Could/Should a last TNG film
- Thread starter suarezguy
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Not sure. I think a Q film would have been good early on, by the time Nemesis rolled around, complaints were abound about Data looking old (being an android). John de Lancie was looking a little rough in the Voyager episode Q2 with a bit of weight gain and male pattern baldness at work. I imagine him being in it would only add to the complaints Nemesis had of the crew looking old and tired (especially confounding, considering Q is a supposedly higher evolved life form). I suppose a new Q could have been introduced to antagonize the crew, but I admit it would have been interesting to see what kind of scenarios a Q could have dropped the crew into on a feature length budget.
The Q/Next Gen story ended with "All Good Things". Anything after that would cheapen it.
I think Peter David's Q Squared would have made for a good Q film. If they stuck to the book they could have snuck in a George Takei cameo and a movie budget could probably have paid for some quite diverse looking Enterprise sets for each parallel universe. It would have been quite cool to see the Enterprise D again in one of the universes although they would have had to recreate everything from scratch and it might have ended up looking at bit off kilter.
Recasting Trelane might have been tricky too considering some fan response to Zephram Cochrane in First Contact. Plus there's the question of whether Q's actual son should be in the story or if they should keep Peter David's suggestion that Trelane might be something of a secret lovechild.
All that said, I suppose three different universes isn't that different from the three different timelines in All Good Things.
Recasting Trelane might have been tricky too considering some fan response to Zephram Cochrane in First Contact. Plus there's the question of whether Q's actual son should be in the story or if they should keep Peter David's suggestion that Trelane might be something of a secret lovechild.
All that said, I suppose three different universes isn't that different from the three different timelines in All Good Things.
Easy answer, no.
Q was similar to the Borg, vastly over used after a few good appearances. Q should have been completely dropped after seeing him twice.
Why drag down a TNG movie by including the character of Q? The general non-fan audience would have no idea who he was, and there would have to be a introduction that would waste time.
You could also argue that John Q. (pun intended
) Public would have no idea who the Borg were, either. But we saw that resulted in one of the more popular Trek flicks. If done right, I think a Q movie could have worked.
The saying "resistance is futile" was well known outside of Star Trek fandom, as were images of various Borg, you can't say the same about Q.
Well anything is possible 
I'm glad a film with Q instead of Nemesis didn't happen, not that I've ever been satisfied with Nemesis. I doubt Q would have helped with box office returns. Plus I'd hate to see John de Lancie return if the writing wasn't up to par.
I'm glad a film with Q instead of Nemesis didn't happen, not that I've ever been satisfied with Nemesis. I doubt Q would have helped with box office returns. Plus I'd hate to see John de Lancie return if the writing wasn't up to par.
Fans still feel that the movies are made for them and them only. The movies were made to appeal to a general movie-going audience. So, using something that isn't very well know in pop-culture (Q) wouldn't work. The reason that Romulans and Klingons are used a lot is because casual viewers or non-viewers will still have heard of Klingons and Romulans. Q is not known to them.
So, short answer..... No. It couldn't/shouldn't have Q, because it would make sure that most people wouldn't get the trailer even, so not bother with the movie itself and it would kill all changes of more movies. I mean, face it.... Nemesis was flawed for many reasons ( I actually really enjoy Nemesis), but referencing so many small things from the show(s) was something casual viewers just don't get.
So, short answer..... No. It couldn't/shouldn't have Q, because it would make sure that most people wouldn't get the trailer even, so not bother with the movie itself and it would kill all changes of more movies. I mean, face it.... Nemesis was flawed for many reasons ( I actually really enjoy Nemesis), but referencing so many small things from the show(s) was something casual viewers just don't get.
If the studio did have Q in mind to make another final feature of TNG; where would the film go with the character? Voyager and DS9 proved they've done all they could with that character.
If the studio did have Q in mind to make another final feature of TNG; where would the film go with the character? Voyager and DS9 proved they've done all they could with that character.
YES, the final TNG movie should have had Q. But as some have pointed out, forget using Q as the general audience draw. Instead, they could have used *Robin Williams* as the general audience draw, and had him play the "enemy" Q.
Have de Lancie play "our" Q, and one of the first things Robin Williams' Q did was strip him to just being human because he knew too much about what he was going to try to do: run an Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny to get some McGuffin hidden on a planet somewhere, involving all of the major powers of the Milky Way, with whomever wins being the only ones allowed to remain in existence in the galaxy. So Q shows up to tell our crew and help to stop Q, and the plan is to assemble a motley team of allies from every power they can (involving a cavalcade of guest stars from Trek history) to win the battle, so that they represent everyone and everyone gets to stay around.
