Why didn't Q appear in any of the TNG films?

[BriGuy]

Does anyone know if there ever was any consideration, serious or otherwise, to Q in a movie?

Or was their feeling that he was all done and wrapped up with AGT, and there was no need or reason to revisit him?

[Therin of Andor]

BriGuy wrote:

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It just seems to me you're assuming DeLancie would have turned it down or demanded too much, and that's why a movie with Q couldn't be done and wasn't done.

No, I gave that as one example. I was discussing that movies aren't usually made that way in Hollywood. The possibility of the one actor who can play the main guest role turning down the script - for any reason: illness, other film work, fatigue, stage commitments - opens up the studio to unnecessary financial risk and delay. Add to that that Paramount's ST movies were often quite frugal compared to other blockbusters of the times.

Or was their feeling that he was all done and wrapped up with AGT, and there was no need or reason to revisit him?

According to John de Lancie, yes. As I said earlier.

[Broccoli]

Therin of Andor wrote:

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Harve Bennett didn't have this problem with ST II because that script wasn't written in the hope that Ricardo Montalban was available or interested.

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, how was it written? Did they sign Montalban before the script was written?

[Christopher]

^According to Allan Asherman's making-of book on TWOK, there were a number of proposals and drafts featuring Khan (and Marla), as well as a couple without them, written over the span of nearly a year before Montalban's signing was confirmed. But it's possible they could've been planning to recast the roles if the original actors couldn't be signed on.

[Dukhat]

JarodRussell wrote:

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Explain The Voyage Home! And The Motion Picture!

The villain in TVH was the whale probe. The villain in TMP was V'Ger. Sorry, did I forget to spoon-feed you the fact that villains don't always have to be mustache-twilrling Snively Whiplashes? And that their intentions don't always have to be evil?

[Broccoli]

Re: Christopher:

Again, playing devil's advocate, I wonder if they had an idea to use Q in a film, a similar approach could have been utilized.

[Christopher]

^But the only thing that makes Q work is John DeLancie. By itself, it's a silly, cartoony idea.

[sonak]

Christopher wrote:

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^But the only thing that makes Q work is John DeLancie. By itself, it's a silly, cartoony idea.

well if it is, it's an idea that's pretty similar to ones that have been used frequently throughout Trek(Trelane, the Thasians, the Dowd, the Organians, the Prophets, etc.) and in fiction in general(in comic books, it's basically Mxyzptlk)

Certainly De Lancie is what makes Q in particular so entertaining, but I don't see the idea of the character of Q so silly or cartoony.

[JarodRussell]

Dukhat wrote:

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The villain in TVH was the whale probe. The villain in TMP was V'Ger. Sorry, did I forget to spoon-feed you the fact that villains don't always have to be mustache-twilrling Snively Whiplashes? And that their intentions don't always have to be evil?

Oh, by villain you meant the obstacle the protagonist has to overcome. All Good Things didn't have a villain either. The time anomaly was the problem that needed to be solved.

[Herbert]

It does make it very difficult to place the characters and/or the U.S.S. Enterprise in jeopardy in the story when a character who is omnipotent is included in the story.

[Therin of Andor]

Christopher wrote:

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But it's possible they could've been planning to recast the roles if the original actors couldn't be signed on.

Exactly. "The Making of ST II" by Allan Asherman suggests this, IIRC. The idea that Montalban might reprise Khan was not essential at the time of writing. Ditto the Dr Carol Marcus part, who was originally conceived as the return of Dr Janet Wallace ("The Deadly Years"), without the urgency that she be played by Sarah Marshall. Some script treatments featured Marla McGivers (Madlyn Rhue) as alive.

Montalban's availability also had to coincide with the hiatus for "Fantasy Island". It seems that sometime after filming on ST II, Montalban and Madlyn Rhue did an episode of "Fantasy Island" together, then she went into "Days of our Lives" as a recurring character, playing Daphne DiMera. Now, IIRC, by this time she was wheelchair-bound, as her MS had taken hold.

[xortex]

Wasn't Khan going to have some psi powers ?

[Dukhat]

JarodRussell wrote:

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Oh, by villain you meant the obstacle the protagonist has to overcome. All Good Things didn't have a villain either. The time anomaly was the problem that needed to be solved.

Yes, it's called an antagonist. Although I will admit that whether one thinks of an antagonist as synonymous with a villain is up to one's personal preference. The antagonist in the movie "Backdraft" was simply fire, but Robert DeNiro's character certainly leaves no doubt that he views fire as his enemy.

[xortex]

Antagonist is usually viewed as a person, not an obstacle, or problem. Villian is also usually viewed as an evil person.

[Therin of Andor]

xortex wrote:

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Antagonist is usually viewed as a person

Tell that to "Jaws".