and the internet in general dealing with season 2, but why do all the Star Trek sites not post things like that? All the usual places I go, you’re not allowed to talk about them. Reddit literally takes down anything that mentions them. And many of the Star Trek sites aren’t posting them at all either.

I just don’t get it? Fans want to talk and speculate, that’s what we do. I get they are ‘spoily’ but it’s the internet, once it’s out…it’s out! Everyone either knows about it will know soon anyway, but yet none of the major sites except one are posting them for some reason.

I’m just guessing here, but it could perhaps be about maintaining a good working relationship with the studio.

Trek Movie has certainly had some good interviews with cast members over the years, and provided updates from the sets. Presumably at least some of this comes as a result of that relationship.

CBS might be more reluctant to deal with this site (and others) if they knew that they were actively posting content that they would ideally prefer not be released.

I actually didn’t think about that. I could see them worried CBS may put some kind of ban I guess but same time I remembered when they published that behind the scene photo of the infamous pic of the Klingons in the breakroom on Discovery in season one and no one seemed that bothered. In fact, EVERYONE oddly published that photo. Maybe it was considered a lot less spoilish I guess. Whatever.

Fans were excited and outraged by the leaked Klingon photos. In an age of clickbait, one still has to wonder if a crewmember lost a job or why they didn’t. If it was really a casual upload, then the photographer may not have removed metadata from the photo, and it could be traceable.

OTOH, you could imagine that if Fuller was in love with his GOT imaging of the Klingons, he might have wanted these photos leaked. After all, they were taken on a locked set. And – just the same idea from the opposite side – were those Klingon images leaked on purpose to put pressure on Fuller to temper the reimagining? Is there a relationship between those photos and when he left the show?

I just looked up those rumor Picard photos you’re talking about. Perhaps they are just uploaded by passersby – spoilery but shot by people nearby outdoor locations. In the age where anyone can upload anything anytime, it sucks for productions shooting in real locations. The whole point is to release and tease images of those transformed locations at their own set pace.

This is probably way too much thought about this.

I mean all that could be true about the Klingon pic but I do think it just came down to a cast member or someone on the production taking the picture and posting it. The only point is no one had any issues about posting it and it was everywhere. But maybe after that, there was some decree by someone saying if they posted stuff like that again, they would lose access or something. IDK, but it is odd we have confirmed pics of the production that really gives you an idea of at least the concept of what the story could be (and even a returning cast member from season one I don’t think any of us assumed we would see again) and crickets. It would be talked about everywhere if they let fans actually talk about it.

Meanwhile, if someone from the Kelvin cast say for the 50th time they hope another movie gets made it gets turned into another useless headline all over the net.

I agree though, it does suck for production. But that is the disadvantage of not only shooting in a heavy visited location where lots of these productions are shot but everyone now carries a camera and videorecorder in their pocket every day of the year. But they are all use to it by now. It’s just the nature of the beast.

I suspect in the not so far future, second unit camera crews will be shooting in these very public locations when they are empty and providing plates to the LED Walls. I suspect if they are using these public locations now then these are not really shots worth much speculation about in terms of the overall story. When I was a production assistant they told us to tell passersby who asked what was being shot, “It’s a Mayo commercial.” (nothing to see here!) But you can’t hide Patrick. lol.

You know that those Klingon were just Klingons with shaved heads right?

That’s a really good point.

…and of course my post got flagged by the same forum police who won’t let me type G A Y. The Trek B B S is your best bet I think!

Interesting question Tiger2. I personally am a fan who is oh so tempted to watch those YT videos but have chosen not to just because of the spoiler aspect. That said, I would be suprised that is the reason why Trekmovie.com chooses not to post those photos. Fans like me can simply decide not to read those stories and that would allow most fans to discuss the spoilers. I have a feeling it is probably as suggested, Paramout CBS would prefer those images not be shown, but since they are out there, the cat is already out of the bag.
Because of spoilers, I wonder what they think of De Lancie talking so much about what is in store for Q and that they are filming seasons 2 and 3 at once? Btw that seems like a great idea.

I admit, I can’t avoid spoilers no matter how much I want to lol. I will say since they keep a lid on pretty much everything in the new shows, it is nice to watch and not know too much of what is going to happen. It’s shocking just how great of a job they done to keep these shows secret (sadly better than the stories they are trying to keep secret a lot of the times).

