this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2024
40 points (97.6% liked)

Star Trek

1220 readers
10 users here now

/c/StarTrek: Your safe harbored Spacedock in these Stellar Seas!

Fire up the inertial dampeners, retract all moorings and clear space dock. It's time to boldy go where no one has gone before!

~ 1. Be Civil. This is a Star Trek community and lets keep that energy. Be kind, respectful and polite to one another.

~ 2. Be Courteous. Please use the spoiler tags for any new Trek content that's been released in the past month. Check this page for lemmy formatting) for any posts. Also please keep spoilers out of the titles!

~ 3. Be Considerate. We're spread out across a lot of different instances but don't forget to follow your instances rules and the instance rules for Lemmy.world.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
Stamets@lemmy.world
GuyFleegman@lemmy.dbzer0.com
negativenull@lemmy.world
The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world
40
Is Q a villain? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago by setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world to c/startrek@lemmy.world
20 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I came across this box set and it's really messing me up for a lot of reasons (it is marked TOS despite having characters from all over the place, and for some mistaken reason Gul Dukat is included) but what I really wanted to talk about was Q's inclusion.

Do people usually consider him a villain?

I suppose he has done a lot of things that would be considered antagonistic, with a big one getting a number of Enterprise crew members killed in the first encounter with the Borg, but that seems, at least from his point of view a tough love moment. In the long term, Q did seem to have the survival of humanity as a goal. His judgment of humans was pompous but not villainous.

top 20 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] hallettj@leminal.space 41 points 2 months ago

In the episode where he wore that outfit he held the Enterprise hostage, froze two crew members, and threatened to wipe out humanity.

[–] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Nah. I think they aimed for antagonist but he was so cool that he became a grey area shit disturber and we are all better for it.

[–] ummthatguy@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Using the term antagonist is the foremost point of order. Did he introduce the Federation to one of its most formidable foes? Yes. Did that interaction result in the deaths of 18 crewmembers? Yes. But for the sake of making aware and preparing Starfleet for the hardships to come, it appears to have been of use. Not about to excuse the means to an end argument, though. Q has insider knowledge of potential outcomes and is known to be a meddlesome force (Quint not withstanding). Do his actions then and later justify his intervention?

[–] thejoker954@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

His actions led to more then the death of 18 crew members.

The borg were off doing their own thing. And only doing sneaky raids occasionally.

Q's meddling led to them getting a hard on for starfleet and as a result caused at least hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Would it have happened eventually - yes, but Starfleet may have been more prepared and been able to prevent some of the deaths/assimilation.

[–] zloubida@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Or maybe without this interaction the Federation would have been taken by surprise and wiped. Maybe Q killed aimlessly just for his own pleasure, or Q saved the Federation, and we will never know.

[–] femtech@midwest.social 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Q could have stopped the Borg as well, so they will always be a villain just like all the other beings of power that do nothing.

[–] zloubida@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Does that make the Federation villains because of the Prime Directive?

[–] femtech@midwest.social 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If they have Omnipotence and know the future, yes. I understand their prime directive but don't agree with it but I wouldn't call them villains. More of a bureaucratic issue to prevent meddling in other civilisations. I think in real life the federation would try to help everyone and get them to join the federation and take some of their resources to fight the Borg and others that are against them.

[–] zloubida@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

To be omnipotent and knowing the future don't make you know better than others to separate good from evil. Is it right to save a civilization if to do that you have to destroy an other?

[–] femtech@midwest.social 1 points 2 months ago

You would have to keep helping so the 1st civilization does not stomp out the 2nd.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Q is omnipotent, or so he claims. He's certainly omnipotent to do things like give the Federation a complete writeup on The Borg a full and realistic simulation of what it is like to go up against them and how they can be countered without killing a single person.

[–] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

The word you're looking for is trickster.

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

The Gorn is less of a villain than Q.

[–] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Who is the guy to the far right? Looks like Hugh the Borg but from the Picard series.

[–] grozzle@lemm.ee 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Lore, from "Descent".

[–] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 months ago

You're right, that does look like Lore. Thanks!

[–] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

It's Lore. He is dressed like in the episode where he has a small Borg following. It's a weird box.

[–] lemmyng@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago

I can't help but feel offended by some of those poses. Q hunching, the Borg queen running, Khan doing whatever he's doing with his left hand...

[–] Donebrach@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Quite literally yes.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Depends on his mood lol