Crew Profile: Q

As Q, he became one of TNG's most enduring guest stars, but de Lancie - like Q - has cropped up everywhere!

It may be a surprise to realise that John de Lancie, whose most enduring role remains Trek’s ultimate god-like entity Q, has had more roles than any of the main cast of TNG. At the time of writing, de Lancie’s 186 credits for TV, film, and videogames put him over the top of Patrick Stewart (157), Wil Wheaten (144), or even Michael Dorn (178). The vast majority of these roles have been bit parts, but de Lancie made a career out of occupying strange and wonderful characters.

Even before appearing in TNG, de Lancie had been in thirty different bit parts, with only two recurring roles. This included numerous sci-fi guest star appearances with such classic shows as The Six Million Dollar Man (in which he appeared in such truly forgettable roles as ‘Diver’, ‘Medic’ and ‘Sergeant’), Battlestar Galactica (as ‘Officer’), The Twilight Zone, and MacGyver. But it was his hilariously ludicrous stint of 520 episodes on US daytime soap Days Of Our Lives that made his career, and led to Gene Roddenberry casting him as Q for “Encounter at Farpoint”…