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Dispatch Ajax! Podcast
Memory Gamma: Q
Q stands among the most captivating figures in the Star Trek universe - a being of seemingly limitless power who appears as both antagonist and catalyst throughout pivotal moments in Federation history. But what if everything we thought we knew about Q's motivations was incomplete?
In this special bonus episode of my old show, Memory Gamma, I talk about the enigmatic Q and his place in the Star Trek mythos.
Welcome to the Memory Library Subspace Network Input inquiry. Now Q is an extra-dimensional being of unknown origin who possesses the power to manipulate time and space, life and death, and reality itself. The name Q applies to the names of the individual's entities, and also applies to the name of their race and to the Q continuum itself. The true nature of the realm is unknown. Activating holographic interface.
Speaker 2:In his Latin epic poem, the Aeneid, virgil tells the tale of Aeneas, a Trojan who ventured to what would one day become Italy and became the ancestor of what would one day become Romans. His path was rocky, being pulled back and forth by the machinations of meddling gods. The gods' interpreter said Aeneas sent by Jove himself. I swear it by your head and mine has brought commands down through the racing winds. I sail for Italy, not of my own free will. Such was the lament of the crew of the USS Enterprise as they stood in awe before the massive cube. They had been flung far into uncharted space by a power far greater than their own, a being with an agenda just as baffling and mysterious as his abilities. Commander Riker turned to Q, who was mockingly dressed as a Starfleet captain. Why? Why, he replied. Why, to give you a taste of your future, a preview of things to come. The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. Now it's time to see if you can dance.
Speaker 2:Earth may be a paradise today, but crime does still exist in the universe, some mundane, some on a galactic scale. This is a journal of the most memorable, most important crimes in the Milky Way galaxy and the complex beings who commit them. Cultures across the galaxy are peppered with myths about meddling deities and their interventions into the events of everyday lives. From the concept of the monotheistic divine intervention to the polytheistic gods steering individuals in a direction that benefits their own motives, these stories are as common as hydrogen. Nothing embodies this more, however, than the idea of the trickster god. Not that all tricksters are the same, mind you, but they do all serve a vaguely similar function. The trickster often uses wit, secret knowledge or special powers to break the rules of the physical and the societal. Tricksters violate the status quo, disrupting normal life and turning it on its head. They can do this for good, for evil or simply for chaos.
Speaker 2:In Earth's West African traditions, the spider god Anansi often used his cunning and guile to turn the tables on a powerful oppressor. As the slave trade funneled peoples of African descent into foreign lands where they were oppressed by cruel authority figures, anansi's name spread. He became a powerful symbol of hope to slaves in the Caribbean nations and the southern United States. A powerful symbol of hope to slaves in the Caribbean nations and the southern United States. The Greek god Hermes is seen as a herald of change Whenever he appears. The status quo is about to be toppled.
Speaker 2:In Norse mythology, loki sometimes embodies the negative or selfish characteristics of the human nature that leads to the ills of society. The troublemaking god is constantly in search of a way to undermine cultural authority figures. His allegiance shifts between the gods enthroned on Asgard and their mortal enemies, the Frost Giants of Jotunheim, so frequently that no one ever really knows which side he belongs to, but probably his own. Some tricksters simply use their abilities to survive, topple or humiliate stronger foes. In Indonesian and Malayan culture, a tiny mouse, deer, kansel, outsmarts large predatory animals. Usually, kansel is cornered by a tiger or a hunter's trap and has to use his imagination and his wit to talk his way out of certain death. Sometimes this can be achieved through physical means, the trickster using speed or size to his advantage, such as the American folk legend of Woodrow Woodpecker.
Speaker 2:All of these varying incarnations mean that a trickster god's motivations can be confusing, hidden or simply hard to pin down. So where does Q fall in this spectrum? Is it even fair to call him a god, I mean even a small G1? Well, on the planet Brax he was known as the god of lies, so someone out there thinks of him that way. I'm not really sure. Just go ask the Bajorans. Well, through the analysis of Q's antics, we can try and extrapolate their motives and perhaps just how honest they are about themselves. Now, about his abilities. What is it that makes witnesses say Q is so very powerful? Well, unlike con artists like Ardra, who simulated magic-like abilities with contemporary basic technology, q seems to have innate gifts nearly indistinguishable from magic Instant teleportation of seemingly infinite distance, time travel, conjuring people, places, objects, events out of thin air, healing the sick or injured to the extent that he could actually resurrect the dead, shapeshifting and basically, a complete mastery over the fundamental laws of physics, at least the classic perceivable four dimensions that is.
