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The cosmic trickster Q is perhaps the most iconic villain from “Star Trek:\u00a0The Next Generation,” one\u00a0who often broke the fourth wall<\/a>. 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 \u2014 and a life-or-death surgery that changed both of their lives.<\/p>\n Interviewed for the Roku documentary series “The Center Seat,”<\/a> de Lancie talked about how he was hand-picked by Roddenberry’s lawyer \u2014 Leonard Maizlish \u2014 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 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0Lancie arguably owes him his most iconic role \u2014 one still so popular that “Picard” star Ed Speleers hopes he’ll get another chance to go toe-to-toe with the immortal<\/a>.<\/p>\n