Q and other 'godlike' races.
- Thread starter Dale Sams
- Start date
Oh, I don't know about all of that, now. In the VOY ep. "Q and the Grey," for example, Q settles down & takes a wife with whom he has a son. Not only is Q a Family Man, he's also a Freedom Fighter, which this particular episode also establishes in crisp, rich detail. And not just "a" fighter, but one of the leaders, actually, of a Q rebellion to infuse The Continuum with the very best values of Humanity.
The Q are not genocidal. Even Picard thought the idea of Q committing genocide was out of character in AGT.
I want to see the Douwd vs the Q now and other immortal energy beings. The Q can't see them or Q himself wiping out races to be honest.
Oh, I'll grant he was bored, much like Apollo in "Who Mourns for Adonais?" But that doesn't excuse the fact that they were both annoying bullies who could leave an awful lot of destruction in their wake.
FWIW, the appearance of Q's energy field wasn't terribly original--it looked like the Tholian web all over again.
D
Deleted 69012
Guest
Up to and including "All Good Things," Q isn't really the mischievous energy being he pretends to be (Its characterization on Voyager is interesting, but very different). He constantly tests humanity to understand and hone our potential (or at the very least that of Jean-Luc Picard).
Generally, all-powerful beings in Star Trek are benevolent and fairly good. The Metrons didn't put a rock to anyone's heads; they were testing Kirk, even when they ask if he wants to destroy the Gorn ship. The Organians are determined pacifists, Kevin Uxbridge is aghast at his own actions, and the Melkotians never struck me as being all-powerful.
There's a narrative reason for that (Enterprise vs. gods battles have never been very good), but I think it's also in keeping with a feature of the Star Trek universe that right makes might. That good groups are generally stronger than cruel, xenophobic, and aggressive groups. In Star Trek, there's no reason for groups of equivalently-all-powerful beings to fight and within groups, they tend to police their own.
Generally, all-powerful beings in Star Trek are benevolent and fairly good. The Metrons didn't put a rock to anyone's heads; they were testing Kirk, even when they ask if he wants to destroy the Gorn ship. The Organians are determined pacifists, Kevin Uxbridge is aghast at his own actions, and the Melkotians never struck me as being all-powerful.
There's a narrative reason for that (Enterprise vs. gods battles have never been very good), but I think it's also in keeping with a feature of the Star Trek universe that right makes might. That good groups are generally stronger than cruel, xenophobic, and aggressive groups. In Star Trek, there's no reason for groups of equivalently-all-powerful beings to fight and within groups, they tend to police their own.
There was a comic in the DC run that had the Organians ultimately fighting the Excalbians, who had decided to conduct their "good vs. evil" experiment on a larger scale by causing hostilities between the Klingons and the Federation to escalate (IIRC). The two races carried their fight into a higher dimension, which is why the Organians were no longer around to enforce their treaty on the Klingon Empire and the Feds.
Q's changes seemed more oriented at making the continuum less boring than making it more human.
The official narrative in TNG is that Q is messing with humanity because the Q is concerned they will develop into something more powerful than the Q. First he plots to not let them expand if they don't prove they can recognize and sympathize with life different from their own, then tries to prove their values can be undermined by offering them absolute power, and then later he basically prevents their annihilation at the hands of the Borg.
It makes you wonder if there are some Q who have taken peeks at possible futures and are trying to herald one they like better. Or even that they know humanity is going to expand and become more powerful and are trying to direct their development toward something that won't be a threat.
The other option of course is the widely speculated, Q are humans from the future, which implies they may be intervening in humanity to protect their own origins.
The official narrative in TNG is that Q is messing with humanity because the Q is concerned they will develop into something more powerful than the Q. First he plots to not let them expand if they don't prove they can recognize and sympathize with life different from their own, then tries to prove their values can be undermined by offering them absolute power, and then later he basically prevents their annihilation at the hands of the Borg.
It makes you wonder if there are some Q who have taken peeks at possible futures and are trying to herald one they like better. Or even that they know humanity is going to expand and become more powerful and are trying to direct their development toward something that won't be a threat.
The other option of course is the widely speculated, Q are humans from the future, which implies they may be intervening in humanity to protect their own origins.
D
Deleted 69012
Guest
Any of the above, though the humans-from-the-future bit smacks of self-interest. If the Q didn't want "savage child-races" spreading throughout the galaxy, they'd mess with the Klingons, the Dominion, or the Vaadwaur. It's likely they see humanity--or The Federation--as the successors to the galaxy and want to ensure that they're ready.
They could also be testing so they'd know if humanity is ready, but that would imply they're not as all-knowing as they pretend to be.
They could also be testing so they'd know if humanity is ready, but that would imply they're not as all-knowing as they pretend to be.
It just seems like NCC-1701 was constantly tripping over godlike races. And if we take Q at face value..their testing and worrying over humanity...it just seems like they'd clean up their own back yard before worrying about the Feds. Yes Uxbridge still ran around, and the "Wormhole aliens" could be excused because they kept in the wormhole for the most part.
That's it, though - obviously the Q had done no cleaning, because these competing deities were around. Why wait, what, thirteen billion years before acting?
I never got the "Organians care about humans and Klingons" thing. The episode rather showed the exact opposite - the Organians couldn't care less, and wanted absolutely nothing to do with these two juvenile cultures. They went as far as giving an ear-burning (non-)corporal punishment to both before telling them to get out and stay out!
Timo Saloniemi
I never got the "Organians care about humans and Klingons" thing. The episode rather showed the exact opposite - the Organians couldn't care less, and wanted absolutely nothing to do with these two juvenile cultures. They went as far as giving an ear-burning (non-)corporal punishment to both before telling them to get out and stay out!
Timo Saloniemi
Q actually warned humanity via Jean-Luc Picard and the Enterprise-D that the Borg were coming! I think he was kind of like Picard's "reverse flash" (if you'll excuse the crossing of nerd metaphors there) - he was bored, but he wanted to push "humanity" (which I guess means humanoids) to become even better than they already had. He, and the rest of them, definitely don't strike me as genocidal.
Did the Q ever actually mention on screen they'd been around that long...oh wait...yes the Voyager ep.
Dunno...my fanwanking would have to stretch too far. Maybe the care about humanity and clean things up was just a new fad to stem off boredom
Indeed, 13.8 billion years is just sort of a lower limit for the duration of their existence in this universe - they could have done it over and over again for a much longer grand total. Or then only existed for the best 4.7 centuries out of the whole. But if they did care about the Organians one way or another, they could have acted on this at any point, past or future.
That they didn't act on it in a manner evident from "Errand of Mercy" doesn't mean they didn't erase all Organians a thousand times in other realities, or elevate them in others, or evolve out of them in yet others...
Timo Saloniemi
That they didn't act on it in a manner evident from "Errand of Mercy" doesn't mean they didn't erase all Organians a thousand times in other realities, or elevate them in others, or evolve out of them in yet others...
Timo Saloniemi
