Q (Star Trek)
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| Q | |
 Q in the guise of "God" in "Tapestry" |
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| Species | Q |
|---|---|
| Gender | none (male as chosen form of appearance) |
| Home planet | N/A; originates from the Q Continuum |
| Portrayed by | John de Lancie |
Q, played by John de Lancie, is a fictional character in the Star Trek universe who appears in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. The name "Q" is also shared by other members of the Q Continuum. Gene Roddenberry chose the letter "Q" for the character and race in honor of his friend, Janet Quarton.[1]
Beginning with the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Q became a popular recurring character, in large part because of the comedic and dramatic chemistry between de Lancie and Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
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[edit] Character behavior
The character Q is a mischievous, seemingly omnipotent being who has taken an interest in humanity. Q's power is limited only in that he cannot overcome others in the Q Continuum, the peer group to which he belongs. Though Q is invulnerable under normal circumstances with rare exceptions, members of the Q Continuum can harm or even kill each other.
Q is portrayed as telepathic. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Hide and Q", Q reads the mind of William T. Riker and offers him lemonade, explaining that the setting they are in had come from the mind of Jean-Luc Picard.
Q also has a flair for the dramatic, with a mercurial personality that switches between a joking, camp style and a more ominous and even dangerous manner. While he is boastful, condescending, and threatening, he arguably has humanity's best interests at heart, as seen in the series finale, "All Good Things...", in which he causes Jean-Luc Picard to shift through time periods, giving him a chance to save humanity. In his portrayal of Q, John de Lancie used as his inspiration Lady Caroline Lamb's famous description of Lord Byron as "Mad, bad and dangerous to know."[2]
[edit] Overview
Q first appears as a villain, putting Picard and the Enterprise crew on trial for venturing beyond humanity's abilities and threatening all of humanity with annihilation. In later episodes, he becomes more of a trickster. Q evolved into a sympathetic and sometimes even pitiable character. In "Déjà Q", Q is punished by the Q Continuum by being turned into a mortal; his commission of an uncharacteristically selfless act garners the return of his powers. In the same episode, Q says that Picard is "the closest thing in this universe that I have to a friend." Toward the end of The Next Generation, Q is less antagonistic toward Picard, even in "Tapestry", apparently saving Picard's life and helping the captain better understand himself. In the series finale, "All Good Things...", Q gives Picard a "helping hand" in saving humanity.
Picard often thinks of Q as an annoyance, and Q often is surprised by Picard and the other humans he encounters. In "Q Who?", when Picard argues that humanity is capable of dealing with anything, Q whisks the USS Enterprise to the Delta Quadrant for humanity's first encounter with the Borg. Picard resorts to asking for Q to save the ship. Surprised, Q brings the Enterprise home and tells Picard that most men would rather have died than ask for help. It is debated whether Q's interference brought the Federation to the Borg's attention, or whether Q provided assistance by exposing Picard to the Borg, which gave the Federation some early warning. Events later shown in the prequel Star Trek: Enterprise, suggest the Borg were already on the way when Q exposed Picard to them; thus Q in fact aided humanity on this occasion.
In Q's later appearances on Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he is less concerned with humanity as a whole and becomes more of a comic relief character. In the DS9 episode "Q-Less", Q at one point goads Commander Benjamin Sisko into a bare-knuckle boxing match, all the while belittling and insulting him. When Sisko loses his temper and knocks Q down, an astonished Q says, "You hit me! Picard never hit me!" Sisko counters frankly that "I'm not Picard." Q responds with a smile, saying "No...you're much easier to provoke."
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Q enjoys goading humans, Klingons, and other races to display their savage side, and when they refuse he dismisses them as no fun; this seems to be just a game for Q; however, and when characters show genuine compassion or restraint, he will usually admit to being impressed that their "tiny human minds" were capable of such actions.
Later, during the series run of Voyager, Q starts a civil war among the Continuum in a campaign for personal freedoms. As the war goes badly for his side, Q comes to the conclusion that the creation, or birth, of a new member of the continuum could revitalize the Q. Q first seeks Captain Janeway to be the mother of his child but she refuses and eventually Q procreates with a "female" Q he had previously been involved with.
The child is born entirely conscious and with all the powers of any other Q. As could be imagined, such power in the hands of an immature child goes terribly wrong. Q's son causes no end of trouble for the Continuum and Q turns to Captain Janeway for help. Eventually they agree that the boy will remain on Voyager, without his powers, and either learn how to be a responsible, productive citizen of the cosmos, or spend eternity as an amoeba.
Eventually the young Q comes around but the Continuum is not entirely convinced, so in negotiations with Q, they work out an agreement. Q must eternally guard, observe, and accompany the boy to ensure his proper behavior.
[edit] Appearances
Episodes featuring Q often have titles that play on the letter "Q".
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[edit] References
- ^ BBC Online
- ^ Star Trek: The Next Generation DVD, disc 7, extras
[edit] External links
- Q article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
- Q Continuum article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
| Main Star Trek nations |
|---|
| Bajorans · Borg · Breen |
| Cardassians · Dominion · Ferengi |
| Gorn · Hirogen · Humans · Kazon · Klingons |
| Q · Romulans · Tholians · Trill |
| United Federation of Planets · Vulcans · Xindi |
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