Lynch's Spoiler Review: "True Q"
Timothy W. Lynch
this week's TNG offering. Those not wishing a minor dose of omniscience
should probably remain clear.
The TNG staff is now officially forgiven for "Qpid".
It was nice to see Q back the way he *ought* to be done, but I'll get to that
later. First...well, you know what's coming. Yep, another synopsis.
The Enterprise is busy picking up relief supplies for the pollution-stricken
planet of Tagra Four, and also picks up Amanda Rogers, an honor student
interning on board. She is put to work in all departments, but primarily for
Dr. Crusher, with whom she strikes up a fast friendship. However, strange
occurrences seem to center on Amanda very quickly; her pet dogs (which she
didn't bring on board) mysteriously appear and disappear in her quarters, and
a large container nearly falls on Riker before suddenly being deflected (with
no visible cause for either). Finally, things fly completely out of control
when Amanda single-handedly contains and reverses a warp-core breach
explosion.
Questions fly fast and furious at a conference shortly after this incident,
but no answers are forthcoming until Q pays a visit. He confesses that he
was responsible for the warp-core breach and the falling container, but only
to test Amanda's powers -- for, in fact, she is the offspring of two Q, and
probably one herself. He announces that he's come to train her and then
take her back to the Qontinuum, but in the end agrees to let her make the
choice herself in exchange for Picard introducing them. The initial meeting
goes very badly, however, as Q informs his superiors. "However, there is the
possibility we won't have to terminate the girl."
Amanda, reluctantly, decides to allow Q to train her how to use her power.
This training appears to hone her skills, but also strengthens her doubts
about how to use it all. In fact, she even finds that in some circumstances
they do her no good at all; when Q convinces her to speed up a test she's
doing for Beverly, the artificial enhancement renders the results useless.
As the mystery around Amanda's parents deepens (they appear to have been
killed by an extremely unusual tornado), Amanda appears to be embracing Q's
amoral attitude more and more strongly. She joins him in a game of
hide-and-seek while teleporting all around the ship, and briefly abducts
Riker in an attempt to be romantic. This last backfires, however, even when
she forcibly makes him love her. "I thought it would be romantic...but it's
empty."
Picard, meanwhile, speaks to Q of his findings, and asks outright if the
"tornado" that killed Amanda's parents was a tool of execution by the
Qontinuum. Q does not answer, but suggests that it might have been, and
insists that Amanda really has no choice in the matter. If she *is* a Q, he
says, she must return with him; and if not, she is to be killed. When Picard
asks Q what he's concluded, Q responds offhandedly, "I haven't decided yet."
As the Enterprise arrives at Tagra Four to begin its mission (now including
the fixing of a dangerously damaged reactor), Picard decides to inform Amanda
of the situation. She calls Q and demands to know what right the Qontinuum
has to play judge, jury, and executioner, either for her or her parents.
After a brief exchange over morality, he tells her that in fact, she is not
to be harmed. She gets a choice: either return with him to the Qontinuum,
or refuse to ever use her powers. (Her parents, he points out, chose the
latter -- and failed.) She chooses the latter, but after an immediate
emergency on the planet forces her hand, she decides to go with him after
all. After saying goodbye to both Crusher and Picard, she departs.
Well, that should work out. (It's actually rather shorter than usual; suits
me, since it leaves me more room to work with my commentary! :-) ) Now,
onwards:
If this episode is the reason Q didn't appear last season, then I'm all for
longer absences between his appearances. As I said earlier, it's about time
we went back to seeing Q the way he was *meant* to be done; the sardonic,
Machiavellian trickster who doesn't much care who gets in the way of his
aims. I haven't seen this Q since "Q Who", and I have definitely missed him.
("Deja Q" *was* a lot of fun, no argument; but it somehow just wasn't the
same -- and it led to "Qpid", which was awful.)
This Q is the sort of person who, when asked about the warp-core breach, "and
what would have happened if she *hadn't* been able to contain the
explosion?", simply answers "then I would have known she wasn't a Q!" and
give no sign of recognizing that there even *is* another level to the
question. He's also someone who will occasionally take a delight in riling
others; his question to Amanda early on is one of the best examples. "[in
examples of other things she could do] Telekinesis, teleportation, ...
spontaneous combustion of someone you don't like [while gazing witheringly at
Picard], ... *that* sort of thing."
This is a Q I truly enjoy watching.
But enough about him, since he actually wasn't the focus of the show. The
center was clearly Amanda Rogers, and I have to say Olivia d'Abo did a lot
better than I expected her to, given her past work. (Not that I particularly
*disliked* her on "The Wonder Years", mind you; she was just generally
unspectacular much of the time.) Amanda felt real to me, probably because my
wife Lisa is similar to her: bright, well-rounded, and possessed of a large
number of small animals. :-) Her ambivalence about her powers and new
situation was nothing I haven't seen before in countless novels and comics
(omnipotence does seem to be the fashion these days), but was done well
enough that I didn't particularly mind.
