The Q and the Grey

[Captain McBain]

During the Q Civil War, did the Q still retain their nigh-omnipotent powers? Or were their powers greatly reduced, as the female Q's were when she was onboard Voyager?

Also, since it seems ridiculous to imagine Qs using physical weaponry in their fights (they could vanish away an opponent with their mind, or just throw massively large amounts of energy at them), how is it that the Voyager away team was able to handle and use Q weapons? I mean, obviously the whole civil war scenario was 'dumbed down' for the benefit of the crew, but if the Q were actually using something way beyond the physical to try and dispatch of other Q, it seems impossible that humans would be able to just casually pick up the weapons and use them.

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

It was all impressionistic. They weren't really using muskets any more than the "real" Q Continuum was a dirt road as seen in "Death Wish". Just like we use technology to do things we can't, the Q did too - only on an infinitely larger scale. They were using weapons so powerful they were fired in their continuum and were destroying star systems in our universe as an unintended byproduct.

The Voyager crew were probably given Q powers (as Riker was in "Hide and Q") in order to compete with them and operate the Q weapons once they entered the Continuum.

[JoeZhang]

It was just a shit episode - you don't need to make it more complex than that.

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

I enjoyed it

[R. Star]

The whole episode makes less and less sense the more you analyze it.

[sonak]

Star Grinch wrote:

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The whole episode makes less and less sense the more you analyze it.

agreed, especially since two Q had already had children together before("true Q), so the whole "messiah child" concept was pointless.

A silly, dumb, but somewhat fun episode.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

True Q is explainable: Amanda's parents were in human form when they conceived her. And they did it via normal human sex. They didn't do it "Q style". Also, they weren't even living as Q's at the time.

What I can't figure out is this: Q's group are the rebels, right? So why are they cast as UNION soldiers?

[R. Star]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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True Q is explainable: Amanda's parents were in human form when they conceived her. And they did it via normal human sex. They didn't do it "Q style". Also, they weren't even living as Q's at the time.

What I can't figure out is this: Q's group are the rebels, right? So why are they cast as UNION soldiers?

Only thing I can think is that they think the audience is too dumb to figure out who the "good guys" and "bad guys" are without a reminder about as subtle as a freight train.

[Dream]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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What I can't figure out is this: Q's group are the rebels, right? So why are they cast as UNION soldiers?

They wanted the audience to think of Q's group as the "good" guys.

[Guy Gardener]

You got the social programming around the wrong way.

Slavery was good.

Slavery was legal.

Everyone loved slavery.

Slavery kept he economy strong.

That was the State of The Union.

It's Lincoln who changed the status quo and rebelled against every normal human instinct that civilization insisted that slavery was necessary and morally justifiable.

The Confederates weren't rebelling against dick.

They just wanted to keep everything the same as it had always been.

[R. Star]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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It's Lincoln who changed the status quo and rebelled against every normal human instinct that civilization insisted that slavery was necessary and morally justifiable.

Uh.. Lincoln suspended habeus corpus, arrested people who spoke out too much against the war, and generally exceeded his constitutional powers during the war.

Had he lost that war, he would've been remembered as a something of a tyrant I'm sure. Victory does forgive a lot of things though, so we have a marble statue of him featured prominently in our nation's capital.

[Dream]

One of the things I really liked about this episode was Suzie Plakson as the female Q. It was nice to finally see her outside of alien makeup for once!

Loved her scene with Torres!

[Guy Gardener]

Then double forgiven because of the assassination.

[Guy Gardener]

Dream wrote:

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One of the things I really liked about this episode was Suzie Plakson as the female Q. It was nice to finally see her outside of alien makeup for once!

Loved her scene with Torres too!

Try to find an old sitcom called Love and War, it started with that girl from the Partridge Family, then graduated to Annie Potts, but Suzie was a second stringer Barfly who spent a lot of time on a barstool in a very short dress.

There was a lot of Basic Instinct Potential.

Her sex scenes with Chris Elliot on How I met Your Mother have been disturbing.

[R. Star]

Dream wrote:

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One of the things I really liked about this episode was Suzie Plakson as the female Q. It was nice to finally see her outside of alien makeup for once!

Loved her scene with Torres!

I'll agree with this one. The "I'm not talking about the puppy" line was hilarious too. She really held her own with de Lancie's Q to be certain.

As amusing as the Q's banter and jibes are, they shouldn't be what are supposed to carry an episode. Take Tapestry for instance. Sure Q was being an amusing imp in that one needling Picard rather mercilessly all through it, but it was about Picard's mortality, sense of self-worth and figuring out what made his life worth living. Q's banter just enhanced that. What was this episode about again?