Say what you want about STAR TREK: PICARD (and goodness knows, most of you do!), but you have to admit that, this season, having JOHN de LANCIE reprise his iconic role of Q from Next Gen is just outright FUN! His almost annual appearances confounding Picard and crew during TNG‘s seven seasons made for some wonderfully light-hearted and comedic episodes—along with some terrifying ones like “Q Who” when the Enterprise-D is whisked to the Delta Quadrant for the show’s first encounter with the Borg…and some surprisingly touching ones like “Tapestry,” where Picard gets to glimpse the road not traveled and the life not lived.
Q never really worked as a character on Deep Space Nine, and fortunately, that series’ showrunners quickly realized they didn’t need Q on a darker, grittier show like that. If they wanted comedy relief, just toss in a Ferengi episode. As for Voyager, de Lancie’s three appearances on that series were kinda hit and miss and mostly miss…although I loved his brief cameo on LOWER DECKS!
Anyway, back to Picard, and the fifth episode of season 2, “Fly Me to the Moon.” Without providing any major spoilers, there is a scene where the letter “Q” appears with a phone number listed: (323) 634-5667. The area code (323) is for central Los Angeles, specifically Hollywood. Indeed, if you wanted to call Paramount Studios on Melrose Avenue, the number listed begins with (323).
But usually in movies and on television, the next three numbers are 555. This is a “safe” exchange, reserved exclusively for filmmakers and never assigned in any area code to actual phone customers. Otherwise, people watching a show or film might try to dial a number they see on screen and bother somebody with incessant calls. (Heaven help anyone with the number 867-5309…whether or not their name is Jenny!)
So when I saw the number on the still frame at the top of this blog was NOT a 555 number, well, I just had to pause playback and call it. I just had to! And this is what I heard…
Go ahead. Try it yourself. Hopefully, Paramount will leave it up for a while and not simply make it into an April Fool’s prank.
I’ll be writing my regular Picard editorial review later on this week, but I wanted to share this with you folks asap, just in case the phone recording doesn’t stay up for long.
Nice : )
Though looking at that particular screen grab, it seems that there’s some very deliberate design in the Q logo which is reminiscent of the code that NASA embedded in the parachutes for the Mars Perseverance rover – https://www.livescience.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-parachute-secret-code.html
If that is the case, it will take a better mind than mine to figure it out…
Fascinating!
Given the sludge and slime I’ve been wading through (the news), I appreciated this chance to hear how little the Q care what we think and do. It puts everything in perspective.
They are a little pissed off, however, that somebody pretending to be one of them is spreading crazy conspiracy theories about politics.
That is hilarious! Excellent post, as usual!
BTW, I am really enjoying Picard. For the record, I generally don’t like timeline-paradox type plots and going back to ‘modern times’ has been done already in ST. And I do love John Delancy but really hate Q (all powerful, all knowing, totally unstoppable entities that use humans as playthings just bother me…).
HOWEVER, I really do like what the writers have done with Picard. The first season was solid but they have really knocked it out of the park with the second season. The idea that the Q consortium may have a rival organization in the Supervisors is really quite brilliant. The idea that Q seems to be going rogue also makes the Q thing far more interesting. They have managed to build mystery and at the same time have multiple crises that the characters have to overcome.
Not to mention, I have a visceral aversion to the Borg Queen–which I suppose is why she is such a great character–which means that Annie Wersching is doing a bang up job with the character. It is amazing how they made her a necessary evil this season. And they have finally figured out exactly what to do with Jurati. Allison Pill is really brining it.
And on one of your last posts you hit the nail on the head when you said they are getting the fans to root for Seven-of-Nine and Raffi, you are 100% correct. This is because the relationship is not at all contrived and is incidental to the plot but is yet a story unto itself. Moreover, they are not fawning or sililiquizing or otherwise proclaiming their love, their relationship is developing as a consequence of their actions and the characters growing together before our eyes… (‘Raffinine’ may not be good but ‘Sevenanaffi’ might work out better as a ‘ship name.) And because of that, I think you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone roll their eyes at this one.
I think Disco did a better job this past season, but was still subpar. Picard, though, is really killing it out there. This is edge of the seat stuff and I have a really hard time waiting for the next episode. Damn it’s good…
Hmmm…shipping Seven and Raffi. “Saffi” sounds underwhelming, and “Reven” sounds worse. “Raffi of Nine” maybe? Oh, maybe they shouldn’t become a couple at all. At least if Picard and Laris get together, we’ll always have “Paris.”
Hey, stop looking at me like that!!! 🙂