Why didn't Q bring back to life the 18 crew people killed by the borg

[JesterFace]

Perhaps some crew members are just illusions made by Q for the trial of humanity?
Illusions that had been around for a long time, had built a career in Starfleet and so on.

 

[at Quark's]

But when Picard finds himself in the future in All Good Things, he has a memory of all those intervening years, like his marriage to Beverly, Geordi's romance novels, the Klingon conquest of Romania, or that Worf used to be an ambassador, etc.

I've often wondered about that. In the first moments after one of his transitions his consciousness still seems to be that of the "present" (but disoriented) Picard and only after those first moments does the awareness of the new time frame seem to seep in... not only with memories and such, but also with attitudes .... the Picard of the future seems more irascible for example. Understandably so in the circumstances he is in (everyone thinks he is hallucinating) but it also seems his character is (slightly) changed as if he has been that old man for years.

 

[Prax]

Maybe it's like waking up from a vivid dream suddenly realizing you're back in reality, and all your memories return.

Maybe Picard's whole life exists in a little box on Q's table, and Q visits from time to time to "guide" him.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

And in Tapestry, Q says "Your dead," and "Oh... This is as real as your so called existence gets."

I figured Q was messing with Picard. Was it ever established in that episode that he actually died on the table, beyond Q's word on the matter?

 

[thribs]

He didn’t kill them. Why would he?

 

[Mojochi]

Because to him the loss of their lives is equal in value to a bloody nose

 

[Therin of Andor]

Were they killed outright or eventually Borgified?

According to one novel, an Andorian civilian was the father of Thala in the novel "The Eyes of the Beholders".
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Thev

 

[Mojochi]

Were they killed outright or eventually Borgified?

IIRC killed when the ship was cut into

 

[thribs]

Were they killed outright or eventually Borgified?

According to one novel, an Andorian civilian was the father of Thala in the novel "The Eyes of the Beholders".
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Thev

You meet one who was assimilated and engaged to Hugh in a novel that came out just before destiny.

 

[Prax]

That's a good point, they were assimyilated..

The Borg took a sample of the hull and a sample of the species. Those 18 may get to live forever as drones. It's just like when Annorax first sees Voyager, he says "take samples, two lifeforms, 10 square meters of the hull."

 

[Maurice]

Nah, this was the original Borg concept where they just saw the ship and something they could consume. They sliced out a chunk of layer cake to have a taste, likely killing everyone in that section.

 

[lazarus+]

Nah, this was the original Borg concept where they just saw the ship and something they could consume. They sliced out a chunk of layer cake to have a taste, likely killing everyone in that section.

I agree.

It is unclear to me what precaution would be in place to keep those people alive. Emergency forcefields somehow still functioning despite the section being gouged out with no reference to bulkheads? Unlikely. Tractor beam keeping the atmosphere in sufficiently to breathe? Unlikely. Some may have been in a pressurized section that didn't instantly lose integrity, that is true.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Nah, this was the original Borg concept where they just saw the ship and something they could consume. They sliced out a chunk of layer cake to have a taste, likely killing everyone in that section.

'Cos, until Locutus, Starfleet had no idea what the Borg could do, (bar Seven's parents.) So they assumed the 18 were dead.

 

[Timo]

I figured Q was messing with Picard. Was it ever established in that episode that he actually died on the table, beyond Q's word on the matter?

Crusher never declares Picard dead that we would hear; Riker afterwards speaks of the ordeal as common to those "near death".

However, this need not be particularly relevant, because it doesn't take Q to reverse death. Crusher can do that all on her own, and indeed there are many cases where she attempts the very thing, although few where there would be any dramatic point in showing a successful resurrection, or marketing it as such. If people get saved, they get saved. If they die... They die.

Death in Starfleet is apparently considered part of life, so much in fact that a procedure to reverse death is so rare and special that it warrants being called "code white resuscitation". That is, Starfleet can resuscitate the officially brain-dead (for up to two minutes after said death as of the 2370s state of the art), but as a default will not unless specifically being told "code white".

IIRC killed when the ship was cut into

But again it doesn't take Q to reverse those deaths. Whether the Borg would bother is an interesting question, and somewhat separate from the "But the heroes/writers didn't know about assimilations or 73-hour resurrections yet!" one.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Finn]

...the Klingon conquest of Romania...

I suppose one hasn’t experienced Dracula until one has read it in original Klingon

 

[Silvercrest]

Ol' Drac would love the Klingons. All they'd have to do is offer him some blood wine.

 

[Kor]

Romania?

Kor

 

[Maurice]

'Cos, until Locutus, Starfleet had no idea what the Borg could do, (bar Seven's parents.) So they assumed the 18 were dead.

Cos the later writers changed the Borg and that has no bearing on what was done in Q Who except to fans who want to make it all fit.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Remember in Hide and Q, Q didn’t reverse those deaths. Riker did. And it was clear in QPid anyone who died would remain dead.

Q likes his games to have real consequences.

What really happened in Tapestry isn’t clear. Was it ever real? Was Q lying that Picard was dead? Did Q decide to prevent his death after the lesson was taught? It’s left deliberately unanswered.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Cause he doesn't care.

I don't agree. Q, in his own way, actually does care.

As has been pointed out, Q did this to teach Picard and crew a lesson. If Q resurrects the people who died, then that lesson means nothing. Q wants the crew to know that their actions have consequences, their missions have risks, and none of that means anything if Q can simply reverse everything whenever he's asked to do so.

It's like asking why Q didn't resurrect Robert and René after their deaths in Generations. I don't think Q actually wants Picard to suffer, but at the same time, Q doesn't want Picard to depend on Q bringing back everyone in his life who happens to die (for whatever reason). The sad fact is, life has risks. People die. And the survivors hurt. But this hurt is an important part of us, it can't just be taken away with the wave of a magic wand.

Remember Kirk in ST V - "I don't want my pain taken away. I NEED my pain." Same story here. I honestly think that if Q had resurrected those crew who died in "Q Who" (or Robert and René in GEN), it would have caused more damage than simply letting events play out as we saw them.