STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS’ Latest Episode Connects the Original Series, NEXT GENERATION, and VOYAGER Eric Diaz | usagoldmines.com

In Strange New Worlds’ second episode of season three, “Wedding Bell Blues,” the writers pay homage to several parts of the Star Trek franchise. Not only does it seemingly reference a classic episode of the original series, but it also references Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. And it even pays homage to a non-canonical Star Trek novel by the late, great author and comic book writer Peter David. And and, it features a voice cameo from a true Star Trek icon, John de Lancie as Q. Here’s how this new, seemingly frivolous comedic episode ties in various parts of the Star Trek canon across decades.

In “Wedding Bell Blues,” the Enterprise docks at Federation Starbase 1 with a three-month layover for repairs after their encounter with the Gorn in the previous episode. They are also welcoming back Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), who is coming back from a three-month sabbatical where she studied medical archaeology under Dr. Roger Korby (Cillian O’ Sullivan). When she returns from her time away, she reveals she’s now dating Korby, breaking Spock’s Vulcan heart.

A now despondent Spock (Ethan Peck) goes to the Starbase 1 bar. There, he drowns his sorrows over Christine entering into a new relationship. Fans of the original Star Trek may remember that Nurse Chapel had a fiancé named Dr. Korby, who had been presumed missing for years. The TOS episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” back in 1967 revealed most of this Nurse Chapel backstory. Spock meets an odd bartender with muttonchops who remains nameless, played by Our Flag Means Death actor Rhys Darby. Although he appears human, Spock sees him as Vulcan. This odd fellow promises to fix his current romantic predicament somehow.

The next morning, Spock wakes up in bed, next to Christine. We learn that today is their wedding day, and not the Federation centennial as it originally was. The only person on board the Enterprise who seemingly remembers the truth is Dr. Korby. Only he remembers that he and Christine are a couple. After Spock (very uncharacteristically) punches him, he remembers the real version of events. He and Korby try to convince the crew that this version of events is a fabrication. Eventually, they realize the odd bartender, also posing as an Andorian wedding planner, is an omnipotent being messing with reality. The being says he didn’t like Korby doing archeological digs on his home planet, and wanted to get back at him.

The character’s look and demeanor draws heavy inspiration from the character of Trelane. Played by William Campbell, he appeared in the TOS episode “The Squire of Gothos.” In that episode, the crew of Kirk’s Enterprise beam down to a mysterious planet. There, a reality-bending entity dressed in 18th-century clothing named Trelane captures members of the crew. He toys with them for his own amusement, like a child playing with insects. He’s only stopped when two beings of pure energy arrive, and take him away. Their respective attitudes in that scene reveal that Trelane is a child, despite presenting as a human adult. The two beings are presumably his parents.

The mysterious being on Strange New Worlds has a look and demeanor almost identical to Trelane. In fact, the unnamed being could very well be Trelane himself. He’s messing with reality seemingly only to amuse himself. And he’s also a “child.” When his parent appears like a swirling bit of energy to take him away, it’s a direct reference to the end of “The Squire of Gothos.” And that’s where the Star Trek: Next Generation connection comes in.

The voice of the parent being is none other than John de Lancie, who played Q in several iterations of Star Trek, but primarily on The Next Generation. In addition, this episode recalls the fourth season TNG episode “Qpid,” where Q creates a Robin Hood-inspired fantasy, all to prove a point about love to Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The silly, frivolous tone of “Wedding Bell Blues” matches the tone of that particular TNG episode almost exactly. The overt suggestion here is that the troublesome being is Q’s child, who is “a mere 8,000 years old.”

As for when Q ever had a child, well that takes us straight to Star Trek: Voyager. In that series, Q and a female member of the Q Continuum have a son. Or at the very least, a child who presents as male, as the Q are really genderless. This junior Q first appeared as an infant in the third season Voyager episode “The Q and the Gray” in 1996. Here, John de Lancie’s Q mates with a female version of his race, producing a child. This joining was an effort to stop a civil war within the Q Continuum. Q then makes Captain Kathryn Janeway the baby’s godmother, and disappears into the cosmos.

A few seasons later, the child shows up again, referred to as “Q2” in the episode of the same name. Now he presents as a teen male, played by John de Lancie’s real-life son Keegan de Lancie. It turns out, he has inherited all of his father’s troublesome personality traits. Q2 and his father depart into the cosmos by episode’s end. And this episode marks the end of John de Lancie’s time as Q for a very long time. He doesn’t pop up as Q again until the second season of Star Trek: Picard over twenty years later.

As stated in the final episode of Picard, the Q exist outside linear time. So even though Q died at the end of Picard season two, he reappears in the Picard series finale. He tells Picard’s son, Jack Crusher, that the Q exist outside of linear existence. So the version of Q that Picard’s son Jack meets comes from a different point in his own timeline. This means the young Q we meet in Strange New Worlds may very well be both Trelane from the ’60s series, and also Q’s son from Voyager. The voice casting of John de Lancie as the “father” certainly suggests that he is. Neither being refers to itself as part of the Q Continuum, preserving continuity with TNG, who officially make first contact with the Q a century later.

This connection between TOS character Trelane and Q, who was created decades later, was first suggested by writer Peter David. The prolific writer, who wrote legendary runs on comics like The Incredible Hulk, Young Justice, and others, first gave this explanation in the 1994 TNG novel “Q Squared.” That book revealed that Trelane was the godson of Q. However, Peter David heavily hints that Q was Trelane’s actual son. Q denies parentage, but Jean-Luc seems to know the truth. Although he wouldn’t openly admit this to Picard. If the character on Strange New Worlds played by Rhys Darby is indeed Trelane, and seemingly Q is his true dad, then this makes at least part of Peter David’s novel canon. And although the episode was written long before his passing, it’s nice to know something he came up with is now official Star Trek canon.