Paramount
The circumstances behind the creation of the character Q (John de Lancie) on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” are a little shady. As previously written in the pages of /Film, show creator Gene Roddenberry may have created Q as a creative way to avoid paying a bonus to one of his longtime collaborators, D.C. Fontana. It seems that there was some wrangling behind the scenes while “Next Generation” was still in the early days of development as to whether the pilot episode, “Encounter at Farpoint,” was going to be 60 minutes, 90 minutes, or a full two hours.
D.C. Fontana, the author of multiple episodes of the original “Star Trek,” was eventually told that 90 minutes was the sweet spot, and she followed the instructions of various BTS bigwigs to pen a pilot of that length. The insidious part is that Fontana’s contract would only pay her a bonus if she was assigned a two-hour pilot, so the 90-minute assignment would deliberately cut her out of her intended cash incentive. Roddenberry, meanwhile, had every intention of expanding the pilot himself, perhaps always intending for it to be two hours. The stuff he added was all Q-related, as he loved the idea of all-powerful trickster gods making life difficult for Starfleet captains. Roddenberry, meanwhile, received a mysterious boost in his own pay at the exact same time Fontana’s bonus lapsed. Very curious indeed.
Roddenberry, however, did love the character of Q, as did the fans. No one minded that he was similar to the character Trelane (William Campbell) from the original series episode “The Squire of Gothos” (January 12, 1967), and Roddenberry even promised de Lancie a more frequently recurring role.
De Lancie talked about Roddenberry’s promise — and how he broke it — in a 2023 interview with ScreenRant.
Over his head
Paramount
In the “Next Generation” pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint” (September 28, 1987), the U.S.S. Enterprise-D is sailing off to a distant colony when their journey is interrupted by Q, an impish trickster god with unlimited powers and a healthy judgment of humanity. Q announces that humans aren’t ready enough to penetrate deep space quite this deeply, and that Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is to be the avatar for all of humanity in an elaborate trial. Q aims to determine if humanity is enlightened, or if they are just as savage as they were just a few centuries ago. Q will appear as a judge in a kooky kangaroo court culled from Earth’s early 21st century.
Q made for an exciting character, mostly thanks to de Lancie’s energetic, sardonic performance. Q instantly served as a goofy counterpoint to the stuffy Starfleet officers audiences just met, and Gene Roddenberry became excited. This excitement came, at first, with what almost sounded like a warning, as de Lancie recalled. He said:
“Gene said to me after the first episode … Actually, he said to me something which was really important, which I’ve thought of a hundred if not a thousand times. On the third day, the dailies had come in, and I’m watching a setup on a soundstage, and a voice behind me says, ‘You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.’ And I turned around, and I went, ‘Oh Gene, what are you talking about?’ He goes, ‘Oh, you will find out.'”
Roddenberry regularly appeared at “Star Trek” conventions, so it’s possible he was alluding to the rabid fanbase “Star Trek” already had. As it happens, though, Roddenberry was formulating plans.
Six episodes out of 26
Paramount
In 1987, a standard season of television ran 26 episodes, which is a huge amount compared to the paltry 10-episode seasons we get these days. Roddenberry knew he wanted Q to return, and his initial plan was to have Q back as frequently as possible. Q did, of course, return from time to time, although would ultimately only appear in eight episodes of “Next Generation” during its seven seasons. Roddenberry didn’t care for those bush league numbers. De Lancie said:
“He said to me, ‘I’m going to bring you back 6 times, at least 6 times a year.’ I said, ‘Oh, okay. Great.’ And then the next time I came, he said, ‘Actually, I can’t do that. It’s too flashy a character. And so, I just can’t do it’ … And it made sense to me. Yeah, it’s a very flashy, kind of mercurial character… And [TNG] would then become the Q romp …”
Which is a fair idea. Q episodes were exciting because of how infrequent they were. Too much Q would have made the character less special. When Q magically manifests a mariachi band on the bridge of the Enterprise, it’s hilarious. If he was going that every fourth episode, the show becomes altered, becoming a Q-based comedy series. It was wise to scale him back.
After “Next Generation,” Q would appear in an episode of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” in three episodes of “Star Trek: Voyager,” and would be featured heavily in the second season of “Star Trek: Picard.” De Lancie, it seems, has never been very far from the role.