Q question: Can the Q bring people back to life?

[ReadyAndWilling]

was this ever talked about? was it ever mentioned if he had any limitations in his powers? how could he bring a person back to life whose consciousness was already long gone? i guess he could go back in time and bring them to the present before they die?

 

[StolenThunder]

Hide and Q implies that it's possible, I seem to remember?

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

In Tapestry Q says it is easy for him, but that depends if you believe Tapestry was supposed to be an actual Q episode.

 

[Alrik]

Based on True Q, I would have to say no, they can't. The Continuum put Amanda's parents to death. After she agrees to embrace her 'Q-ness', she doesn't say she wants to bring her parents back, she says she wants to go back and spend some time with them. As far as Tapestry, I don't think Picard was ever really dead. Yes, Q tells him he is, but I think Q just suspended time at that moment and took Picard on his little jouney 'out of time'. As far as Picard being healed afterwards, Q simply fixed his artificial heart and resumed the timeline.

 

[Arpy]

"Oh, you mortals are so obtuse. Why do you persist in believing that life and death are such static and rigid concepts. Why, I can take your life and give it back to you again with the snap of a finger."

That's so much more mind-blowing than, "Well, see his soul didn't actually go to Heaven yet. The dechyon particles in the temporal causality loop trapped it along with his body so it kept being shoved around and around."

I think Amanda couldn't bring her parents back because the other Q made a point of doing away with them. Doesn't make sense that they'd do so if they'd let them come back any old time. I think it's like the ancient Greek gods were they can't undo the wishes of other gods. They have to cajole those gods to undo them.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I don't there's much that the Q can't do, IMO. The real question might be "why would they do it?" With the exception of [John DeLancie's] Q, the lives of individual mortals generally don't interest them in the slighest...

 

[Alrik]

[Edit: Reply to Arpy's post]
Possible. But that implies that no one is permanently dead unless the death was caused by a Q or a Dowd. However, that line of reason could be a slippery slop. Say a Q becomes fascinated with humanity or the Federation. He/she/it could bring a living, breathing Abraham Lincoln or Surak right into the TNG timeline. But following that line of thinking, a malicious Q could unleash the likes of Hitler and Khan.

 

[Captain Atkin]

I think Q can do anything he wants.

 

[heavylids]

John DeLancy said in an interview on Trekkies that someone asked him if he could bring people back to life, and he responded, "only people I like".

 

[Timo]

In "Death Wish", Q produced a guy from the 1960s, necessarily long dead from the POV of our heroes. He literally brought the guy back to life, even if it didn't involve exhuming him and blowing life back into his rotting corpse.

Q can certainly "revive" any arbitrary person from the past, present or future by abducting him from a time when he was alive, having him hang around for a while, and then returning him to his "proper" time. Q can also apparently heal wounds and the like at will. So hijacking a guy from his crib and having him live until his grave, then returning him to his crib rejuvenated, ought to give maximum mileage from this "brought back to life" trick; it's hard to see how any deity could do any better.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mark 2000]

What Q would do would conceivably be the same as the transporter. The thing disintegrates you and makes a copy. Unless you believe in a soul the body is just a conglomeration of chemicals in the right amounts. Q could wink you out of existence and wink you right back. He could make a copy of you exactly the way you were before you died. The copy would think it was the original and just continue on from that point, just like the transporter copy.

 

[Jochk]

Whenever i think of what is possible for Q i think that as long as he does not create a paradox then he can do it.

 

[Brolan]

I don't there's much that the Q can't do, IMO. The real question might be "why would they do it?" With the exception of [John DeLancie's] Q, the lives of individual mortals generally don't interest them in the slighest...

That makes sense too. Do you care if an individual ant lives or dies? That's how they would see us.

 

[Patricia102]

everything has its principles. Q may follow the principles!

 

[Shon T'Hara]

I think Q can do anything he wants.

I think Q can do anything the plot requires.

 

[the skullcowboy]

the Holodeck can...in essence " bring someone back to life " with the right programming...Q I would think could conjure up any figure, past/present/future but I don't think its quite the same as " bringing someone back to life " I mean actually going to a grave and bringing a long decaying corpse back to a healthy state of being, with all their memories and exps in tact...I'm not sure even the Q could do that...unless of course, it was in that weeks budget...or Ron Moore had written the episode...

 

[bensmalls]

Of course he can. He's Q.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Technically, people that are brought back to life by Q would be "only" copies or reconstructions, I suppose. Because the original bodies have been long decomposed in most cases.

But that's more of a philosophical question.

 

[Rojixus]

I'm pretty sure the Q can resurrect any mortal they choose. However, I believe Qs can be killed and if they are, nothing can bring them back.

 

[Arpy]

I don't think that's accurate, Redshirt. I think Q could dig up the original remains and get back every last decomposed and worm-eaten particle to put together the original in every exact way. Or he could alter the timeline so that a person never did die and there's nothing to piece back together because it was never taken apart in the first place. Q's scary like that.