Actor and comedian Rhys Darby made a delightful appearance in the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which premiered on July 17.
TV Insider reported that Darby’s trickster character is none other than Trelane, who caused some issues for Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew during the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series. Trelane was originated by the late actor William Campbell.
The publication also reported that Star Trek: SNW Season 3, Episode 2 (“Wedding Bell Blues”) confirmed that Trelane’s father is fellow trickster Q (John de Lancie), who was a constant nuisance for Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in Star Trek: The Next Generation. During the TV Insider interview, Star Trek: SNW executive producers Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers suggested that Star Trek: SNW writers were inspired by fans’ theories about Q and Trelane’s possible connection.
“This is confirmation of that very smart piece of head canon that we now have absorbed into canon gratefully,” said Goldsman.
Goldsman also explained why he wanted Trelane on Star Trek: SNW, which is a prequel to Star Trek: TOS.
“He’s a great character from The Original Series and also we did feel that was sort of unresolved, dangling, and it seemed intuitively quite smart to connect the two,” said Goldsman. “From the outside, one could say, ‘Look, you have a character created by Roddenberry in one, you’ve got a character created by [Star Trek creator Gene] Roddenberry in another, he’s revisiting a kind of idea, refining it, so why not connect them up when you have the opportunity to do so?’ Since someone had cleverly done it without us, we just thought, ‘Well, let us bless that idea because it was a good one.’”
Darby also told the publication he was excited about playing Trelane.
“I was told that he was immensely powerful being mischievous, sly, cheeky, and once I put the outfit on, I realized, ‘Oh, yeah, I can pull this off,’” quipped the actor.
Several fans took to the Star Trek subreddit on Reddit to share they appreciated Darby as Trelane.
“Rhys Darby was a perfect Trelane/Q2! He’s a hilarious performer and his attitude through the whole episode was just delightful. I know it’s unlikely but I really hope we see him again,” wrote a commenter.
“He was wonderfully camp – very classic TOS,” added another.
“These episodes were both amazing. The implication that the trickster is Trelane and having John DeLancie show up to imply Q is his dad was wonderful. Wedding Bell Blues felt like classic Star Trek and I loved every minute of it,” shared a third person.
Darby is not the only beloved comedian who has joined Star Trek: SNW for its third season. The trailer for Season 3 shows that Patton Oswalt has been cast as a Vulcan. The brief clip showed Oswalt’s character interacting with half-Vulcan, half-human Spock (Ethan Peck).