Speaker 2:Q often cites a continuum where the rest of the Q reside, assumingly, in a higher dimensional realm than current physics can define. Since he never claims subspace as home, remember, subspace is actually hyperspace by virtue of being a series of higher dimensions and is manipulated by modern technology, it's doubtful that the continuum exists anywhere near it. It has been claimed, though, that, while exclusively in their own realm, they have no extraordinary abilities, that they're just like humanoids. Well, I assume that to mean within context. I mean it's doubtful that their ability to manipulate lower spatial dimensions would just go away or that they exist like fourth-dimensional beings all of the sudden. This more likely means that they simply don't have the ability to manipulate their own dimension or higher ones the way they can lower dimensions, which is pretty obvious if you think about it. I mean, I could easily impress the pants off of a two-dimensional being just by putting on pants, but that doesn't mean I can willingly time travel or enter subspace just by saying make it so.
Speaker 2:While Q's power seems limitless and their base of knowledge is far greater than humanoids, the Q we know best appears to have very simple attitudes and personality traits.
Speaker 2:One wouldn't imagine that a being of such expansive perception would behave so childishly.
Speaker 2:It's like letting a toddler operate his own starship, that is, unless the behaviors Q exhibits are hiding a much larger agenda. Since Q's first interaction with the Enterprise crew in 2364, he's been viewed as a nuisance, obnoxious, interfering and a pest. Even though he warned the crew that humanity should just abandon their exploration of the galaxy or be destroyed, q accused humanity of being a dangerous, savage child race and put humanity on trial for its worthiness. No, literally. Q recreated a scene from the aftermath of Earth's Third World War a kangaroo court, a stage by one of the crumbling factions as they desperately clung to the dark world they sought to create by waging war in the first place. Picard reluctantly plays along with the melodrama and pleads not guilty to Q's charges, though he admits to the faults of Earth's past, to prove that they had evolved as a species since World War III. Q gives them a test to prove their cleverness and benevolence when the crew later liberated a cosmozoan held captive on Denim IV, a creature forced to pose as an advanced space station called Farpoint.
Speaker 1:Farpoint Station was a starbase built in short time on Dinette IV by the humanoid species, the Bandy, who offered use of the station to Starfleet. In 2364, the crew of the USS Enterprise D investigated this station and found out that it was in fact a space-borne entity enslaved by the Bandy. Following its liberation by the Enterprise, captain Jean-Luc Picard worked with the bandit to schedule the construction of a new Farpoint station.
Speaker 2:Q agrees to defer judgment, though he hints that it will not be the last time they'd be tested. They wouldn't have to wait long, however, as Q popped into their lives once again a few short months later. This time, his test is a ruse in the form of a bizarre game. He tells them that he's spread the word of humanity's progress to the rest of the continuum and that they wish to help them evolve further. Q believes that humanity has the potential to one day evolve beyond the Q, and he wants to understand how Q promises a great future for humankind if they win a brutal game of life and death, but something disastrous if they lose. You would think death fit comfortably into that category, but I guess it's just not as dramatic. Furthermore, the game would be completely rigged, brushing off fairness as a human concept. Picard tries to plead and bargain, with Q offering to resign if Q would just leave humanity alone, but that obviously wasn't as fun.
Speaker 2:Q opted to gift the omnipotent abilities of the Continuum to Commander Riker. You know just as he would do with it at parties. Will showed restraint and renounced his new abilities, citing the corruption of unlimited power. This results in Q losing a wager with Picard, and Q is obligated to stay out of humanity's path forever. This would last less than a year. I guess this proves that omnipotence doesn't quite equal omniscience. Also, it makes one curious how an extradimensional intelligence who can travel through time only perceives time in the same linear fashion humanoids do.
