Stardate
2026-02-13
101
529
2001
1145
1124
1556
2117
1602
1737
890
2026
1671
55
183
2854
2843
1216
102
1518
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327
1778
163
1842
130
2267
1431
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1390
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2638
2131
2347
1791
103
201
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816
1691
176
318
702
1413
902
1360
2495
20
2700
2751
1891
292
104
69
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2994
1358
401
1932
1397
515
411
906
539
1355
926
2688
565
1206
105
325
1993
1127
2698
2230
542
494
2151
2371
1853
1394
1782
264
1605
340
2142
106
149
2022
821
494
1365
1181
656
354
2946
2088
1867
2686
2337
2566
1279
1879
107
412
2021
1307
2957
52
1758
706
598
1736
2209
2731
2738
1981
1775
919
2441
108
1452
1973
2566
210
181
2011
2685
199
1258
881
2865
54
285
1271
639
2051

Wedding Bell Blues

Episode Cast
Casting Type Actor Character
Guest Star
Guest Star Wedding Planner ()
Recurring
Recurring
Guest Star
Guest Star
Special Guest Star Wedding Planner's father ()
Guest Star
Episode Review

While neither character is named in the episode, the Wedding Planner is rather directly implied to be Trelane, the god-like "child" being from The Squire of Gothos (TOS), and the Wedding Planner's "dad" is heavily implied (by the nature of being voiced by John de Lancie) as being Q.

This connection between the two characters has long been theorized by fans, even making it into the recently deceased Peter David's excellent book Q-Squared. There was also a slight hint that this was canon in last season's Those Old Scientists episode in a brief exchange between Mariner and Boimler, but it has never been explicitly stated that Trelane was a Q in canon. Since it isn't even 100% confirmed that Darby is playing Trelane in this episode, nor is it confirmed that de Lancie is actually playing Q in this episode, it is still not confirmed that Trelane is a Q, but I think that's what we are supposed to get from this episode.

Yes, Trelane is a young Q, which brings up some very interesting implications. If de Lancie's Q is the specific Q who is Trelane's father, does that mean Trelane is Q's son from the Voyager Episodes The Q and the Grey, and Q2? That seems to be the implication. It is worth noting that Q-Squared does not indicate a familiar relationship between Trelane and Q, but Q-Squared is not canon, this episode is.

Trelane also mentions in this episode that his motivation for wrecking havoc in this episode is because he "spotted him digging in the dirt on the old homeworld" which implies that the original homeworld of the Q when they were a coporial race was located in Federation space, and Roger Korby has done archeological digs on that world. It is implied, though not explicitly stated, that this "old homeworld" might be on Vadia IX, as Sam mentioned earlier in the episode that Korby's "latest dig was on Vadia IX". Might this mean that Vadia IX is the original Q Homeworld?

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. God-like beings acting like children and using their power to treat our main characters like play-things is a staple trope in Star Trek (all the way back to The Squire of Gothos where Trelane was introduced) and it works exceedingly well here.

The idea that at first Korby is the only person to remember the original reality is interesting, it is unclear if it is because of the strong emotional tie, or because Trelane wants Korby to suffer. Even more interesting is how when Spock has an emotional outburst (punching Korby), he remembers the actual reality as well, and then, despite the fact that he has very clear emotions for Chapel, he spends the rest of the episode working with Korby to set reality right.

The emotional "vows" speech he gives at the wedding, which snaps Chapel out of it, was well done. The speech could easily have been vows, but the strong connection with Chapel and Korby's romance is enough to make her real feelings come through.

One minor thing that is worth a mention here, this episode appears to be the first ever live-action appearance of an Edosian, the bartender at the party at the end. Edosians were a species with 3 arms created for The Animated Series, and the only other appearance of an Edosian was also animated in Lower Decks, so it is fun to see one here in live action. Also an Edosian bartender (Kelzing) just seems perfect, 3 arms would be very useful when mixing drinks. As Pike and Una offer Kelzing a job on the Enterprise, and she accepted, it looks like we'll see more of Kelzing in the future, and I'm delighted. I can't wait to see Trekculture's Ups and Downs for this episode, I'm certain Kelzing is getting an up.

This is decidedly A-Tier Star Trek, I rate Wedding Bell Blues: Commander on our rating scale.

HD3 Episode Rank: Solid Pip Solid Pip Solid Pip Commander (A Tier)