#el-aurian | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chequerootlurks · 9 months

Text

Star Trek Fan Theory:

I firmly believe that the El-Aurians were once of the same species the the Q.

For whatever reason, the El Aurians chose to renounce their immortality, and chose to no longer use their powers. Or maybe the surrendered them as they left. (Like the Amish or Mennonites rejecting English culture.)

Regardless of how it came to pass, it is canon that the El-Aurians and the Q had a war or similar event, something that could hardly be possible -unless!- they could be a match for the Q. This split probably happened millions (billions?) of years ago. We know Guinan is more than half a millennia old; we also know from canon that her parents are alive and well. It’s not unreasonable to assume a 4,000+ lifespan for El-Aurians. Possibly much longer.

It is canon that El-Aurians can manipulate the appearance of their age, and that they are sensitive to space-time disruptions. They also come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and skin tones.

I don’t believe they are the hypothesized ‘founders,’ progenitors for the humanoid races of the Alpha Quadrant.

There is no evidence that El-Aurians can interbreed with other races. I don’t personally think they could. I headcanon that they have a 4-strand DNA helix that makes them utterly incompatible with the 2-strand, 48 chromosome genetics of humans, vulcans, klingons, romulans, etc.

I think the Q known from TNG and Guinan have a history that goes back to the schism, or on Guinan’s side at least, very close to it. Maybe her grandparents were members of the Q Continuum.

It is canon that she’s met many Q entities, and describes some as “almost respectable.”

I say “schism,” rather than “civil war,” because I don’t think the El-Aurian split caused a war; not exactly. Maybe individual battles here and there, sect against sect, family member against family member. I think the El-Aurian Schism caused a lot of hostility between the Listeners (El-Aurian), and the Wielders (Continuum). — Think the strife between parents and their adult children when one says “screw tradition! I’m going to go be a [hippy, artist, etc],” when the parents insisted the child become a doctor or lawyer.

El-Aurians will always have extrasensory ability to sense Q entities, and vice versa. They might’ve lost their powers in the traditional sense, but I believe them more than capable of using a Q’s own force against it. — Think martial arts: it’s not about being the most bad-ass, it’s about directing your opponent’s force back at them.

Q is scared of Guinan because he knows he can’t hurt her. She can’t hurt him offensively, but were he to try -anything!- at her she’s pivot the force and basically send it right back at Q kung-fu style.

He couldn’t teleport her out of the ship and into deep space. (He could destroy the ship with her in it, but that’s not his motivation.) He probably introduced the Borg to her group because it was a way to attempt to eliminate her / the group of El-Aurians she was running with.

Why does he have a particular dislike towards her / her family group? Well, who knows. Maybe they were cousins, or maybe he was there when the Schism happened. Maybe before Guinan or her group left, they did some harm to Q, or to his pride. Maybe he vouched for them, and felt betrayed when they left.

Personally, I think whatever harm she did to him was against his ego, not physical.

Anyhow that’s just my theory; but I’m sticking with it until disproven.

#star trek q #star trek fan theory #star trek headcanon #q continuum #el-aurian #el aurian #guinan #Q #muse rambles

3 notes · View notes

skee-doodles · 7 months

Text

Alternative Universe where Boothby is El-Aurian, because I think him and Guinan would be such good friends!, and I love the idea of him growing and cultivating the campus grounds from seed, while giving advise to generations of officers!

#star trek #star trek fanart #star trek the next generation #star trek tng #st tng #boothby #guinan #el aurian #headcanon

33 notes · View notes

greencheekconure27 · 10 months

Text

Random Star Trek TNG headcanon: Guinan and other El-Aurians aren't actually humanoids (boring) they're a shape-shifting species that adjusts their appearance to whenever they wind up. They're also just as weird as the Q and have beef with them not over some kind of grand ethical objections or anything but for some completely incomprehensible petty reason neither side really remembers anymore.

#basically el aurians and q are both space fae #el aurians were just less lucky #some kind of shape-shifting space cephalophod as their *real* shape maybe?#(idk whymy brain went for cephalopods ok. maybe it's the mimicry. maybe it's my fondness of cephalopods. maybe it's Guinan's hat🤷)#i'm so sorry idk where this came from #star trek tng #guinan #star trek headcanon #star trek the next generation #star trek #el aurians

19 notes · View notes

aquamonstra · 5 days

Text

Really cool and original that the SNW writers chose to make Pelia a Lanthanite, a long-lived humanoid species that hung out on Earth blending in with humans as history tourism for fun.

