Do You Consider Q a Villain?
- Thread starter indycar
- Start date
He takes a villain role in some cases but I'd label him more as a troublemaker character than a villain.
He was a villain in his first few appearances but not so much from DeJa Q onwards. He was sort of heroic in a few episodes and more of a nuisance in others. The only time he was a genuine antagonist is in Season 1 and 2. I'm not sure if QPid in Season 4 counts as villainous or not.
He's more villainous in QPid than Q Who.
I'm not sure I agree. The Enterprise almost got assimilated by the Borg in Q Who because of him. Several crewmembers were actually lost to the Collective. Was anyone in any real danger in QPid?
He's villainous, but a sort of benign villainy. More often than not his intervention helps the crew move forward in some way. He's a sort of "trickster God", in a theatrical sense.
Some of the key moments:
EaF - The start of the 'trial', Q makes first contact with humanity and (in his own way) gives them an impetus to investigate what's really going on at Deneb IV.
Hide & Q - Essentially a lesson in humility for Commander Riker. It's not presented as being Q's intention, but it can be retconned that way.
Q Who? - By introducing the crew to the Borg Q is truly trying to give them a heads up that they need to prepare themselves for the onslaught to come.
Tapesty - Similar to Hide & Q, but this time the lesson is for Picard: "Be Grateful For What You Have, Not Resentful of What You Don't".
All Good Things - Lots of different interpretations, but I take the view that the entire exercise, spatial anomaly and all, is concocted by Q as another lesson for Picard.
Most of the time, the crew walk away from their encounters with Q having learned something about themselves.
He's more overtly villainous in 'Hide & Q' and 'True Q' than he is in most of his other appearances. 'Q Pid' sees him being mischevious, but not necessarily villainous.
Some of the key moments:
EaF - The start of the 'trial', Q makes first contact with humanity and (in his own way) gives them an impetus to investigate what's really going on at Deneb IV.
Hide & Q - Essentially a lesson in humility for Commander Riker. It's not presented as being Q's intention, but it can be retconned that way.
Q Who? - By introducing the crew to the Borg Q is truly trying to give them a heads up that they need to prepare themselves for the onslaught to come.
Tapesty - Similar to Hide & Q, but this time the lesson is for Picard: "Be Grateful For What You Have, Not Resentful of What You Don't".
All Good Things - Lots of different interpretations, but I take the view that the entire exercise, spatial anomaly and all, is concocted by Q as another lesson for Picard.
Most of the time, the crew walk away from their encounters with Q having learned something about themselves.
He's more overtly villainous in 'Hide & Q' and 'True Q' than he is in most of his other appearances. 'Q Pid' sees him being mischevious, but not necessarily villainous.
Done.
Agreed. He's always been a mischievous little twerp, but not out and out villainous all the time. Trickster god definitely suits him. He's always teaching lessons one way or another. There was one where he taught his kid a lesson (Q2), if I remember correctly, by having his powers taken away and having him work on Voyager. It was a pretty good one. Sorry to stray into a little bit of Voyager territory, but it was a good example of how not everything he did was evil or malicious.
No.
No, he's not Mudd.
Or maybe like Coyote, a trickster god AND a screw-up, and also kind of like Book-of-Job Satan. (As opposed to the Post-New Testament Satan, an adversarial, cynical judge, not a deceitful monster actively trying to doom people.)
Which episode was it where Data says something (to the captain) "He almost views you as a beloved pet". Or words to that effect.
He has strange ways of doing things but then again he is an alien with a totally different perspective. When a Q show is over something new is learned which would not have otherwise been known (and occasionally Q learns something as well).
I'm not a massive fan of the Q episodes after 'Q who' but things got serious in 'All Good Things...'
I believe it was in 'All Good Things...'
Was it, someone confirm...
^Yes.
I loved how in "Qpid" Q seemed genuinely torn between trying to help Picard and his almost uncontrollable malice-malevolence and in "All Good Things..." he had a real mix of respect and contempt for Picard, it seemed he had a bit more of the latter in much of the episode and the former in the end and that worked.
Overall definitely an antagonist and even a bad guy, for not caring about how costly his lessons are, but the lessons are still valuable and post-"Deja Q" he becomes quite a bit more respectful and less antagonistic.
I loved how in "Qpid" Q seemed genuinely torn between trying to help Picard and his almost uncontrollable malice-malevolence and in "All Good Things..." he had a real mix of respect and contempt for Picard, it seemed he had a bit more of the latter in much of the episode and the former in the end and that worked.
Overall definitely an antagonist and even a bad guy, for not caring about how costly his lessons are, but the lessons are still valuable and post-"Deja Q" he becomes quite a bit more respectful and less antagonistic.
Similar threads
