WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 4, "Watcher," streaming now on Paramount+.

Over more than fifty years on the big and small screen, Star Trek has seen more than its fair share of interesting and unexpected cameos. Everyone from Dwayne Johnson to Stephen Hawking has made an appearance in the Trek universe. The most recent episode of Star Trek: Picard continued that trend, featuring one of the most surprising cameos in franchise history.

During "Watcher," Picard -- having traveled back to 2024 to prevent a future catastrophe and possibly having changed Next Generation history in the process -- pays a visit to Guinan's Los Angeles bar. The El-Aurian warms up to Picard after her dog Luna takes a liking to him. However, the canine love fest doesn't last long, as someone comes to take the dog to her new adoptive home. The stranger is played by Brian Quinn, better known as "Q." No, not that Q, the one from hidden-camera comedy series Impractical Jokers. Did anyone have "Impractical Jokers crossover" on their Picard bingo card?

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What makes Quinn's cameo even more interesting is that Guinan refers to the dog adopter as "Uncle Dale." Fans of the SyFy time-travel series 12 Monkeys will recognize the name as being the same as Q's character from that show. He also showed up on MacGyver back in 2020. And Quinn confirmed on Twitter that the Picard name choice was not a coincidence or clever Easter egg: it's the same character in all three shows. This cameo technically proves that 12 Monkeys, MacGyver and Star Trek: Picard all exist in the same universe. The implications there are interesting enough, but that furthers Dale's growing reputation as one of the most mysterious oddball characters on TV.

When first seen in the 12 Monkeys Season 2 premiere, "Year of the Monkey," Dale is one of the eligible bachelors that Jennifer Goines meets at a speed-dating event. He seems happy-go-lucky at first, telling Jennifer about his post-divorce purchase of a waverunner and a boat. Things take a turn when Jennifer produces a vial of the virus that will bring about the end of humanity and then pulls out a gun, asking Dale to shoot her on the spot. As Dale is refusing, the time runs out on their date, prompting Jennifer to flee and Dale to frantically dial 911. Later, in the MacGyver Season 4 episode "Mac + Desi + Riley + Aubrey," Dale shows up at a dinner party, talking to MacGyver about his ongoing dating woes before Mac is pulled away to investigate a possible murder.

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Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan in Star Trek: Picard

After Dale's appearance on Picard, viewers are wondering who -- or what -- Dale is. Is he a time traveler, an El-Aurian like Guinan, or just a guy who happens to have a penchant for meeting interesting people at interesting times? Perhaps the larger question is, when and where will Dale appear next? Will he show up on another Star Trek series, possibly jumping to the 24th century as Catherine Hicks's whale biologist did in Star Trek IV?

Or will he make an appearance on another series somewhere else? Quinn seems to be building quite the "DaleVerse," as he calls it, for himself and his random cameos have become entertaining for Impractical Jokers fans and non-fans alike. While Dale might not have a huge role in any of the series he's turned up in, he's definitely had a huge impact on viewers -- and left them with plenty of food for thought.

Created by Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, Kirsten Beyer and Alex Kurtzman, Star Trek: Picard releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.

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