Which to be clear is TOTALLY DIFFERENT from Guinan's species, the El-Aurians, a...

*checks notes*

...Long-lived humanoid species that hung out on Earth blending in with humans as history tourism for fun...

#this is another tom paris/nick locarno thing isn't it #they just didn't want to pay the writing royalties to the TNG writers to have Pelia be an El-Aurian #IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE A SHARED UNIVERSE SHOW THEN SHARE THE GODDAMN UNIVERSE #YOU FUCKING CHEAPSKATES #star trek snw #pelia #guinan

5 notes · View notes

allonsybadwolf · 5 months

Text

Having Borg thoughts

#the timelines don't add up???#if Seven of Nine is rescued by Voyager when she's 24 #that means it would have had to been like twenty years since Borg contact #but that much time has NOT passed between TNG Borg discovery and Voyager finding Seven right??#googling #okay yeah Enterprise encounters the Borg in 2365 #and the Hansen's were already researching the Borg in 2354???#that's 11 years earlier than they should have known about the Borg #and i could buy a situation where it's like #oh there were whispers and rumors about the Borg and the Hansen's were like space cryptid hunting essentially #because the whole el-aurian situation #but the Hansen's have a very accurate model of a Borg cube???#so it's not just whispers and myths #if they have that much solid information Star Fleet should also be aware by that point #but they weren't!!#sooo??#also they have the cube model but they're like #'nobody knows what they look like'#how do you have an accurate cube but no account of what they look like??#IT DOESN'T ADD UP #insert Charlie Day meme here #allonsybadwolf #star trek #tng #voyager #voy #borg

1 note · View note

hedghost · 1 year

Text

Pick a WOSO Player - Get a Sapphic Book Recommendation!

something different for you guys! this was so fun to make so idc if it flops

note: please check content warnings before reading as some may have adult or triggering content - feel free to ask me about anything!

Links: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

--------

Alessia Russo: Her Name In The Sky by Kelly Quindlen

Leah Williamson: I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

Ona Batlle: This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Lucy Bronze: Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

Keira Walsh: She Gets The Girl by Rachel Lippincott and Alyson Derrick

Mapi Leon: Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Viv Miedema: Last Night At The Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Maya Le Tissier: The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth

Lia Walti: If You Still Recognise Me by Cynthia So

Katie McCabe: She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen

Georgia Stanway: Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner

Ella Toone: I Think I Love You by Auriane Desombre

Jordan Nobbs: One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Mary Earps: Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

Alexia Putellas: Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

okay no one is gonna care about this but i don’t give a fuck!! this was actually so fun to make and i have so many more so i’ll probably do a part two anyway, so if you have any specific players lmk!

follow me here on storygraph for more recs 🤭🤭

Hedge xx

#woso #alessia russo #leah williamson #mapi leon #lucy bronze #keira walsh #sapphic book recs #alexia putellas #jordan nobbs #georgia stanway #ella toone #ona batlle #katie mccabe #vivianne miedema #lia walti #mary earps #maya le tissier

694 notes · View notes

woagopossum · 5 months

Text

collection of old star trek au drawings that still fit my ideas sdfhlk. the headshots are about a year old at this point i was trying to do everyone,, got tired of that. pretty quick. The full bodies were take two but got even less far from august this year, i have little patience for line ups.

i want to make something sort of comprehensive at some point but idk if ill ever get to that so im just going to ramble ramble about the ones i did end up drawing:

Bdubs: he's an el-aurian, which means he is an empath. whos going to live forever. he's on the engineering team, but much to his chagrin he is mostly used as a rubber duck rather than for his incredible engineering talent. i mean i do think he's a good engineer but i think he's an even better guy to just talk at. Which is why I chose el-aurian as his species they're described as a 'listener' species (lore .) who have a deep contention with time. which just screamed bbubs to me.

Cub: I just think he would make a really funny Vulcan. Sorry I havent thought in depth about this one. It was mostly inspired by his like, his usually very consistent way of speaking, just the way he inflects feels like he could be a Vulcan. if they were from Chicago i guess. Science division ofc.

