ONGEG Video: Q Who

[Atavarius]

Awesome review Chuck. The albino dominatrix crack nearly floored me. Really interesting to see how the director and de Lancie shaped the dialogue.

Are you going to do a video review of First Contact?

Oh man that would be awesome. Any chance of maybe say an every few months movie special review?

[Samuel]

The borg from this episode and the card game are the best- all others are discontinuity and Federation propaganda.

Which card game?

If you mean the first edition of the Decipher one, I'd agree to an extent.

Yes. They had their stupid weaknesses- and the ability to be awesome with more stacking abilities than you could shake a stick at.

[Swindle1984]

Good review. I loved the albino dominatrixes line.

Interesting to hear you would eventually get around to reviewing Borg episodes like you're reviewing Q episodes. When that happens, are you going to go back and do a second review of Q, Who? with an eye on the Borg rather than Q, or just let the one review suffice?

[Tribble]

Until First Contact/Voyager came around, I always thought that J-25 was supposed to be the edge of Borg space. 7,000 light years is still a long distance to travel in E-D's time (even in a direct line it would have taken the ED over two years at its max sustainable warp to make it back to fed territory). That's a lot of space to explore and without Q's direct intervention the Fed's prob wouldn't have officially encountered the Borg for quite some time. Q's dialogue would make more sense in this context, by stating that the Feds were exploring and expanding faster then they should in this area of space, and that deadly perils awaited them. This would also explain why Borg ships penetrated Fed Space on multiple occasions in TNG without having to explain why the Borg would choose to bypass thousands of useful species, as 7,000 is a lot closer than 70,000.....

What Voyager should have done is encounter Borg space in the last season, when they are finally getting close to home.... just when they think they're safe they run into their final and most dangerous opponents (apart from themselves). Do they turn back after all this time, or try to plunge through Borg territory? U could even have Voyager pass by system J25, as a sort of tribute. That would've made an interesting season.

[DaveJB]

That might well have been the original intention, although I have a hard time believing that they really planned anything with Voyager. Whatever the case the show looked like it might get cancelled after its third season, so they played their "Borg card" early (probably also trying to ride on the waves of First Contact, which had been released in the third season).

[Prometheus Unbound]

Until First Contact/Voyager came around, I always thought that J-25 was supposed to be the edge of Borg space. 7,000 light years is still a long distance to travel in E-D's time (even in a direct line it would have taken the ED over two years at its max sustainable warp to make it back to fed territory). That's a lot of space to explore and without Q's direct intervention the Fed's prob wouldn't have officially encountered the Borg for quite some time. Q's dialogue would make more sense in this context, by stating that the Feds were exploring and expanding faster then they should in this area of space, and that deadly perils awaited them. This would also explain why Borg ships penetrated Fed Space on multiple occasions in TNG without having to explain why the Borg would choose to bypass thousands of useful species, as 7,000 is a lot closer than 70,000.....

What Voyager should have done is encounter Borg space in the last season, when they are finally getting close to home.... just when they think they're safe they run into their final and most dangerous opponents (apart from themselves). Do they turn back after all this time, or try to plunge through Borg territory? U could even have Voyager pass by system J25, as a sort of tribute. That would've made an interesting season.

That would have been more dramatic, but even in the finale, they were, what, 30,000 light years away and were still within Borg Space. At least, they were still within the space that had transwarp hubs and major Borg facilities. Maybe it did extend towards J25?

I read somewhere (Memory Alpha, I think) that the insectoid race that was envisaged as a threat was the species encountered in Conspiracy. The "beacon" they sent was what was meant to have drawn "The Borg", although the concept of the Borg had changed by TBOBW and possibly even by The Neutral Zone.

[Kythnos]

I read somewhere (Memory Alpha, I think) that the insectoid race that was envisaged as a threat was the species encountered in Conspiracy. The "beacon" they sent was what was meant to have drawn "The Borg", although the concept of the Borg had changed by TBOBW and possibly even by The Neutral Zone.

That is cool I have always wondered why ST never did anything with that episode. It also fits with the Idea of the Borgs initial envisioning as an Insectoid race. Thanks for that info.