Not that I'm entirely surprised, mind you; the show was written by Rene
Echevarria, who's given us good stories centered on guest characters before
("The Offspring" and "I, Borg" being the most-remembered examples). Amanda,
like Lal and Hugh, was decidedly sympathetic without being cloying about it,
and that's precisely what was needed here.
Amanda also acted like a typical teenager in mooning over Riker the way she
did. Some may think it was a little overboard, but I don't think I'd agree;
I don't think I was much subtler when I was a teenager, and given my
students, teenagers of the '90s aren't much better at it. I don't know if it
was the single most necessary plot complication in the world, but it seemed
well placed and well played.
The only real problem I had with the plot was that the planet-oriented bits
seemed *extremely* preachy this week, far more so than we've had lately.
Other than that, things seemed to fit together in a sensible way, Q's
double-dealing was built up slowly (if no big surprise), and the ending
actually *surprised* me. (I'll get to that last bit in a moment.)
A couple of questions leapt to mind, however, only some of which were
answered at the time.
First, I at first thought that two disasters in such a short time was an
amazing coincidence. That one was dealt with nicely by attributing them to
Q; no problem.
Second, I definitely wonder about that tornado. While it made for a very
effective point, it seems odd to me that such a freak event wouldn't have
somehow been a talking point when it happened. (Granted, Picard wasn't on
Earth at the time, but surely *somebody* in the crew was, and might even
remember the incident.) That's nothing particularly troubling, but I'm
curious as to what we were intended to think.
My biggest question, though, was how the Qontinuum's policy here tied in to
Q's attempted shanghaiing of Riker in "Hide and Q". Surely, if the Qontinuum
had the ability to make human/Q hybrids themselves (which clearly they do,
given that had only one of Amanda's parents been a Q, that would be the
case), they would have done so rather than attempt to lure in an
already-hostile crewmember. I imagine the goals must have changed a little
bit from year to year, but I'm slightly confused as to how. (Of course, it
could be that I'm simply too doped-up on cold medication to figure it out
myself. If so, please ignore this paragraph. :-) )
Back to the ending. The biggest reason this surprised me was that in some
ways, Amanda's choice reminded me a little bit of "The First Duty", in that
Amanda was effectively choosing between father-figures here. I believe that
this is the first time that given the option, someone has *rejected* Picard
in such a role; and it surprised me. Now, it could definitely be argued that
she agreed with him in principle but went with Q in practice, and I'd agree
with that argument; but even so, the event surprised me. (Even more
surprising was that not only did Picard play father-figure here, but Bev
played mother-figure, which is a lot rarer. I think they work well together
as parents, personally.)
Lastly, the directing here was, for want of a better word, a lot *crisper*
than I've seen lately. Q reporting to his superiors was, well, done very
fluidly; I got a real sense of things always moving along. That worked well
for me, as did the Q/Picard scene when Picard ferrets out the truth. The
close of that scene, with Q looking generally remorseless, and Picard
underlit in such a way as to look positively *demonic*, jarred me a lot,
which it was meant to. The hide-and-seek game moved along very well and
almost breathlessly, and the departure from Amanda's "romantic interlude"
seemed nicely wistful. All in all, I'm quite impressed here.
Finally, I'm quite curious to see if we'll see Amanda again. It's certainly
hinted that we well might, and if nothing else, the next time we see Q there
had better be a mention of her. Given past track records, I realize I
shouldn't hope that much for following this up, but allow me to play the
optimist. :-)
I don't think I have that much else to say here. I found this one a winner
on basically all counts, and I'm glad to see the Q of old back. A few more
quotes to demonstrate that Q:
"She'll just have to start behaving like a Q."
"If I'm not mistaken, she just did." [*Ouch*. That's a barb that hit home.]
[on the tornado] "If you say so; I wasn't there." [I'm not so sure about
that. Did anyone else get the impression that he might have *been* that
executioner?]
[on the trial for "the crimes of humanity] "The jury's still out on that one,
Picard..."
There, that ought to do it. I'll take my leave of this for now. So, the
numbers:
Plot: 9. Get rid of the preachy planet-related points and you're in.
Plot Handling/Direction: 10. *Very* sharp.
Characterization/Acting: 10. Ditto.
TOTAL: 10. Now this is more like it.
NEXT WEEK:
Picard and several others turn into children during a Ferengi attack. We
shall see...
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET: tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"However, there is the possibility that we won't have to terminate the girl."
--
Copyright 1992, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
ph9991...@rivers.acc.uwrf.edu
I am foregoing my usual Saturday Night Review because I am a) tired, and
b) in almost complete agreement with Tim on this one, so why waste the
bandwidth?
I do, however, want to make one comment on something Tim said...
> My biggest question, though, was how the Qontinuum's policy here tied in to
> Q's attempted shanghaiing of Riker in "Hide and Q". Surely, if the Qontinuum
> had the ability to make human/Q hybrids themselves (which clearly they do,
> given that had only one of Amanda's parents been a Q, that would be the
> case), they would have done so rather than attempt to lure in an
> already-hostile crewmember. I imagine the goals must have changed a little
> bit from year to year, but I'm slightly confused as to how. (Of course, it
> could be that I'm simply too doped-up on cold medication to figure it out
> myself. If so, please ignore this paragraph. :-) )
I perceive the motives behind each "induction" to be completely different.
