The New Q Reviews: Issue 1 by Queria The New Q Reviews is a review column of Q's appearances in books, comics, and fan fiction. It is entirely based on the opinion of the author; however, as the author has been writing since she was four, reads voraciously, and has had a few pieces professionally published, the author likes to think she knows what she's talking about. I am meaner to professional material than to fannish, but I'm very blunt on both. The New Q Reviews contain major spoilers, so be forewarned. This issue I will review Q's appearances to date in the ST: TNG comics by DC. Q Comics: Overall Picture Note: These reviews are done from notes and memory; I don't own any of these except "The Gift", for reasons that will come clear as I continue. 1. The Limited Series: Issues #3-5 of the initial 6-issue limited series. #3: Q Factor. #4: Q's Day. #5: Q Affects. Writer: Michael Carlin. Artists: (#3-5) Pablo Marcos and Carlos Garzon, (#4-5) and Arne Starr. This cycle included three issues of the initial 6-issue limited series done by DC. Originally this was supposed to take place in the second season, but since it had Crusher instead of Pulaski and Tasha Yar was still alive, they later retconned it so that it took place in the first season. This wasn't a bad move from a Q-continuity standpoint, as it was supposed to take place between "Hide and Q" and "Q Who?" anyway. Tasha and Wesley are playing a game of Hide and Seek through the corridors of the ship. They bump into Picard, who reprimands them both. Tasha makes a few comments to Wesley about the horrors of her childhood, at which point the crew is called to alert: an unidentified alien ship has just come into view. Tasha and Riker are part of the Away Team to go over; Data and Worf offer to go, but Deanna, who senses an alien presence, predicts that they will be needed here (??). Tasha and Riker beam over with some Ensign Expendables. People with invisibility cloaks beat the Away Team up. Tasha, half- conscious, sees someone that terrifies her into delirium, and then the Enterprise retrieves its Away Team. On the bridge of the Enterprise, Q shows up and suggests that Picard attack the aliens, who then proceed to attack the Enterprise. Picard orders a saucer separation; sickbay is in the saucer, and so are Tasha, Wesley, Deanna, Riker and Crusher. The saucer is almost immediately pulled off course by a pair of giant hands and vanishes. Despite Q's repeated demands, the battle section of the Enterprise does not fire on the alien ship, which seems to be disabled. It turns out there are humans, colonists from Tasha's world, aboard who don't know how to run the ship, and who were promised great rewards by Q if they'd play along with his game. Picard decides to beam these human colonists aboard. Q orders him to refrain, but admits that he's not permitted to interfere himself, because "They" wouldn't permit it. He then catches himself and snarls at Picard that the test is over and the humans have all failed. Picard says that it looks like Q has failed instead. At this point they all realize the saucer has disappeared. Picard accuses Q, but Q claims that "They" did it. "They have been watching-- now perhaps we are all to be judged." Worf promptly attempts to beat up Q. Aside from making dire threats, Q does nothing to defend himself; instead, after Data pulls Worf off him, Q freezes Worf, but spares the rest of the crew because of Data's act in defending him. Meanwhile, the saucer section is shaking wildly, and completely out of control. Reglech, one of the colonists-- the one whom Tasha knew, the one that terrified her-- attacks Tasha in sickbay and drags her off to a deserted corridor for fun and games. Aboard the battle section, Q announces he's going to kill Picard. Picard suggests he get it over with instead of standing around talking about it all day. But when Q tries to strike him down, nothing happens. Picard realizes that Q has lost his powers, and punches him out. Aboard the saucer, multiple Qs appear. (They all look the same, and are supposed to all look like Q, but they don't-- see comment on art, below.) In a deserted corridor, Reglech torments the barely- conscious Tasha, reminding her of how he used to abuse her as a child. Tasha manages to fight down her fear and get the upper hand. Two more badly drawn Qs observe as Reglech begs for help, refusing him assistance, and are impressed when Tasha spares Reglech's life. On the saucer's bridge, the multiple Qs announce that the humans have passed the test. They are much more promising than their "tainted self" has led them to believe. They apologize for the actions of this "tainted self". At this point the saucer section returns. Q proceeds to have hysterics. "These are violent, irresponsible beings. I'm not like them! I belong with *you!