# TNG: Why is the Q Continuum so shiftless? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414 "2013-01-16T20:07:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/21 "2013-01-16T23:54:42Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > The bigger question to me is “Why doesn’t the Federation ever try to _do_ anything about the Q or other godlike-aliens they constantly meet?” > > Take a spaceship full of telepaths (if you want, make them survivors of the Borg attack on Earth and let them know that Q is to blame for it) and feed them those magic apples from the episode with the dwarf, and as they’re becoming super-psychics, whack them into the galactic barrier from “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. Then point them at the Q-Continumn. > > Get the guys from the Captain Pike episode to squash Q like an insect. _TRY_ to do something, rather than act like a craven puppy whenever they’re around. > > (You might guess that I was very happy with the way B5 addressed this issue. 😉 ) I know your scenario is meant as a joke, but if you have soldiers who can defeat a Q, you no longer need to worry about the Q problem. You now have a \*soldier \*problem. ---
**Author:** ![trabajabamos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@trabajabamos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trabajabamos)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/22 "2013-01-17T00:20:05Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > I remember the Vorlons being very powerful but none of the known races could match them. Well that’s what the Vorlons thought until Season 4, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/23 "2013-01-17T00:30:06Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Heck, it was a huge mistake to include Q in _Voyager_ in any form, because you have to start (and can never stop) making up excuses for why he doesn’t snap his fingers and resolve the fundamental drama of the series, i.e. sending them back to Federation space. He did move them closer when Janeway helped him have a child. If he just zapped them back, Janeway wouldn’t have made Admiral and you fellows would have less to complain about. [Kahn] ADMIRAL! Admiral…[/Kahn] ---
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/24 "2013-01-17T00:30:45Z")
They don’t care, for the most part. The episode Death Wish shows that the Q are so impossibly ancient that they’ve seen it all before, possibly thousands of times, and have extracted all the fun they can from being good guy, bad guy, impartial observer, universal gods, planetary protectors, all of it. Watching us squirm or tormenting us or saving us is no more interesting to them than watching an episode of a TV show for the hundred-million-and-tenth time would be for you. Except, that is, Q - our Q. Why? We don’t know. He implies humans are somehow different than species he’s encountered before (Humans Are Special is a common scifi trope - like American exceptionalism applied to our whole race), but otherwise, maybe he’s just slightly retarded for a Q and is more easily amused. Who knows? They’re basically gods. Beyond our comprehension. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/25 "2013-01-17T01:30:25Z")
The Squire of Gothos was an early Q. Every star fleet captain (Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway) has dealt with them. I always thought Q knew there was a reason that Voyager was in the Delta quadrant. Voyager interacted with and helped a lot of alien races they meet. Hurt a few too. 😉 That timeline my have been too important for Q to screw up. Q couldn’t just send them home without breaking that time stream. > **[The Squire of Gothos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Squire_of_Gothos)** > > "The Squire of Gothos" is the 17th episode of the first season of the American science-fiction television series Star Trek. Written by Paul Schneider and directed by Don McDougall, it first aired on January 12, 1967. > In the episode, the childish but powerful ruler of the planet Gothos captures the crew of the Enterprise for his own amusement. > The USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Kirk, is on an 8-day supply mission to Colony Beta VI. Passing through a "star desert", the ship encou... > [@](#): > > The character of “Trelane” is resurrected by author Peter David, in the 1994 Star Trek novel Q-Squared, in which Kirk and company’s unpleasant encounter with the Squire, is revealed to have been an early encounter with the “Q” Continuum. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/26 "2013-01-17T01:35:27Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > That timeline my have been too important for Q to screw up. Q couldn’t just send them home without breaking that time stream. So? Why should a Q care about breaking a few time lines? ---
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/27 "2013-01-17T01:39:33Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > So? Why should a Q care about breaking a few time lines? Why would a god care about sending an ant home at all, much less at the expense of hundreds of billions of other ants? Voyager’s influence positively and negatively impacted the Delta quadrant, and therefore the future of a galaxy, in many ways both tiny and massive. Q knows that if he explained to Janeway that her influence in the Delta quadrant averts a war in a hundred years (because everyone is too afraid of the Federation after meeting her), she’d choose to stay and get home the hard way. So he doesn’t offer. That little course correction he gives her as a gift in the awful Q2 was probably the most he could speed up their journey without making any great waves in the timeline. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/28 "2013-01-17T01:41:39Z")
Well, Q did place humanity on trial in the first episode of TNG. 😉 They weren’t consistent. Sometime we saw scary Judge Q and other times he’s playing Robin Hood. Q was unpredictable. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/29 "2013-01-17T01:43:26Z")
> [@Sevencl](#): > > Why would a god care about sending an ant home at all, much less at the expense of hundreds of billions of other ants? A god would only care about that if they were compassionate. The Q, with rare exceptions, are not compassionate. > [@](#): > > Voyager’s influence positively and negatively impacted the Delta quadrant, and therefore the future of a galaxy, in many ways both tiny and massive. Q knows that if he explained to Janeway that her influence in the Delta quadrant averts a war in a hundred years (because everyone is too afraid of the Federation after meeting her), she’d choose to stay and get home the hard way. So he doesn’t offer. That little course correction he gives her as a gift in the awful Q2 was probably the most he could speed up their journey without making any great waves in the timeline. If compassion and thought for the fate of others stops Q from zapping Voyager home, why doesn’t he just zap Voyager home and then go do all the influencing himself? He has infinite power and infinite time. ---
