Jonathan Frakes teases scene with Q on Star Trek: Picard

Star Trek: Picard season two will premiere in February 2022

Star Trek fans were only too happy to welcome John de Lancie back to the universe when it was announced the actor would be reprising his role as the pompous, self-righteous god-like entity of the Continuum. After all, putting Q back together with his nemesis, now-Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) could only mean good things for the second season of the continuing journeys of the retired Starfleet admiral on Star Trek:Picard. Now, Jonathan Frakes has given us even more to look forward to when the series returns to Paramount+ in February.

Speaking with CinemaBlend, Frakes shared that he and Brent Spiner have a scene with de Lancie, and he called it one of his favorite scenes of the season. Spiner will again be playing Soong, presumably Dr. Altan Soong but that hasn’t been confirmed.

Jonathan Frakes had nothing but good things to say about John de Lancie’s return as Q

There’s no denying that de Lancie was popular as Q. Why else would he be taking up the mantle again? Frakes said the actor was “beautifully cast” as one of the most complicated villains, putting him up next to the Borg Queen.

And though de Lancie didn’t appear in that many episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Frakes considers the actor a “litmus test” for the series and added that they [meaning the other actors] always felt he was a member of the core group.

"[John] de Lancie has always been a litmus test of–I don’t know how many Next Gens he did–but every time he did, he sort of took the temperature of the company and we all circled him in a way that we always felt he is a member of our core group."

That’s high praise coming from Frakes who has been involved with Star Trek for over thirty years, many years of that helming various series as the director. And that’s precisely why a scene, no matter how brief, with Frakes, Spiner, and de Lancie is going to be golden.