7 Ups & 1 Down From Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3.5 — Through The Lens Of Time

5. UP — Q, Are You?

Undeniably calqued on Trelane, and introduced as a quite literal 'god of the gaps' to bump up the runtime of Encounter at Farpoint, Q could hardly claim divine inspiration in the beginning. Few had high hopes for the character, in fact. Since, and in large part thanks to John de Lancie's captivating performance, the Q as a species have become one of the most interesting aspects of all of Star Trek — as frustratingly enigmatic as they are often, quite simply, irritating to all those they meet.

Season three of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has begun to lift the veil on some of that mystery. In Wedding Bell Blues, we found out that Vadia IX was "the old homeworld" of the once corporeal Q (that is, if we take Trelane/the 'young' Q's word as gospel).

Vadia IX was, then, also the setting for this week's episode. Its revelations about the true origins of the Q were, to quote La'An, "fascinating". Chapel and Korby's research had led them to the conclusion that the M'Kroon were "the direct descendants of an advanced civilisation that could travel across multiple galaxies". According to Korby, the civilisation claimed to "have achieved immortality" by creating "quantum instability at a molecular level".

Does that mean, therefore, that the Q in corporeal form once resembled the M'Kroon? If said 'advanced civilisation' has direct descendants, we can only assume that not all of them made it to immortality. If not, why not? And what happened to those (Q) left behind to make them forget their ancestry over the aeons? So many questions, so little time to write a paper for Captain Janeway.