Of course I understand you don’t want to spoil too much but once something is out on the internet, its out. But if that’s all it is or Paramount just asked them not to show them, I can respect that of course. But fans want to talk about it. On YT itself, every major Trek Youtuber has made massive videos on them, some going on for literally hours lol. But you come here and zip! But that said if you want to talk about them and hear about the theories and speculations, that is the place to go, so it’s not like a huge blackout. I just hate the comments section in YT in general and how nasty people can be there, especially about the new Trek shows. And I really like hearing people’s thoughts here (well most of the people here ;)). But I will say people seem very positive for the most part over them at least. I certainly can’t wait for the first real trailer now but that’s probably not until the fall.

As far as De Lancie, yeah I think he just went all Johnathan Frakes and probably said too much lol. But to be fair he said nothing about the story itself, just production stuff only nerds like us care about. But knowing they are shooting both seasons back to back and he’s in both is huge news for sure. Welcome news for a lot of us! It just looks like it’s going to be a HUGE story and for all the Trek newbies who never seen Q will hopefully be in for a treat of who they are about to meet! It’s nice we’re getting stories like this again where your imagination can go anywhere! That’s what Star Trek is for me and Q really embodies that and why he’s so loved in the fanbase!

People don’t like spoilers. Besides the fact that people are coming up with some weird ideas based on those pics.

Still think Discovery is coming back to the 23rd century by the end of season 3? ;D

Go away now.

Exciting times!! Really interested to see what exactly they’re going to do with Q.

I’m DEFINITELY hoping that he retains plenty of that custom humour, but the idea of “…a very different Q” certainly has me curious too.

Most of all, I just can’t wait to see de Lancie back in the role again…

Is the French Canadian girl still on the show? I hope, I hope?

Alison Pill? Not a “girl” (an accomplished, Tony-nominated 35-year-old actor) and not French-Canadian.

None of the other Picard actors are French-Canadian, are they?

The actor portraying a murderer? Maybe the hack writers won’t mention it and hope nobody remembers?

Ugh. I wish we would just complain about the writing without calling the writers, or anybody else, names (hacks, charlatans, etc).

There’s no rage like nerd rage, for certain.

They are all playing murderers. It’s a very murderful trek!

Picard has kill hundreds of people on TNG.

I love her. She could murder me anytime she wants. :)

If he is talking about Ms. Pill, she is from Canada, not necessarily French, but Canadian. (Her father is Estonian, so Estonian Canadian, I guess.) …and she is a youthful young woman who could be considered girl-like…

She has a great smile.

Actually, you are off by about a decade, homeboy. Isa Briones is 26 years old. ; )

More than a decade. She was born in 1999; hence she’s 21 years, old – not 35. Jack, I realize that at your age it’s difficult to judge ages accurately. : D

You seem to be having trouble judging ages yourself. Isa Briones is neither 26 nor 21 years old. She’s 22.

damnit…

Didn’t a commenter say they should shoot S2/S3 together? Kudos to that person for the prediction!

I would love for him to be sort of the “focus” of Picard as a series, give it some narrative purpose, perhaps in the context of the gigantic synth nigh-cataclysm that happened in the finale. Maybe an exploration of what it means to judge humanity and other forms of life. If you’ve ever seen The Good Place, it’s a perfect comedy about what it means to be a good person!

Maybe in the end something else will “judge” the Q and decide they are the ones who need to be banned for their arrogance in deciding they had the authority to “judge” others? How’s that for irony?

And as Q is wiped from existence he will shout, “Well, EX-Q is ME!” :>)

So, Diana Ross and the Supreme Brings are actually a bit higher up the god-like food chain? Maybe we’ll get that Trek musical after all.

Some day, Q’ll be together…

Them does something else have to judge them for being arrogant enough to judge the Q?

Now you get the idea! :)

So reading between the lines I am imagining they are going for a bit more “darker” Q this time around. As long as they don’t make him too dour, I see no problem with it.

Yes, it worked quite well in “Q, Who”.

Yes, I agree. I don’t mind more darker and dangerous Q either. I do think he cares about Picard now, so I don’t think he would be as belligerent as he was the first few seasons of TNG, but there could be a foreboding reason behind it as well.

