Question about "Q-Zone"

[Mr Silver]

Really enjoyed the novel!

There's a part in the novel where it's mentioned that a message from the Gamma Quadrant revealed that Voyager had dealings with Q. Was this an error - bearing in mind that Voyager was lost in the Delta Quadrant, or was this intentional in the sense that Voyager's subspace communications were picked up by Starfleet in the Gamma Quadrant?

 

[Greg Cox]

Really enjoyed the novel!

There's a part in the novel where it's mentioned that a message from the Gamma Quadrant revealed that Voyager had dealings with Q. Was this an error - bearing in mind that Voyager was lost in the Delta Quadrant, or was this intentional in the sense that Voyager's subspace communications were picked up by Starfleet in the Gamma Quadrant?

That was thirteen years (!) and many, many books ago, so my memory is fuzzy, but I'm guessing I just screwed up and meant the Delta Quadrant . . . .

I'm just surprised nobody caught that before!

Glad you liked the book, though. Thanks!

 

[David cgc]

That sort of thing has happened a few times (I remember the DS9 "Captain's Table" book described the wormhole connecting to and the Dominion being from the Delta Quadrant).

 

[Mr Silver]

That was thirteen years (!) and many, many books ago, so my memory is fuzzy, but I'm guessing I just screwed up and meant the Delta Quadrant . . . .

Just a small error - blame the editor!

Glad you liked the book, though. Thanks!

I'm enjoying the whole miniseries (half way through book 3 now)! It's a really interesting trio of books that capture the light heartedness from "Q episodes" excellently and I really like how the Q/0 war ties into some unexplained events throughout the Trek verse.

I do have a query though - how do you personally pronounce the being known as (*) ?

 

[Greg Cox]

Er, um, that's a good question . . . .

I've actually gotten calls from the audiobook people sometimes asking me how to pronounce some weird alien squiggle--and I have to confess that I have no idea. I just thought it looked good on the page!

 

[Mr Silver]

It does look pretty awesome!

In an audio context, could (*) just be referred to as "parenthesis" - which refers to the whole text and the brackets on each side. In this case, the text wouldn't actually be text.

Funnily enough, the word parenthesis comes from a Greek term that translates to "alongside of" - which could be a fitting description for (*)'s characterisation as a member of 0's group.

 

[Stevil2001]

I always pronounced it 'ping,' though I can't say I know why.

 

[David cgc]

A while ago, someone invoked Victor Borge when the character was discussed. That might be where "Ping!" came from.

 

[Greg Cox]

All I remember is that, what with already having characters named "Q" and "0," I felt obliged to up the ante, nomenclature-wise, when it came to a glowing ball of hate-energy . . . .

I mean, I couldn't exactly call it "Fred."

 

[RoJoHen]

I mean, I couldn't exactly call it "Fred."

I feel like you could.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Fred, rotating angrily, turns all the niknaks in the room into swords and knives.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

A while ago, someone invoked Victor Borge when the character was discussed. That might be where "Ping!" came from.

You mean it's NOT a Python reference? Way to shatter a weekend.

"Ah. I see you have an extradimensional entity that goes PING!"

 

[Therin of Andor]

how do you personally pronounce the being known as (*) ?

I thought he was bending over.

Is this the original "star of a ship's captain" mentioned by Areel Shaw in the ST blooper reel?

 

[CNash]

(*) is Asterisk to me... not to be confused with a certain Gaulish warrior, though!

 

[Mr Silver]

I pronounced 0 as "zero" until a part in the second book where it's revealed that 0 is actually pronounced as "nil".

I get the impression that 0 is meant to be an alternative dimension's counterpart to the Q-Continuum. Rather than a group of non-corporeal beings, he is just one or perhaps the last of them - therefore making him a "nil" species. I started to get vibes from the movie "The One" featuring Jet Li about a psycho that moves between alternate realities in order to kill his counterparts. This results in him getting stronger and being able to manifest a variety of special abilities. In the case of 0 - the idea I have is that he defeated the rest of his species and then went on an interdimensional journey to test less advanced species in his unfair manner. This went on until some other species took away his ability to travel and banished him to a dimensional prison.

Of course, that's just speculation from my part, given that 0 is able to put up a fight on his own against multiple members of the Q Continuum. One has to imagine whether the Continuum could have defeated him had he not been considerably depowered (assuming the crippled leg is a physical representation of him lacking the full potency of his abilities).

I never liked the "Galactic Barrier" concept as I think it places and unneccessary restriction on the Trekverse. I liked how it was used in the Q-Continum miniseries, although I would have prefered that Q had just banished 0 back to his dimensional prison and taken the barrier down. The barrier serves as a restriction on storytelling - sure there's billions of things they can do in the Milky Way Galaxy, but there would also be a lot of potential for storytelling that involved leaving the Galaxy and exploring deep space between Galaxies.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I like how the galactic barrier was both put there by the Q to keep nasties out (The Q Continuum) and was somehow also the wounded, noncorporeal Q himself after losing a fight with Trelane, in Peter David's Q-Squared.

Oh, and I thought of "(*)" as "blip"

 

[David cgc]

IIRC, I "pronounced" "(*)" as... nothing. The glottal stop in a klingon word, the awkward pause after you say something that sounded fine in your head, the dropped consonant at the end of a french word. The sound of almost saying something, but never having it get out of your throat.

 

[Idran]

IIRC, I "pronounced" "(*)" as... nothing. The glottal stop in a klingon word, the awkward pause after you say something that sounded fine in your head, the dropped consonant at the end of a french word. The sound of almost saying something, but never having it get out of your throat.

Oh, I like that idea