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lordlexion · 10 months

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Some of my thoughts from watching 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'

Currently, I'm watching 'Q who' and just look how adorable joyful Q looks in the first few minutes. The way he looks at Picard, the way he moves and speaks, he's just so happy to be with him.

It's so amazing to see Q so genuinely happy to spend time alone with Picard, even if the latter isn't paying attention to him. His smile is completely different from what we've seen before, and I think it's in this episode that the bond between them is most evident.

I would also like to point out how closed off Picard is, who mostly seems extremely open-minded. I can understand being kidnapped by Q and taken, unbeknownst to him, away from the ship, definitely does not make it easy to be poised or willing to talk or discuss. Yet, Picard has shown on numerous occasions that the harshness of the situation doesn't bother him. Picard, the perpetual diplomat. So why is he now so closed to discussion with Q? Why does he outright reject the opportunity to learn something about Q himself and his species?

And that look he gives Q after he says 'It will in time'… It's as if all this closure is a facade created to push Q away, to keep his explorer's heart from winning out, to keep him from being too curious. But why and for whom is he doing it? Is his concern for the well-being of the crew, to avoid appearing a weak player easily manipulated by his curiosity, the only thing that 'forced' him into this attitude? Personally, I think that certainly these things play a very significant and important role in all of this, but they are not everything. Picard is afraid… He's afraid of his feelings, of how unpredictable Q is, and that they don't know anything about him. But most of all he is afraid of his curiosity, and now he is aware that Q knows about it. He knows how curious Picard really is about him. Picard is afraid of what he feels.

Another thing, the fact that Q spent six whole hours with Picard, presumably throwing the ball against the wall all that time. Possibly to annoy Picard, driving him to the edge of his patience… However, I don't want to draw attention to that, but to the fact that Q spent 6 hours doing something that many would find extremely dull. He was actually doing essentially nothing. How boring and tough must it have been for him? Picard's presence, the fact that he spent that time with him, trying to break him…. is it THAT significant to Q already? Does the very fact that Picard is with him nullify the feeling of boredom?

On top of that, the self-satisfaction that emits from Q. Is it by virtue of Picard being with him because he bypassed their deal. Or the fact of the difference between them, that Q is ageless and Picard is not – the smirk that followed these words clearly depicts that Q is extremely proud of this. The differences between them, how much meaning they hold for both of them.

And then the whole situation with Guinan…

That's all... here, some bonus (it's low quality but still funny)

#qcard #q star trek #star trek #star trek q #q tng #jean luc picard #captain picard #star trek next gen #not a reblog #a little bit of brain time for me and here we are... thoughts #q who

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halestromthewhoobsessed · 10 months

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Q Who is a really interesting episode for Q- in his next appearances, the character would soften quite a great deal, but here he’s not quite there yet. He may be seeking the crew’s approval to join them, but he’s quick to switch into vengeful god mode and it’s wonderfully acted

#star trek #star trek the next generation #star trek tng #tng #the next doctor #q star trek #star trek q #q #q who #borg #enterprise #enterprise d

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sshbpodcast · 5 months

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Character Spotlight: Guinan

By Ames

Guinan gives The Next Generation the closest thing the show gets to a wizard: just some kind of supernatural being whose unquestioned wisdom gets the heroes out of scrape after scrape but whose true powers are never entirely explained. Oh, and she wears baller hats.

Sure, she may play into that “bartender, here to listen to your problems and guide you on your path” trope (which frankly Deanna should be doing but rarely does), but Guinan is so much more than that. We’re going to get into the good number of moments this week on A Star to Steer Her By, so get ready for your personal epiphany as you read on below and listen to our chatter on the podcast (pull up a stool at 1:02:25). El-Aurians are always listening.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Whole generations of disposable people Simultaneously one of Picard’s best scenes, the peptalk Guinan gives to Jean-Luc when he’s being thoroughly whooped by Riker’s prosecution in “The Measure of a Man” feels like a turning point in the show. Whoopi Goldberg’s calm presence as a Black woman in a scene about creating androids as slaves imbues their discussion with meaning, weight, and stakes that are both personal and universal.

Every time you feel love it’ll will be different The perpetual sounding board, Guinan helps Wesley parse his feelings at the end of “The Dauphin” in a scene we really give the both of them credit for. Guinan doesn’t speak down to the kid or just tell him everything will be okay while he’s broken hearted after watching Salia leave. She tells it like it is: love is deeply subjective and his feelings are valid.