I like to think of Q as a “Dark Trickster”– even in his light hearted TNG appearances he had some pretty dark moments. It was really Voyager that turned him into more of an outright jester. Not that I disliked his appearances on VOY, but they were clearly highlighting the more silly aspects of the character, and largely jettisoning the rest.

I thought he was fine in Death Wish. That was probably Q at his most ‘normal’. But by Q2, they had turned him into a complete joke.

So it would be nice to get earlier Q when he was a little more menacing and dangerous.

SIX episodes?! I wonder if they gonna stop at Riker’s Pizza Hut? 🤔

Now here is the thing about Q on PIC that really bugged me from day one. Q puts the character of Picard on trial but what he should actually do is putting the SHOW PICARD on trial. From day one I’ve wondered how Q would react to the show.

In “Encounter at Farpoint” Picard was able to treat all of Q’s accusations as aspects of a distant past and that was believable… In Q’s very first scenes he adresses militarism, drug abuse, religious zelotism, foul language… subsuming this under humanity being a “grievously savage race”….

But Picard and the crew of the Enterprise BACK THEN were able to prove him wrong… provisionally…

But now look at PIC Season 1… We had an abundance of grizzly violence, greed, drug abuse, murder, foul language, semi-religious craze… they showed a vision of humanity that exactly fits with Q’s accusations. Picard, the character, was still relatively innocent, but the world surrounding him proved Q absolutely right…

Interesting that he isn’t putting humanity and the Federation on trial but just Picard, who hasn’t done so much wrong apart from doing nothing about it… John Kramer aka Jigsaw coming to mind… If taht’s what they are more or less doing, outch…

Oh my, this is intense… The more I think about a darker, grey-haired Old Man Q wanting to “play a game” with Picard, the more I fear this will truly became a Jigsaw-style trial. We have seen Q torturing crewmembers before. Back then on Farpoint, we had Lt Torres nearly frozen to death… other being stabbed by Napoleonic monster soldiers… All of that happened in a PG, family-friendly manner. But now that they have unleashed the TV-MA format upon Trek, they might be willing to go further. Given the Icheb scene, they are obviously willing to touch that ground and that gives me the shivers…

I don’t think it’s going to be that kind of trial. Remember, last we saw him on TNG, his “trial” amounted to a test, and in the end, was a way of helping Picard in his own odd way. I’m holding out hope that his appearances on PIC will be less the antagonist propelling the story, and more of a dark spiritual advisor throughout his adventures in his new form.

On the one hand you could have Guinan as the more optimistic, friendly advisor to Picard, guiding him in moral dilemmas, and on the other end is Q, with a more cynical take on matters. Picard could learn from both.

Any coincidence that those two have an unseen history together?

I think it was kind of intentionally symbolized that Q was the devil on Picards shoulder while Guinan was the angel. So I think they might carry on that symbolism.

Yeah, it’s not for nothing Guinan always wore her hat which looks like a halo.

My thoughts exactly. This Q will have to be adjusted, otherwise he’d be indicting the whole concept behind this version of Star Trek. It will be interesting to see how Q changes, and how much.

Yay!!! Q is one of my all time faves!!! It’s going to be fun to see where they are going, and so hard to wait for!! 😁

Instead of putting humanity on trial, maybe he’ll be puttting Picard’s humanity on trial. Help the audience answer whether this new Picard is the “real” Picard! Can he prove his humanity? Could be interesting, whatever they have in mind. Nice bit of PR from de Lancie.

Great!

Interesting comments, De Lancie appears to be adopting the role of Tom Holland for the Star Trek universe. I guess we can deduce from De Lancies revelations and a couple of recent interviews with Levar Burton that Geordi will be appearing in season 3!

“…excuse me but humanity really needs to be put on trial right now.”

Seriously? Has de Lancie lost all sense of reality? Thanks to COVID humanity is undergoing one of the biggest trials of its existence! How can this guy be that blind?! Come on, man!

I’m hoping he is referring to other horrible things going on lately.

This really adds to Burton’s comment about Geordi appearing, but not in Season 2.

Please use deep fake. No more horrid makeup like Data. We know it can be done! Please Paramount!