[CaptJodan]

I really enjoyed this review, and was glad to see a lot of the good picked out in this episode. Really, Chuck deserved a good solid episode after dealing with Threshold. And he was right about the score. I always thought this and BOBW had truly the best, most effective scores for the TNG run.

The first part of this video also reminded me of just how much a parody of awkwardness Geordi was as a character through a lot of the series, especially in the beginning seasons, though this is something generally only me and a friend of mine pick up on. His line about banging into walls had me rolling around for a different reason (his experience banging through doors, which to me is just hilarious). I, for one, hope Chuck gets to tackle the Packled episode some day. Geordi, to me, is the most unintentionally funny characters of TNG, and in that episode, he really shines at it.

[Peptuck]

I love how when Picard orders them to lock onto the "exact source" of the tractor beam and they fire, the phaser beam is quite clearly hitting a good couple hundred meters away from where the beam is originating. They have to fire about four times before they even hit the tractor beam.

EDIT: I agree that the score in this episode is really great. Absolutely sets up the tense atmosphere this episode was supposed to convey.

[Lost Soal]

I love how when Picard orders them to lock onto the "exact source" of the tractor beam and they fire, the phaser beam is quite clearly hitting a good couple hundred meters away from where the beam is originating. They have to fire about four times before they even hit the tractor beam.

It's been established that a tractor beam can throw a phaser beam off target. I think it was in "The Battle" when they use one on the Stargazer

[Bounty]

I love how when Picard orders them to lock onto the "exact source" of the tractor beam and they fire, the phaser beam is quite clearly hitting a good couple hundred meters away from where the beam is originating. They have to fire about four times before they even hit the tractor beam.

It's been established that a tractor beam can throw a phaser beam off target. I think it was in "The Battle" when they use one on the Stargazer

Way of the Warrior, Pt I. A tractor beam can reduce a disruptor beam's targeting accuracy by half; presumably the same holds for phasers.

[Samuel]

Silly question, but does Q ever intervene with any group aside from the federation?

[Kythnos]

Silly question, but does Q ever intervene with any group aside from the federation?

Sure, in the DS9 episode with him Vash mentioned his interaction with several race one even called him "The God of Lies". Sounds like they knew him well. Sorry I don't remember any of the others.

[General Zod]

Silly question, but does Q ever intervene with any group aside from the federation?

Sure, in the DS9 episode with him Vash mentioned his interaction with several race one even called him "The God of Lies". Sounds like they knew him well. Sorry I don't remember any of the others.

There's always the El Aurians as a given, considering he and Guinan knew each other. Then there's the aliens he turned into a cloud of energy that wanted to kill him when he was stripped of his powers.

[Samuel]

Silly question, but does Q ever intervene with any group aside from the federation?

Sure, in the DS9 episode with him Vash mentioned his interaction with several race one even called him "The God of Lies". Sounds like they knew him well. Sorry I don't remember any of the others.

There's always the El Aurians as a given, considering he and Guinan knew each other. Then there's the aliens he turned into a cloud of energy that wanted to kill him when he was stripped of his powers.

I meant similar to the way he interacted with Picard. His actions prepared the Federation for the Dominion War- did anything like that occur to any other group?

[General Zod]

I meant similar to the way he interacted with Picard. His actions prepared the Federation for the Dominion War- did anything like that occur to any other group?

We don't have anything to go by how he interacted with them beyond the occasional throwaway line or flippant remark. So unfortunately we don't have any idea.

[Terralthra]

This one was definitely one of the season 2 standouts and especially for John DeLancie's performance as Q. The whole perception of the character changes with this episode: from troublemaker to teacher, and in this instance handing out a very brutal lesson our Starfleet heroes frankly weren't prepared to learn: "It's not SAFE out there." The real golden moment comes when, in response to Picard's plea for Q to tell him that the deaths of eighteen of his crew is just an illusion, Q simply says, "Oh, no. This is as real as your so-called life gets" and then calmly vanishes.

That vanish is one of my favorite effects in ST as well. Because Q is leaning back in the chair with his feet up, when he vanishes, the chair springs back upright and bobbles a bit. Again, understated, but true attention to detail.