It isn’t canon, but it could easily be made canon. And even though I didn’t really like the idea at first, I now feel like it would be a good way to retroactively shore up Star Trek lore.
I find it hard to believe that there are MULTIPLE demigod-like species in the Milky Way alone. I feel like they would have stepped on each other’s toes until only one prevailed (actual gods like the Prophets wouldn’t care or be affected). Having Trelaine just be an errant baby “Q” who got scolded for consorting with mortals prevents that inevitability.
If you think about the range of organisms just here on Earth - from single-celled creatures like bacteria, or below that even with viruses that are just DNA wrapped in proteins, to other single-celled creatures like Amoeba (yes, that’s an enormous range still in just the realm of single-celled creatures alone!), to multicellular plants, animals, birbs (haha lolz we know those aren’t real!), and finally humans who can literally split and harness the power of the atom - then extrapolate that to the whole Universe in Star Trek, we don’t need to think that every super-powerful creature seen is a “Q”.
To an amoeba, already every one of the numerous forms of insect life on planet Earth is like a “Q”. In that sense then, Q itself was an oddity - not in being a race with that much power, but in choosing to even bother to interact with the lesser forms. After all, we do not do that, to the ones multiple rungs down on the hierarchy below us (or if we do, e.g. yeast, we don’t “introduce” ourselves to them, as Q did to humans).
I think it is consistent with Star Trek’s philosophy, especially in TOS, that we are not supposed to “know” everything, about the VASTNESS of the large, wide universe it is in:-).
I’ve always outright believed the “Trelane is a Q” fan theory and adopted it as my own head canon. There are too many similarities between both of the characters to ignore. Honestly, one could even argue that they might be the same Q which is a theory I’m starting to enjoy more and more. Who’s to say that TNG Q isn’t just Trelane all grown up?
The similarities between Trelane and Q are pretty huge which is where the original theory came from but if you start analyzing specific events and comparing them further, there are things to suggest that Trelane was a child but our TNG Q was initially just a teenager. That we’ve been watching Trelane grow up over the course of the entire series.
Both of them are susceptible to rage when being laughed at, belittled, or ignored and both of them see themselves as Judge of all. Where Trelane started with kindness and hospitality, our Q knows none of it because he’s already given it to them as Trelane and seen what they were like. After what must be incalcuable amounts of time to a mortal, Trelane was no longer being punished by his parents. So he set off again with specific vengeance for humanity after what he’s seen from the Enterprise crew. Now older and with his powers fully developed, both of material control as well as now nearly full omniscience, he heads to the Enterprise again. Sure, he could alter time and go back and mess with Kirk but he had time to progress. He always gave them a “fair chance” (in his mind) so why wouldn’t he this time? See how far Humanity had advanced from the arrogant and backtalking savages that they were, pushing him into a position where he had to be punished by his parents.
So he rocks up on the Enterprise-D. Why introduce himself as Trelane though and start that all over again? Give them a “fair chance”, yet again, by saying who he is and what he actually is. No hiding. No illusions. So he toys with them. For the Enterprise crew (and viewers), this Godlike being is just unnecessarily and out of NOWHERE fucking with them. Dragging them around and impeding them just to annoy them. We’ve never gotten a proper reason as to why Q chose that moment and that time to start screwing with people or why he came with such intense hostility. Sure he uses the “You are too arrogant, pushing into the stars” but… he’s God. Humanity, and the Federation, barely know anything about the galaxy their in. He’s GOD. He’s got the whole universe and timelines he can fuck with but Humanity specifically is really that much of a threat? I mean, a decade later Voyager is about to be flung across the galaxy and struggle like hell to get home. Wouldn’t they be a better test of what Humanity is truly like? When pushed into these specific conditions and not just ripped from reality and dropped into a bath like a plaything?
But the more that Trelane/Q fucks with Humanity the more he realizes that he’s holding onto that petty grudge. He can’t really let it go now though because he’s set himself up as this judge and due to all that time focusing on them, and the realization that he might be wrong, he is starting to like these fucking backward apes. One in particular even. A captain who is similar enough to Kirk to bring out that hostility initially but different enough to make Q realize he was wrong. Despite being omniscient, it’s almost like Q is realizing and seeing things for the first time in that pilot episode. You can know stuff but ignore that information due to whatever emotional reason. Look at political opinions for more than enough proof of that. Ignoring reality and fact to suit your own needs or to suit a specific narrative that was pre-built. I say that’s what Q was doing. He might have known everything about humanity but he didn’t care or was ignoring it because he was frustrated that the crew of the original Enterprise fucked with him on Gothos.
