Guinan and Q; ever explained?

[Christopher]

In which case, wouldn't that also make Dr. Soran a threat to Q? Shit, they really dropped the ball by not playing up on that to make him the most badass Trek villain possible. He can destroy stars, he killed Captain Kirk, and the Enterprise D was destroyed because of him. Q is also scared shitless of him. Dr. Tolian Soran, Trek's Most Dangerous.

Except that the Q/Guinan reaction was so ambiguous that we can't make assumptions about just what it was that alarmed him. Maybe she wasn't an existential threat to him; maybe she just creeped him out in some way despite being harmless to him, like the way I'm creeped out by ants on my kitchen floor or spiders in the window. Or maybe she just knew something about him that he'd be embarrassed by if it got out.

In any case, by the time they made Generations, they'd clearly abandoned whatever initial ideas there were about Guinan intimidating Q. They didn't "drop the ball," they just changed their minds about a rough-draft idea that they decided it was better not to follow up on. The same as numerous other abortive ideas in Trek history, like "half-Vulcanians" being recognizable on sight (implying that full Vulcanians looked more alien), holodecks being a novelty as of 2364, Trill being unable to go through transporters, or B'Elanna having a crush on Chakotay.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

And it would also seem that the depiction of the Q has varied over the years.

Look at the TNG pilot, for example...the Q have to physically chase the Enterprise...

That said, I would love to hear an explanation as to what the "New Era" - mentioned by Quinn in "Death Wish" - actually is. (Hope I didn't just torpedo that by putting out a "story idea"... )

 

[JD]

The same as numerous other abortive ideas in Trek history, like "half-Vulcanians" being recognizable on sight (implying that full Vulcanians looked more alien), holodecks being a novelty as of 2364, Trill being unable to go through transporters, or B'Elanna having a crush on Chakotay.

Wasn't Spock supposed to have green skin in some of the earliest concepts? Maybe full blooded Vulcanians were originally going to be green, but then they downgraded to just their blood being green.

 

[Christopher]

Wasn't Spock supposed to have green skin in some of the earliest concepts? Maybe full blooded Vulcanians were originally going to be green, but then they downgraded to just their blood being green.

Quite possibly. Although I wonder if they might've had a more elaborate prosthetic makeup in mind, maybe something like David McCallum in The Outer Limits: "The Sixth Finger." Still, I doubt they would've settled on a design until and unless it came up. That's probably why they forgot the idea later on.

 

[tomswift2002]

Quite possibly. Although I wonder if they might've had a more elaborate prosthetic makeup in mind, maybe something like David McCallum in The Outer Limits: "The Sixth Finger." Still, I doubt they would've settled on a design until and unless it came up. That's probably why they forgot the idea later on.

I seem to remember (possible Bob Justman on “Inside Star Trek”) an early idea was to have Spock have a dinner-plate-type thing on his stomach so that any energy that hit that plate, his body turned it into food for him.

 

[Valin]

I seem to remember (possible Bob Justman on “Inside Star Trek”) an early idea was to have Spock have a dinner-plate-type thing on his stomach so that any energy that hit that plate, his body turned it into food for him.

That was the recipe for Plomeek soup.

 

[David cgc]

Wasn't Spock supposed to have green skin in some of the earliest concepts? Maybe full blooded Vulcanians were originally going to be green, but then they downgraded to just their blood being green.

Spock was originally going to be red (because he was a half-Martian, and to play up the "nice guy that looks like Satan" thing, but red makeup would've looked very thick and, in black and white, came out took dark for comfort), but they settled on an extremely subtle green. That varied over the years with color correction (I remember from an interview they were having trouble with the first makeup tests because the people developing the film assumed the green color was an error and removed it), and depending on who was doing the makeup as the movies went on, but generally, he's supposed to be just a touch green.

 

[tomswift2002]

[QUOTE="David cgc”]That varied over the years with color correction (I remember from an interview they were having trouble with the first makeup tests because the people developing the film assumed the green color was an error and removed it), and depending on who was doing the makeup as the movies went on, but generally, he's supposed to be just a touch green.[/QUOTE]
I think you’re remembering the issue with Vina and Majel Barrett’s infamous green paint test.

 

[21Spike65]

While it doesn't explain the actual past interaction(s) of Guinan and Q, I've always thought you could make some decent extrapolations. Guinan has a unique sense of time, presumably as a result of her contact with the Nexus. Since the Nexus is timeless, that connection could have always existed for her, even before she chronologically encountered the Nexus. Then there's a throwaway line in Q-Space that brings it all together for me (let's see if Greg remembers a 22 year old book any better ):

As [Q] and Picard looked on, the young [Q]...isolated a ribbon of luminous plasma, stretching it like taffy before imbuing it with his own supernatural energies so that it shimmered with an eldritch radiance that transcended conventional physics. He pulled his new creation taut, then flung it free. The fiery ribbon shot like a rubber band toward the ceiling of the core and soon passed out of sight...
With a start, Picard remembered the inexplicable cosmic phenomenon that had driven Tolian Soran to madness...

If an adolescent Q had really created the Nexus, "imbuing it" with his own powers, and a portion of Guinan was forever present in the Nexus, it could give her not only a unique sense of time, but a unique connection to the Q themselves. So perhaps Guinan doesn't have any actual Q powers, and would be powerless against any number of powerful races out there, but when it comes to the Q...she has a unique resistance to their power, and that scares Q. Maybe "our" Q specifically even, as he is the one who created the Nexus.

Take it or leave it, but it all comes together for me! Of course, the story of Q and Guinans past meeting(s) is still untold.

 

[JD]

You might want to edit that post, it seems to me that you're getting into, or at least are very close to story idea territory.

 

[trampledamage]

A good thing to be careful of, but I think that post is general enough that it can stay.