At the very least they should introduce him with a deep fake and then transform him with an in-universe reason. Se my related comment in the main thread.

https://trekmovie.com/2021/04/30/john-de-lancie-reveals-he-is-shooting-two-seasons-worth-of-a-very-different-q-for-star-trek-picard/#comment-5527009

Will we finally see Chekov in Space Seed, Sean Connery in ST V, Eddie Murphy in ST IV and Tom Hanks in ST VIII?

I knew they they couldn’t resist changing his character. Such a shame. Whole well the Discovery/Picard Crew always let me down so I should be use to this shit by now.

People change. Characters change.
You at 20 are not the same person at 40 and you won’t be the same person at 60, and that’s not just in terms of appearance (and waistline lol) but in terms of life experience and personality and taste and world view.

He a billion year character has been a menace to younger races all that time. His personality isn’t change in the life time of picard. Not even becoming a dad change him.

It is a valid point David, he is an ‘immortal’ so 25 years is nothing to Q. Of course that assumes that that the same amount of time has passed for both characters but from Q’s perspective it could be a million years since he last dropped in on Picard.

Yes, you may change, but the root of your character remains the same I think. I don’t think humans ever really drastically change, they just develop, but their roots always remain the same I think.

To the contrary, they sound like they are UNchanging him: Voyager turned him into a joke of a characters, a comical, silly jester. It seems they may be taking him back to what he was during his earlier TNG appearances.

I have news for you. He was turned into a clown on TNG. And you know what? It worked a TON better. Once they decided he worked better as a joke, his appearances on TNG became tolerable.

I also have news for you (which, might I add, is a very unnecessarily rude and condescending turn of phrase from)– while he had his clownish moments, he still had hid darker, cynical side in episodes like Deja Q, True Q, and QPid. His DS9 appearance, and his 2nd and third episodes of Voyager made him far sillier.

And like I said– his *earlier* TNG appearances. I also think you might be mistaking “some comedic moments” for a purely comedic character. As I said elsewhere, Q works best as a “Dark Trickster” which assumes that he has his darkly humorous side. It’s the outright silliness he displayed on VOY that made him almost purely comedic.

Look, I’m very sorry you don’t like TNG, and are pre-determining anything new from Kurtzman to be bad, but that doesn’t invalidate my opinion on the article at hand.

Admins, is there a block button?

I love Q in any form basically. But yes I agree rewatching his earlier appearances he wasn’t ‘comedic’ like he later became. Sense of humber but he was much more suspicious and cynical about what humans were. I really like that Q, but I think after Deja Q they couldn’t keep that up because the humans he thought so little of literally saved his life and that’s where the turnaround started.

He still thought they were too primitive, especially the way they viewed the universe, but he no longer questioned their motives like before.

So if they are going back to the darker Q (kind of like how Enterprise went back to the more alien Borg in Regeneration), it may be something much more deeper and maybe dangerous.

Wow. And I’m the one being condescending? Jeez… Some of us need to accept that others have different takes from theirs a little better.

As for Q… Cynical? Sure. Darker? No. When Q was presented as a serious threat he never worked. It was just a tired trope. But when they made him more an annoyance… Then they found the formula that worked for the character. He was purely comical after his first couple of appearances. When he became a joke, he became more watchable.

Look, I’m sorry you have an issue when your take on things gets challenged. But that is no reason to lash out like you did. It’s also no reason to jump to fantastic conclusions that are obviously false about the intent of the person you are disagreeing with. Just respond in such a way that shows you disagree and why.

And I’ve been wanting a “block” button here for ages.

” Von allen Geistern, die verneinen, ist mir der Schalk am wenigsten zur Last.

Of all the bold, denying spirits, the waggish knave least trouble doth create.”

FAUST I, Prologue in Heaven

“Agreed.”
-Picard

Sounds great. Like the Q movie I always wanted but never got.

If I were on the writing team, I would make the plot that Q is literally getting old and close to dying like Picard. (Because of Q magic stuff.)

I don’t know they kind of just did that with Data getting old and dying, I think if they did something similar with Q it would feel very repititous.

Plot twist….

Q is Picard. Always was, synthdom is his first step towards Qdom

Mon captaine, Jean Luc, the Q don’t reproduce…..we assimilate!

(Q snaps his fingers, and JLP is in the Q Continuum) Sorry, Jean Luc, it’s a one way trip.

