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Things we only realized later about DS9

I doubt they were Q. They behaved far too responsibly and with too much considerion for weaker life forms.

(Yes, I know what Guinan said: 'Not all the Q are alike. Some are almost respectable.' But still.)

Although if you wanted to make it fit, maybe Q is an adolescent and Trelane's parents were adults. (So where are Q's parents and why is he allowed to run around loose making trouble for lower life forms?)
 
To be fair to the Q Continuum, the only member we see cause active mayhem is John de Lancie. And his son. (But even there, the Continuum required Q to keep an eye on him.) All the rest tend to simply stay out of everyone's affairs.

Corbin Bernsen's Q didn't interfere in anything... he was keeping an eye on our Q.

Gerritt Graham's Q was simply trying to commit suicide, which did lead to some bad results. But he wasn't trying to cause chaos outside of the Q Continuum.


I think the Q really tend to just stay away from all life they consider lower... which is basically everyone.
 
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^I agree with the examples you give.

Then again, Quinn did interfere on Earth in the 19th and 20th century (even if mostly in a positive way), according to 'our Q', 'one of his self destructive stunts created a misunderstanding which ignited the hundred year war between the Romulans and the Vulcans' (we don't know the veracity of that statement though), the conflict between Q and Quinn conflict caused severe danger to Voyager in the beginning of Deathwish, and the Q civil war caused considerable damage in certain regions (all those supernova's going off can't have been good). If they're that powerful, they probably could have taken their internecine fights to another location, where no one was bothered by it, but they didn't.
 
I am going to play the Devil’s advocate for a minute and say that if the Q were/are all powerful (doubtful) they probably could have reversed the supernovas if they wanted to ( but they probably wouldn’t bother )
 
^I agree with the examples you give.

Then again, Quinn did interfere on Earth in the 19th and 20th century (even if mostly in a positive way), according to 'our Q', 'one of his self destructive stunts created a misunderstanding which ignited the hundred year war between the Romulans and the Vulcans' (we don't know the veracity of that statement though), the conflict between Q and Quinn conflict caused severe danger to Voyager in the beginning of Deathwish, and the Q civil war caused considerable damage in certain regions (all those supernova's going off can't have been good). If they're that powerful, they probably could have taken their internecine fights to another location, where no one was bothered by it, but they didn't.
Do elephants care about the anthills they step on?

For what it's worth, "Death Wish" showed that most Q are apathetic navel-gazers and just don't interact with us lower creatures because they don't do much of anything anymore.

John deLancie's Q is an extreme outlier in his society.
 
Even so, next time we meet them, they're engaged in a fierce civil war. So even if they were 'apathetic navel-gazers' they could be shaken out of that, at least the 'apathetic' part.

Such a civil war (with disregard for the consequences for the rest of the milky way) is still very inwardly-looking though, I'll give you that.
 
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I'm pretty sure Morn spoke, we just never heard him speak. I seem to remember Quark saying that Morn nearly talked his ears off telling Quark about his nineteen brothers and sisters.

Not just Quark. Virtually everyone at one time or another referred to Morn as a Chatty Cathy.

And it was 17 brothers and sisters. (From Bashir at the end of "STARSHIP DOWN"... he was having a conversation with Morn when Dax 'rescued' him for darts.) :)
 
I'm pretty sure Morn spoke, we just never heard him speak. I seem to remember Quark saying that Morn nearly talked his ears off about his nineteen brothers and sisters.
That was part of the joke. Even though we normally just see Morn sitting there in silence and occasionally walking off with a dabo girl, everyone says he's always talking their ear off.

In "Who Mourns", we find out other things about him: he swiped things, he likes black velvet art, Worf regularly sparred with him, and he once had hair.
 
That was part of the joke. Even though we normally just see Morn sitting there in silence and occasionally walking off with a dabo girl, everyone says he's always talking their ear off.

In "Who Mourns", we find out other things about him: he swiped things, he likes black velvet art, Worf regularly sparred with him, and he once had hair.

Yes, it was a running gag.

But he didn't just 'occasionally' walk off with a dabo girl. He was a straight up player... during my recent rewatch with my wife, I was really taken aback by just how many different women he walked off with or had a date with.

Easily, three times as many as Riker.
 
Even so, next time we meet them, they're engaged in a fierce civil war. So even if they were 'apathetic navel-gazers' they could be shaken out of that, at least the 'apathetic' part.

Such a civil war (with disregard for the consequences for the rest of the milky way) is still very inwardly-looking though, I'll give you that.

The Q civil war didn't just show general disregard for the effects of their actions on lower lifeforms, but it was predicated on maintaining the status quo of inactivity and insulation. In other words, the fighting was over whether sitting around and doing nothing all the time should be the preferred mode of existence. Recall how many times de Lancie was punished in TNG by his peers for intervention or interference, also known as "actually doing stuff."

The point that de Lancie is not very representative of the Q is made multiple times in TNG and VOY. But we love him because he's more active than his peers!
 
Even so, next time we meet them, they're engaged in a fierce civil war. So even if they were 'apathetic navel-gazers' they could be shaken out of that, at least the 'apathetic' part.

Such a civil war (with disregard for the consequences for the rest of the milky way) is still very inwardly-looking though, I'll give you that.
Only in protecting their status quo, which was very common, even in TNG, were Q was punished for his interference, or Amanda Rogers parents killed because they had a child, and she would eventually become Captain America.

de Lancie's Q is the very definition of a troublemaking attention seeker who would rather disrupt people's lives than do anything beneficial. While I don't like the Continuum they at least are not disrupting other people's lives until it threatens the status quo.

Which can be pointed back to de Lancie's Q. The jerk.
 
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It is an interesting question though. Would there be a moral responsibility for species such as the Q to help less advanced species in trouble with the kind of power they have? (e.g. prevent an extinction level event the species cannot prevent itself?) Or would they have their own 'prime directive' version? (Even so, not knowing what course of action will turn out to be the best if they choose to interfere or not is not necessarily a reason for such species like it is for the Federation.)
 
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