John de Lancie’s Q always had a certain fascination with Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation and TNG’s writers called it love.

Star Trek: The Next Generation writer Ronald D. Moore says that John de Lancie’s Q was “in love with” Captain Jean-Lic Picard (Patrick Stewart), and that’s one of the reasons why their relationship worked so well. Captain Picard commanded the USS Enterprise-D for seven seasons on TNG, and Q showed up about once per season to antagonize his favorite captain. John de Lancie and Patrick Stewart played off of one another brilliantly, and Q quickly became one of Star Trek’s best recurring characters. With his god-like powers, Q often did more harm than good, but he also helped Picard through some tough spots.

Q also made appearances on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, but his Q’s interactions with Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) never had quite the same spark as his interactions with Captain Picard. Ronald D. Moore spoke about Q and Picard’s unique relationship in the companion book to the documentary series of the same name, The Center Seat – 55 Years of Trek by Peter Holmstrom. Read his quote below:

Internally, what we said all the time was Q is in love with Picard. That was the fundamental of the relationship. He’s in love with him. He just is. He loves Picard. It’s a particular relationship with this one human in this omnipotent being that’s bizarre, but that’s really what’s at the heart of it. Which is why, in my opinion, when they tried to translate him to Deep Space Nine and have a relationship with Sisko, it didn’t work because it didn’t, absent that element. Then Q just became a weird prankster that showed up arbitrarily, just to kind of screw with people. But with Picard, that was something personal. He had a personal relationship with this man, testing him, challenging him, protecting him. It was like a whole different kind of thing. And it just didn’t work with anybody else.

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Q Took An Interest In Jean-Luc’s Son Jack Crusher In Star Trek: Picard Season 3

Will Q and Jack Crusher’s story ever continue?

Q returned in Star Trek: Picard season 2, in which he sent Jean-Luc and his friends to an alternate totalitarian version of the future. Picard and his crew then had to travel back into the past and fix the events Q had altered before they could return to their own timeline. Along the way, Q helped Picard work through some of his childhood trauma before the god-like trickster revealed that he was dying. Although Q had previously believed himself to be immortal and unchanging, he seemingly dies after a heartfelt hug from his friend, Jean-Luc. Despite Q’s apparent death, he made another return in a post-credits scene at the end of Picard season 3.

After Jean-Luc and the reunited crew of the Enterprise-D saved the galaxy yet again, Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) decided to follow in his parents’ footsteps and joined Starfleet. As the son of Jean-Luc Picard and Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Jack will undoubtedly play a role in the future of the Federation, and Q wants to be there to see it. In his brief visit, Q stated that while Jean-Luc’s trial may have been over, Jack’s has only just begun. Captain Picard and Q had a complicated relationship on Star Trek: The Next Generation and it remains to be seen whether Star Trek will continue the story of the Picards and the omnipotent trickster.