What Q said in TNG and how it could have made VOY's run more interesting

[Qonundrum]

See
Bigger, Badder, Balder: Revisiting Star Trek: The Next Generation | Page 6 | The Trek BBS

As the progenitor of this thread.

"What was it Q said in the pilot: savage life forms never follow even their own rules?"​

That brings up a fun point regarding VOYAGER; instead of the multi-season arc of Janeway and Q not gettin' busy and those compelling arguments over whose tattoo is bigger,was brought up would have been a ton more compelling for VOY to explore, especially with the unique twist of being stuck in the middle of nowhere - nigh on literally - and having to bend rules.

Even more, what with fans rightly pointing out how many more times Janeway flip-flops on the same rule... I'd have to look up all the issues and episodes, then see if the context is identical or close enough.

But what say you, would VOY have been better off using Q seriously, instead of the comedy and artificial "civil war" using allusion to wild west 1800s gas stations and such?

 

[Finn]

No. Three episodes is enough.

 

[StarMan]

Out of all of Q's appearances, the episodes that leant harder than normal into the comedy kinda sucked - Deja Q, QPid, Q and the Grey and Q2. Out of all of them, the only one that hit the mark was Deja Q. The others were so-so to downright bad.

The issue with Q is, how many times do you want to see a character turn up that could end the show with a snap of a finger? I would think Voyager's crew would become far less tolerant than Picard and co. of Mr. Lesson for Humanity each time he popped in for a bit of mischief, knowing he could put them in orbit of Earth with the snap of a finger.

 

[gweeps]

Hate to say it, but I agree. Q should've only showed up in Voyager the one time with 'Death Wish'. It actually evolved the Q idea a bit, then fell flat by, of course, making him/them more "human" or relatable. Even his one appearance in DS9 showed the potential for chaos a nigh-omnipotent entity wandering the galaxy and bored could cause. And of course so did some of the TNG episodes.

 

[at Quark's]

No. Three episodes is enough.

I think Deathwish was great, the Q and the Grey was OK-ish, and Q2 was a pile of garbage. With that in mind, I'm glad there were no more episodes.

 

[DonIago]

I'd be happy to see the latter two swapped out for stories that more seriously explored the issues raised in "Deathwish".

 

[Faster Than Light]

What if Q was actually the secret protector of Voyager ?
After all, they have finally managed to return home, against all possibilities.

 

[Anwar]

Frankly, to fix the problems with VOY's premise they should've had a Godlike being secretly controlling things the entire series. Like, the entire reason they were sent out there to start with.

 

[Lynx]

See
Bigger, Badder, Balder: Revisiting Star Trek: The Next Generation | Page 6 | The Trek BBS

As the progenitor of this thread.

"What was it Q said in the pilot: savage life forms never follow even their own rules?"​

That brings up a fun point regarding VOYAGER; instead of the multi-season arc of Janeway and Q not gettin' busy and those compelling arguments over whose tattoo is bigger,was brought up would have been a ton more compelling for VOY to explore, especially with the unique twist of being stuck in the middle of nowhere - nigh on literally - and having to bend rules.

Even more, what with fans rightly pointing out how many more times Janeway flip-flops on the same rule... I'd have to look up all the issues and episodes, then see if the context is identical or close enough.

But what say you, would VOY have been better off using Q seriously, instead of the comedy and artificial "civil war" using allusion to wild west 1800s gas stations and such?

You do have some points here.

Q could have been used more and better.

I would rather have seen an end episode with Q bringing the m back to Earth than the sad patchwork we had in Endgame when they didn't even come back to Earth.