As much as season 3 of “Star Trek: Picard” has earned raves across the board, that hasn’t always been the case for this spin-off/sequel series. Season 2 in particular ended up dividing fans, especially in the finale when the show gave longtime enemies Picard and Q a weepy goodbye … complete with an actual, affectionate hug! While I guess I’m in the minority who thought that was a well-earned coda to their tumultuous relationship over the decades, those disgruntled fans apparently were not alone in wanting a sort of redo to Q’s time in “Trek” lore.
Showrunner Terry Matalas recently held a roundtable interview that /Film’s Vanessa Armstrong attended, where he divulged exactly how this Q-centric post-credits scene in “Picard” came about:
“It was an idea I had all the way back when we were shooting [Q’s] last scene in season 2. I knew we were going to tell this story and I went up to John [de Lancie] and I was like, ‘I’ve got this idea for a post credit scene where he’s back.’ And he was like, ‘Yes.’ And John and I are dear friends, so we continued to talk about it whenever we hang out. And he was like, ‘I’ll be back.'”
Revealing that they only had “20 minutes” to shoot what would become one of his “favorite” scenes in the finale, Matalas was clearly giddy about the prospects of retconning Q back into continuity. Whether this flies in the face of the season 2 finale or not, I think most Trekkies are simply happy to get more of de Lancie’s phenomenal, scenery-chewing performance as Q in the future. When exactly will that be? Paramount hasn’t announced a “Star Trek: Legacy” spin-off just yet, but hopefully, it’s only a matter of time.