What I mean by smart/complex is that I don't think general audiences will appreciate an omnipotent being who can challenge the crew of the enterprise and then at the conclusion of the film snap his fingers and undo everything the film was about, while simultaneously teaching the crew a lesson about life. It works for an episode alright. But i'm uncertain about having an omnipotent deus ex machina character in a movie.
Oh, there are definitely challenges to plotting a story around an omnipotent antagonist (says the guy who wrote an entire trilogy about Q). Your heroes can only really win moral victories; they can't actually turn the tables on the bad guy or do anything to counter his actions. They can only really respond to whatever he throws at them . . . like the Borg, for instance.
But that's a storytelling challenge; I don't think it has anything to do with who the intended audience is, or that general audiences aren't smart enough to handle it. It's still going to be an issue even if you're writing exclusively for an audience of hardcore Trekkies.
There's probably a reason that none of the Trek movies have ever featured Q, despite the popularity of the character. Although
Insurrection and
Nemesis might have done better at the box office if they had featured Q instead!
(Jarod and I were just reacting to the general disdain for "the masses" one tends to run into among some fans these days, as well as the idea that the general audience can't really appreciate Trek the way "real" fans do. Sorry to jump all over you if that's not where you were coming from!)
Repeat after me: STAR TREK is not just for Trekkies--and was never supposed to be.