A warrior’s drink Guinan introducing Worf to prune juice in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” is such a perfect microcosmic scene depicting her character in a lot of ways. She just knows people. Worf is a tough nut to crack, but she reads people in such a way that she figures out just what he’d like in a drink, just as she does later in the episode on a much greater scale…

I look at things, I look at people, and they just don’t feel right …when she figures out the parallel dimension problem at the heart of “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” In that slightly fantastical wizard way she has, Guinan can feel that something is wrong with the timeline when the Enterprise-C shows up out of some rift or other and suddenly her once familiar crewmates are denizens of a warship. And even better, she gets Picard to believe her.

You have to let go of Picard Whenever anyone on the crew needs a little guidance, that seems to come from a really great scene with the ship’s bartender, and who could possibly need it more than Riker at the top of “The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2”? She gives him the confidence he needs to keep going in the absence of Picard, whom she insists she’s super close to for reasons we don’t know yet.

Job opening in the Empath field Another crisis, another peptalk from Guinan. We all know Troi handles losing her empath powers in “The Loss” pretty terribly, but you know who handled it great? This El-Aurian bartender I know who swoops in and reverse psychologizes Troi with such stealth that even if she had all her senses at the time, Deanna wouldn’t have known what hit her!

You saw exactly what you wanted to see in the holodeck It is downright glorious how Guinan puts Geordi in his place in “Galaxy’s Child” when he’s unironically whining about how Leah Brahms is nothing like the hologram he created of her (vom!). “She's probably done the most horrific thing one person can do to another,” she says, “not live up to your expectations,” and I can’t help but stand up and applaud.

I’ve heard some Klingon belly laughs that would curl your hair Guinan’s advice to crewmembers isn’t limited to the human ones! In “Redemption,” she not only schools Worf in holodeck target practice (and left-landed, to boot!), but she also makes him consider what it means to be Klingon, as his experiences are atypical from most of his people. We have no doubt that her chat with him inspired him to get involved in Kurn’s war.

You ain’t never had a friend like me When Guinan sees other officers like La Forge pointedly avoiding Ro Laren, she makes it a point to befriend her in “Ensign Ro.” That in and of itself is very Guinan-like behavior, but it also comes with some of her copyrighted motivational chats when she is able to convince Ro to come clean to Picard about the secret mission she was tasked with for Admiral Kennelly.

I tell you, that razorbeast was a good friend All throughout “Imaginary Friend,” while the other officers not only infantilize Clara Sutter for having an imaginary friend, but they entirely ignore the signs that something isn’t right. Everyone except Guinan. Guinan talks to Clara as an equal, even if she’s a child, and imparts the story of her own imaginary friend: a Tarkassian razor beast, which somehow seems fitting.

We are also lonely Despite being conflicted about Hugh being on board in “I, Borg,” Guinan goes and meets with him and it’s such a cute little scene. You forget that someone as old and wizened as Guinan still has things to learn, and to find some common ground with a Borg was unexpected for her. And she even convinces Picard to see him too, giving us yet another great scene from this great episode.

Why are you still sitting here? Let’s see, is there a single member of the crew Guinan hasn’t peptalked yet… ah right, Dr. Crusher. Now we have a full BINGO card! Our final tete-a-tete from Guinan comes in “Suspicions” when Bev is doubting her decisions to look into Dr. Reyga’s murder and Guinan cheers her on until the good doctor solves the mystery, kills the baddy, and flies in a sun like a badass! Truly so many of our Best Moments from other character spotlights are initiated by Guinan!

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Worst moments

Give yourself permission to be selfish Guinan’s first significant scene in the series is in “The Child,” and of course she’s doing better counseling than Troi. However, your hosts here at SSHB can’t help but cringe because, while the show got rid of Beverly Crusher for a season, it means we were still stuck with Wesley because Guinan convinced him to stay, especially after a season in which we were so annoyed by his character all the time! Guinan, how could you?

You’re a ‘droid and I'm a ‘noid You saw above all the times Guinan helped all the other characters with a little self introspection to find their way through a problem, and the one character whom I’d say she fails with is Data in “The Outrageous Okona.” It’s probably because encouraging Data to consult Joe Pesci on how to do comedy led to the events of my least favorite TNG episode, and it’s all Guinan’s fault!

