And it would be different from Generations, when they needed Shatner for the "cross-over" movie... how?
I think Q should have been in a TNG movie, too. Another missed opportunity.
Why didn't Q appear in any of the TNG films?
- Thread starter The Overlord
- Start date
And it would be different from Generations, when they needed Shatner for the "cross-over" movie... how?
I think Q should have been in a TNG movie, too. Another missed opportunity.
But the whole point of doing a Q story would be to feature John de Lancie.
"Audiences, please note that, in today's performance, the role of Q will be played by..."
Well, that certainly goes back to de Lancie's "Days of Our Lives" roots.
They secured Shatner's participation early, IIRC. It was his seventh ST movie for Paramount. They did write barely-more-than-cameo roles for Nimoy and Kelley on spec before securing their participation and they turned them down. So their parts had to be (barely) rewitten for Doohan and Koenig.
I also get the impression that John deLancie is a pretty decent guy. He'd have jumped at the chance.
I've heard him speak at several conventions. He felt that "All Good Things..." finalized his TNG arc and wasn't expecting to be offered a TNG movie. He's also a very busy guy, with lots of projects on the boil at any one time. Nothing to do with being "decent".
I think that could apply to the whole cast. After the EntB sequence, the first scene is on the holodeck, which would be a head-scratcher to a person unfamiliar to the series, and the crew are already quite familiar with each other...so there's unseen backstory already. But assuming a new viewer was already familiar with the crew but not the show, what about Khan in TWOK? For GEN, how about Guinan? People unfamiliar with TNG probably thought hey, there's Whoopi, she's... a "psychic" bartender who ends up in the nexus (voluntarily) telling Picard all about it! Uh, what?
TNG was a very popular series so the movies definitely relied on some audience familiarity with the series, and most if not all would have known about Q.
And I don't think it gets any more arbitrary than the Nexus...
It didn't seem have that effect on Picard. And it wouldn't have to be handled like some of the episodes where Q's playing some kind of game of his making...AGT for example.
No he isn't. I don't think it's necessary that he would have to be the villain to be in a TNG film. In fact, there are many TNG episodes that don't have a villain at all.
Why must a movie have a villain?
I doubt he'd hold them up for his participation. That is entirely about decency: I can see him not doing it for artistic reasons (but with a good enough script--though what TNG movie, even FC, had that?) but I don't see him ransoming the project.
That's true, and I've always felt it was a serious mistake not to give a decent establishing shot of the Enterprise-D until quite late in the film. It was an example of the TV producers not being successful enough at breaking their TV habits.
That's true of any story, even with a completely new cast. Look how much backstory "The Cage" had.
But Q's background and his history with the crew are a bit more complicated than just "These guys have served together for years and are friends."
That was explained pretty well in the dialogue. First we see Chekov reacting to the name Botany Bay with fear, and that serves to build mystery and suspense for the new viewer. Then Khan shows up and gives the exposition in a rather long speech that fills in the new viewer quite nicely.
Sure, maybe they could've done the same with Q, but I think it would've been more awkward to justify. As I said, the idea behind Q might've been too fanciful for a lot of moviegoers to accept. (Hell, it's too fanciful for me to accept easily.)
You're taking that sentence out of context. I'm saying that, if the specific goal was to bring Captain Kirk into the TNG era, it's preferable to do that by having it be the result of his personal choices than to have it be just a whim of Q's. It gives him more agency in the story that way, and feels less gratuitous.
As I said elsewhere, I would have liked to see Q show up to explain how Guinen got trapped in the nexus and survived and the terrible choice Q who I saw as a V'ger baby, had to make that created the borg to begin with with Guinen even having to agree with that choice reluctantly as Piller sugested the Q continuum is Earth around the turn of the century where Guinen got trapped in Time's arrow. I would have liked to see Decker come back as he was only listed as missing, avoiding the creation of the Borg this time though. Cris, if you can make something out of that, youcan have it. My plate of ideas is full.
I think it's backwards to think a Q movie could not have been done because DeLancie would say no, or demand too much because he's the only one who can play Q.
