By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Star Trek: The Next Generation brought back some of the most famous bad guys from The Original Series, including the Klingons and the Romulans. This beloved spinoff also introduced some memorable new villains, including the Cardassians, the Nausicaans, and the Borg. While all of those new baddies resonated with fans, none struck a chord with the fandom quite as much as Q, the godlike being played by John de Lancie. He appeared in both the very first and very last episode of The Next Generation and several episodes in between, and he was always the perfect chaos agent to get under Captain Picard’s skin.
Over time, Q became less of a villain and more of an antagonistic ally: by the end of TNG, he was helping Picard to literally save all of humanity. Originally, though, he was written to be a recurring Big Bad, a kind of ultimate foe who can’t be overcome by advanced Starfleet technology. When did he begin his transformation from evil villain to the unexpected savior of mankind? It all started with “Deja Q,” an episode where Q was written to be a manipulator who merely lied about losing his powers. But Gene Roddenberry insisted he actually lose his powers, causing the former villain to discover humanity he didn’t even know he had.
Naked And Afraid
“Deja Q” is the memorable Next Generation episode in which Q shows up on the Enterprise, completely naked. He reveals that the Q Continuum decided to punish him for because he frequently torments lesser beings; subsequently, they stripped all of his powers, effectively leaving him at the mercy of previous alien victims such as the Calamarain. They attack Q when he is adjusting to life as a human, and he freaks out when he sees how the aliens hurt his new buddy, Data. Q tries to sacrifice himself to the Calamarain so the Enterprise crew would be safe, and his altruistic behavior is rewarded when the Q Continuum give him his powers back.
It’s a very heartwarming episode that quite literally humanizes Q, who was, up to this point, the scariest villain in Star Trek: The Next Generation. As recorded in Captains’ Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, “Deja Q” was originally written as an episode where Q was lying about losing his powers. Showrunner Michael Piller said that Q spun “a whole story about how we were about to come into a war with the Klingons,” with the big reveal being that the godlike being “was just playing with us and pulling our strings just so that he could make himself a hero, become an officer and prove his value.”
Til Death Do Them Part
Such an elaborate ruse would be perfectly in line with the mustache-twirling villain that we saw in earlier episodes like “Encounter at Farpoint” and “Hide and Q.” So, why did the plot for “Deja Q” change so dramatically? This was because Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry decided to effectively redeem TNG’s most iconic villain. According to Piller, Roddenberry “threw cold water” on him and the other producers with a very straightforward storytelling note: “If you’re going to do a story–Godlike and brought to Earth–then do it. Do a story about what it’s like to lose everything that you are and having to discover your own Humanity.”
It turned out to be great advice, and “Deja Q” became one of the best episodes of the entire series. This humanization of Q set up some important later arcs for the character, including him helping Picard save humanity in the TNG finale “All Good Things.” The godlike being also returned in Picard Season 2 to help give his oldest frenemy some closure. Sadly, Roddenberry didn’t live to see any of this; he died in October 1991, one year after the original broadcast of “Deja Q.” Fortunately, he had time before his death to help redeem his favorite villain, one named for a passionate Star Trek fan.
Obviously, Gene Roddenberry wasn’t a perfect storyteller, and some of the Season 1 TNT episodes under his tenure were pretty bad (“Code of Honor,” anyone?). But he always had good instincts when it came to his characters. He knew how to write Q as one of the greatest and most menacing villains in television history, but he also knew exactly when and how to transform that bad guy into one of Star Trek’s most unexpected heroes. He also gets the coolest hero-to-villain glow-up, ever. After all, how many do-gooders have you seen that have their own mariachi band?