Speaker 2:Hmm, in much of folklore and mythology, depending on the target of its chicanery, the role of the trickster can be to teach a lesson. The only time a trickster figure is ever seen as an ongoing position of power or authority is when the trickery itself is of a teaching nature. This aspect is separate and distinct from using stories of the trickster as a morality teaching tale. In Q's most fateful moments with the Federation, he may have set in motion a deadly series of events, but did he? In 2364, q surprised Captain Picard by expressing his desire to join the Enterprise crew After being cast out of the Q continuum, his exile supposedly sparked by his attempt to evolve, commander Riker. When Picard scoffs at this idea, q argues that they need his interference in their lives since they're not prepared for what awaits them in a dark, dangerous universe. Picard claims that they're ready to confront the unknown, and the ship's bartender, guinan, adds that humans' ability to adapt is their greatest advantage and Q seem to have a very old, very contentious relationship. The resistance infuriates Q and he flings the Enterprise into uncharted space to give them a preview of things to come. This is where the benevolent, curious nature of Starfleet first seemed not only irrelevant but deadly. The Enterprise's attempt at peaceful first contact served only to get the attention of the cold, heartless predators that would wreak havoc on every species it encountered the Borg. After the death of 18 crew members and the Enterprise's attempts to escape the Borg grip, picard once again begs and pleads with Q to save them, admitting out loud that there were things for which the human race simply wasn't up to the task. Q shows mercy and returns the Enterprise to safety, but is unapologetic, telling Picard that if humanity wants to explore the galaxy, which promises a universe of wonders, they must be willing to confront the dangers they never imagined. Guinan began. Since they are aware of your existence, they will be coming. Picard continued After countless deaths and near extinctions caused by the incursions of single Borg cubes over succeeding years.
Speaker 2:One tends to look back to Q to blame for turning Borg attention to the Federation. Q had gone from playful trickster to villain, hated throughout the galaxy for what he had done. However, I offer an alternative. Consider this In a speech at Princeton University in 2064, zephyrm Cochran, inventor of the matter-antimatter warp drive, spoke at the event surrounding his first warp flight. He talked about a group of cybernetic creatures from the future who had intended to enslave the human race. They had tried to prevent the flight but were stopped by a group of humans who had followed them back from the future. At this time, earth was still recovering from the Third World War and reeling from first contact. So most were distracted and shook off these comments as trivial ramblings of a renowned drunk. Ramblings of a renowned drunk.
Speaker 2:But in 2153, a scientific expedition to the Arctic discovered two mysterious cyborgs similar to the ones described by Cochrane. These, of course, were Borg. The dormant drones came to life and began to assimilate everyone in sight, eventually procuring a starship. In an attempt to reach the collective, they were thwarted by one of the pre-Federation Enterprise vessels, the NX-01. A delightful irony, considering the only reason the Borg lay frozen in the ice for so long was a defeat by Captain Picard's Enterprise E Confused. Well, when it comes to any ship named Enterprise, get used to it. See. In 2373, a lone Borg cube made the long journey to Earth. On a bold mission to end the Federation before it began, they sent a small scout vessel into the Earth's atmosphere, creating a temporal vortex, somehow to travel to the year 2063. Their aim To prevent first contact, thus leaving the planet Prime for Borg of that era to conquer. Picard's crew managed to stop the Borg from alerting the 21st century Borg, but the drones that survived the flight and crashed in the Arctic succeeded in their mission before being destroyed by Captain Archer's Enterprise.
Speaker 2:Q would have likely known this, which means that his introduction of the Federation to the Borg wasn't necessarily out of spite. So what was the purpose? Well, the Borg would have taken several decades to get from the Delta Quadrant to Earth, and Starfleet had known about what turned out to be Borg incursions on the far end of the Neutral Zone before this event. We know the Borg had assimilated humans in years before Q's actions. They were already on their way, they already knew we existed, but because the Enterprise had encountered them and fought them due to Q, now we knew who they were and what they were capable of. All that, despite what Q the trickster claimed. It's possible that Q hadn't damned humanity, but instead gave them an opportunity to prepare themselves from being blindsided by a threat they were in no way prepared for. Perhaps Q's actions and annoyances actually hid a larger plan. Perhaps Q served as a guiding hand instead of a meddling trickster. In part two we'll cover Q's actions beyond the Enterprise. We'll try and piece together his true motivations and, yes, trillane.
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