Q: Best Lines

[Qonundrum]

Thanks for this Qonundrum! It's been centuries since I heard that song and it's perfect within the context of this post.

Thanks!

The only cover I can stand listening to is Shocking Blue's version, and one result of that is an unintended comparison that keeps me from listening to that every time Shocking Blue's playlist comes up. So many classics, but nobody can begin to properly do a cover on Grace Slick. Mind you, if Grace Jones had made an attempt I'd be genuinely intrigued...

I guess I'm simply trying to get everyone to like ST: Picard.

STP is different, but so was TNG in 1987. So were the Kirk movies in 1979, 1982, etc.

Even STV got maligned excessively at the time, and more often than not still is.

Never mind the furore over 21st century incarnations and, yeah, they can't be or feel the same for the same reasons TNG (at its peak or otherwise) couldn't mimic TOS (which season 1 does a bit of as well... this becomes another post in of itself as the squirrels just jumped onto the window sill and are now pointing at me and laughing over how many directions I can simultaneously take this.)

IMHO: Different shows have different styles and methods, nobody's going to like them all, and even if everything else is disagreeable on the part of the individual viewer, there's still at least one scene, character, or idea that still shines through no matter what.

Last season last episode(Season 7 Episode 26)

Q: The trial never end...
...see you...out there...

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Favorite Q quote: See you...out there

That had me fathoming really high expectations for the four films that followed...

Thank you I finally joined a Star Trek forum hahaha been wanting to for long time

Glad you had. IMHO, lots of good people and dialogue exchanges in the forums.

 

[BillJ]

"Con permiso, Capitan. The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. It's now time to see if you can dance."

From "Q Who", after he sends the Enterprise to Borg space for the first time.

There's also this line from the end of the episode, "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."

 

[Qonundrum]

"Con permiso, Capitan. The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. It's now time to see if you can dance."

From "Q Who", after he sends the Enterprise to Borg space for the first time.

There's also this line from the end of the episode, "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."

It's funny Q mentions the treasures to satiate, but Picard doesn't pick up on it any more than he does what the problem in "All Good Things" is - except, in the latter story Q plays "connect the dots" and then the light bulb goes off. As humans of the 24th century in the NCC-1701-D aren't apparently into bright and shiny things, then Q is being metaphorical again and Picard doesn't notice that knowledge is a treasure of a different form. Whether the writers were making such an implication in 1989 probably had another mindset, or using Q to speak to the audience - there is something about the episode saying in how to get out of one's "comfort zone", albeit to such an extreme with the literally unstoppable Borg. Either which way, it all pays off handsomely for the end of season 3... and like or dislike the stories that follow*, "I, Borg" and "Descent" were definitely not retreads of "Yet another Borg invasion and there's nothing stronger about them this time".

* They're mixed bags,but not uninteresting ones

 

[Oddish]

It requires some context, but in "Tapestry", after Picard gets a drink thrown in his face by Penny, Q quips...

"Penny for your thoughts."

 

[Qonundrum]

It requires some context, but in "Tapestry", after Picard gets a drink thrown in his face by Penny, Q quips...

"Penny for your thoughts."

A few hundred pennies never hurts anyone... except Penny?

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Still love his introduction:

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(That music! His outfit! His hair! )

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"You're so stolid, you weren't like that before the beard!"

 

[Trekker09]

Q to Picard: You are simply the most impossible person to buy a gift for.

Sometimes I wonder what Q supposedly represents, if anything….the concept of God in Roddenberry’s eyes, is one hypothesis. But, Q is treated so casually by the crew, like an annoying pest rather than an omnipotent being. Maybe the most convincing theory is that Q stands for the all-powerful, unpredictable viewers who have to be pleased by the show so they’re not bored (like Q).

 

[JesterFace]

This is not a line from Q but somekind of response to what Q might be.
What if Q is a humanoid like humans but with technology that is almost beyond what we think is possible, all his tricks could be explained with that?
Could Q's illusions be just on an advanced holodeck?
Q puts everybody on his version of the holodeck when he does his tricks?

 

[Qonundrum]

Q to Picard: You are simply the most impossible person to buy a gift for.

Sometimes I wonder what Q supposedly represents, if anything….the concept of God in Roddenberry’s eyes, is one hypothesis. But, Q is treated so casually by the crew, like an annoying pest rather than an omnipotent being. Maybe the most convincing theory is that Q stands for the all-powerful, unpredictable viewers who have to be pleased by the show so they’re not bored (like Q).

^^ That's worthy of Kubrick

 

[Oddish]

Perhaps it's best not to worry about how Q does what he does, and only know that he does it.

