Would Q allow humanity or federation to be dstroyed?

Imagine a scenario where Earth was about to be destroyed and Picard failed to stop it. Let's say the Enterprise, Picard, and the crew were all killed in a failed attempt to stop whatever the threat was. It doesn't matter which scenario, but one of these could be a possibility, just as examples of a hopeless, worst case scenario:

1. In Best of Both Worlds, Riker failed to recapture Picard, and the Borg took over the Earth.

2. Picard and Crew failed to stop the Borg from altering the timeline in First Contact.

3. Shinzon destroyed the Enterprise, sneaked past the USS Galaxy and battle group, made it to Earth, and saturated it with Thalaron radiation.

Or any other scenario where the outcome is the same.

So, given that Q, at least the one we know as Q (John Delancie) has an infatuation with humans in particular, and at least in All Good THings, saved humanity (or more properly, gave Picard the hint that saved humanity), would Q stand by as humanity was snuffed out, or would he intervene?

 

Considering all the realities where the federation was screwed over I don't think he would save the day.

 

OBJECTION! Alternate timelines are immaterial!

I doubt Q would intervene. Q don't seem themselves as shepherds to lower life forms. They only show their faces when they want to amuse themselves. Maybe Q would sort of nudge them in the right direction to stop themselves from being destroyed but they wouldn't directly intervene.

 

No, I doubt he'd stand by and watch humanity get screwed. He might be cryptic and vague with only offering hints to a human on what might save the day, either because that's all the Continuum will allow him to do or perhaps because that amuses him. But he wouldn't just sit by and do nothing.

 

The Q only has a passing interest in Humans, and even that is debatable in that it extends throughout the entire Continuum. There are countless other life-forms and civilizations throughout the Universe that are just as interesting, if not more.

And given the Q's power, Humans might as well be a colony of ants on the side of the road that might be fascinating for some of them to observe (or even poke with a stick) for a little while, but not really more than that, IMO.

 

I don't think the Q species really gives two sh!ts about the human race.

 

Humans make great pets.

 

The Q are billions of years old. They must have seen millions of civilizations and species go extinct in that span of time. Q would see all corporeal intelligences as ephemeral; they all die out sooner or later. It wouldn't make much difference to him whether humanity died out now or a million years from now -- that would be to his lifespan like a few days out of a human's lifespan.

On the other hand, Q might care whether humanity lasts long enough to evolve to a higher, more enduring state similar to the Q themselves, and wouldn't want to see us wiped out before we reached that stage.

 

It always seemed to me that "our" Q was probably breaking some sort of Continuum rule when he messed with Picard all of those times. I'd bet that the official Q policy is similar to the Prime Directive, do not interfere with the natural development of a species until/unless they achieve some level of Q-type abilities.

 

I'd like to think that while the Q as a whole wouldn't do anything, "our" Q would tip off someone like Picard or Janeway, the way he gave Picard a preview of the Borg.

 

This is going to sound pedantic, but I'd just like to point out that destroying the Earth isn't at all the same as destroying humanity, at least in the 24th century. Even destroying the Federation doesn't necessarily equate to that-- depending on how you mean destroying the Federation. Humanity is pretty widespread.

I only point this out because if we're postulating something in Trek that could actually destroy humanity, the possibilities are a bit more limited. Say perhaps a Q-level being that deliberately seeks out human planets to destroy. Q might very well react differently to that sort of thing than he would to the Borg or Shinzon.

Now, if all we're really talking about is a threat to the Earth, or to the structure of the Federation, then I agree that Q wouldn't bother, or at most he'd just drop hints.

 

We saw 31st century Earth destroyed and the Federation erased from history in ENT: "Shockwave" part 2. Where was Q then?

 

I don't understand what Q's objection was to the human race, specifically. In Encounter at Farpoint, Q's specific target for ire is humanity. From what I've seen in all of Star Trek, Humans are no different than any other species in the galaxy when it comes to morals, goals, ambitions, desires, manifest destiny, etc...

 

I think Q would help the future humans. Doesn't Q owe Janeway one for saving the continuum? They may be a bit warped but Q has ethics.

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The original intent evident in "Farpoint" is that humanity/Starfleet was just now impinging on the Q's territory as they expanded farther into space. That idea was later abandoned as subsequent episodes amped up the Q's power to godlike, universe-spanning levels.

The idea that I believe emerged in later episodes starting with "Hide and Q," and which I hinted at in my novel The Buried Age, is that the Q were testing us because they recognized that we had the potential to evolve to their level.

 

The Q continuum definitely are interested in humans, otherwise they wouldn't they wouldn't have made first contact with humanity in "Farpoint". They choose Q (De Lancie) to be their representative, who turned out to be pretty poor at his duty since he began to feel for the mortals after all his experiences with them. I see their interest in humans continuing as long as they are watching. Maybe they think studying us will allow them to learn more about themselves?

It's the other races they don't seem to give a damn about.

However, I don't see them appearing out of no where to save the day. That's never been their style with perhaps one or two exceptions. They've always caused more problems than they have solved.

 

Q going out of his way to save humanity is akin to us going out of our way to save an anthill that's about to be flooded. Sure we could do it, but why bother? They're just annoying pests.

 

I agree with the people who say he probably wouldn't intervene in a mundane invasion or disaster, certainly not beyond a few hints to his favorites. As Guinan points out in "The Best of Both Worlds", the destruction of Earth does not mean the destruction of humanity. Being scattered around the galaxy might not impact whatever it is that makes Q so interested in us. If the Dowd or whoever tried to wish us into the cornfield, that would be a different thing.