Star Trek and History (11 page)

20.
To which Spock replies, “Yes, as I always suspected.”

Alan Kistler

Terminator 2: Judgment Day
's John Connor is afraid of killer robots that look like human beings. In
Doctor Who
, the titular character is afraid of tentacled aliens that pilot personal tanks and believe all “impure” races should be exterminated. But in Gene Roddenberry's universe of
Star Trek
, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the
Enterprise
NCC-1701-D learned to fear a letter of the alphabet.

In every great saga and mythology, there is the trickster. In North America, some tribes have legends of Coyote and his cunning ways.
1
In Ghana, the spider man Anansi often manipulated those around him.
2
Perhaps the most notorious trickster of all comes from Norse mythology: Loki Laufeyson, the Skywalker.
3

A few tricksters have appeared from time to time in the various
Star Trek
programs as well. A very famous example is a being called Trelane. In the original series episode “The Squire of Gothos,” Jim Kirk and his crew fight this strange alien who seems capable of altering matter and energy by force of will, a being who amuses himself by terrorizing and manipulating the crew of the
Enterprise
. At one point, he even puts Captain Kirk on trial. Trelane was defeated but never forgotten. He was one of several aliens that appeared in science fiction claiming to be more civilized than the inferior humans before declaring that they would engage in cosmic-scale bullying, savagery, and genocide. We'll discuss some examples further on.

Many years later a being similar to Trelane appeared in the debut episode of
The Next Generation
, titled “Encounter at Farpoint.” But this cosmic entity claimed no titles or accolades, or even a proper name. Who was he? His answer was as simple as it was uninformative: “We call ourselves the Q. Or thou mayest call me that. It's all the same.”

Played by actor John de Lancie, the trickster known as Q initially seemed quite villainous. With little effort, he ensnares the
Enterprise
and confronts Captain Picard. He tells him that humanity has ventured far enough into the stars and needs to turn back now. In many later adventures, he would repeat the sentiment that the people of Earth were progressing and expanding faster than other, more powerful races ever predicted or wanted.

Many fantasy and science fiction writers have put the human race on trial as a way of commenting on society and history. In the Marvel Comics universe, the powerful Celestials are known for visiting various worlds and mutating the local sentient life-form, usually creating multiple subraces as a result. They would leave for hundreds or thousands of years and then come back to decide whether the sentient life-forms had done a good job with their planet or needed to be exterminated. Evidently, the Celestials' idea of being more evolved means that they're allowed to commit genocide on any race that doesn't meet their standards, not realizing or caring how hypocritical this might appear to others.
4

It brings to mind what the great author Isaac Asimov called the Frankenstein Complex. Asimov used this phrase to describe stories where the moral was that there are some things humanity is not meant to know or explore. Asimov mainly applied this idea to robot stories. Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein
dealt with a protorobot, an artificial being created from dead tissue that a scientist brings to life. In both the original novel, where the creature is intelligent but eventually becomes vengeful, and in the later films that tended to depict the creature as a mindless brute provoked into violence, the lesson seems to be the same: Dr. Frankenstein should have left well enough alone. Asimov very much disagreed with this moral, which is why he created his now-famous positronic brain and the Three Laws of Robotics, which were later mentioned on-screen in “Datalore” (
TNG
) as a major influence on the creation of the android character Data.
5

Initially, Q seems to be operating as an advocate of the Frankenstein Complex's moral, saying humanity has overreached. He is then (at least partially) amused by the
Enterprise
crew and by Picard's assertion that humanity has indeed matured enough to journey to the stars. This amusement separates him from the classic idea of a cosmic, omnipotent being who judges the human race from on high while untouched by emotion or mercy. His personality is shown even more clearly when we see how he enjoys how much his vast powers of illusion and reality manipulation unnerve Picard and his crew.