*" Whgen Riker explains that the saucer was apparently inside the Continuum, Q denies that this is possible. They would not have taken humanity into themselves and abandoned him. When it finally sinks in that that is, in fact, exactly what the Continuum has done, Q, considerably less calm about his situation than he was in "Deja Q" (and that's saying something!), wrests a phaser from a crewman. "You fear me now, don't you, Picard? As you should. I may not have my powers, but with this, I once more have power over life and death." He then presses the phaser to his head. "I will not bear being human! I have known something better! And if I am to be reduced to your level, I would rather be dea--" Picard bodyslams him before he can pull the trigger, trying to prevent him from killing himself. In the ensuing struggle, Geordi is shot and gravely wounded. Data, seeing this, has hysterics (?!), and proceeds to beat the crap out of Q (??!!), insisting that Q has the power to resurrect the dead and since Geordi's injury is his fault, he will save Geordi or Data will kill him. (???!!!) Picard, Riker and Worf manage to pull Data off Q, more by persuading him that Q has no powers rather than being able to physically stop him. Q insists that Picard should have let Data finish the job, that Q deserves to die for the harm he has caused (??!!). Troi attempts to comfort him, and Picard says that Crusher can fix Q's injuries. At this point Tasha brings Reglech onto the bridge, at phaserpoint. The colonists have been placed in the brig, she says, and this is the ringleader. Reglech, feeling that Q betrayed him, takes the opportunity to break a few more of Q's ribs, figuring that Starfleet can't do anything worse to him than what they're about to. As Reglech is led off the bridge, Q falls on his knees and begs Picard (?!)-- if Picard won't let Data put Q out of his misery, then he pleads for medical attention, since he is in terrible pain. Picard has Crusher summoned to the bridge. Q, on the verge of losing consciousness, tells them that his mission here was to try to force the members of the crew into joining the Continuum, as he tried before with Riker, but he failed... and at this point he faints from pain. Troi, reading his unconscious mind (???!!!), finishes the story-- that Q believes his failures were because, in the process of studying humanity, he became more and more human himself, tainted by human fallibility. Q is taken to sickbay, over Worf's protests-- Worf thinks he should be allowed to suffer for what he has done, but Picard preaches forgiveness. It wasn't so long ago that humans and Klingons were enemies, after all, and humans' forgiveness of the Klingons is why Worf is here today. In sickbay, Geordi's condition is bad but stable, so Crusher works on Q instead. Meanwhile, Reglech escapes and heads for sickbay, intending to kill Q. When Q wakes up, still in some amount of pain, Data points out that while Crusher was occupied with Q, Geordi's condition has deteriorated, and it may not be possible to save him. At this point Reglech shows up. No one but Q sees him at first. He tries to take Q hostage at phaserpoint; Q smiles weakly and says, "They're finally going to let someone put me out of my misery... Thank you, Reglech." This is not the reaction Reglech wanted. The others notice him at this point and try to subdue him, so he takes Geordi hostage instead. Q tries to persuade Reglech to take him instead, but Reglech points out that no one cares whether Q lives or dies. Data, able to withstand phasers better than anyone else, approaches Reglech, who starts shooting him. At first the phaser has no effect. As Data approaches closer, however, he slows, growing weaker and more damaged. Q, seeing how these beings are willing to sacrifice their lives to save a comrade's, and thinking of how they tried so hard to save *him*, feels ashamed. He saves Data's life by throwing himself in the path of the beam, giving Data a second's respite to reach Reglech and take the gun away. Q is apparently killed instantly. Reglech laughs and says he got the one he came for, anyway, as Yar carts him off to the brig again. The others muse on Q's strange sacrifice. Someone says how odd it is that here he is dead, when shortly before he was one of the most powerful beings in the universe. At this point, Q sits up, grinning, and says, "Nonsense. Still am!" He reveals that his noble act of self-sacrifice led his people to take him back. Having learned a good bit about human compassion in the course of this adventure, he heals Geordi, then vanishes. Review: Anyone who knows anything about the show can see some of the glaring problems with this story right off. I mean, Data having hysterics and beating up on Q? I realize that this was the first season and they hadn't fully established Data's limitations, but he was *always* more logical than that! I mean, first off, it was an accident-- Q was trying to shoot himself and Picard interfered. That makes it Picard's fault as much as Q's, and neither are truly culpable. Secondly, if Q had the power to bring Geordi back, he wouldn't have tried to shoot himself, and he wouldn't be letting Data beat him up! Data *knows* this! There are other glitches like this (Troi reading minds? Or predicting the future? Picard punching out Q? Q *begging?