Warning: contains spoilers for Star Trek #3!A new Star Trek comic has teased that Captain Kirk may have encountered Q, though he never knew it. Although Kirk encountered a number of god-like beings during his time as captain of the Enterprise, Q was never among them, yet IDW Publishing’s Star Trek #3 suggests that Q did take a hand in Kirk's life.
The issue, written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, drawn by Ramon Rosanas and Joe Eisma, colored by Lee Loughridge and lettered by Clayton Cowles, sees Q, the Star Trek universe’s resident trickster figure, pay a call on Captain Benjamin Sisko and the crew of the Theseus. Q subjects the crew to a number of hilarious (at least to Q) scenarios. Among the crew are Jake Sisko and the Vulcan ensign T’Lir. The two make their way through the ship’s corridors - each of which has been tampered with by Q. Sisko and T’Lir encounter one level swamped by musketeers, another converted to a dance floor and another overrun by Tribbles. Interestingly, one of the levels is converted to the signing of the Organian Peace Treaty, which brought an end to the Klingon War. Captain Kirk had a large role in this Treaty, and Sisko and T’Lir run straight through the meeting. Jake is awestruck at seeing Kirk, but T’Lir tells him to keep his mind on the present.
The incident Jake and T’Lir saw actually happened on-screen, in the classic series' first season episode “An Errand of Mercy.” Relations between the Klingons and the Federation had never been good, and by the time the episode began, they had deteriorated to the point where another war seemed inevitable. That is, until the god-like Organians imposed themselves upon the two warring bodies and forced a peace treaty upon the Klingons and the Federation. This treaty held until the creation of the formal alliance between the Federation and the Klingons in the early 24th century.
Did Q Really Interrupt Kirk's Peace Meeting?
Why Q decided to subject Jake and T’Lir to this particular vision is unknown, but it's highly possible Q actually sent them back to the signing of the Organian Treaty. Q is an extradimensional entity of immense power, and it would be just as easy for him to actually replace the ship's corridors with different periods of history as to fake doing so. Indeed, the Theseus is on a mission to save the gods of the Star Trek universe, so Q has little reason to pull his punches in sending his own message that they better not fail. If this is the case, Q and Captain Kirk didn't meet, but the trickster did interrupt one of the major moments of his life.
Kirk May Have Other Links to the Q Continuum
While Kirk did not encounter Q directly on screen, he did meet another member of the Q Continuum - sort of. In the first season episode “The Squire of Gothos,” Kirk and Spock meet Trelane, a mischievous, petulant, god-like entity. Trelane and Q have much in common, and writer Peter David seized this thread in the novel Q Squared, revealing Trelane to be another member of the Continuum. This hasn't been mentioned on-screen - and Q seemed to consider Trelane another species when they met in Star Trek: The Q Conflict - but canon or not, Kirk certainly has enough experience with an omnipotent trickster to sympathize with Q's victims. Having visited many Star Trek captains, Q is a fixture of the franchise, and so it would be especially enjoyable to think that however indirectly, he also took a hand in making Captain Kirk's life just a little bit weirder.
Star Trek #3 is on sale now from IDW Publishing!