A member of the Q Continuum who torments and tests humanity.
Q is a nearly omnipotent being from the Q Continuum, who delights in tormenting, testing and occasionally helping Captain Picard and his crew. John de Lancie plays him with a mix of theatrical menace and wry charm. He first appears in the opening episode of The Next Generation, putting humanity on trial for its perceived savagery.
Over the years he hurls the Enterprise across the galaxy to meet the Borg, strips Picard of his certainties, and finally reveals that the trial of humanity never truly ended in the finale. He pops up in Deep Space Nine and Voyager, where his bid for a family life and a personal feud with Janeway lead to some of the franchise's funniest and most poignant moments, and he returns in Picard to guide the captain one last time.
Q endures as the franchise's most iconic trickster, a figure who is as likely to teach a lesson as to cause a catastrophe.