Rewatching Q-Less, which I saw in '93 but not since after labeling it as "pointless tie-in", I gave it another look.
O'Brien tries to sell Vash (who can't say her name right) to Picard as being his sex interest when anyone who say the season 3 episode introducing her (Captain's Holiday) knows better. I like how the subordinates don't always know what's going on or enjoy the rumor mill.
Q himself chides the human mating process as being (dismal), but later uses it to woo Janeway, LOL!
Q is a heck of a lot darker in this story, with jibes and motivations... even letting Vash experience the effects of the bug bite in front of a dozen strangers gawking on (and helping her back up after he made her look pretty again).
The most of any Q pranks that TNG ever did was turn Crusher into a big barking dog and nobody felt sorry for Crusher the way they felt bad for Vash. They might have laughed at Crusher, but that's another story (True Q, an underrated classic).
Quark is used to great effect in this story.
The use of some trippyphonic radiation or whatever to find the source of the gravioli problem with the "primitive" Cardassian sensors is interesting, but rather than have Kira lament on everyone dying from radiation poisoning, lamenting over the time needed to raise the radiation levels to pinpoint the cause of the problem -- though to be fair the crew weren't aware of the junk she brought on board -- when 8 minutes were left would have been more compelling drama.
Okay, I mock lightheartedly, as a lot of TNG's and DS9's technobabble often felt like authentic technological terms. Apart from the inverted*, including the misuse of "apogee" in "Deja Q". Don't get me started on VOY's technobabble, though... blech...
The ending was a bit open, or at least unfocused. And not in a way that had me wanting more. Maybe that was the proof that they didn't want to use Q in DS9 again. DS9 had more of its own stories to tell.
Is it just me, or was Vash's historical references for the first idol item more engaging than Quark's sales pitch of "it's big and pretty and rare, you must have it"?
One alien seems to have familiarity with the Gamma quadrant as he seems to threaten Quark.
And, on par with DS9, are some very lush outfits with great use of color and detail. And yet this show doesn't get remastered from scratch properly compared to beige-hotel-in-space TNG? (I love TNG, but DS9 is a lot more - on all levels.)
Thew obvious problem was the gamma quadrant glowing egg mcMaguffin in what isn't even a lead box. Or even a Papier-mâché box. One didn't need enjoying all the TNG Q episodes to connect the dots. But as far as glowing space critters go, the orange manta is preferable to the hokey purple squids in "Encounter at Farpoint" or the disturbingly shaped things in "Galaxy's Child".
Q is taken aback to being punched, but quickly retorts how Sisko is easier to provoke and how he would enjoy that. Now I wish Q came back. To see Q with or against the Prophets would have been, in a word, fascinating.
Q probably came back because he doesn't want to be tied on a space station. And would more likely be spotted by any number of aliens that wanted to kill him - if you thought the scene where Odo was followed by the mob and had his office window smashed was gritty, Q wouldn't corner himself in a space station as such. That and he wanted to oink Janeway the way Bashir wanted to oink Dax.
7/10 - not as bad as on first viewing, there's more to enjoy, the makers want to keep the tie-in going despite it not being necessary due to the pilot and two very strong stories that followed... but VOY's Q episodes, while different, were ultimately more fitting for that series. Especially as the Delta quadrant is brought up in this episode.
O'Brien tries to sell Vash (who can't say her name right) to Picard as being his sex interest when anyone who say the season 3 episode introducing her (Captain's Holiday) knows better. I like how the subordinates don't always know what's going on or enjoy the rumor mill.
Q himself chides the human mating process as being (dismal), but later uses it to woo Janeway, LOL!
Q is a heck of a lot darker in this story, with jibes and motivations... even letting Vash experience the effects of the bug bite in front of a dozen strangers gawking on (and helping her back up after he made her look pretty again).
The most of any Q pranks that TNG ever did was turn Crusher into a big barking dog and nobody felt sorry for Crusher the way they felt bad for Vash. They might have laughed at Crusher, but that's another story (True Q, an underrated classic).
Quark is used to great effect in this story.
The use of some trippyphonic radiation or whatever to find the source of the gravioli problem with the "primitive" Cardassian sensors is interesting, but rather than have Kira lament on everyone dying from radiation poisoning, lamenting over the time needed to raise the radiation levels to pinpoint the cause of the problem -- though to be fair the crew weren't aware of the junk she brought on board -- when 8 minutes were left would have been more compelling drama.
Okay, I mock lightheartedly, as a lot of TNG's and DS9's technobabble often felt like authentic technological terms. Apart from the inverted*, including the misuse of "apogee" in "Deja Q". Don't get me started on VOY's technobabble, though... blech...
* turning real words into babble, as opposed to how TNG often made babble sound real
The ending was a bit open, or at least unfocused. And not in a way that had me wanting more. Maybe that was the proof that they didn't want to use Q in DS9 again. DS9 had more of its own stories to tell.
Is it just me, or was Vash's historical references for the first idol item more engaging than Quark's sales pitch of "it's big and pretty and rare, you must have it"?
One alien seems to have familiarity with the Gamma quadrant as he seems to threaten Quark.
And, on par with DS9, are some very lush outfits with great use of color and detail. And yet this show doesn't get remastered from scratch properly compared to beige-hotel-in-space TNG? (I love TNG, but DS9 is a lot more - on all levels.)
Thew obvious problem was the gamma quadrant glowing egg mcMaguffin in what isn't even a lead box. Or even a Papier-mâché box. One didn't need enjoying all the TNG Q episodes to connect the dots. But as far as glowing space critters go, the orange manta is preferable to the hokey purple squids in "Encounter at Farpoint" or the disturbingly shaped things in "Galaxy's Child".
Q is taken aback to being punched, but quickly retorts how Sisko is easier to provoke and how he would enjoy that. Now I wish Q came back. To see Q with or against the Prophets would have been, in a word, fascinating.
Q probably came back because he doesn't want to be tied on a space station. And would more likely be spotted by any number of aliens that wanted to kill him - if you thought the scene where Odo was followed by the mob and had his office window smashed was gritty, Q wouldn't corner himself in a space station as such. That and he wanted to oink Janeway the way Bashir wanted to oink Dax.
7/10 - not as bad as on first viewing, there's more to enjoy, the makers want to keep the tie-in going despite it not being necessary due to the pilot and two very strong stories that followed... but VOY's Q episodes, while different, were ultimately more fitting for that series. Especially as the Delta quadrant is brought up in this episode.
