How would Kirk have coped with meeting Q?

How do you think Kirk would have reacted to an encounter with Q on a semi regular basis? Do you think he'd be able to cope with Q's antics?

 

He would have dazzled Q with a logical contradiction, followed up with a flying double leg kick.
Then he would have stolen Q's girlfriend.

 

Watch “The Squire of Gothos”.

 

That's what made me think of this.. But it's never stated that Trelane is a proper Q and he uses technology to make his powers work.

 

A flying butt punch.

 

So he would have "Kirked" him ...

 

I suspect Q would have preferred to avoid Kirk - too determined of a character to manipulate. (Yes, that infers that Picard is easier to manipulate...)

 

All Qs use technology to make their powers work. Picard, Sisko, and Janeway just never caught on to it. And that's why Kirk's the best.

 

No, Trelane is not a Q...but the question of how Kirk would cope with meeting a Q is still basically answered by Squire.

 

Maybe Q does as well?

Quinn said that the Q weren't as powerful as they lead people to believe.

 

Hmmm...let's see how that would go down ...

KIRK: You've got a lot to learn about winning, Q.
Q: You dare to defy me!
KIRK: In fact, you've got a lot to learn about everything, haven't you?
(Kirk slaps his face)
Q: You hit me! Picard never hit me.
Kirk: I'm not Picard.... whoever that might be.
Q: Indeed not. You're much easier to provoke. How fortunate for me. As for that Picard guy .... don't, erm, crash that bridge till you come to it.

Seriously though, although we see Kirk realise in the end that Trelane was nothing more than a spoiled child, we don't get to see how he would have saved the Enterprise from him, as Kirk is lucky Trelanes parents show up at that moment. Then again, Q wouldn't have destroyed the Enterprise for "fun", like Trelane quite probably could have, as Q did seem to have some sense of responsibility, even if it seemed capricious at times and at the adolescent level.

 

And similarly, if Kirk went up against Q, it's quite possible that Q would be halted and chastised by other Q, as they have been known to do at other times.

 

Q was completely irresponsible; let us not forget he was the one who exposed mankind/the Federation to the Borg ("Q Who") long before they were ever ready to deal with that threat. All loss of life suffered at the hands of the Borg is all Q's fault, and he was hardly apologetic about it, nor did he step in before or during the events of "The Best of Both Worlds" to correct his sadistic need for ass-kissing / gameplaying.

 

You know, I wonder though. Q is very much a complicated character. Don't forget he gave Picard a helping hand in "All Good Things", and in "Tapestry" he actually gave Picard a chance to see what his life would have been like if he had played it safe. Even in "Q, Who", yes, he exposed the Enterprise to the Borg probably years before they would have otherwise. But we really don't know what kind of future that would be. Picard acknowledges Q may have actually done the right thing (though his motives are certainly questionable) in the sense that the Federation had become complacent. Perhaps Q had scene humanity's destruction in that other future. Perhaps without the warning about the Borg, the Federation would have remained complacent and been wholly unprepared for when the Borg did eventually come calling. Q seemed to be fascinated by humanity and maybe he saw a future where humanity was assimilated by the Borg because we were unprepared. "Q, Who" might have been a splash of cold water.

Now the future encounters with the Borg were no picnic, but ultimately the Federation managed to beat them back (with a little luck on our side as well).

 

Q was halted and chastised, but never because he meddled with Our Heroes. It's rather the other way around, actually: Q starts meddling with the crew because he has problems with his fellow Q ('s).

I read those events differently. As is evidenced by those destroyed outposts in the Neutral Zone, the Borg already knew of the Federation and probably would have been coming anyway. So Q didn't "expose" them to the Borg, all he may have done in that respect is give the Borg a more specific target (which is, the Enterprise-D and possibly Picard), as a prelude to assimilating humanity (or the Federation.) In fact, I think he gave the Federation an "early warning" they could not ignore.

Is Q sadistic? Yes, perhaps. Was the loss of 18 crewmembers necessary? Perhaps not. But given how smugly Picard acts at the beginning of Q who about how they are ready for anything, I strongly doubt he would have listened if Q had come to him and just told him about the Borg. Picard had to see firsthand that his mighty weapons were utterly useless after the first few successful shots, that his diplomatic skills could have been spent equally well talking to a stone wall, and that the Borg were relentless in pursuing a goal once they identified it. In the end, even Picard himself admits that Q "may have done the right thing for the wrong reason" - give them a kick in their complacency.

And as for Q's reasons, those aren't clear. But on several occasions, Picard comes away from his Q encounter learning some important lessons.Q who is one, tapestry another. Was that Q's intention? Perhaps, perhaps not. In All Good Things, it seems Q genuinely wants Picard to succeed and to learn something from the experience. All in all, I prefer to see Q as a harsh 'teacher' of humanity-and especially of Picard who is so convinced of his own moral superiority-, who only seems capricious. But I'll agree that it's only an interpretation.

EDIT: Saw Damian beat me to it with many of the same arguments only after I placed my post.

 

...but that's long after "Q Who"--which there never any form of atonement. The destruction caused by the Borg's premature contact was an irreversible crime Q got away with.

Picard's line made him seem hopelessly naïve; with Q's power, he could have used his limitless ways of warning the Federation about the Borg, even transport one Enterprise member to the parts of the galaxy where the Borg had assimilated and/or destroyed civilizations. That would be warning enough, but he was being vindictive and did not care that an unprepared Federation--all of those lives/worlds--could have been wiped from history through assimilation.

See my reply to Damian; Q had every option imaginable--no one needed to die to warn the Federation about the Borg, but he knew that would happen. Its no different than allowing a child with no swimming training to jump into a pool, thinking he should come close to drowning in order to learn that he was unprepared for swimming. There's not even a kernel of benevolence in sadistic, vindictive behavior.

 

Except that they probably wouldn't have believed him. After all, he already had put them through his 'mindgames' in (presumably) created realities before. Why would this time be any different? (To be fair, they even could have chosen to believe that after the events of Q Who.)

 

Maybe if Picard had taken a leaf from Kirk's dropkick diplomacy, he wouldn't have had the trouble that Q continually gave him.

 

He would have tricked him into leaving with some illogically logical words.