Q certainly caused on crew a lot of trouble and annoyed the heck out of them, but would you consider him a "villain"? Would you consider him a ally? Or somewhere in between?
It was never established canonically whether his race came from the planet Vill or not. Oh, villain. I don't know if I'd call him a villain. An adversary or antagonist, certainly. But not someone set on doing evil to our intrepid heroes. And no ally was he, either. He could have saved the crew(s) on multiple occasions, and they had to work it out for themselves. Somewhere in between.
I'd consider him more an adversary than Villan. He's like Scorpius from Farscape. He had his own agenda and wasn't friends with who they dealt with, but he wasn't necessary evil enemies with them either.
Undoubtedly Q would simply say he was above such descriptions as ally or villain. He's an agent of the Continuum, so it could be said that Q's agenda was superseded by his superiors. In TNG we know he was acting out against the status quo of the Q way of life, behaving more like a child playing with bugs. After Quinn was locked away and Q was sentenced to a mortal life as a human, and subsequently reinstated, he returned to being the servant of the Continuum. Voyager's stories involving Q turned him into a revolutionary like Quinn. When you get down to it, Q was many things to humanity. To answer the original question of if he was a villain to the TNG crew, I would say no. He harbored no real ill-will towards the crew, just as a child has no hatred for a colony of ants when he burns them with a magnifying glass. They were simply a pleasant diversion to Q.
I would say the most apt term for him would be "Trickster," like the Native American legends of Coyote. Coyote, like Q, could be both a help and a hindrance. Loki is another comparison--although in the end Loki turned out to be much more malicious than Q ever seemed to be.
I tend to agree that he was more of a force of nature, due to his powers, than a real villain. If he had wanted to be a true villain, the Enterprise's crew would have been helpless. He frequently did things that he believed were good for humanity, such as introducing them to the Borg long before they were supposed to make first contact. Of course, humanity probably saw things differently.
Q is sometimes a devil's advocate, sometimes a strict teacher to humanity -- knowing that there are obstacles we need to overcome to survive as a species and mature enough to keep evolving. And, like many strict teachers, he sometimes gets surprised when he ends up learning from his students.
I guess he was a villain in encounter at fairpoint, just one of those super (powerful) beings we saw a lot of in TOS. After that he stopped being just evil and he became more of prankster/teacher.
At first, I couldn't say for certain what Q was meant to be, an antagonist yes but the writers always played it with more subtlety than out-and-out villainy. By the end of TNG I thought of Q as more of a Puck-Like character. He had his own agenda to be sure, but I always thought it was ultimately in line with humanity reaching there fullest potential. He saw something in humanity that made him take a second look and kept him coming back to see what we might do next. A push here, a nudge there. He was guiding us, allowing us to make out own mistakes and end up with a bloody-nose or 4, but still in a way preparing us for what was still awaiting us. Also for anyone interested... This question is answered in the Star Trek novel Q&A by KRAD
I don't think Q was a villain. He ultimately seemed to have humanity's best interests at heart. He did take pleasure in 'bothering' people, especially Picard and Janeway (I always wondered what it'd be like if Q met Archer or Kirk), but this was not evil or with malicious intent.
Nerys: I agree with that analogy. Other trickster figures from mythology also apply, like Edshu, the Yoruban trickster, and Tule, the Sudanese spider god. For certain, Q has an agenda. I think the Q may have some rule about disclosing too much of what they know about the nature of the universe, and prefer to test species like humans by making it a big game. They are, as seen in the VOY ep Death Wish, bored silly, after all! Red Ranger
[LEFT]Q: Why is everyone so obsessed about Q? A: Q is the ultimate paradox. On the one hand he doesn't give a crap, but on the other hand, Q is very careful and precise. [/LEFT] Q: I heard that Q is always cruel or mean. What's his problem? A: Whoever told you that is a total liar. Just like other non-corporeals, Q can be mean OR totally awesome. Q: What does Q do when he's not harassing Picard or flipping out? [LEFT]A: Most of Q's free time is spent flying, but sometime he stabs. (Ask Rick Berman if you don't believe me.)[/LEFT]
Q was not a bad guy, not an enemy and by no means evil. Q was also not good. The Q and the tng Q we see only cares about himself/themselves. They are observers of the universe treating other species like pawns on a chess board.
I agree with the above. Q was not a villain or evil. He just was. Mostly I saw him as a foil to the crew and usually the captain.