Were El-Aurians abilities against the Q ever explained?

[Melakon]

Actors and directors improvise all sorts of things when blocking a scene that doesn't have specific descriptions about movement, and sometimes disregard those descriptions. Maybe that accounts for Guinan's defensive posture.

When I was performing in plays, I often wound up discarding about 2/3 of the stage business I'd come up with during rehearsals.

 

[The Badger]

I always thought it was just a superstitious gesture, or maybe a religious sign. Something to ward off evil.

There's nothing, AFAIK, to suggest that it could have had any actual effect.

 

[Agent Richard07]

^ But Q did seem to be genuinely startled when he saw her.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Yeah, TNG went out of the way to point out some back story between the two... then left it hanging. That was disappointing.

She does have the power to impale Q with a fork. Though generally the good guys aren't supposed to go around stabbing people... unarmed people at that.

Q was without his powers when Guinan stabbed him with that fork.

She was testing his claim of being "only human".

Still funny though.

 

[bbjeg]

The more I think about it, the more I believe Guinan might just be Q's ex.

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[T'Girl]

^ But Q did seem to be genuinely startled when he saw her.

Meaning the "omnipotent" Q was unaware that she was aboard the ship, even through she was aboard the ship on other occasions when he visited.

It's possible that Q is unable to see Guinan unless he is in her presence.

 

[R. Star]

Didn't he give Guinan or someone a glance when he left Ten Forward? The kind of glance like he sensed someone looking at him. If that's the case, it's something even if it isn't much.

Seeing someone who knows you from the past, and your nefarious motives and immediately turning away so they don't see you is a special power? I have special powers then.

Q was without his powers when Guinan stabbed him with that fork.

She was testing his claim of being "only human".

Still funny though.

Yes, I know. Hence the "unarmed" part of my post. It's about the most effective thing I saw her do against Q.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Didn't he give Guinan or someone a glance when he left Ten Forward? The kind of glance like he sensed someone looking at him. If that's the case, it's something even if it isn't much.

Seeing someone who knows you from the past, and your nefarious motives and immediately turning away so they don't see you is a special power? I have special powers then.

Cool.

 

[Makarov]

To me the best answer is she has some kind of limited ability against him. Otherwise it really is just striking a pose which seems even more silly to me.

 

[bbjeg]

^I'll go for that.

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[Dream]

Q doesn't need to use his powers on Guinan to beat her. Q can just magic himself up a 19th century revolver and shoot her.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Meaning the "omnipotent" Q was unaware that she was aboard the ship, even through she was aboard the ship on other occasions when he visited.

They established in dialogue that Guinan was new to the ship in Season 2, so she wouldn't have been aboard for his previous visits.

 

[Vanyel]

I tend to think it was the Nexus. She left it but part of her stayed behind. Perhaps because that would her (and pressumable) the other El-Aurians who were rescued by the Enterprise B immune to the powers of a Q. In effect she was defending herself, maybe hoping that she could somehow deflect whatever Q was going to do and convince Q to leave the Enterprise D alone.

 

[Shawnster]

We know her race is incredibly long lived. And they are good listeners.

Maybe it's something as simple as Q can't detect her or her species. His powers won't work on her. Or maybe not. The fork incident does speak volumes.

 

[TheSubCommander]

We know her race is incredibly long lived. And they are good listeners.

Maybe it's something as simple as Q can't detect her or her species. His powers won't work on her. Or maybe not. The fork incident does speak volumes.

I remember seeing that episode in first run and I also have to admit I thought that scene and gestures implied Guinan had some kind enmity with Q, and the gestures were indicative of psionic power or something, but didn't think it was anywhere near Q's. Then it was never revisited, again. The only thing special about Guinan we ever see is that she is able to sense something was wrong with the timeline in Yesterday's Enterprise.

So now, when I rewatch that episode, in "my universe" it is just a sign of insult towards Q in her culture, and since she is around 500 years old, that they had had some kind of run in before, that really doesn't need explanation. All we need to know is Guinan hates Q because she ran into him before and knows whenever he is around, it means he is up to no good.

 

[Dream]

When I was a kid, I just thought it was Guinan's (and the El-Aurians) way of flipping people off. She was giving him the middle finger.

 

[R. Star]

That makes the most sense.

 

[The Old Mixer]

My theory about how Guinan knew that the timeline had changed in "Yesterday's Enterprise"--her own more distant past, her 19th-century encounter with Picard, hadn't changed. When the timelines shifted, she knew that things weren't right because suddenly she wasn't in the 24th century of the Picard whom she still remembered meeting.

Also, regarding Picard encountering her in the Nexus...in the movie she says that she's an echo or somesuch, but that explanation isn't necessary if, as the movie clearly postulates, time has no meaning in the Nexus. If that's the case, then Guinan and Picard can meet each other in the Nexus because both were there at some point in their lives. If that were the case, then from Guinan's perspective, that's the second time she's met Picard...and another thing that she might still remember in the "Yesterday's Enterprise" timeline.

All of this has nothing to do with her trying to put a hex on Q, of course....

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^ I'm not sure the Picard of the altered timeline (Klingon war, etc) would have had the time to go fiddling around under San Francisco and therefore Data's head wouldn't have ended up there at all so there wouldn't have been a reason to go down there in the first place and there wouldn't have been any traveling back to the 19th century to meet Guinan but then she probably wouldn't have ended up on the Enterprise-D so what the hell was she doing there at all.................

Damn temporal theory.

 

[bbjeg]

^Thanks for making Guinan even more confusing.

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