I'm unsure where the best forum to post this in since it covers a few series, but I figured I'd take a stab here. In the Voyager episode, "Deathwish", Quinn (formally Q) tells Tuvok that the Q have weaknesses and only appear to be omnipotent because they possess technology that greatly surpasses the technology of the Federation in the 24th century. It got me wondering: What is the true face of the Q? What makes them so powerful. I got to thinking that if Qs are so potentially weak, it got me wondering if maybe perhaps their true form was something similar to the species we encountered in the TOS episode "Return to Tomorrow". To me it would make sense if the Q have either become disembodied or choose to keep their real bodies in such a place (known to us perhaps as the Q continuum) while tapping into a source that allows them to navigate the world exclusively as the essence of their mind and that most of their tricks are some sort of super advanced version of holograms. I find myself wondering if this explanation might explain a lot. I don't think anything in this potential explanation is invalidated by any material. If anything, I think "Q&A" still seems to support it. Thoughts?
This is more appropriate for General Trek since it covers multiple series so I'll move it there but keep a link here.
I don't think it's any technology, and he doesn't specifically say so in the episode: The use of technology in the analogy may just be coincidence, and the Q's incredible power makes them seem omnipotent, but they aren't omnipotent have their weaknesses all the same. The Q to me are like humanity in Isaac Asimov's story The Last Question. The Q probably have a history similar to humanity, but grow beyond that to become demigods. Whatever weaknesses the Q have, they surely are irrelevant to us anyway, as such a weakness would be on par with the destruction of the Universe or something like that.
I have to agree. It seems that the whole point was that, even though the Q may have weaknesses, they are so far ahead of us, that those weaknesses might as well be impenetrable barriers for human beings. Kind of like Federation Starships having the "weakness" of torpedoes being able to pass thru the shield frequency if you have it. That don't matter a damn if all you have is bows and arrows to shoot at it.
Although I think John DeLancey's Q would have us believe the Q have always been. I wonder if his character being called the "God of Lies" in Q-Less doesn't give us more insight to Quinn's claim. Don't get me wrong, it wouldn't break the trek universe for me if John DeLancey's Q is more or less right, but I tend to wonder if there's not more to their story then just a being with omnipotent power.
Their weakness is that they're not gods? They've evolved, physically or technologically, to the point of omnipotence. They've seen and built and done it all. But they can't do more than that. Their weakness is a lack of creativity beyond being creative enough to do everything? ...Does that make a lick of sense or is it verbal sophistry? We shouldn't underestimate their abilities though. Their day at work could creating an entire multiverse and toying with every being and particle in it. Whatever their weaknesses, they must be to us as we are to bacteria or atoms or something.
That never made sense to me. I don't know about other people, but when I get bored of stuff I enjoy, I simply do something else for a while. Eventually your mind is fresh to go back and enjoy the first thing again. As a last resort, you could just wave your boredom away and enjoy something you're bored of again.
And you don't see the difference between a guy in his 20's (presumably) compared to a being that has existed for billions of years? Yeah, maybe it's cool to go back and watch TOS every 10 years or so, but after doing that a few million times ...
Q watched TNG characters like they were on a tv show. Who knows if he ever decided to change the channel?
That brings up an interesting point. One would think Q's "fear" of Guinan might stem from El-Aurians having had found some sort of weakness that mortals can exploit.