Q explains to Picard that how humans respond to a game tells more about them than a direct confrontation.
Q is a highly powerful entity from a race of beings collectively known as the Q Continuum. Q has appeared to the crews of several Starfleet vessels and outposts during the 2360s and 2370s. He almost always appears in the uniform of a Starfleet captain.
In every appearance he has demonstrated superior capabilities, but also a mind-set that seems quite unlike what Federation scientists expect for such a powerful being. He has been described, in turn, as "obnoxious," "interfering," and a "pest." However, underneath his acerbic attitude, there seems to be a hidden agenda to Q's visits that seem to have the best interests of Humanity at their core — although this opinion cannot be directly proven.
On a planet called Brax, he was referred to as "The God of Lies". (DS9: "Q-Less")
Q claims to possess an IQ of 2005. (TNG: "Deja Q")
Encounters (canon)
The Enterprise-D and DS9
The first known encounter between Q and the Federation occurred in early 2364, when he appeared aboard the USS Enterprise-D with a warning that Humanity should return to their home solar system or be destroyed. When he wasn't immediately heeded, Q accused Humanity of being a "dangerous, savage child-race" and placed the entire species on trial, with Jean-Luc Picard and his command crew as representatives. Picard's quick thinking enabled his officers to survive the trial, and pass a test of racial character set forth by Q at Farpoint Station. Q fall back on his trial simulacrum on numerous occasions over the years. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint", "All Good Things...")
Q returned to tempt and torment the Enterprise crew many times. That same year, Q gave the powers of the Continuum to William Riker, which the commander ultimately rejected. (TNG: "Hide and Q")
In 2365, Q was responsible for the disastrous first contact between the Enterprise and the Borg Collective. During that encounter, he also alluded to a past association with Enterprise bartender Guinan. (TNG: "Q Who?")
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A powerless Q meets Guinan in Ten Forward; not a moment he had been looking forward to.
A year later, Q was made human by the Continuum as punishment for his irresponsibility and left aboard the Enterprise. His presence on the starship attracted the Calamarain, a non-corporeal race that Q tormented in the past. The Calamarain nearly destroyed Lt. Commander Data, who sacrificed himself to save Q. In the aftermath, Q attempted to end his life, but instead another Q restored his powers as a reward for his selfless act. (TNG: "Deja Q")
Q returned to the Enterprise again in 2267, in order to "properly" thank Captain Picard for helping him return to the Continuum. The result was a side-trip to a Robin Hood fantasy involving Vash and the Enterprise command staff. (TNG: "QPid")
Q and Vash visit Deep Space Nine in 2369.
In 2369, Q once again appeared aboard the Enterprise-D, this time to instruct Amanda Rogers, a Human female who was the child of two Q and who possessed Q powers herself. Although Q's attitude did little to endear himself to Amanda, he eventually convinced her to go with him to join the Continuum. (TNG: "True Q")
Although Vash had agreed to travel with Q, she decided to leave him after exploring in the Gamma Quadrant later in 2369. She claimed that she didn't trust him, and that he was as arrogant and obnoxious as she'd been told before. Vash returned to the Alpha Quadrant through the Bajoran wormhole, and Q followed. Q persistently asked Vash to continue traveling with him, and amused himself by provoking the crew of Deep Space 9, resulting in a physical altercation with Commander Benjamin Sisko. Eventually, Q simply tired of these games and left, bidding Vash farewell. (DS9: "Q-Less")
Q appears to Picard as "God" in the afterlife.
Later that same year, Q appeared to Jean-Luc Picard when the latter was critically injured in a Lenarian ambush, claiming to be "God" in a near-death experience. (TNG: "Tapestry")
In 2370, Q returned to the Enterprise to continue the trial against Humanity. Claiming that the seven-year-old trial had never actually ended, Q proclaimed Humanity guilty of "being inferior" and informed Picard that his race was to be destroyed. He sent Picard traveling through time to his past, present, and future, where he was presented with a temporal paradox, in the form of an eruption of anti-time in the Devron system. In this paradox, Picard himself was responsible for the creation of the anomaly, that propagated backwards in normal time (anti-time having the opposite properties of normal time), thus destroying Humanity in the past.
However, in addition to sending Picard jumping through time, Q also provided Picard with hints to understanding the nature of the paradox. Ultimately, Picard determined the solution and devised a way to close the anti-time anomaly in all three time periods. Following the success, Q revealed that the entire experience was a test, aimed at determining whether Humanity was capable of expanding its horizons to understand some of the advanced concepts of the universe. Departing, Q promised to continue watching Humanity, proclaiming that "the trial never ends." (TNG: "All Good Things...")
Voyager
In 2372, Q was sent by the Continuum to board the USS Voyager, whose crew had unintentionally released a renegade Q (known as "Quinn") from confinement in a rogue comet. After another trial, the other Q's powers were removed, allowing him his wish of committing suicide. (VOY: "Death Wish")
In the aftermath of Quinn's death, a Q Civil War broke out, as the forces of the status Quo resisted the calls for change in the Continuum, by a faction led by Q himself. Seeking to end the conflict, Q returned to Voyager in order to produce a child with Captain Kathryn Janeway — a new breed of Q that would be the next step in their evolution and bring an end to the civil war. Janeway refused. After a sojourn to the Continuum, Q then proposed mating with a female Q (his "old girlfriend"), and she agreed. The new child, nicknamed "little q", became the first child born in the Continuum in millennia, and his presence brought an end to the civil war. (VOY: "The Q and the Grey")
Q and his son later returned to Voyager in 2377, when he dropped "Junior" off for "babysitting." (VOY: "Q2")
Encounters in fan fiction
Star Trek: Confederation
Q makes an appearance aboard the HMS Reliant in the Delta Quadrant, the Commander-in-Chief is intrigued by Q, and Q is intrigued on how old the Commander-in-Chief is. (Star Trek Continues "Q")
Star Trek: Swiftfire
Q appeared on the USS Swiftfire-A in mid-2374 while the ship was caught in a temporal causality loop. He mainly appeared to Captain Masters and observed the events. His only interference was to save the captain's life when Masters went to sacrifice himself. (Star Trek: Swiftfire: "Q, Time and Again")
Several months later Q again appeared to Captain Masters. For a second time Q saved the life of Masters when he sacrificed himself to destroy a Vendoth Battlecruiser. (Star Trek: Swiftfire: "The True")
At the end of 2374 Captain Masters was rendered unconscious by the venom of snake like creature while marooned on a uninhadited planet. While in this state Q appeared to Masters and helped him get a sense of closure over the death of an old flame. After recovering Masters believed that Q in this case was just a figment of his imagination. (Star Trek: Swiftfire: "Waiting for the Sun")
Appearances in fan fiction
- Star Trek Continues
- "Q"
- Star Trek: New Frontiers
- "Quality Time"
- Star Trek: Phoenix-X
- Star Trek: Special Operations
- "The Good, the Q, and the Ugly"
- Star Trek: Swiftfire
- "Q, Time and Again"
- "The True"
- "Waiting for the Sun"
Trivia
- Along with Quark, Morn and Evek, he is one of only four characters to appear in all three Star Trek series based in the 24th Century: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.
External links
- Q article at Memory Alpha, the canon Star Trek wiki.
- Q article at Memory Beta, the non-canon Star Trek wiki.