I'm sure he'd want an agreeable script, and compensation. The challenge would've been to come up with the script, and for the parties involved to agree to his pay. The issues probably would not have been insurmountable; to presume they would've been so therefore that's why it wasn't worth attempting is just wrong.
Of course, we all would want DeLancie for Q.
I never saw All Good Things as the perfect finale others have and apparently do. It was just another time travel story to me. But a thread was left with Q's "see you out there" comment. And I doubt Q would go away.
Of course, the story would have to advance Q, advance the relationship in some way. We're not going to see the same Q we saw in the series. And there would have to be some other story that Q was or became involved with.
And of course, any growth or change to the Q character is likely to piss off some portion of the fanbase, just as the Borg Queen did in First Contact.
I'm sure he'd want an agreeable script, and compensation. The challenge would've been to come up with the script, and for the parties involved to agree to his pay. The issues probably would not have been insurmountable; to presume they would've been so therefore that's why it wasn't worth attempting is just wrong.
Of course, we all would want DeLancie for Q.
I never saw All Good Things as the perfect finale others have and apparently do. It was just another time travel story to me. But a thread was left with Q's "see you out there" comment. And I doubt Q would go away.
Of course, the story would have to advance Q, advance the relationship in some way. We're not going to see the same Q we saw in the series. And there would have to be some other story that Q was or became involved with.
And of course, any growth or change to the Q character is likely to piss off some portion of the fanbase, just as the Borg Queen did in First Contact.
The OP asked "Why didn't Q appear in any of the TNG films?" and I gave The Overlord (and you) an answer, pulled together from numerous comments at numerous conventions.
You can think Paramount was "wrong" all you like, but Hollywood bean-counters don't think the same way as you.
It is extremely rare for a major motion picture script to be commissioned that will depend on one particular guest actor agreeing to take the part. The regular players of TNG had contracts with clauses to cover possible future projects. No guest actor is likely to sign up before a script is even written, and the studio is highly unlikely to greenlight such a project without a signature on a contract.
de Lancie disagrees with you.
^Every one of Rick's decisions had to get past Sherry Lansing:
"As studio chief, she focused on bottom-line cost rather than market share, preferring to take fewer risks and make lower-budget films than other studios. Viacom (which purchased Paramount in 1994) decided to split the company into two parts in 2004 and Lansing stepped down at the end of that year after an almost unprecedented twelve-year tenure..." (Wikipedia).
"As studio chief, she focused on bottom-line cost rather than market share, preferring to take fewer risks and make lower-budget films than other studios. Viacom (which purchased Paramount in 1994) decided to split the company into two parts in 2004 and Lansing stepped down at the end of that year after an almost unprecedented twelve-year tenure..." (Wikipedia).
For all kinds of reasons. But the main one is that if your movie has a hero, having a villain to foil usually goes hand-in-hand.
Given that we had movies about heaven, time-traveling zombies, the fountain of youth, and a pair (a pair!! I still can't believe it!!) of evil twins, I don't think having Mr Mxyzyptlk in a TNG film would've been a deal-breaker. 
Explain The Voyage Home! And The Motion Picture!
That's like saying the whole point of doing a Kirk & Spock story is to feature Shatner and Nimoy.
Good grief, you're right -- not that Q should've been in a movie, but that he essentially is Mr. Mxyzptlk in every major respect. Wow, as if I didn't already think he was a silly enough concept...
No, because they usually were already under contracts with clauses to enable negotiations for each sequel. Note that, when ST:TMP was being written, there was no Spock in it because Nimoy had indicated he would not sign for "In Thy Image", and therefore Xon was created.
The OP asked why no Q in a TNG film. Sure, Paramount could have ordered a TNG film with a role for Q that would be played by a different actor to de Lancie if he turned it down. I am assuming that the OP is asking for a Q film because he/she likes de Lancie's performance.
This is just going round and round in circles.
Mind you, there's certainly no shortage off ST 2009 detractors who continue to say that "the whole point of doing a Kirk & Spock story is to feature Shatner and Nimoy".
And you can make Q disappear by tricking him into saying his name backwards.
