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"Don't yell 'Q,' they haven't me him yet! They had kind of a Trelane thing going on." – Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2's 'Those Old Scientists'

Spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 episode 2.

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 2, 'Wedding Bell Blues,' the U.S.S. Enterprise crew runs afoul of a familiar entity. Able to change his appearance at will and make dramatic shifts to reality — even to the minds of mere mortals — the daunting power of this near-deity presents a challenging conundrum for our heroes. What? No, we're not talking about Q  — we're talking about Trelane! 

But could Q and Trelayne be related… or even the same species? 'Wedding Bell Blues' brings compelling new evidence in support of the long-running fan theory that Trelane is related to or even part of the Q continuum. So what's the whole story with these extremely powerful entities?

Who is Trelane from Star Trek?

Trelane originally appeared in Star Trek: The Original Series, season 1, episode 17, 'The Squire of Gothos.' In this episode — which occurs after the events of Strange New Worlds  —  the Enterprise, helmed by James T. Kirk (William Shatner), is crossing an empty expanse of space far from Earth en route to a Federation colony. The ship comes upon a rogue planet, and Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) reports subspace interference. While Kirk says they have no time to investigate, he and Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) suddenly vanish from the bridge.

Although the planet appears incapable of sustaining life, Kirk's first officer, Spock (Leonard Nimoy), with the help of the Enterprise crew, determines that Kirk and Sulu were transferred to the planet, likely against their will. Along with a landing party, Spock beams down and discovers at least one location suitable for human life on the planet's surface. Within this pocket is a strange manor filled with ancient Earth artifacts.

Inside the manor, Kirk and Hulu are seemingly frozen in time. Nearby, a man wearing an ornately patterned blue coat and ruffled shirt is seated at a harpsichord. He introduces himself as General Trelane (Ret.), the Squire of Gothos (William Campbell), and quickly demonstrates his godlike powers by transporting the Enterprise crew and himself at will. While the landing party attempts to escape by beaming back to the ship, Trelane follows them, swiftly transporting them back to the manor on the planet's surface.

Eventually, Kirk determines that the source of Trelane's powers must be a device concealed behind his beloved mirror. After destroying the device, the Enterprise crew returns to the ship and attempts to escape. However, the plan does not work, and Trelane is not powerless at all. The device was never the source of his powers. Instead, Trelane continues to pursue the Enterprise through the "star desert," repeatedly placing his planet in front of the ship.

Kirk returns to the planet's surface, where he's forced into a kangaroo court by Trelane. By convincing Trelane that he needs a challenge, Kirk gets the entity to release him if he agrees to a hunt, where the captain is the prey. However, Kirk cannot evade Trelane and soon finds himself in his sights. But just when all hope seems lost, our hero is rescued by the arrival of Trelane's parents.

Appearing as disembodied glowing green orbs, the duo chides Trelane, who protests like a scolded child. Trelane's parents state that they have overindulged him, but now he must be punished. They cause Trelane to vanish, leaving Kirk and the Enterprise crew to continue on their original mission.
 

Who is Q?

Decades later in our times, Q (John de Lancie) debuted in Star Trek: The Next Generation's premiere, 'Encounter at Farpoint.' In this episode, the freshly launched U.S.S. Enterprise-D, commanded by Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), is en route to inspect a newly constructed Starfleet base. Paralleling the act structure of 'Squire of Gothos,' an enormous energy net unexpectedly brings the Enterprise to a halt en route to the base.

Soon after, Q appears aboard the Enterprise-D's bridge. After shifting between several historical Earth outfits, he teleports Picard and some of his command crew to a kangaroo court where humanity is on trial. Fortunately, Picard temporarily convinces Q that humanity deserves another chance to prove itself by the end of the episode. Leaving the Enterprise-D alone (for the moment), Q declares that "the trial never ends."

While Trelane only appeared in one episode of The Original Series, Q and the Q Continuum appear in eight episodes of The Next Generation, one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and three episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. Recently, Q had a cameo in Star Trek: Lower Decks and played a significant role in Star Trek: Picard, appearing in eight episodes of season 2, with a cameo in the show's season 3 finale.
 

The Trelane - Q Continuum Conundrum

From the very outset, Q and Trelane have plenty in common. First, there are their powers. In both instances, they possess abilities that border the godlike and supernatural. They can appear seemingly anywhere in the universe they'd like, including on the bridge of a Starfleet ship—and they don't need transporters.

Both also have a flair for the dramatic and adore dressing themselves in various costumes plucked from throughout Earth's history. Speaking of Earth, both Q and Trelane possess an affinity for (or perhaps a fixation on) humanity and our home planet. Likewise, in their first appearances, they each adopted the visage of (different) ancient Earth judges to force Starfleet captains into bogus, extrajudicial "trials."

As Q continued appearing in episodes of Star Trek, the similarities between him and Trelane only compounded. The Next Generation season 3, episode 13, 'Deja Q,' demonstrates that, like Trelane, Q answers to a higher authority. The Next Generation season 6, episode 6, 'True Q,' shows that the Q Continuum teach their young, echoing Trelane's parents arriving at the end of 'The Squire of Gothos.' Meanwhile, the Voyager season 3, episode 11, 'The Q and the Gray,' and the Voyager season 7, episode 19, 'Q2,' confirm that Qs can have babies and serve as parents.

