# Star Trek: TNG - Guinan's "powers"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 7, 2006, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717 "2006-08-07T17:25:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Smitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smitty)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/1 "2006-08-07T17:25:04Z")
I know there is nothing in the canon to answer this, but I was wondering if there is anything in the books.
There is an episode where Guinan and Q meet (I forget the episode title). It is obvious that they have met before. Q reacts to seeing her in a way that clearly shows that he considers her to be a threat to him. So here’s the question: If Guinan (or, more generally, Guinan’s race) is powerful enough to be a threat to the **Q** , then how could their race have been all but destroyed by the Borg?
Secondly, just what is this ability that Q saw as so threatening?
And yes, I know it’s just a TV show. I know that the plots sometimes contradict each other. Please spare us all your observations along these lines.
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### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/2 "2006-08-07T17:28:44Z")
Q was mortal in that episode if I recall correctly, so that makes a difference. Also, that particular Q had tormented and killed off almost her whole race.
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### Author:  [@Smitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smitty)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/3 "2006-08-07T17:34:19Z")
No, the episode I’m talking about was not the one where Q was stripped of his powers. And it was the Borg that destroyed almost all her race, not Q.
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### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/4 "2006-08-07T17:46:40Z")
I was almost certain that Guinan had made mention of Q “tormenting” her planet in the episode in which he was stripped of his powers, but I can find no mention of it one way or the other. Hmmm… 😕
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/5 "2006-08-07T17:54:16Z")
IIRC, the people Q had tormented were the ones that came after him later on in that episode. Q never said what made him so nervous about Guinan. But she does have some sort of extra-dimensional ability, otherwise she never would have been able to know that the “Yesterday’s Enterprise” universe was “wrong.” Maybe he just knew that she wouldn’t fall for any of his tricks.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/6 "2006-08-07T17:58:58Z")
Guinan was always up there with Lwaxana Troi for most irritating recurring character for me. Besides, the mysterious black person giving wise and mysterious advice in an inscrutable mysterious way is a such a cliché.
She did make this weird little “demon begone!” gesture at Q when they first met onscreen. What did it mean? Who knows? Her power is at being terribly mysterious.
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### Author:  [@Smitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smitty)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/7 "2006-08-07T17:59:42Z")
I’m reading a ST novel now where it mentions that she has the ability to “know” things without understanding why or how she knows. On the series she often had “hunches” that were inevitably right. But when she met Q (and I think it was the episode where they first encounter the Borg), both of them threw up their hands like they were getting ready to “zap” each other.
And, God help me, the first thing that went though my mind when Guinan did that was, “Until you do right by me, everything you even think about doin’ is gonna fail.”
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### Author:  [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/8 "2006-08-07T18:10:39Z")
I just liked it when she stabbed mortal Q with a fork. Hee! The best bit was, (ALERT! HUGE DORKERY AHEAD!) in the Star Trek Collectible Card Game, the card depicting that was titled “Q Gets the Point.” 😃
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### Author:  [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/9 "2006-08-07T18:17:10Z")
they we’re both up for the title of “Best Recurring Charector”, and Q was afraid to lose.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/10 "2006-08-07T18:28:58Z")
I’m sure it was never said, but I always thought Guinan’s only extra-normal had (1) an ability to sense temporal displacements, (2) extremely slow aging (and ossibly immortality), and (3) immunity to Q’s DIRECT manipulation. (Though obviously he could affect her by tossing the ship she was in 2000 lightyears, so the latter ability isn’t worth much). Otherwise she was just an observant old broad with mordant wit.
Now that I think about it, Q did recoil when she raised her hands at him, so apparently she could do something to directly harm him. She wasn’t especially powerful or durable otherwise,though; she got shot in 19th Century San Francisico with an ordinary pistol and quite badly injured.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/11 "2006-08-07T18:41:15Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#):
>
> Her power is at being terribly mysterious.
That’s it; she’s mysterious?
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### Author:  [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/12 "2006-08-07T18:48:13Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#):
>
> That’s it; she’s mysterious?
_Terribly_ mysterious. And she can slice guns in half with her mind.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/13 "2006-08-07T20:12:19Z")
Every time I see this thread title, I think it says, "[Texas Guinan](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.jazzbabies.com/home/texas.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.jazzbabies.com/home/texas.htm&h=445&w=250&sz=20&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=lbA0VcIFmGn4iM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=71&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Texas-Guinan%2522%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG)’s powers . . . "
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/14 "2006-08-07T21:20:57Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> Every time I see this thread title, I think it says, "[Texas Guinan](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.jazzbabies.com/home/texas.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.jazzbabies.com/home/texas.htm&h=445&w=250&sz=20&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=lbA0VcIFmGn4iM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=71&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Texas-Guinan%2522%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG)’s powers . . . "
I’ve always assumed that’s where her name came from, her being a hostess and all.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/15 "2006-08-07T21:51:25Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#):
>
> She did make this weird little “demon begone!” gesture at Q when they first met onscreen. What did it mean? Who knows?
It is an obscene gesture on Epsilon Eradi IV indicating that the being insulted has a social disease.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/16 "2006-08-07T22:47:24Z")
> [@Skammer](#):
>
> _Terribly_ mysterious. And she can slice guns in half with her mind.
If you only play a recurring character, your character will only recur playfully.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2006, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/17 "2006-08-07T23:52:09Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#):
>
> That’s it; she’s mysterious?
She also said (in Generations, I believe) that they are a race\* of “Listeners,” whatever the frell that’s supposed to have meant.
\*El Aurians
[Guinan’s profile](http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TNG/character/1112466.html)
[A little more info about ST:XI (movie)](http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/19575.html)
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2006, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/18 "2006-08-08T01:57:52Z")
It should be noted that of the three El Aurians we actually get to see as _characters_ in canon Trekiverse, only Guinan can possibly be described as “decent”. The character Martus in DS9’s _Rivals_ is a consummate confidence man, using a mysterious device that he basically corpse-robbed from his cellmate to create a very successful casino to rival Quark’s. Given that he’s wanted in certain systems even prior to the unethical reality-meddling (which eventually endangers the station), he certainly seems like a not-nice guy.
The other El Aurian we get to know besides Guinan is Soran, the villain of _Star Trek: Generations_. His obsession with returning to the Nexus leads him to steal, murder and commit genocide (the only way to get the Nexus to travel to the planetoid he’s on is to explode a neighboring star, destroying the inhabited planet that orbits it).
All in all, 2/3 of the members of Guinan’s species we see are absolutely immoral snakes…
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### Author:  [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2006, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/19 "2006-08-08T02:02:00Z")
> [@jayjay](#):
>
> All in all, 2/3 of the members of Guinan’s species we see are absolutely immoral snakes…
Kinda makes you wonder what Guinan was _really_ after, then. Playing nice for so long…
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2006, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-guinans-powers/367717/20 "2006-08-08T03:33:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I’ve always assumed that’s where her name came from, her being a hostess and all.
A professor I had in undergrad named Dr. Guinan claimed that the character was named after an ancestor of his, a semi-infamous bootlegger during Prohibition. I’ve never known Dr. Guinan to be wrong about anything, but we students did often wonder if his history was quite as colorful as he described it…