The cosmic trickster Q is perhaps the most iconic villain from “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” one who often broke the fourth wall. Played by actor John de Lancie, the character debuted in the show’s premiere, “Encounter at Farpoint.” Since his introduction, de Lancie has returned to the role in multiple “Trek” spin-offs, including “Star Trek: Voyager,” where he also became a regular foil to Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). But believe it or not, de Lancie owes the role of Q to Gene Roddenberry’s lawyer — and a life-or-death surgery that changed both of their lives.
Interviewed for the Roku documentary series “The Center Seat,” de Lancie talked about how he was hand-picked by Roddenberry’s lawyer — Leonard Maizlish — to play the part of Q for the series premiere. As de Lancie tells it, Maizlish passed himself off as a producer and went over everyone’s head to get him the part because of a role that the actor once played on the long-running soap opera, “Days of Our Lives.” “[Maizlish] said, ‘This is a payback,'” de Lancie recounted of his conversation with Roddenberry’s attorney — an infamous figure who meddled with scripts and production staffers. As he tells it, the lawyer once had a quadruple bypass surgery, and during his lengthy recovery, watched de Lancie play the soap’s eccentric advice columnist, Eugene Bradford, every day. “‘You made me laugh when I thought I was gonna die,'” de Lancie said that Maizlish told him.
Despite being a lawyer and not officially involved in the production of the series, Maizlish got de Lancie the part. And even though most of the crew despised Maizlish for his overbearing antics behind the scenes, de Lancie arguably owes him his most iconic role — one still so popular that “Picard” star Ed Speleers hopes he’ll get another chance to go toe-to-toe with the immortal.
Leonard Maizlish was known to bully his way around the studio
For all the kind words that John de Lancie might have for Leonard Maizlish — the lawyer who got him cast as one of the best “Star Trek” villains — most everyone else involved with “Star Trek: The Next Generation” absolutely loathed the man. In the 2014 documentary, “Chaos on the Bridge,” an entire segment is devoted to Maizlish, and no one had a nice thing to say about him. “[Leonard Maizlish] himself could be a movie of the week,” said former Paramount executive John Pike. “I can recall one day when Leonard was almost clutching his chest [in pain] and I’m saying ‘I hope you die!'”
According to Pike, longtime “Trek” writer D.C. Fontana, and others involved in the series, Maizlish was notorious for bullying his way around the production, rewriting scripts personally, despite having no writing experience and no WGA credentials. He personally fired members of the show’s staff and was known to skulk around the production offices, pilfering through people’s desks and eavesdropping on conversations to get dirt on anyone he perceived as an adversary. “Leonard was carrying the wrath of Gene [Roddenberry] all these years because Gene felt he had gotten screwed on the original [“Star Trek”] series.”
Ultimately, despite breaking all the rules and making enemies left and right, Maizlish’s job was to represent Roddenberry. Even the Paramount executive Jeffrey M. Hayes admits that “as tough as he was, he did a helluva job doing that.”