 

[at Quark's]

I think Q can be interpreted in different ways.

As concept of a 'god' that the evolved 24th century no longer recognises. As a capricious trickster and con man. As someone from a higher civilization that shows Picard that he's not morally bound to play by their rules and that Picard's convictions aren't all that (in that Picard with some frequency comes away from Q encounters actually having learned some important lesson). As someone relatively new to power who still really doesn't know what to do with it all and has a pathetic need to show off. (Quinn may be the first to have actually proceeded to the point where he became bored by it). Perhaps even the viewer, as intriguingly suggested by Trekker09. There are still other options.

I always liked this line in All Good Things - not that I agree with what it says, but it gives an interesting perspective on TNG:

Q: Seven years ago I said we'd be watching you, and we have been, hoping that your ape-like race would demonstrate some growth, give some indication that your minds have room for expansion. But what have we seen instead? You worrying about Commander Riker's career, listening to Counsellor Troi's pedantic psychobabble, indulging Data in his witless exploration of humanity.

(Of course, the delivery was also great, which certainly helped.)

 

[Trekker09]

The encounters with Q frame the whole TNG series, like a harsh but instructive God constantly testing humanity—Q as the Accuser, putting us on trial for not being more evolved, for not exploring all the “unknown possibilities of existence.”
But more often, it seems to me, Q embodies the writer’s awareness of the viewer who demands to be entertained, regardless of how much cruelty or violence the characters have to go through....
Q to Vash: Earth…Oh, don’t get me wrong—a thousand years ago it had character: crusades, Spanish Inquisition, Watergate…now it’s just mind numbingly dull. [Q-less on DS9]

Q lives on imagination and excitement but is devoid of morality and compassion.

 

[Oddish]

Q actually reminds me of the old Greek panethon... immortals with phenomenal cosmic powers who think and behave exactly like humans do, to the benefit or detriment of the humans they encounter.

 

[Trekker09]

Q actually reminds me of the old Greek pantheon... immortals with phenomenal cosmic powers who think and behave exactly like humans do, to the benefit or detriment of the humans they encounter.

Yep, Q strikes me as an extension of Apollo in a way, the pantheon of gods parallel to the Continuum of Q.

 

[Herbert]

My favorite is from an outtake on DS9.

Sisko: Bring them back, Q! Now!
Q: Or what? ....What? You'll ravish me?
Sisko: I might

 

[Oddish]

I remember that one. Avery Brooks is awesome.

EDIT: Here it is.

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[Qonundrum]

The encounters with Q frame the whole TNG series, like a harsh but instructive God constantly testing humanity—Q as the Accuser, putting us on trial for not being more evolved, for not exploring all the “unknown possibilities of existence.”
But more often, it seems to me, Q embodies the writer’s awareness of the viewer who demands to be entertained, regardless of how much cruelty or violence the characters have to go through....
Q to Vash: Earth…Oh, don’t get me wrong—a thousand years ago it had character: crusades, Spanish Inquisition, Watergate…now it’s just mind numbingly dull. [Q-less on DS9]

Q lives on imagination and excitement but is devoid of morality and compassion.

Almost like the Eternals from Doctor Who's story "Enlightenment". Now there's a fun crossover idea...

 

[Trekker09]

Maybe Q’s best line is the one we don't hear --at the end of "All Good Things" when Picard asks, what are you trying to tell me? Q starts to whisper in Picard’s ear and withdraws. Then he says, “you’ll find out...in any case, I’ll be watching.” [the ever- critical viewer]

 

[Johnny Luck]

"Con permiso, Capitan. The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. It's now time to see if you can dance."

From "Q Who", after he sends the Enterprise to Borg space for the first time.

There's also this line from the end of the episode, "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."

I wouldn't say that I have any favorite Q lines though there are certainly some memorable one-liners. Rather, I have favorite Q exchanges particularly with Picard.

For example, with the episode 'Q Who', I loved his entire performance and dialogue throughout the entire episode. Probably my favorite among his appearances. Q's exchange with Picard in Ten-Forward remains riveting to this day. "Do you mock me, sir?", 'What justifies such arrogance?"

Then there's the first half of 'Hide and Q'. The early exchanges between Q and Picard are terrific and dramatic:

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Though not shown there, I love the part where Picard recognizes the uniform Q is wearing as outranking that of an Admiral, just joyous.

 

[Whizkid]

Hahahahaha!

"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!"

How brilliant Q and Picard! To have twisted Shakespeare into their own image.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Eat any good books lately?

Is there a Gene Luck Pickerd here?