Doc: in my mind he is the perfect Orion. He's green pack it up. But also orions are usually used as like, stock mafia pirate insert villains and star trek, so it like doubly fits his vibe to me. He's something along the lines of a disgraced orion mad scientist who's found a second chance in the federation. He's the hermitcrafts current science officer.

Hypno: i think I've settled on him being a betazoid just for the hypnosis psychic powers sort of bit. He's on the security team and I think he works with Xb and Keralis to smuggle goods on the ship for fun. This is a very important role in star trek trust me.

Wels: I don't have a whole lot on him rn but he has such bajoran vibes to me. He's also on security.

Cleo: Borg are basically like zombies so Cleo as an formerly assimilated Borg just made sense to me. They're the ships chief medical officer. To me Cleo is like in the center of a triangle with Beverly Bones and Bashir at each point so it just fit in my mind. I think her backstory would be somewhat similar to seven of nines, getting assimilated young but instead of being thrown right into the horrors of voyager like seven she got to like, chill a little bit after being unassimilated.

Joe: Joe is a joined trill but he's the first host of the Hills symbiont. So e's still just like that it doesn't have anything to do with the worm. I've considered making him the ships counselor, to go in line with the star trek tradition of ship counselors who maybe should have a different job, but I'm not sure about it.

Tango: Tangos a catboy. I mean caitian. He's the chief engineer. I also don't have much else beyond that for him yet.

Impulse: he's impulse :) hes like impulse. but in space . He's another engineer. i haven't worked out much else,

#mcyt #undescribed #fanart #art #hermitcraft #star trek au #bdubbleo100 #cubfan135 #docm77 #hypnotizd #welsknight #zombiecleo #joe hills #tangotek #impulsesv #ofhhg thats a lot of tags. sorry therse a lot of cubes

42 notes · View notes

malwarewolf404 · 7 months

Text

So in Picard S2 Guinan does ~this pose~ a lot

Which makes sense, it’s a pretty iconic moment being Q’s first encounter with her and the first instance we get the sense there may be more to Guinan than it seems. The thing I find someone groan-worthy though is they make this pose her way of using her ~powers~ (which have kind of always been so intentionally vague or plot-related I doubt we’ll ever really know what she’s capable of or how her people are actually related to the Q Continuum. But I digress.)

The way I always saw it was she was doing that pose when Q showed up because she was literally about to throw hands. Like sure Q could vaporize her with a snap of his fingers but she probably wagered she could get in a few good swats at his face and therefore his ego before he destroyed her. She’s like a cat swatting a person, like sure Q’s a lot bigger threat but man you have to respect her spunk.

Pictured below: El-aurians encountering any threat bigger or more powerful than them

#star trek #star trek tng #guinan #q continuum #star trek picard #star trek picard spoilers #jean luc picard #anyways I love Guinan and I certainly don’t DISLIKE her having powers but. I love thinking she’ll fuck you up powers or no

37 notes · View notes

noahsbookishcorner · 2 years

Text

Time for some queer book recommendations!!

The Falling In Love Montage - Ciara Smyth

Not My Problem - Ciara Smyth

Here The Whole Time - Vitor Martins

Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas

Some Girls Do - Jennifer Dugan

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

I Kissed Shara Wheeler - Casey McQuiston

Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating - Adiba Jaigirdar

Gender Queer: A Memoir - Maia Kobabe (graphic novel)

The Prince and the Dressmaker - Jen Wang (graphic novel)

On A Sunbeam - Tillie Walden (graphic novel)

The Black Flamingo - Dean Atta

Only On The Weekends - Dean Atta

Nimona - ND Stevenson (graphic novel)

If You Still Recognise Me - Cynthia So

Sasha Masha - Agnes Borinsky

The Tea Dragon Society - Katie O'Neill (graphic novel)

Darius the Great is Not Okay - Adib Khorram

Red White and Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston

One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston

The Passing Playbook - Isaac Fitzgerald

The Prom - Saundra Mitchell (watch the musical first!!)