Tell me more about my eyes While the scene in which Riker flirts with Guinan when Wesley asks for dating advice in “The Dauphin” is hot as hell and inspired a little bit of shipping, we’ve got to admit that it’s not at all helpful to Wesley. Usually Guinan scenes are much more beneficial to the crewmember who is struggling, and in this one, none of this is what Wes asked for. I’m still totally into it though.

Let me introduce you to the Borg We learn in “Q Who?” that the El-Aurians were almost wiped out by Borg… because apparently Guinan and her people never told Starfleet this before? Think about it: she clues Picard in after Q has flung them into the Delta Quadrant about who the Borg are, and it is news to him! Starfleet spends every other interaction with Borg playing catch up because they don’t have any info on them!

That’s what you get, Charlie! You get fork stabbed! Pardon the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia quote, but I couldn’t help myself. And Guinan seems to me no better than a McPoyle when she stabs the suddenly human Q with a fork in “Déjà Q” and generally mocks him. It just seems petty and violent for a character who is usually so stoic and reserved. So much for the tolerant Alpha Quadrant.

But I know it was an empty death, a death without purpose While Guinan had a lot of instances from our Best Moments list above from “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” we’re still troubled by her nudging Tasha Yar to go sacrifice herself on the Enterprise-C to make up for her waste of a death in “Skin of Evil.” Even if you consider it a better death than a tarpit, then you get freakin’ Sela in “Redemption,” which Guinan somehow blames Picard for when she’s the one who compelled Yar to go!

That was setting number one While some might give credit to Guinan for quelling a riot before it could get out of control when everyone was on edge due to sleep deprivation in “Night Terrors,” I’m not one of them. As I said in “Déjà Q,” violence doesn’t seem the answer for Guinan, and this scene escalated so quickly (partly because the bar scenes in this episode feel like afterthoughts), it makes me wonder how she let things get that bad.

A Yankee in Captain Picard’s Court Oh boy, I’ve got to question some of Guinan’s standards when we see her hanging out with Samuel Clemens in “Time’s Arrow” (and a terribly acted Sam Clemens at that!) after Picard had claimed in “Ensign Ro” that she’s very picky about her friends. Her cohorting with the author led to some of the most obnoxious scenes from The Next Generation that I’ve ever seen.

Our relationship is beyond friendship, beyond family There are several instances of Guinan hinting at her and Picard’s established kinship before we get to the story of the bald man who was kind to her in “Time’s Arrow” and my reaction was… that’s it? We say sometimes that leaving something unexplained is better than giving it a stupid explanation, and oh boy, Picard just sitting with Guinan in a cave once was totally fizzled what had been built up for so long.

Were you this much fun when you were a kid? Some of this is the overall child acting being bad in “Rascals” and Guinan’s child actor had it especially stacked against her since her voice had to get dubbed (resulting in her just sounding super smug all the time), but boy was she insufferable as a child! It was cute for adult Guinan to befriend adult Ro in “Ensign Ro,” but we felt bad that little Laren had to put up with this! Let this girl mope by herself, lady!

Forty to love Though Guinan helps boost Beverly’s confidence in “Suspicions,” she does it by tricking her with this lie about playing tennis that just seemed unnecessary. Guinan always finds ways to converse with people who need it, but this whole tacked-on frame story had some weirdness to it because it forced both Guinan and the episode to be indirect when it really didn’t have to.

Think of me as an echo of the person you know I’ll take every opportunity I get to shit on the Nexus in Generations. It’s just such a confusing device they used to get Picard and Kirk together that really makes no sense if you think about it for more time that it’s actually onscreen, which isn’t a lot. And there’s an echo of Guinan in there, feeding Picard exposition and generally complicating what this place is supposed to be, and I’m just done with it.

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That’s enough from Guinan’s advice column this week! We’ve got a really special DOUBLE spotlight next week, in which Tasha Yar and Ro Laren are going to go head to head for the title of Baddest Bitch on the Enterprise-D. Place your bets now and be sure to come back for that! Also keep coming back for more of our series watch of Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts, order a drink with us over on Facebook and Twitter, and enjoy your prune juice.

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watchingstartrektng · 3 months

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Episode 2.16 Q Who

Never seen the introduction of the Borg before and it's nuts how unprepared and outgunned the Federation is. Q does a great job slapping some sense into Picard and showing him what little he knows. I can't see Q as a bad guy here. They generally want to help for what's in store for the future of the Federation.

