Why didn't Q appear in any of the TNG films? I think an adventure with Q would have made for a better final story for the TNG crew then Nemesis did.
Why didn't Q appear in any of the TNG films?
- Thread starter The Overlord
- Start date
I don't think so, both TNG's pilot and finale already centered around him.
Automatically?
No. A well-written story featuring Q would have made a better film, but a badly-written piece of junk featuring him would be no better simply because it included him.
That said, you would struggle to see a better send off between Q and the TNG crew than All Good Things.
Of course well written, I know that simply having Q in a movie wouldn't have a bad movie good, but I do think a Q story would have more original then Nemesis, which was nothing more a poor man's TWOK.
Easy. You don't write a major motion picture script hoping you can coerce your anticipated main guest star to participate. Since TNG fans would only accept one actor as Q, John de Lancie's agent would have Paramount over a barrel as regards salary.
Paramount: "We want you in the next movie."
Agent: "We need to see the script."
Paramount: "It's not written yet."
Agent: "Get back to us when you have a script."
(Major expense needed, for no guarantees.)
Then...
Agent: "We hate it. John's passing."
Or...
Agent: "Yes, it'll do. Our price is extremely high, you know."
Or...
Agent: "Yes, it'll do. We are very busy, though. Call us in maybe a year or two."
Harve Bennett didn't have this problem with ST II because that script wasn't written in the hope that Ricardo Montalban was available or interested.
Paramount: "We want you in the next movie."
Agent: "We need to see the script."
Paramount: "It's not written yet."
Agent: "Get back to us when you have a script."
(Major expense needed, for no guarantees.)
Then...
Agent: "We hate it. John's passing."
Or...
Agent: "Yes, it'll do. Our price is extremely high, you know."
Or...
Agent: "Yes, it'll do. We are very busy, though. Call us in maybe a year or two."
Harve Bennett didn't have this problem with ST II because that script wasn't written in the hope that Ricardo Montalban was available or interested.
To be honest I felt that Q was most effective when used sparingly. He was an all powerful being, a living deus ex machina if you will, and I think that it's very difficult to write a good story involving such a character. The few episodes he appeared in weren't always the best, as it was.
We should probably be thankful that they never attempted to make a Q movie. The banter between Q and Picard probably would have been exaggerated to annoying proportions. It would have been two hours of Q doing crazy things to Picard and mocking him, while watching Picard try to visibly restrain himself from face-palming. Like a sci-fi Odd Couple movie.
We should probably be thankful that they never attempted to make a Q movie. The banter between Q and Picard probably would have been exaggerated to annoying proportions. It would have been two hours of Q doing crazy things to Picard and mocking him, while watching Picard try to visibly restrain himself from face-palming. Like a sci-fi Odd Couple movie.
That's right. They'd do with Q what they did with Data.
A lot of painful expository scenes, for the general audience who doesn't know better. All the "I am an android, I do not understand humor" stuff.
So Q would appear, and a lot of nonsense to explain to the audience what a Q is, what he can do, what his connection to Picard is, yadda yadda yadda.
Almost not worth it to have in the film at that point.
A lot of painful expository scenes, for the general audience who doesn't know better. All the "I am an android, I do not understand humor" stuff.
So Q would appear, and a lot of nonsense to explain to the audience what a Q is, what he can do, what his connection to Picard is, yadda yadda yadda.
Almost not worth it to have in the film at that point.
Not to mention that the Q/TNG story had come full circle with "All Good Things...", revisiting the Judge Q scenes from "Farpoint".
Besides, Q might've been a difficult character for mainstream audiences to take seriously. "Okay, so there's this goofy magic guy who pops in and snaps his fingers and makes anything happen? What is this, the Great Gazoo? I thought this was a space movie, not I Dream of Jeannie!"
The first Voyager Q episode was really good actually, but the rest were horrible.
It worked for the TNG pilot, didn't it?
All Good Things would have made for an amazing movie, in my opinion.
The TNG movie I would have made would have begun about 2,000 years ago, as Q visits a fellow Q on a hill outside of Jerusalem and says "The Contiuum is very displeased with you, Q...."
It was left open in my view. "The trial never ends" "See you out there"
Yeah, VOY didn't handle him well at all (or DS9 for that matter). Q was a TNG character more than anything because of his chemistry with that crew, particularly Picard.
Or, dump the Nexus and have Q bring Kirk into the TNG timeline.
Mind you, John De Lancie's resume hardly suggests he's incredibly picky...
I am relieved Q never appeared in the films. I am sure I'm alone amongst TNG fandom, but I don't really like his character at all.
Probably this.
I think VGR's "Death Wish" was one of the best Q episodes ever. "The Q and the Grey" was a bit sillier, but still interesting, and DeLancie and Mulgrew (close friends in real life) had fantastic chemistry together. The only VGR Q episode that was genuinely a dud was "Q2."
Too much backstory that would've needed to be explained to the new viewer. And too arbitrary. In GEN, Kirk ended up where he did through his own efforts to save lives. He chose to go to the deflector room rather than taking command, and thus got zapped into the Nexus. He chose to leave the Nexus with Picard rather than indulging his fantasies, and thus ended up in the 24th century. He chose to climb back onto that rickety bridge to get the remote, putting himself back in danger so Picard could stop the launch, and thus he sacrificed his life. It was his own positive acts, his repeated choices to put his self-interest aside and take action for the good of others, that drove his arc through the story, and that's a good way to portray him. Having him just be a passive pawn of some frivolous superbeing's whims would've been a disservice to the character.
Because Q really isn't a villain. Sure, he was cast that way for the first couple of seasons of TNG, but ever since then he'd been more of a comic relief character at best, and a nuisance at worst.
Investing big money on a screenplay with a featured guest role that can only be played by one particular (unsigned) actor is never a good idea, no matter whether he has been picky in the past or not.
Though it wouldn't be the first time they changed an actor for a role.