I don’t know that I would go as far as Trelaine is Q, just because we’ve seen at least one other Q like DeLancie’s Q- namely, Corbin Bernsen’s Q that gives his powers back to him. Most Q seem to not give a shit. About anything if Voyager has anything to say about it. Maybe there are some who do and there’s plenty of reasons for them to toy with the various corporeal beings they encounter since apparently they have no real moral code.
That said, Trelaine’s parents behaved like Trelaine was doing something bad, so maybe that’s an argument against him being a Q.
Anyway, there’s a lot of room to discuss this I think.
I’m not seeing the comparison between Q2 and Q though. Q2 was tasked with stripping Q of his powers because the Q Continuum/Q2 got tired of constantly apologizing on behalf of Qs bullshit, the same thing that Trelanes parents had to do. He didn’t like humanity but I mean none of the Q in general seem to “like” them so much as tolerate as you mentioned. Some Q fuck with humanity but only now after Our Q has fucked with humanity. They seemed to have exactly zero interest in us until randomly during the Encounter at Farpoint one particular Q gets pissed for seemingly no real reason and starts toying with them like an asshole, Trelanes bit almost to the letter. Even going so far as to throw Humanities history in the face of them now while only understanding the form and not the substance (same as the food and fire).
It’s just bizarre to me that no one in the Q Continuum gives a fuck about humanity at all for millenia, then a child messes with them for a short period of time, everyone ignores them again and then randomly there’s an adult Q whos hellbent on fucking with Humanity at every opportunity.
Legit though, the difference in his delivery in the movie and on Kimmel was more profound than it seems. I wish the take he had on it, that look of wonder and awe, had been in the movie.
Say what you will about him, but the guy can do nuanced acting.
Also, if I thought I had a chance of being in that good of a shape at 93, I’d want to get there.
I have to admit that I was blinded by all the classic Trek references and actually enjoyed this and the 2009 movie on my first watch. It was a fun action movie with a Star Trek coat of paint on it, which got me to the theaters.
After a little while, however, the flashy new paint started peeling, and I realized that I had just liked it because it was new. It doesn’t share the same place in my heart as TOS, so whenever I feel the inclination to watch Kirk & crew explore the galaxy again, I go back to the original.
The visuals, music, and fight scenes were cool, but the writing felt superficial and boring. The same argument might be made for the original 6 movies, but I think the difference is that where the original movies felt like an encore for a beloved cast/crew that audiences were dying to see more of, the JJ movies were built without the same foundation. Watching them now feels like I’m watching a shadow of something else that was great.
I saw this movie in cinema when it was released and I can tell you that I haven’t see it since so I haven’t got a clue ^^’
What I can tell you is that I was 13 at the time and I had probably watched most of TOS and seen a few movies with the TOS cast tho I also can’t pinpoint which. Most of the plot of Into Darkness eludes me and I know even 13 year old me thought it felt like a very generic action sci-fi film, almost like Star Wars, and that my dad was disappointed by it for similar reasons.
But I definitely wasn’t as disappointed as him; you can impress a 13 year old with explosions and I think that Leonard Nimoy’s obviously old appearance made me realize just how long ago TOS was filmed, but it also prompted me to research the actors of TOS a bit (I usually don’t care much for actors or celebrities in general).
Seeing Into Darkness in cinema also lead to me believe that Star Trek as a franchise was still alive and well and I only realized later that these movies came seemingly out of nowhere. It’s probably also why my English teacher was so taken aback when I, a 7th grader, could explain a comic with a joke or pun of some kind about William Shatner’s toupee that was printed on one of her outdated worksheets a year prior to the release of Into Darkness (English isn’t my native language, otherwise this might sound pretty normal). But my parents just had their children rather late and my dad is a nerd who grew up with TOS, of course I know Star Trek.
TL;DR: I think for me personally it helped me connect to a fandom I thought was dead; I’d have to see it again to give any actual analysis of the plot.
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