I just hope they have a good story,

Well this is good news in my book if S2 and S3 are being filmed back to back as a singular production period. Probably will mean that both seasons will be released in 2022, probably in January and then about October of that year? Hoping it’s been worth the wait.

Who come up with that thumbnail? It’s so bad lol.

Two seasons. Two Qs? I don’t know. I imagine it’s hard to switch things up all the time.

Fair enough lol

It would be a huge disservice to the character of Q, if he does not play the “see Picard I was right” The distopian future theyve presented in Picard and Discovery that humanity has not changed, they will go right back to being selfish and barbaric when faced with inconvenience. Playing perfectly into Q’s original accusations against humanity

Given how much the teaser lingers on the Stargazer model, I can’t help but wonder (ahem, wish) that Q spirits Picard back to his younger days and we have a few episodes on the Stargazer in burgundy-jacket era, and Jack Crusher. Possibly with a younger actor playing Picard in some scenes, in a Quantum-Leap style trickery.

So James McAvoy finally got his wish of playing a young Picard?

This confirms that the production is filming season 2 & 3 back-to-back.

I don’t know… Q didn’t work at all when he was being more serious. I suppose it could be possible if a different group of writers go at it. But then, a better group of writers tried it on TNG and realized pretty quickly that Q worked best when he was non-threatening.

None of this is sounding particularly positive.

‘Q Who?’ is perhaps the most serious episode involving DeLancie as Q and that is always cited as a top TNG episode.
Q always worked for me.

I honestly cannot name a single Q episode I’d label as bad. DeLancie always turned in a good performance.

The only Q episode that I’d call bad is Hide and Q, and even that had Picard’s great Hamlet speech.

Ok, I change my mind: that IS a bad episode– so much so that I always forget about it. That said, it is not bad because of Q– it is just a bad concept, and Frakes is awful in it.

I rewatched Hide and Q literally a week ago and yeah still bad overall. But that scene between him and Picard has become classic in a lot of ways. Watching season 2 in general, while there were definitely a lot of bad in it, I’m surprised how many of the episodes I’m enjoying actually, some I haven’t seen in ages.

Season 2 is cool. I re-watched it earlier in the year. It gets a bad rep for whatever reason.

Yep a lot of fun and interesting episodes in season 2! I just love how how Star Trek they feel. Definitely some truly bad ones but I’m really enjoying most of them. I thought it was going to be a chore to get through the first two seasons but not really! I still love TNG just as much as today as I did when I first watched it. Even Dr. Pulaski has grown on me. Didn’t think that was possible. 🌝

Of course there is still Shades of Grey though. Oy!

Agreed! Q always worked no matter what version he was for me and Q Who is one of his best (which I will be watching again soon). I always loved his ‘It’s not safe out here’ speech in it especially.

I really want to stay positive since I’m now super excited for Picard again, but I’m worried they may mess Q up. But I do have to remind myself I been pretty happy about most returning characters from Spock to Seven and I don’t doubt De Lancie won’t still be great himself at least!

The performances and even episodic writing has been good. It’s the overarching stories and sometimes bad performances that drag down the worst parts of DSC and PIC for me. While Peck and Mount were fantastic, I really don’t like the acting from anyone else– and I don’t think it’s even their fault, I really blame the directors, and moreso the producers, who have this odd obsession with over-the-top melodrama.

For Picard, it’s just the not-well-thought-out season-long story, and the rushed ending, that stopped the season from being great.

Yeah, I agree with most of that. A lot of people who truly enjoyed Picard at the beginning (like me) just felt it was waaaaay too rushed, a bit nonsensical in some parts (because a lot of it wasn’t explained) and half done by the end. Even Akiva Goldsman admitted that in the Variety interview. But that’s also my fear, they’ll do it again lol.

I mean take Discovery, I do believe every season has been stronger than the previous one and they do seem to try and just make a better production overall. And yet it still falls a lot to the same issues season after season. Third season came out a little better for me overall and I think they FINALLY understood maybe you don’t make every major arc in the story come back to involving Burnham over and over again. I thought the Burn explanation was really bad, stupid, ridiculous and eye rolling to say the least; but the one saving grace is Burnham had noting to do with it at least like everyone seem to believe was going to happen. It’s only a small saving grace though. ;)

But now that we know seasons 2 and 3 are being shot together and I DO trust the new showrunner (who made the show 12 Monkeys and also shot the last two seasons together as well), we’ll get a more developed story line. I mean they have Q for two entire seasons, they can do some CRAZY really interesting stories with that…or just turn it into a confusing half thought out mess. Really hoping for the former of course.