But if Trelane is a Q, why don't we see him after the events of 'The Squire of Gothos'? It's grim, but it's a possibility he died. Voyager season 2, episode 18, 'Death Wish,' reveals that Q can die. Likewise, "The Q and the Gray" demonstrates that Q can be killed when it's revealed that the Continuum possesses weapons powerful enough to execute their fellow Q, a violent conflict-resolution method that Q sometimes turn to when ideological disagreements arise.

In 'Farewell,' the Picard season 2 finale, Q tells Picard that his powers are weakening because he is dying. While it's implied that Q sacrifices himself by using his final power reserves to save Picard, Q's death is not shown on screen, which is almost always a tell-tale sign of a character's return. When Q returns in the series finale's mid-credit scene, he chides Picard's son for thinking linearly about death. If Q doesn't exist within a linear timeline, it gives Star Trek wiggle room to explain narrative inconsistencies.   

Deciphering the Trelane - Q Enigma

The Next Generation writers noted similarities between Trelane and Q before the series aired. In The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams, edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, writer David Gerrold (who penned 'The Trouble with Tribbles') stated that some people disliked Gene Roddenberry's inclusion of Q in the The Next Generation pilot because of the character's similarity to Trelane.

Naturally, fans quickly identified the similarities between the two characters, leading to popular, persistent fan theories that connected Q and Trelane. 

Eventually, these fan conversations were officially adopted into Beta canon, which consists of the officially licensed Star Trek novels and comic books. In the 1994's Q-Squared by the late Peter David, Trelane is confirmed to be a member of the Q Continuum. Additionally, there are several parallels with other canon elements, such as Q serving as a mentor to Trelane. Although Beta canon is generally not considered part of Star Trek's official canon (which consists of the shows and movies and is known as Alpha canon), the recent streaming shows have started to canonize more of Star Trek's expansive extended universe. Thus, these story elements from David's novel may be about to find their way in to official canon.

'Wedding Bell Blues'

In the Strange New Worlds episode 'Wedding Bell Blues,' an entity that appears to be Trelane visits the Enterprise under the command of Christopher Pike (Anson Mount). As previously mentioned, this is before the Enterprise encounters Trelane in The Original Series. The entity, played here by Rhys Darby, never identifies himself by name. However, his outfit, demeanor and powerset are essentially identical to Trelane's in 'The Squire of Gothos.'

While the entity (henceforth referred to as Trelane) primarily interacts with Spock (Ethan Peck) and Roger Korby (Cillian O'Sullivan), he shows himself to the entire Enterprise crew and many of their guests. So why doesn't anyone seem to recognize him when they subsequently encounter him in 'The Squire of Gothos'? 'Wedding Bell Blues' emphasizes this by showing that Trelane has disguised himself as a Vulcan and an Andorian when interacting with the crew.

At the episode's climax, a deus ex machina resolves the unstable situation Trelane has created by manipulating the Enterprise crew—and it's the same deus ex machina that resolves the conflict in 'The Squire of Gothos'. Trelane's parent arrives and scolds the "youngster" for his immaturity, threatening punishment (perhaps a "timeout" on a remote rogue planet).

Here, the connection between Trelane and the Q is arguably made into canon, as de Lancie himself voices Trelane's parent. For Trekkies, this will inevitably signal confirmation of the fan theory that Trelane is himself a Q. True, Trelane's parent never identifies himself as Q. But while there are many Q in the Q Continuum, as seen in many of Q's canonical appearances, de Lancie is the actor who is most closely associated with the Continuum. Trekkies will inevitably make the connection when Trelane's parent opens their… whatever verbal orifice energy beings have.

The appearance of Trelane's parent as an energy being rather than the corporeal de Lancie can also be easily assumed. In 'Encounter at Farpoint,' Q seems new to humans. He (and the Continuum) are aware of us, but they don't understand us. This could explain why, earlier on the timeline in Strange New Worlds, Q had not yet gained his affinity for appearing as a human, since Q can adopt whatever form they choose.
 

Trelane and the Q Continuum

Since the names "Trelane" and "Q" are never mentioned in 'Wedding Bell Blues,' there is still wiggle room to argue that the episode did not confirm that Trelane is a Q. However, there has been support for this interpretation since the creation of Q, and de Lancie's appearance in 'Wedding Bell Blues' is just the latest bit of convincing evidence. For many Trekkies, 'Wedding Bell Blues' will be considered the definitive word on Trelane, officially making him an unofficial part of the Q Continuum.

Space may be the final frontier, but there's no end to Popverse's love of the Star Trek universe. Hop aboard the starship Enterprise with our Star Trek watch order, explore strange new worlds with our upcoming Star Trek TV shows and movies list, seek out the new life of the franchise, and boldly go where no Star Trek film has ever gone before - with Quentin Tarantino?