* Uh-uh, don't buy it). The plot is full of holes in other respects as well. As for the art... ooohh (graphic shudder.) These people seem to have no idea what human anatomy is shaped like. Characters stand in ridiculous parodies of Marvel action poses. The colors are gray and muddy. Q spends most of the three issues in a dark gray Roman centurion's outfit that looks terrible on him and does not at all fit his flamboyant tastes in costumes. On the other hand, perhaps this version of Q *does* like dark, ugly clothes, because this sure as hell doesn't look like the Q we know. If these artists ever saw John de Lancie in even a tiny grainy newsprint photo standing at the back of a group shot in a dim room, I would be very surprised. Most of the other characters look at least vaguely like who they're supposed to; Q does not. Admittedly, de Lancie is very hard to draw; I'm not an artist myself, but I know enough about art to know that his face is ridiculously easy to caricature, nearly impossible to render well. He's got one of those faces where the individual parts, taken together, are not attractive, and yet they all somehow work together- - more difficult for an artist to capture than a classical face like Stewart's. Even still, this art is a travesty. There are some interesting ideas buried in all this muck. I find it interesting, the points of similarity between this and "Deja Q"-- this predates "Deja Q"; did the writer of that see this and extract the few interesting ideas from this, completely rewriting them into a much better plot? Q's hysteria at being kicked out of the Continuum in public is actually a reaction I can buy. He screams, he rages, he throws temper tantrums and tries to kill himself-- yeah, I can buy that. I have a hard time buying him deciding to sacrifice himself for the people who just beat the crap out of him, though. I do like the stuff with Tasha Yar. She is the only interesting and at all well-done character in the entire piece. Overall, though: save your money. 2. The Klingon Cycle: This is another set I don't actually own. Issues #33-35 of the regular DC comic; #33. Way of the Warrior #34. Devil's Brew #35. The Dogs of War. Writer: Michael Jan Friedman. Artists: Kenneth Penders and Pablo Marcos. The Enterprise is escorting a group of members of a violent warrior race, the Ysalanti, to a diplomatic conference. The Ysalanti have an atavistic hostile reaction to members of other warrior races, such as Klingons, so Worf has had to delegate the job of security liaison and stay out of the way. He is not happy about this, made less so by his own atavistic reaction to these people. Picard takes him aside and praises him for his diplomacy in handling this situation-- Picard knows how difficult it is for Worf, but he's doing very well with it, and Picard is proud of him. He says that he wishes he had a hundred like Worf. At this point Q walks through the hull into the ready room, thoroughly disgusted. He mocks Picard's praise of Worf, especially the part about wishing he had a hundred like Worf, and offers to give him just that. In a moment, everyone on the ship-- except for the warrior aliens and Data, who are spared, Guinan, who is unaffected, and Worf, who was one already-- transforms into a Klingon. This creates a whole host of problems. For one thing, it turns out that Klingons really are a more passionately emotional and violent race than humans. The humans aboard have no experience in controlling the violent Klingon temper; as a result, there are fights and bloodshed. Riker challenges Picard in combat for the position of captain. The warrior aliens perceive this transformation as a personal insult; they don't believe in Q, and insist that the Federation members transform back, or there will be a. serious diplomatic repercussions b. blood running down the corridors of the Enterprise. Worf, with Guinan's and Data's help, has to play diplomat, get the ship under control, and convince Q to turn them back to their normal forms. By the end of the story, he succeeds. Picard makes some comment about this perhaps being an elaborate test of Q's for Worf. Review: This is the sort of story that falls into the "Q as plot device" category. Q's presence is irrelevant to the actual story, which is "What if everyone on the Enterprise turned into a Klingon?" He's just a convenient excuse to achieve that end. This would be forgiveable-- Q makes a pretty good plot devices as such things go-- if he weren't handled so poorly. Q is portrayed as a childish brat, with none of his usual style. He's not malevolent, he's silly, and badly silly at that. At one point, he makes a lame joke about not wanting to play the liar, spelled lyre, while playing a lyre, and then points out the joke with a sort of "Get it? Get it?" attitude. I'm sorry, but Q's jokes are not that lame (except for "Macro-head with a micro-brain" from "Hide and Q", which I like to pretend didn't happen), and he doesn't stupidly call attention to them like that. This portrays a vision of Q as somebody who goes around saying, "What can I do for fun today? Hey, how about turning everyone on the Enterprise into a Klingon?" Usually his games are more integral to events, more reactions to things Enterprise crewmembers actually did, than this. I am also not thrilled with the way the crewmmembers behave. They may have transformed into genetic Klingons, but this is not really any reason for them to suddenly develop the ability to speak in Klingon (which