I would say True Q is not a good episode, but the scenes with Q are fantastic. I would say QPid is not a good episode either, but that’s hardly even a Q episode. Same for QLess and Q2.

The episodes where he is the central driving force of the narrative are always fantastic, whether they are dark and serious like Q Who, or mostly comedic like Deja Q, and I credit that almost entirely to DeLancie.

Exactly that’s what I getting at.
DeLancie is always on form as Q and I’m optimistic he’ll be as good and as reliable as he ever was in the past.

The bigger question is will the writers actually produce quality material?
The fact that Season 2 and 3 are being shot together suggests they have a really clear idea of what they want to do going forward and that’s good. They may even have the show mapped out to conclude at end of the third season so they actually have an endgame to the plot.
Hopefully the plot makes sense too (lol). I’m looking forward to watching.

Off the top of my head… Farpoint. (The Pilot). His first episode where he gave Riker his “powers”. And All Good things. Every one of those was awful. If I go back and look I might find more.

Q, the character, was always nothing more then a plot device. Tapestry is a great episode, but at its core, it’s a JLP story, not a Q story. Virtually everywhere else he’s a contrivance or a caricature. John DeLancie deserves a mountain of credit for making the character so much more then the actual sum of it’s parts.

Tapestry is indeed a great episode. Top 5 in all of TNG IMHO. That in spite of Q’s presence. His episodes are normally not good. And I agree. The reason Tapestry is a great episode has nothing to do with Q. If they found some other way to “Wonderful Life” Picard it would have still been a good episode.

And I do agree. DeLancie was able to do the “gnat” version of Q very very well. The couple of times he tried to be serious? Not so much.

The Douwd (TNG, The Survivors) had some depth for Treks cast of omnipotent characters. Creatures of conscience, as Picard surmised, that code acted as a check and balance on incredible abilities. If Q is absent conscience, all you have is a drunk frat boy with incredible power. Someone who should be feared because he can’t be reasoned with, simply because you don’t know if todays encounter finger snaps humanity out of existence for no reason other then Q can.

Ah, but we know that doesn’t happen because the Discovery crew is jetting around the cosmos a thousand years in the future. So, for all of DeLancie’s comments about annoying the s**t out of JLP, we already know he doesn’t have the balls to be anything other annoying.

The Survivors was a pretty good episode, IMHO, for what it’s worth….

I think Q works best when you don’t treat him as a dark villian but also not a comedian.

But more of a force of nature, a commentator of humanity, satan testing hiob, the godlike being that puts you on trial but in the end just to teach you a lesson and make you evolve during the process.

The best Q episode still being “All good things”

I’m kinda hoping when Q first shows up he looks just like he did 20 years ago and then draws attention to how Picard has aged before aging himself.

Q: Mon Capitan!
Picard: Q! What are you doing here?
Q: Oh my, the years have not been very kind to you Picard. Let’s see. (changes shape) Perhaps this would be more relatable?
Picard: (sighs and facepalms)

Different Q? Of course….Kurtzman and his idiots will find a way to ruin everything….

Different Q? Sounds like “Cue”. 😏

Q could serve as a tutor to Picard on entering the realm of immortality. That in itself could be very interesting.

Hope Q shows up on the Flagship Trek show Discovery.

They would figure out how to trap him inside a forcefield within seven lines of dialogue.

“My name is not Khan but Q”?

Because that’s what people want, when they liked a character … him beeing “very different” than the what they liked … I for a Q especially that makes no sense … but whatever …

Why must he be radically different??? Why can’t they stick with what people like???

Yeah, spreading Mariachi Q over a couple of seasons would be just freakin great!!

Said no one, ever.

I hope Q’s return is organic and not fanwank fanservice. Like that comic book where he met Chris Pine’s Kirk and pestered Picard.

Hopefully we’ll get mention of his son & maybe even more kids or some grand kids & that’s what’s changed him a bit. Plus maybe an off hand mention of Janeway. My favorite Q moment was him in Janeway’s quarters with him trying to get her to mate with him & all of her sarcastic comments.