In “Those Old Scientists,” Ensign Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Ensign Mariner (Tawney Newsome) have been thrown back in time 120 years, and have immediately become careful about tainting the timeline. Boimler, to undo some damage he incurred, sneaks aboard a shuttlecraft where he is startled by Ensign Mariner (Tawney Newsome). He exclaims “Holy Q!” and Mariner immediately shushes him. In her usual flip fashion, she then explains that the people in this timeline haven’t met Q yet. “They sort of had a Trelane thing going on.”
Trekkies enacted the “Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood” meme. If Trelane isn’t a Q, the characters within “Star Trek” at least acknowledge the similarities. Surely they have made the same connection theories as fans.
Trekkies, with their instincts toward canonical nitpicking, have long held that Trelane was a Q. At the end of “The Squire of Gothos,” Trelane’s “parents” appeared to scold him for playing too rough with his human “pets.” Trelane whines like a child and vanishes into the ether. His parents — depicted as glimmers of light — apologize to Captain Kirk for their child’s behavior. Were they Qs?
In “Encounter at Farpoint,” Q explains that he is a member of the Q Continuum, a panoply of ineffable space deities that have existed for an untold amount of time. They can do anything and know everything. Q is also fixated on the darker chapters of Earth’s history, pointing out to Picard that humans have a distressing tendency toward war and death. Both Q and Trelane know a lot about tactics and battles and war. Trelane sees such activities as fun hobbies while Q uses them to condemn humanity. Q puts humanity on trial for its crimes, using Picard as the primary defendant.