Was Charlie X a Q?
- Thread starter Spectral
- Start date
No, I think the Trek universe is sufficiently vast as that it could support the existence of nine or maybe even as many as eleven people in it. So put me down for 'Charlie X and the Thasians are not Q', please.
(But I did like Charlie X and the Thasian's music, especially that sweet summer when they were transitioning from bubble-gum pop into psychedelia and just hit this perfect blend of the two.)
Absolutely not. Charlie X is similar to other species who have superpowers like Trilane and his race.
I don't understand the desire to lump every similar alien into the same species. If you think about it, the galaxy is over ten billion years old, but human civilization is only a few thousand years old. So species that are on the same technological level as humans must be immensely outnumbered by species that are millions or billions of years more advanced. Therefore, statistically speaking, the odds that any two given superbeings belong to the same species are infinitesimal.
As for Trelane, what everyone seems to forget is that he didn't have superpowers at all. Everything we saw him do was the work of his technology -- the "instrumentality" he kept behind his mirror, and whatever backup system he used once that machine was destroyed. And aside from moving Gothos (which could've been an illusion), his machines didn't do anything that couldn't be achieved with a transporter, a replicator, and a holodeck. So why people imagine that Trelane is anywhere near the same level as the Q, let alone that he is a Q, is a source of constant bewilderment to me.
As for Trelane, what everyone seems to forget is that he didn't have superpowers at all. Everything we saw him do was the work of his technology -- the "instrumentality" he kept behind his mirror, and whatever backup system he used once that machine was destroyed. And aside from moving Gothos (which could've been an illusion), his machines didn't do anything that couldn't be achieved with a transporter, a replicator, and a holodeck. So why people imagine that Trelane is anywhere near the same level as the Q, let alone that he is a Q, is a source of constant bewilderment to me.
The Thasians don't seem to be on the level of the Q. They actually have ships, for one thing...
Novels are NOT canon.
You don't know that since human bones were less preserved than animal bones. You nor scientists truly know how old the human species is. Everything from those big brains are from theories NOT FACTS.
I think it's a terrific novel, probably Peter's best, even though I fundamentally disagree with its interpretation of Trelane.
And jelly is NOT peanut butter.
You are forgetting that even Spock didn't know what to make of Trelane. From http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/18.htm:
If Spock was convinced that Trelane's instrumentality explained everything, then why did he offer these various alternatives?
No doubt Trelane heard Kirk and Spock discussing their theory that Trelane had a machine, just as he overheard Kirk's calling his the actions of "an immature, unbalanced mind." Trelane probably either simply gave his pets what they expected, in order to tease them, or he had been dealing with the crew using instrumentality simply as a part of his play. I tend to favor the latter possibility.
It's far more straightforward to take the fact that Trelane continued to display ever more remarkable abilities, by moving the whole planet even after the machine was apparently destroyed (as if it were likely that such an amazing machine, were it real, could be harmed by a single shot from a vintage dueling pistol) simply as evidence that Trelane didn't really need the machine at all, than to assume that his feats at that time were merely illusions and that the machine could be utterly disabled so easily. The machine being unreal also accounts for the comical sound effects that were made when Kirk shot it, and the fireplace went out, etc.
All that said, I've never thought for a second that Trelane or his parents were Q. More likely somewhere on the scale between humanity and Q.
---
As for the OP question, the Thasians were not Q, and neither was Charlie Evans.
I can understand why people want to make the connection, reality warping aliens to whom humanity were but toys or lab animals were very common in the TOS days, yet the Q were treated as something new and special when they showed up in TNG. I understand it's a big galaxy but how many species of pseudo-gods do we need?
However even if one was to retcon the Thasians and Trelane into Q, we'd still have at least TWO species of neigh-powerful immortals: the Q and the Greek Gods. I'd say the Greek Gods, while displaying powers on par with some of the things Q did could still not really be Q because they basically all committed suicide simply by willing themselves to disappear, if it was that easy for the Q to die, it wouldn't ave been a plot point in Voyager.
However even if one was to retcon the Thasians and Trelane into Q, we'd still have at least TWO species of neigh-powerful immortals: the Q and the Greek Gods. I'd say the Greek Gods, while displaying powers on par with some of the things Q did could still not really be Q because they basically all committed suicide simply by willing themselves to disappear, if it was that easy for the Q to die, it wouldn't ave been a plot point in Voyager.
I've always felt there was a hierarchy of superbeings of various power levels, with the Q at the very top, the Douwd probably second (of the known superbeings), the Organians pretty high on the list, and the others at various lesser power levels. A lot of people tend to default to the assumption that all superbeings are equally powerful, but that doesn't make sense to me; surely there's a wide gap between human level and Q level, so there's got to be a range of power levels in between those. If humans are power level 1 and Q are level 10, there have got to be species at level 2, level 3, level 6.5, pretty much everything in between. Thasians are probably kind of middle-of-the-road (maybe level 4 or 5), and Trelane's species is pretty low on the list, given that they needed technological help.
If you ignore all the elements of the episode that don't agree with that idea, then sure.
The machine angle was just a red herring to keep us in suspense that he was really a god-baby. He even kept coming after his "machine" was "destroyed."
I think it was just bad writing.
Wrong. When Kirk mentions smashing the mirror machine, Trelane replies, "And did you really think that was the only medium of instrumentality at my command?" In other words, he had a backup machine. "Instrumentality" means tools, not innate powers.
There is nothing in the episode to refute the idea that Trelane's powers were technological; it's just that we tend to assume they were intrinsic by comparison with the Organians, Q, and others. But that's letting our biases color our reading of the text.
It was probably part of his maturation cycle. As a child, he needed the technological assistance, then entered a stage of development where he learned to do without it, and finally, after this pupal learning stage, became an energy being like his parents, without the need for either technological assistance, or corporeal form.
Similar threads
