Strange New Worlds’ Guest Star Returning Is So Good, I Don’t Even Care About Star Trek Canon

Rhys Darby will return as Trelane in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, and the New Zealand actor-comedian is so good as the future Squire of Gothos, I don't even care about maintaining Star Trek canon. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds unveiled a season 4 sizzle reel at San Diego Comic-Con during Paramount+'s Star Trek 60th anniversary Hall H event.

Darby's first guest spot as Trelane was in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 2, "Wedding Bell Blues," when the irrepressible prankster inserted himself into one of the USS Enterprise's most thorny love triangles. Trelane used his omnipotence to nearly marry Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) and Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) when she was in a relationship with Dr. Roger Korby (Cillian O'Sullivan).

Before "Wedding Bell Blues" was over, Trelane's plot was foiled, and he was exposed as a mischievous child, albeit at the tender age of 8020. Trelane was forced to leave the humans alone by his father, Q (John de Lancie), in a retcon that answered a decades-old Star Trek question. Everyone assumed that Trelane wouldn't be seen again until Star Trek: The Original Series' "The Squire of Gothos."

Rhys Darby Returning As Trelane To Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Is A Good Thing

Rhys Darby reprising Trelane in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 is a complete surprise, and a welcome one. Evoking the dangerous impishness of the late William Campbell, who originated Trelane in 1960s Star Trek, Darby infused his own manic, joyful verve to effortlessly become Trelane in modern-day Star Trek.

It's hard to imagine a better actor to embody Trelane today than Rhys Darby, the effete comic genius beloved for his roles in a pair of classic HBO comedies: as Murray Hewitt in Flight of the Conchords and Captain Stede Bonnet in Our Flag Means Death. A few Star Trek: The Original Series villains have been reinvented by Strange New Worlds, but Darby's Trelane is perhaps the most successful.

Rhys Darby's guest spot as Trelane was also one of the most popular elements of the otherwise less highly regarded Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. Trelane's expected Strange New Worlds debut won over Star Trek fans, new and old, whereas some of the other 'big swings' in season 3 failed to impress.

Technically, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds already kicked canon to the curb by introducing Trelane in season 3, so that Spock, Chapel, Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and Scotty (Martin Quinn) have all encountered the omnipotent irritant years before Star Trek: The Original Series. More Trelane, and letting Rhys Darby loose once again, can only be a good thing, canon be damned.

Dierdre Hall Also Appears In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4

Rhys Darby's comeback as Trelane is accompanied by another shocker. In an image from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 released by Paramount+, Trelane is hovering over a Starfleet character played by Dierdre Hall.

Beloved as Marlena in Days of Our Lives, a role she has played for 50 years, Dierdre Hall is an icon of daytime television soap operas. Hall also played Barbara Anderson in The Young and the Restless, Electra Woman in The Krofft Supershow, and Jessica Witherspoon in Our House. Hall recently played a version of herself on HBO's Hacks.

While Dierdre Hall's character in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 hasn't been revealed, her blue Starfleet uniform and PADD give the impression that she plays a counselor or psychiatrist. Perhaps Hall is a Starfleet shrink assigned to assess Trelane when he reappears on the USS Enterprise.

The idea of a psychiatrist trying to get in Trelane's head to learn what makes the irresponsible young Q tick is rife with comic potential. As is the wholly unexpected on-screen team-up of Rhys Darby and Dierdre Hall in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4. Considering how good this could be, it's worth bending Star Trek canon.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 premieres new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.