several do) or to fight like Klingons, or to understand anything of Klingon culture. Conversely, if Q has just transplanted a Klingon culture on top of their human one... that's directly mucking with people's heads. Q doesn't tend to do that. He prefers to let the circumstances he puts people in play games with their heads, rather than doing it through direct mind control. And I also think it's a stereotypical and flat depiction of Klingons, as well as badmouthing humans-- are we really so passionless as all that, that when transformed into Klingons we lose all ability to control our emotions? Then there's the art. Oooh, there's the art. Q is consistently drawn horribly. The other members of the crew are not much better. (Side note: the Enterprise crewmembers all turn into dark-skinned Klingons, like Worf. When Q takes a Klingon form, in addition to looking horrible, he's still white. Please don't tell me Q's a racist...) Mind you, this art is light-years improved from the art in the miniseries. Pablo Marcos, the penciler for the mini-series, is the inker here; from the evidence of this issue, he makes a much better inker than penciller (though see the art comments on the next cycle.) Q is at least recognizable as someone who's *supposed* to be Q-- he just doesn't look good. When I first read this story, sitting in a comic book store (deprived child that I am, I couldn't pay for it), I thought it was utterly horrible. Then I read the miniseries, so I have some perspective now. This isn't utterly horrible. It's just lame. True raving fanatics may still want a copy, but people who feel a bit choosier may wish to pass this up. 3. The Dixon Hill cycle: Again, written by Michael Jan Friedman, thus proving that Friedman cannot write Q. Issues #52-54 of the regular DC comics series; #52. The Rich and the Dead. #53. Reductions and Deductions. #54. Hidden Agendas. Writer: Michael Jan Friedman. Artist: Pablo Marcos. The Enterprise is in orbit around a shore leave world, and most of the crew-- including Geordi, Riker, Worf and his son, and Troi-- are going to the circus. Crusher and Picard, however, are going to relax in the holodeck with a new Dixon Hill adventure, "The Rich and the Dead", that Picard's brother Robert sent him. Picard wonders why Robert, a traditionalist who disapproves of holodecks, would send him such a gift; Crusher points out that Dixon Hill is also a traditionalist. Shortly after his client hires him, "Dixon Hill" receives a visit from another shady figure-- Q, in a trenchcoat and hat. Claiming that he was intrigued by Picard's holodeck adventure and wished to up the stakes, Q tells Picard that he has made Worf and Troi extremely small and put them in the pocket of the Kartakkan Cannonball, a man who is about to be shot out of a cannon into a bucket of water in a very short period of time. If Picard can solve the mystery in time, Q will return Worf and Troi to their proper size; if not, the stresses of the act will kill them. In the meantime, Worf has grown more and more disgusted with the circus. He claims that he could duplicate the feats of the trapeze artists, and that nobody here is in any danger. He stomps off to find some prune juice, and Troi follows, trying to talk him out of his bad mood, when both of them shrink and find themselves in a strange place. Q shows up and tells them what he's just done. They attempt to escape, but to no avail. In the process, Troi sees some containers through a rip in the pocket, and gets a very strange sense about them. In the meantime, Picard uses his knowledge of wines as the clue to solve the case, which is a rather pedestrian case as these things go-- a woman's brother was murdered, and she hired Dixon Hill to find the killer. After questioning only three suspects, Picard figures it out. He confronts the killer, and Q, who makes good on his promise barely in time-- Worf has to perform some aerial acrobatics to save himself and Troi from falling to their deaths. This impresses Alexander tremendously. At the same time, Troi uses what she sensed in the pocket to discover that the circus is a cover for an interplanetary smuggling ring. The day is saved. In the end, Picard wonders if Q's little game might not have been intended to help them discover the circus' true purpose. Review: This is less lame than Michael Jan Friedman's previous Q story cycle-- there are no "liar/lyre" type bad puns. Q does make a mild fool of himself trying to talk like a gumshoe, but then so does Picard, so less harm is done than might have been. My problem with this story is that there is no point. This is a rather pedestrian mystery-- why does it intrigue Q enough to pull this trick? Again, Q is used as a plot device, and here the plot is even lamer than the last one. The implication that Q might have done this to help them crack the smuggling ring doesn't wash-- Q is not interested in smuggling rings. If he's going to pull a nasty stunt on you to teach you something, it'll be something big, like "Stop regretting your past, you idiot-- it's an integral part of what you are", or "If you keep blundering on in your Pollyanna belief that you can handle anything the universe throws at you, you're going to