Was Trelane from Star Trek directly or indirectly inspired by famous pianist "Liberace?"

To this day, there's ongoing debate as to whether the character "Trelane" was the original "Q," a rather florid discussion in Star Trek fandom.  But actually, what I'm here today is to speak to a production-question, i.e. was Trelane based on famous-pianist Liberace?  Let's check it out!

Now, to be clear-- this post has a fairly amusing origin.  It started off with a rather 'liberated' 1971 Liberace pic posted on Reddit.

I replied: "For the longest time, I thought he *was* Trelane from Star Trek," and someone else replied that he was in fact the inspiration.

Which sent me down a bit of an ol' rabbit hole.  So then, here's what I've found out, followed by my working-decision:

I wouldn't be the slightest-bit surprised if the director or showrunner pulled William Campbell aside (i.e. the blokie who played Trelane) and sotto-voce said: "it certainly wouldn't hurt if you hammed it up a bit, Liberace-style."

It's an interesting thought, and indeed, makes mucho sense to me! Thing is, on closer inspection, there doesn't seem to have been even an ounce of known evidence supporting the idea that such was true.  Instead, it looks like it may have been a startling coincidence, made even moreso by the harpsichord / piano parallel between Trelane & Liberace.  Still, how could such a thing be true?  The parallels are just *so* perfect, right?

I think the key here is William Campbell.  That is-- the man had a characteristically joyful way of acting that, when combined with the script notes, accidentally created a sort of eerily 'parallel-Liberace.'  For example, just look at the later TOS episode The Trouble with Tribbles, in which he played Captain Koloth, and did so in a remarkably exuberant way, quite unlike the usual Klingon standard, which mainly involved stalking about as brooding, easily-agitated, glowering types.  Correct me if you will, but Campbell must have played the most cheerfully (borderline hammy) Klingon in the entire history of Star Trek.  Indeed, one might even argue that Koloth could easily have been Trelane himself, gleefully enjoying himself as a Klingon, loving the ability to screw over Captain Kirk yet *again*, as a sort of silly payback.

Anyway, to wrap this all up, there seems to be no actual evidence that Liberace had any role at all in the origin of Trelane's character.  Part of the reason I say that is because Memory Alpha (my main Star Trek reference) is unusually good at absorbing the various autobios and 'making of' literature, incorporating it directly in to their encyclopedia entries

Then again, there's also the web, right?  For example, StarTrek.com, where I found this cheeky comment:

> It was often noted that Campbell had a strong resemblance to flamboyant pianist Liberace. In light of Campbell’s own flashy depiction of Trelane, it is strange that no one thought to create at least a TV bio-pic about Liberace starring Bill. We think he would have been superb in the part, but Liberace’s fame was dimming, so it probably didn’t look like a promising project to the bean-counters. <StarTrek.com>

Of course it's easy-enough to find other comments online with the idea that Trelane was based on Liberace, but still-- none of the showrunners seem to have commented that way either out of hand, in their autobiographies, or otherwise.  Specifically I'm talking about Don McDougall, Joseph D'Agosta, Gene Coon, and Gene Roddenberry (the primary showrunners on this ep) who never seemed to mention any such connection.

Let's not end on a downer, though!  Maybe the real point of amusement here revolves around Trelane's period costume.  Quothing from Memory-Alpha:

> The costume worn by Campbell as Trelane was rented from the Western Costume company. Almost two weeks after it was seen worn by Campbell on Star Trek, the same costume appeared in the Gilligan's Island third season episode "Lovey's Secret Admirer" worn by actor Jim Backus. A short time later, it was again re-used and worn by actor Michael Nesmith in The Monkees episode "The Prince and the Pauper".

I mean, man!  The stories that costume could tell! XD

Oh well!  Then finally, getting back to the point-- was the character "Trelane" from TOS based in any way on Liberace?

Nope, not as far as any real evidence has ever shown.