Seemingly on a whim, Q transports Picard and a few officers into a courtroom plucked from a dark era of Earth's past, with himself as the judge. This may seem like Trelane's old mode of operation, and several creators involved with
Star Trek
, including de Lancie himself, have considered that the self-proclaimed “Squire of Gothos” was indeed a member of the Q Continuum as well. But while Trelane is a dangerous nuisance, Q plays for much higher stakes. The
Enterprise
crew acts as representatives for the Federation of United Planets, which means that not only is humanity on trial but so are many allied races, such as the Vulcans. Should these young explorer races be allowed to continue their expansion, or should they be caged, even destroyed for their arrogance? As Q says to Picard in “Encounter at Farpoint”:

Q:
You will now answer to the charge of being a grievously savage race!

Picard:
Grievously savage could mean anything. I will answer only specific charges.

Q:
Are you certain you want a full disclosure of human ugliness? So be it, fool.

He is a biased judge and has no problem putting the entire Federation on trial while using only evidence taken from human history. Yet Q is not just another cosmic villain. When Kirk's crew encounters powerful aliens who wish to have humanity bow down to their wishes, they simply throw their weight around and use force with reckless abandon. But during the trial, Q actually offers Picard and his people a chance to prove their merit, suggesting that their mission to the Farpoint Station will provide a mystery for them and a worthy test. Q makes no effort to hide his feelings that humanity should be cast aside, and he even suggests that the trial itself is proof of humanity's guilt, since “bringing the innocent to trial would be unfair.” Yet he still listens, in spite of recognizing (or because he recognizes) his own bias.

This outcome is clearly not your typical cosmic bully who enjoys batting down a weaker, younger race. For all his bluster, Q seems to operate by some form of rules and morality. He taunts the
Enterprise
crew by telling them that they are inferior, and yet he continually offers clues that help Picard arrive at the truth of the situation behind Farpoint, leading the
Enterprise
crew to pass the test. Q seems dissatisfied with this outcome, but it seems very unlikely he actually wants Picard to fail. Why offer him clues? Why even let him know to expect something strange and significant at Farpoint? Many scientists have talked about how observing a test can affect its outcome. Q not only observes; he prods and tells the
Enterprise
crew specifically, “this is a test,” rather than watching from afar to see how Picard will react if he is not aware he is under surveillance or that there is more to his current situation than meets the eye.

For that matter, how likely is it that Q just happened to realize at the last moment that the
Enterprise
's first mission would, by sheer coincidence, serve as an excellent test? Could Q have manipulated things even earlier, making sure that the new crew would go to, of all places, Farpoint Station for its very first adventure?

With all this in mind, Q is clearly more trickster than villain, yet not in the classic sense. Anansi tricked others for the sake of amusement or for his own benefit. These motives don't apply to Q, however. He is already more powerful than any member of the Federation, so he doesn't need or covet anything they have. By sheer force of will, he can transport himself anywhere in time and space, so dominion and territory are not really things he worries about. While Picard and his crew amuse Q, this obviously is not a goal in itself or he would have stayed even after the mystery of Farpoint had been solved, coming up with a new challenge immediately.

Several times, Q refers to the fact that he is not acting alone and has the support of the other Qs who exist in the Continuum. Unlike Trelane and many tricksters of myth, he's not just a rogue indulging in a power fantasy until he's discovered. This might actually be his job.

In his next appearance (
TNG
, “Hide and Q”), Q seems intent on forcing some of the
Enterprise
officers into a new game of life and death. This turns out to be a ruse; his real purpose is to give his abilities to Picard's first officer, William T. Riker. Q's reasons for this are not entirely clear. He says the Continuum needs a new member of their race to have a human perspective and passions and that they need new blood to keep from becoming stagnant. But he also seems to enjoy the challenge of testing whether or not Riker is willing to leave behind his humanity for the sake of near-ultimate power. Whatever his reasons, this is as much a test for Q, and when Riker gives back the power, our cosmic trickster is seemingly whisked away by his own people so that he can be punished.

