20 Most Popular Star Trek Characters Ever
10. Q
The perfect foil for the stuffy and idealistic federation, Q is playful, fun, unscrupulous and self-involved. He’s the magnetic and loveable antidote for all Starfleet’s po-faced righteousness. As villains go, he’s pretty cuddly, he’s more of a nuisance than a threat. None the less, as the most powerful entity encountered by Starfleet, he’s one to be careful of.
The result of a last-minute re-write by Gene Rodenberry, Q is introduced in the TNG piolet, pretty much for the sole purpose of padding out the story to make it a double episode. Though Roddenberry’s input made the pilot into two completely unrelated stories, roughly mashed into one, it did give us one of our favourite recurring characters in Q, who spanned across three Trek series in the TNG era.
Q is a very Roddenberry character, fantastic to the point of surreal, he’s in the vein of Trelene from the original series. But, John de Lancie elevates the character beyond a bizarre, single appearance villain, to a character we definitely want more of. Sure enough within a few episodes, he was back and to audience’s delight. He was to return time and time again, ultimately playing more pivotal roles in the lives of the characters and the lore of the show. Q became everyone’s favourite omnipotent being.