Death Wish (Star Trek: Voyager)
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| Star Trek: Voyager episode | |
| "Death Wish" | |
 The crew encounter a member of the Q Continuum seeking to end his immortal life. |
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| Episode no. | 34 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 130 |
| Airdate | February 19, 1996 |
| Writer(s) | Michael Piller |
| Director | James L. Conway |
| Guest star(s) | Raphael Sbarge as Michael Jonas Peter Dennis as Isaac Newton Maury Ginsberg as Maury Ginsberg John de Lancie as Q Jonathan Frakes as William T. Riker Gerrit Graham as Q2/Quinn |
| Year | 2372 |
| Stardate | 49301.2 |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "Dreadnought" |
| Next | "Lifesigns" |
"Death Wish" is an episode of Star Trek: Voyager.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Voyager comes across a comet. The crew find out that there is a single living being inside, and decide to beam it over. It turns out to be a member of the Q Continuum (hereby designated Q2, Q is the Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine). Q2 thanks the Voyager crew for freeing him from his imprisonment, then tries to commit suicide. But he ultimately fails (see Omnipotence paradox) and instead of killing himself, he causes all the males onboard Voyager to vanish.
Q appears and accuses Q2 of sending humans to the Delta Quadrant where they didn't belong yet, then realizes all the men are missing and returns them. Q2 requests Federation asylum from Janeway when Q wants to re-impose the Q Continuum's sentence of imprisonment. Q laughs at the request for asylum but Janeway decides to hold a hearing on Q2's request. Q reluctantly agrees. He later attempts to bribe Janeway, claiming that if she rules against Q2, he'll send Voyager home.
During the hearing, Q summons three witnesses to testify that Q2 has been influential in the history of humans, beneficially. Sir Issac Newton claimed that he was sitting beside Q2 when the apple struck his head (after Q2 stood up to leave, he jostled the tree, causing the apple to fall). Another witness, Maury Ginsberg, claims that if Q2 hadn't offered a ride in his jeep, he would have never made it to Woodstock, got the sound system working and met his future wife. Finally, William T. Riker of the U.S.S. Enterprise denies any claim to have known Q2 at all until Q shows Riker that Q2 had helped an ancestor of his (Thaddeus Riker) survive through the Civil War, ultimately ensuring Will Riker's existence in the future.
Q2 shows the court the Q continuum (or rather how it would be interpreted by their feeble human minds) as a road stretching around the entire planet with one rest stop, a country gas station and store, and some Q standing around bored. Q2 describes immortality as very dull: you can only experience the universe so many times before it gets boring. Q tries to dismiss it and makes a pathetic attempt to show that the other members of the continuum are happy, but Q2 sees through it and confesses, to Q's surprise, that it was Q's earlier unrestrained behavior in an attempt to make his life fun was the motivation for his own actions. He makes an impassioned speech comparing his eternal boredom to suffering from a terminal biological disease for which suicide is the only humane release, and that being forced to live for all eternity against his will "cheapens and denigrates" his life, and indeed all life. Janeway is clearly moved by this and agrees to grant him asylum. Keeping his part of the bargain, Q makes him human.
While trying to decide where to assign Q2 (now called Quinn) so that he won't use his knowledge to evolve humanity overnight, Janeway and Chakotay receive a message from the Doctor that Quinn is dying after ingesting a poison. After realizing that the Doctor did not keep any of the poison on hand, and that the computer would not replicate it due to its harmful nature, Q then appears and admits that he was the one who gave Quinn the poison. He's taking up Q2's rebellion against the staid order of the Q.
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The photo of "Colonel Thaddeus Riker" is that of a real US Civil War officer of the 102nd New York Regiment-according to Francis Miller's 1911 "Photographic history of the Civil War" Volume VII p.289 this was Major (later Col) L. R. Stegman. In the TV episode the officer at left was Quinn; in fact in the original photograph the officer to the left was a Lt. Donner from Ohio.
- The character of Maury Ginsberg was originally supposed to have another name. However, when actor Maury Ginsberg was cast, everyone liked his name so much that the character was named after him.
- Q later reveals that William Riker (who later appears in this episode) was offered command of the starship Voyager.
[edit] Related link
[edit] External links
- Death Wish article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
- Episode summary from Startrek.com
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