"You judge yourselves against the pitiful adversaries you've encountered so far - the Romulans, the Klingons. They're nothing compared to what's waiting. Picard - you are about to move into areas of the galaxy containing wonders more incredible than you can possibly imagine - and terrors to freeze your soul."

4 out of 5 tricorders

#star trek the next generation #star trek #reviews #q who

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cressida-jayoungr · 1 year

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Coeli's Picks: Purple, part 2

(Multiple movies listed left to right.)

One Dress a Day Challenge

May: Purple Redux

Donkey Skin (Peau d'âne) (1970) / Delphine Seyrig as the Lilac Fairy

The Wrecking Crew (1968) / Elke Sommer as Linda Karensky

Vanity Fair (2004) / Reese Witherspoon as Becky Sharp

Doctor Who (season 16, "The Androids of Tara") / Mary Tamm as Romanadvoratrelundar (Romana)

Hello, Dolly! (1969) / costume for Barbra Streisand as Dolly Levi

Hum Aapke Hain Koun! (1994) / Madhuri Dixit-Nene as Nisha Choudhury

The Muppet Show (episode 424) / Diana Ross as Herself

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) / Zoë Kravtiz as Leta Lestrange

The Hunger Games (2012) / Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket

Scooby Doo (2002) / Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne

Casino Royale (2006) / Eva Green as Vesper Lynd

Star Trek: The Original Series (s3e1, "Spock's Brain") / Marj Dusay as Kara

Star Trek: The Next Generation (s2e16, "Q Who?") / Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) / Lina Headey as Lady Catherine de Bourgh

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stellarred · 10 months

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Q has always had plans for Jean-Luc Picard.

He was never to remain a mere mortal.

Q Who: (after the first Borg attack)

Picard: Eighteen of our people have died. Please, tell us this is one of your illusions.

Q (smiles): Oh no. This is as real as your

so-called life gets.

There has always been more to Picard's story.

#qcard #star trek q #q #john de lancie #patrick stewart #star trek tng #q who

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cardassianrock · 1 year

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idk I just think it's soooo character of Q to be like you guys aren't ready for the borg. this is a threat beyond your comprehension and you have no idea what you're dealing with. but fear not! I, Q, am ready and willing to serve, and if necessary I will even renounce my powers.

only for the very next time we see him his powers are taken away, and he has to deal with the fact of being a human, the fact of humanity – this thing he looked down upon so much until then from the high horse of his omnipotency, only to be guilted by his own newly-found sense of regret (something until then clearly beyond his comprehension) into admitting that he can't get used to following orders.

wow, it's almost like– the horrors beyond humanity's comprehension, the ones responsible for both the fear and the need for courage that Q sneered at so much– are actually only as foreign to humans as the horrors of humanity as a condition are foreign to a Q.

it's almost like synchronizing earthquakes through entire planetary systems doesn't relieve you of wanting to feel needed. almost like seeing your hands send a star into supernova doesn't soothe shame. almost like being cast aside by a council of gods doesn't hurt, no matter how powerful they are, as much as being cast aside by the ones you were fond of, no matter how small in capacity they may seem in comparison.

remember that Q chose being a human – he could have been any lifeform he wished! but he chose human. because he thought he was ready for it. he thought it would be easy. and he thought that because he was every bit as clueless about empathy and respect and identity and honor as the enterprise crew was about the borg.

and that's not even getting into the fact that "I will renounce my powers" is very different from "my powers were taken away". there is agency involved here, there is autonomy, there is choice, and what the hell does any of that mean for a guy who could just have as many chocolate sundaes as he wished if he ever needed a sweet treat?

until he couldn't. until he had a limited stomach, a very limited patience (as always), and no more powers to satisfy either of them instantly? what does it mean to take choice away from someone who can't even imagine the possibility of being choiceless? is this lack of imagination not a hole in his omnipotency? post déjà q, how is he ever going to deal with that again? with the fact that, as it turns out, he is just like them, because he reacted just like them (if not worse!) when thrown in a similar situation? after billions and billions of years of unchallenged rule? how is he ever gonna deal with that?

#I don't even know what this is is this anything. sorry I'm obsessed with him #q #tng #déjà q #q who #julian.txt

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