Climax of the movie is a starship battle that makes the space battle in Rogue One look like an elementary school play, combined with all out ground war on the planet with forces from every group trying to reach the McGuffin, and meanwhile Q and Wesley Crusher (who still has powers and has learned how to use them) try to talk Q out of what he's been doing. Ultimately, they figure out that there IS NO McGuffin, that Q just wanted to teach everyone about the futility of conflict, there's a touching speech from Robin Williams as Q about that, and then he just leaves everybody to deal with what he's done. They report back, and Picard and his group tell everyone else what has happened, and once groups stop fighting and the loss and damage assessments are taken, the film ends on a dark, quiet, but hopeful note with Picard, Janeway, and Spock having brought the leaderships of all of the powers together to try to build a new way toward the future.
Budget: 90 gazillion dollars.
Result: Still a box office flop, and gets no nods from the Academy except some stupid makeup or music thingy.
But who cares, it would have been GLORIOUS!
Have de Lancie play "our" Q, and one of the first things Robin Williams' Q did was strip him to just being human because he knew too much about what he was going to try to do: run an Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny to get some McGuffin hidden on a planet somewhere, involving all of the major powers of the Milky Way, with whomever wins being the only ones allowed to remain in existence in the galaxy. So Q shows up to tell our crew and help to stop Q, and the plan is to assemble a motley team of allies from every power they can (involving a cavalcade of guest stars from Trek history) to win the battle, so that they represent everyone and everyone gets to stay around.
Climax of the movie is a starship battle that makes the space battle in Rogue One look like an elementary school play, combined with all out ground war on the planet with forces from every group trying to reach the McGuffin, and meanwhile Q and Wesley Crusher (who still has powers and has learned how to use them) try to talk Q out of what he's been doing. Ultimately, they figure out that there IS NO McGuffin, that Q just wanted to teach everyone about the futility of conflict, there's a touching speech from Robin Williams as Q about that, and then he just leaves everybody to deal with what he's done. They report back, and Picard and his group tell everyone else what has happened, and once groups stop fighting and the loss and damage assessments are taken, the film ends on a dark, quiet, but hopeful note with Picard, Janeway, and Spock having brought the leaderships of all of the powers together to try to build a new way toward the future.
Budget: 90 gazillion dollars.
Result: Still a box office flop, and gets no nods from the Academy except some stupid makeup or music thingy.
But who cares, it would have been GLORIOUS!
The other thing is, after TNG left television, the Q plotline became a VOY concern, and developed in new ways. The movie would have to be accessible to audiences unfamiliar with developments on VOY, but also build on those storylines satisfactorily.
It's possible that Rick Berman's "Crisis In Infinite Star Trek's" crossover idea, the one that was spoken of as a viable option post-Nemesis, could have been a good opening for including Q, if it was, say, the continuum bringing together all these disparate Star Trek casts to solve a cataclysmic event. But again, one does fear it would definitely become like a rehash of "All Good Things..." for the big screen.
It's possible that Rick Berman's "Crisis In Infinite Star Trek's" crossover idea, the one that was spoken of as a viable option post-Nemesis, could have been a good opening for including Q, if it was, say, the continuum bringing together all these disparate Star Trek casts to solve a cataclysmic event. But again, one does fear it would definitely become like a rehash of "All Good Things..." for the big screen.
I think you could put Q in the cold open of a film, like maybe he was at Riker and Troi's wedding too, but then you run the risk of people expecting him to return if the heroes are in peril. I think the best Q ideas had already been used up. What more could you do with the character? I think what a hypothetical TNG film 5 needed was something bold, something new.
Most films have to introduce characters, every character, though Q and why he's significant could be more difficult to do.
I thought the second one worked really well, the latter two were flawed mostly from giving Stewart and Spiner too much control over the stories/scripts.
One of the more intriguing take outs I had from 'Fade Out' was how Spiner's notes on the script were mostly pretty thought provoking and did a bit to tighten up a few story problems rather than all being exclusively about his own part, but it was Stewart whose contributions more than anything torpedoed "Insurrection". The one that sticks in my mind being a note to the effect of, we've seen enough of the 'family' of the crew in the TV show and therefore the story doesn't need to be about the ensemble so much as it should be about Picard (yes, I know actors feather their own nests sometimes, but it just comes across as though Stewart had lost a little of the humility he'd had when working on the show, not to mention forgotten the strength of that ensemble, in the five years since leaving the air. It's like he'd breathed in too much about his own reputation and was, in essence, "doing a Shatner" on his fellow actors behind the scenes...)