Q doesn't appear again until the second season of
Next Generation.
In the episode “Q Who,” he once again proves to be someone who moves in mysterious and circuitous ways. Initially, he claims that he's been kicked out of the Continuum for his earlier failure to recruit Riker. Now apparently homeless, he asks to join Picard's crew, while at the same time mocking the limitations of the Federation starship and insisting that they desperately need a being of his power and experience: “You judge yourselves against the pitiful adversaries you've encountered so far. The Romulans, the Klingons. . . . They're nothing compared to what's waiting” (
TNG
, “Q Who”).

As would be expected, Picard doesn't respond well to Q's customary arrogance, so he tells him off, saying humans can take on any challenge. Q has a temper tantrum (or does he?) and responds to Picard's remark by transporting the ship to a faraway region of space, directly in the path of a new enemy: the Borg.

As the ship comes under attack from this previously unknown menace, Q appears quite cool and sinister as he explains, “[The Borg are] unlike anything your Federation has ever faced.” In this, Q is being completely honest. The Borg seem impervious to all Federation strategies and weapons and are deaf to any negotiation or discussion. At the end of the adventure, with several crewmembers already dead and the ship now facing inevitable destruction, Picard admits to Q that he needs help and can't save the ship alone.

Instantly, the
Enterprise
is returned to where it came from, but Q doesn't boast or gloat. Instead, he takes on a very reserved manner, like a teacher who is proud of a student, commending Picard for putting aside personal feelings and asking for help from an enemy, admitting his limitations in the process. Perhaps he decided to test the
Enterprise
in this way so he could win back favor with the Continuum. Or perhaps he lied from the beginning and hadn't been kicked out of the Continuum at all, but instead had been sent to test Picard's pride:

Picard:
I understand what you've done here, Q, but I think the lesson could've been learned without the loss of eighteen members of my crew.

Q:
If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires, both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid.

Either way, this episode was perhaps the strongest evidence of Q's manipulative ways due to the debate that it inspired among fans. On one hand, Q's actions led to a direct confrontation between the Borg and the Federation much earlier than it might have happened otherwise. By acting as he did, Q caused the deaths of more than a dozen people and gave the Borg direct information about the
Enterprise
and its capabilities. On the other hand, the Borg had been making shadow strikes against the Federation and the Romulan Empire for many months already, as Lt. Data confirms.

In
Voyager
's “Dark Frontier,” it is also revealed that some people in the Federation had heard rumors of the Borg's existence several years before Q ever met Picard, indicating that the evil race had perhaps been watching humanity and its allies for some time, just on the outskirts, and simply hadn't gotten around to attacking them yet. With all of this, it seems almost certain that the Borg already had a great deal of information on how Federation starships worked. Encountering the
Enterprise
didn't give them anything new beyond the realization that the Federation knew of their existence. By forcing Picard into this encounter, Q allowed the Federation to learn the truth behind these attacks and about the Borg months, possibly years, before they might have found out on their own. As a result, the information Picard learned from this encounter proved to be essential to the Federation in fighting off a full-scale Borg assault later on.

Was Q really just testing Picard's pride and only accidentally brought about a good result? Or was this all his twisted way of helping the Federation so it wouldn't be wiped out in a few years?

With the Farpoint Station story in mind, imagine that Q might see himself as a drill sergeant for humanity rather than as a fatherly mentor. Such an instructor often uses taunts and reverse psychology to force trainees into overcoming challenges on their own, rather than offering aid. Q goads Picard to follow one path because it seems obvious or easiest, so Picard chooses a different path. In “Q Who,” things are very different. As soon as the
Enterprise
encounters the Borg, everything Q says is true. He says it in a playful and condescending way, mocking the danger that Picard's crew is in. That doesn't change the fact that he's telling the truth. The Borg aren't like anything they have faced before, and, just as Q warns, they can't be reasoned or bargained with. The galaxy definitely is a dangerous place where strange alliances will have to be made in order to survive, and no one race or organization can afford to stand on its own.