Q

[retroenzo]

Q is a mystery figure at the best of times, but while I can wrap my head around the god-like powers that we see him perform, there's one thing that constantly confuses me. Where does Q actually send the Enterprise crew in episodes where he teleports members of the crew away?

By the time of Voyager, we saw Q sending the crew of Voyager to representations of the Q Continuum that humanity could understand: From the gas station rest stop in 'Death Wish' to the American civil war re-enactment that we see in 'The Q and the Grey'.

But the locations in TNG are not so clear-cut. Are they all in the Continuum too? If they were, then I'm surprised he went out of his way to tell Janeway that's where they were. And if they are, does that mean that all the people in the courtroom, the "vicious animal things" (Hide and Q) and Robin Hood's Merrie Men are members of the Q as well?

Okay, so if not the Continuum, then what else? Time travel? Well Tapestry could be time travel, but Robin Hood was just a myth so that rules that out for that episode. (Or were Tapestry and All Good Things illusions too?)

 

[The Old Mixer]

Probably just some customized extradimensional space.

 

[The Wormhole]

(Or were Tapestry and All Good Things illusions too?)

AGT actually is an alternate timeline. Presumably, so is Tapestry, or at least the parts where Picard is a low-ranking science officer.

 

[Richard Baker]

I figured he just put them into a pocket universe he created just for the occasion. It was his version of a holodeck but everything was real and operated according to the rules and laws he established. It also had it's own time out of phase with ours since he could spend an hour with the crew in there and still return them to the exact moment they left.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Or were Tapestry and All Good Things illusions too?

Probably.