Amanda's induction is for the reasons described in the episode, but I've
always thought the point of "Hide and Q" was not to bring a human into
the Q continuum, but rather to give him the powers of the Q in the hopes
that he would go out of control and destroy humanity with his own "gifts."
Q underestimated human morality as it applied to Riker's self-discipline
in that case (and also Riker's allegiance to Picard), so that didn't work.
>
> Back to the ending. The biggest reason this surprised me was that in some
> ways, Amanda's choice reminded me a little bit of "The First Duty", in that
> Amanda was effectively choosing between father-figures here. I believe that
> this is the first time that given the option, someone has *rejected* Picard
> in such a role; and it surprised me. Now, it could definitely be argued that
> she agreed with him in principle but went with Q in practice, and I'd agree
> with that argument; but even so, the event surprised me. (Even more
> surprising was that not only did Picard play father-figure here, but Bev
> played mother-figure, which is a lot rarer. I think they work well together
> as parents, personally.)
I wouldn't say I was *surprised*. That implies that I couldn't predict or
guess what the ending would be. As we neared the end, I could see two
possibilities coming out of it, and where the episode succeeded is that
neither I nor it appears you could tell which alternative the episode would
use for the ending.
>
> There, that ought to do it. I'll take my leave of this for now. So, the
> numbers:
>
> Plot: 9. Get rid of the preachy planet-related points and you're in.
> Plot Handling/Direction: 10. *Very* sharp.
> Characterization/Acting: 10. Ditto.
>
> TOTAL: 10. Now this is more like it.
Fully agreed.
>
> NEXT WEEK:
>
> Picard and several others turn into children during a Ferengi attack. We
> shall see...
>
Judging by the one acting clip of the young Picard I saw in the trailer,
I think I might be seeing this one through one half-open eye....
Steve/usedtobeIain
Zuzek, John E.
>WARNING: This post contains heavy doses of spoiler information for "True Q",
>this week's TNG offering.
>If this episode is the reason Q didn't appear last season, then I'm all for
>longer absences between his appearances. As I said earlier, it's about time
>we went back to seeing Q the way he was *meant* to be done; the sardonic,
>Machiavellian trickster who doesn't much care who gets in the way of his
>aims. I haven't seen this Q since "Q Who", and I have definitely missed him.
Absolutely, completely agreed!
>My biggest question, though, was how the Qontinuum's policy here tied in to
>Q's attempted shanghaiing of Riker in "Hide and Q". Surely, if the Qontinuum
>had the ability to make human/Q hybrids themselves (which clearly they do,
>given that had only one of Amanda's parents been a Q, that would be the
>case), they would have done so rather than attempt to lure in an
>already-hostile crewmember. I imagine the goals must have changed a little
>bit from year to year, but I'm slightly confused as to how.
I have another problem with this. Recall that the a while back Q Continuum
had essentially turned our favorite Q into a "mere mortal" as punishment,
if I recall correctly. Does this not mean that the Q have the power to
take away an individual Q's power/immortality? And if that is so, isn't
that an obvious solution to Amanda's problem? Q himself said that we can't
let some omnipotent run amok outside of the Q Continuum. Fine. Then take
Amanda's Q powers away and make her a mortal. Would this not have solved
the problem at hand? Shouldn't this at least have been suggested by
someone such as Picard? Just a few questions, Tim.
>Plot: 9. Get rid of the preachy planet-related points and you're in.
>Plot Handling/Direction: 10. *Very* sharp.
>Characterization/Acting: 10. Ditto.
>
>TOTAL: 10. Now this is more like it.
Although I agree that this was certainly one of the better episodes, it
wasn't a 10 in my book due to the above mentioned problem. So, if I'm
wrong, Tim, please show me the way to correctness.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Zuzek |"The federal government is basically
NASA Lewis Research Center | one enormous, ongoing Meeting From
-----------------------------------| Hell"
caz...@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov | -- Dave Barry
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patrick Rannou
I have another problem with this. Recall that the a while back Q Continuum
had essentially turned our favorite Q into a "mere mortal" as punishment,
if I recall correctly. Does this not mean that the Q have the power to
take away an individual Q's power/immortality? And if that is so, isn't
that an obvious solution to Amanda's problem? Q himself said that we can't
let some omnipotent run amok outside of the Q Continuum. Fine. Then take
Amanda's Q powers away and make her a mortal. Would this not have solved
the problem at hand? Shouldn't this at least have been suggested by
someone such as Picard? Just a few questions, Tim.
Well, i assume the Q don't quite think LIKE humans. If they did then there
would be no point for them to try "understanding us"...
The Qs made Q human to PUNISH him. To Q, this was worse than death. The Qs
know that making Amanda (or her parents) humans instead of killing them
isn't a punishment at all (heck, Amanada would have been happy to be rid of
these powers...).
Simple really.
--
/---------------------------\
| Patrick "Paradak" Rannou. |
| Ran...@info.polymtl.ca |
\---------------------------/