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/30 "2013-01-17T01:49:08Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > If compassion and thought for the fate of others stops Q from zapping Voyager home, why doesn’t he just zap Voyager home and then go do all the influencing himself? He has infinite power and infinite time. If he did that, what kind of example would he be setting for his son? Also, just popping around giving hologram tech to the hirogen, music to the Qomar, the concepts of working together and unity to those aliens from the Void episode, isn’t the same as having it introduced to them how Voyager did it. Sure, Q could just pop a spare Voyager into existence and have clones act out their counterparts’ roles in those events, but then what’s the difference between that and letting it play out naturally? EDIT: and then how would Voyager bring all those lessons and knowledge home to share with the Alpha quadrant? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/31 "2013-01-17T01:56:32Z")
This is probably cheating, but I’m going to mesh “The Matrix” universe in to this discussion. In the Matrix, that evil robot guy (or whatever the hell he was) told Nero that they originally tried to create a program wherein life was awesome for everyone. He then went on to explain (with some disgust) that the program failed because people simply couldn’t accept that things could be awesome all the time. So they had to revamp the program and pepper life with crappy events to make it more ‘believable’ to the humans. Maybe there is something to that. Maybe we need both bad and good to truly appreciate the good. [shrugs] I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/32 "2013-01-17T02:07:25Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > This is probably cheating, but I’m going to mesh “The Matrix” universe in to this discussion. Yes, yes it is cheating. Shame on you! > [@](#): > > In the Matrix, that evil robot guy (or whatever the hell he was) told Nero that they originally tried to create a program wherein life was awesome for everyone. He then went on to explain (with some disgust) that the program failed because people simply couldn’t accept that things could be awesome all the time. > > So they had to revamp the program and pepper life with crappy events to make it more ‘believable’ to the humans. Two things #1 Agent Smith may well have been lying about that #2 The Matrix was a fun film but it falls apart completely when subjected to logical analysis. > [@](#): > > Maybe there is something to that. Maybe we need both bad and good to truly appreciate the good. > > [shrugs] I don’t know. I admit to missing most of the Voyager series, but since when did the Q care about what we want or appreciate? **Sevencl** The Q showed willingness to kill Picard (IIRC “If he says anything other than ‘guilty’ open fire.”) to prevent the entire human race from ever existing (All Good Things) and more. I can’t believe they actually care about what time lines they create or destroy. Additionally, the Borg only became aware of the Federation because of Q. ---
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/33 "2013-01-17T02:08:17Z")
I don’t know if you’re just summarising for ease, but it wasn’t bad things that the humans needed to believe the Matrix, it was choice. ---
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/34 "2013-01-17T02:12:45Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > The Q showed willingness to kill Picard (IIRC “If he says anything other than ‘guilty’ open fire.”) to prevent the entire human race from ever existing (All Good Things) and more. I can’t believe they actually care about what time lines they create or destroy. Additionally, the Borg only became aware of the Federation because of Q. Presumably Q knew Picard would submit, or perhaps he would have protected Picard from the gunfire - he’s shown he’s not completely unreasonable. For example, he threatened Tasha with death if anyone else got a penalty (Hide and Q), but as soon as he was done talking to Riker and co, he teleported up to relieve Tasha. Either way, it was Q who introduced the Borg to the Federation, so he could easily have done it with another ship, and again, it was Q (our Q) who gave Picard the chance to save humanity from the judgement of the other Q in All Good Things…, so he could’ve given Sisko that chance. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/35 "2013-01-17T02:19:28Z")
Keep in mind that the Federation’s own Prime Directive prevents them from helping the anthills either. If a society doesn’t have warp capability, the Federation is not going to use its fancy technology to step in and make those people’s lives any better. The Q Continuum may be following some similar sort of rule. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/36 "2013-01-17T02:25:32Z")
Q probably didn’t interfere because ::shrug:: they were going to wormhole home by season 7 anyway. A few ants died in the year from hell but that built character. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/37 "2013-01-17T02:26:22Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Keep in mind that the Federation’s own Prime Directive prevents them from helping the anthills either. If a society doesn’t have warp capability, the Federation is not going to use its fancy technology to step in and make those people’s lives any better. The Q Continuum may be following some similar sort of rule. So you are saying that Q is the Q Captain Kirk? ---
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/38 "2013-01-17T02:32:06Z")
Also remember Q’s words to Picard in Q Who: “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.” As far as he’s concerned, Voyager’s situation is a consequence of their decision to explore space. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/39 "2013-01-17T02:32:39Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > So you are saying that Q is the Q Captain Kirk? No, I never saw him try to get it on with all the aliens. ---
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414/40 "2013-01-17T02:33:53Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > No, I never saw him try to get it on with all the aliens. Did you miss The Q and the Grey? Lucky bastard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tng-why-is-the-q-continuum-so-shiftless/647414.md?page=3)