is q squared a good book?
- Thread starter tmosler
- Start date
I don't think Q-Squared is as good as Q-In-Law, but it's a pretty good novel nevertheless and I'd recommend it. 
I thought Q-Squared was awesome. So was Imzadi.
yes
The audiobook would have been so much more awesome if William Campbell had done the reading (or at least participated in it, like de Lancie and Majel did for Q-In-Law).
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The first I heard of "Q-Squared" was when Peter David gave a pre-publication chapter to John de Lancie and William Campbell to read together at a ST convention. Campbell's DS9 episode, "Blood Oath" had only recently aired (March 1994) and it was a rare convention appearance by Koloth/Trelane.
The live reading was reported in the media and it seemed they would be sharing the audio duties on the forthcoming book and tape release (July 1994). When the audio eventually came out, it was de Lancie, as narrator, going solo. IIRC, Campbell had some health concerns after the convention.
It's a lot of comic book-style fun. I really liked the somewhat unhinged Jack Crusher. And...
...the idea that the version of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" that we saw at the very start of TOS was actually from one of the alternate realities. James Kirk's middle initial really was R, and the early pilot uniforms and sets weren't pre-refit or pre-redesign as most assume, but buisness as usual for the Starfleet and Enterprise of that reality.
S&S Audioworks license didn't actually allow for what they did with Q-in-Law. It was only because of the Majel Barrett factor and not wanting to piss off Roddenberry (who was, even that close to his end, still the final word on all things Star Trek) that allowed it to go through.
Sounds like the licence might've only allowed for main cast members, whereas de Lancie and Barrett were guest stars.
^ But if de Lancie has done audiobooks by himself, surely the license must allow for actors such as that? He's never been a main cast member. And if he can do it alone, then one 'guest' actor must be allowed, so why not two?
Q-Squared was my favorite Trek book for a long time. I probably need to reread it. It seemed to really stretch the boundaries of what Trek books were able to do at the time.
It has nothing to do with main stars versus guest stars (there were Star Trek audio books read by non-Star Trek actors), so tomswift2000's supposition was incorrect.
The situation with Q-in-Law was this.
Majel Barrett really wanted to do it (because she loved the book) and she wanted to do it with de Lancie so they could actually do the back-and-forth dialogue from the book, but S&S Audioworks' license didn't cover audio dramas, and this would have been borderline.
It was decided that they would turn a blind eye to the problem because, as Peter David said at a convention, no one wanted to be the one to tell Majel Barrett that she couldn't play Lwaxana Troi in an audiobook.
