Watch: How does Star Trek Picard explain Q’s aging

Star Trek Picard: How does Q, a god-like being, keep those unsightly lines from showing?

Star Trek: Picard has brought back John de Lancie to play Q, and fans are mixed. Not about de Lancie, fans love him no matter what, but some were concerned about how they would bring back de Lancie for a live-action role like Star Trek: Picard when Q is a god-like alien being who doesn’t age. de Lancie certainly does.

This wasn’t the issue for Star Trek: Lower Decks, as its an animated show and de Lancie was able to provide the voice with little to no issue at all. It sounds like de Lancie, so fans didn’t bat an eye. Yet, you couldn’t see the passage of time on a cartoon, so it worked. Q doesn’t age. So that left the folks at Picard with a problem.

So how did the executives of Picard go about making Q work in a modern context? Well, it was twofold. Firstly, they used CGI and maybe some physical prosthetics to give him a far more youthful look, and much darker hair. It looked ok, but it didn’t look like de Lancie from 35 years ago. It just looked like a different, younger version of Q.

But it worked well enough.

Then the in-universe explanation was given in a throw-away-line, ultimately saying that he wanted to match Picard in appearance. So he gave himself an older-looking exterior to match Picards’.

As a whole it works, even if it was simple and easy.

John de Lancie’s last run on Star Trek as Q?

de Lancie has made it known that he isn’t coming back for the third and final season of Picard. That means this may be the last time we see him, or Q back in Star Trek. If that’s the case, then Picard season two better be a show stopper.

Granted, that doesn’t mean this is Q’s last hurrah. The folks at Star Trek could always bring him back in one of the animated series like Lower Decks or Strange New Worlds. They could even bring him back with Strange New Worlds if they work on his “young” look.