10 Oldest Characters In Star Trek Universe
Star Trek has played host to some seriously senior beings in its day. Just how old is Q anyway?
The Star Trek universe boasts beings from other worlds, other plains of existence, and other galaxies, yet most of them have a similar trait: they're as old as the hills. Some races thrive off their advancement in age, while others take a different approach altogether, existing outside of space-time.
In these cases, is it fair to call non-temporal beings old at all? Perhaps they could even be called the youngest beings in the franchise. Although, for this list, anyone who was around in the times long before the first rivet was placed in the hull of the Enterprise is fair game - and that includes those who exist outside of what we'd call the "normal" plains of existence.
While it is not always true that with great age comes great wisdom, it is often the case that with great age comes great power, making them bloody difficult to defeat if the need arises. There are days when captains Picard and Janeway would have longed for a Q-catcher to spare them some headaches, although they clearly never tried just punching him.
Follow on to discover more about some of the oldest creations in Star Trek's history.
10. Guinan
Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan first appeared in the second season
of Star Trek: The Next Generation, yet this was far from her first encounter
with Captain Jean-Luc Picard. For several seasons, their relationship was
teased as something that transcended love and family, though no one really knew
why. In Time’s Arrow part two, it was shown that Guinan was on Earth in the
late 19th century, where she ran into a time-travelling Picard.
Guinan is El-Aurian, a race that is incredibly long-lived. Their planet was destroyed by the Borg sometime in the 23rd Century, though she and several hundred refugees, including Dr Tolian Soran, escaped on the SS Lukal and the SS Robert Fox. These ships would become trapped by the Nexus, requiring rescue from the Enterprise-B.
No one truly knows how old Guinan is, though she has revealed
that she is old enough to have been married twenty-two times in her life. The
version of Guinan who associated with Samuel Clemens seemed to think her father
was chasing her across the galaxy, which was suggestive of a younger, more wilful
person. Perhaps this was the character during her adolescence? Perhaps the
audience will find out for sure in Star Trek Picard Season Two.