I Think I Love You - Auriane Desombre

The Song Of Achilles - Madeline Miller

Felix Ever After - Kacen Callendar

I Was Born For This - Alice Oseman

Radio Silence - Alice Oseman

Solitaire - Alice Oseman

Heartstopper - Alice Oseman (graphic novel)

Loveless - Alice Oseman

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

This Is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz

They Both Die At The End - Adam Silvera

History is All You Left Me - Adam Silvera

Girls of Paper and Fire - Natasha Ngan

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong

Mooncakes - Suzanne Walker (graphic novel)

Simon Vs The Homosapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli

The Avant-Guards - Carly Usdin (graphic novel)

Fence - C.S. Pacat (graphic novel)

The Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater (book 3&4)

A Complicated Love Story Set in Space - Shaun David Hutchinson

Out of the Blue - Jason June

Meet Cute Diary - Emery Lee

These Witches Don't Burn - Isabel Sterling

I'll Give You The Sun - Jandy Nelson

Stay Gold - Tobly McSmith

Melt With You - Jennifer Dugan

The Sun and the Star - Rick Riordan

Under the Whispering Door - TJ Klune

Some Dutch book recs as well:

Confettiregen - Splinter Chabot

Gebr. - Ted van Lieshouten

Feel free to add your own recommendations! I'll update the list as I read more LGBTQ+ books!!!

#lgbtq books #lgbtq #heartstopper #casey mcquiston #i kissed shara wheeler #lgbtqia #one last stop #red white and royal blue #the prom #queer books #gay book #book recommendations #book #books #book recs #queer book recs #queer representation

417 notes · View notes

wrathkitty · 1 year

Text

Silver Q - (finally!) A one shot from "Hello, My Dear"

“You’re about two hundred years too early to be wearing that outfit,” he drawls, referring to your mid-24thcentury uniform. He lifts an eyebrow. “Or a billion years too late depending on which side of the timeline you’re from. Who are you?”

“Just me,” you answer simply, raising one shoulder in a shrug.

He scrutinizes you a second time, growing irritated. You are not a Q, or one of those insufferable, insouciant Travelers. Aside from the El Aurian, you’re as pathetically human as everyone else on this odious planet. Yet somehow you are less-than-human, and more…more. There is an undefinable quality about you that suggests you have been alive far longer than you appear. But stranger still is your undeniably affectionate smile. No one ever looks at him affectionately. And now that it’s happening, he is not entirely sure if he likes it. It means that you know his secrets and where all the skeletons are buried and may have even helped him dispose of one or two.

You’ve picked up his newspaper and started skimming the headlines, and blink in surprise when he plucks it out of your hands.

“Answer me,” he barks. “Who. Are. You?”

You musingly tilt your head, mulling over the question. “How did you put it? An adorably harmless angel of death?”

His face twists. He cannot afford the luxury of squandering his powers on putting a maybe-mortal upstart in her place, but pride gets the better of him. Teeth clenched, he snaps his fingers (successfully, this time) and whisks you both to a more secluded area.

Silver Q - A Hello, My Dear One-shot

Hello, My Dear - Stories of the life and times of Q and his mortal more-than-just-a-friend, Ensign Reader. Because being omnipotent doesn’t mean a thing when it comes to relationships.

@nildespirandum @caffiend-queen

@mareebird

@my-fic-corner

@captainchris-pike

@trekmystars

@airmitchbaby

@fanfic-fangirl

@witchy-moon-kitty

@spacedadpicard

@android-boyfriends

@reileth

@herbalsingularitea

@idolofthevatican

@tinkerbelldetective

@mayhemmachine

@scrumptious-finicky-illusion

@just-the-hiddles

@paranoiac1963

@kawallchan

@coolcannibalkool-aid

@lady-of-black-roses

@fndmsrndmyfckinglfe

@toozmanykids

@dangertoozmanykids101

@impalaanddemons

@et-tu-bro

@theboardwalkbody

@natashacrane

@essence-stealer

@last-of-cheese

@onlydrawnbad

@gaitwae

#q x reader #q x ofc #q (star trek)#q star trek #q tng #star trek: tng #tng fanfic #hello my dear #star trek the next generation #star trek: the next generation #picard season two #star trek picard #picard s2

83 notes · View notes

geekysteven · 1 year

Text

[Image description Q from Star Trek pointing a laser pointer at Picard. Second panel shows Picard with a red dot on his chest and Guinan is a cat.]

#star trek #image described #image description added #described images #star trek the next generation #st the next generation #the next generation #star trek next gen #st tng #star trek: tng #tng #star trek tng #guinan #q star trek #jean luc picard #captain picard #El-Aurian #catgirl

19 notes · View notes

sshbpodcast · 3 months

Text

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.

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!

—

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.

—

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.

12 notes · View notes