get crushed." *Not* something like "The circus is really a smuggling ring"! How trivial can you get? I have to admit that the parts that don't have Q are actually not bad. Friedman is not a terrible writer. He's workmanlike, not terribly exciting, but entertaining enough. The bits with Worf looking for prune juice and some of the holodeck sequences before Q shows up are actually quite funny. It's just that he can't write Q. As for the art, it's a vast improvement over the art in the previous cycle mentioned. Pablo Marcos has improved his rendition of Q by light-years since the initial miniseries; either that, or his inkers totally ruined his work in the miniseries. After seeing his work by himself, one wonders why DC hasn't employed him as sole artist more often. His rendition of Q only occasionally looks stupid. Mostly, Q looks like himself-- a bit more jowly, and the gratuituous shots of Q's head on various statuary and other weird stuff is a bit unnecessary. I prefer him in the trenchcoat and fedora. It's still not great, but then, this is a comic book, and rendering real people is hard. I don't expect perfection. If you have the cash to spare, and are looking for a bit of mild amusement, this might fill the bill. But don't save up for it. 4. "The Gift": Dc Comics Annual #1. Writers: John de Lancie and Michael Jan Friedman. Artists: Gordon Purcell and Pablo Marcos. First off, let me say something. I am not one of these people who thinks that an actor I like is God. I do not automatically assume that an actor can write. In fact, I assume the opposite. And it's very difficult to write comic books-- some wonderful prose stylists have written utterly lame comic books. I've written comic book scripts myself-- I know. And I've seen actors write stories about their characters before (anyone here heard of "Avon-- A Terrible Novel", er, "Aspect"?) So when I heard that John de Lancie had written a TNG comic, I assumed that it was going to be really bad. Much to my surprise, and pleasure, it was actually the best of the TNG comics I've read, certainly the best rendition of Q I've seen. I disagree slightly with de Lancie's take on the character (that sounds so incredibly self- righteous-- *I* disagree with the actor who *plays* the guy-- but I have my reasons), and there are some problems, which I'll outline below. But overall, this one is worth it. Note: This story, which takes place between "Deja Q" and "Q- pid", was written before the episode "Family". As a result, it contradicts what we later found out about Picard's family. A party is held on the Enterprise, but Picard, in a melancholy mood, refuses to go, remembering an old pain from his childhood. At the party, a mysterious plague of forgetfulness begins to sweep the ship, as people forget lines, duties, etc, and a comet-like ball of flame approaches from far away. Later, on the bridge, as the plague of forgetfulness continues, Picard is suddenly struck down in agony. He begins to gradually change into a goat, passing through a transitional goat-man stage. As he staggers into the turbolift, losing speech and intelligence, he meets the author of his suffering- - Q. "I've come to tell you I don't like you anymore," Q says. "As far as I'm concerned, the honeymoon is over. Debts are paid, the slate wiped clean." Q presents Picard with a photograph of Picard's family, and coaxes the goat-creature-- who's having a harder and harder time speaking-- to say that they are his parents, at which point Q smiles maliciously and says, "Not anymore." He appears on the bridge with Picard, who has now fully transformed into a goat. "Your captain and I are going to a family reunion," Q says. "Don't wait up." And dropping the photograph of Picard's parents, he vanishes. The bridge crew deduce from the photograph that he meant Picard's family-- that perhaps Q has taken Picard back in time. Picard finds himself on a street in Paris. The date is from his adolescent years-- his parents are still alive! Picard runs to his old home, but his family don't recognize him-- he isn't their son; their son is upstairs. His father calls out, "Jean-Luc, descend!" and Q comes down the stairs. Picard, enraged, throws himself at Q and punches him. Q's face falls off and a dark, inhuman face stares out at him, laughing mockingly. The two of them reappear in a bizarre landscape. Q no longer looks human, and only barely humanoid, dressed as a judge with impossibly pale skin and stars in his robes. "You made me look small in front of my people," he tells Picard. "Now I will make you small." He begins to unravel Picard's DNA, devolving him back through several transformations. Picard shouts at him to stop. "This is like a mean-spirited child pulling the wings off flies. At least let me fight for my life! Challenge me!" he tells Q, and Q agrees. Picard contends that his parents will know him as their son over the imposter Q, and Q accepts. They return to Picard's family. At first the parents think Picard is a madman, as he claims that he is their son and the man that they know as their son, isn't. The two of them have an apparently equal knowledge of shared memories with the parents, memories that only the real Jean-Luc-- or an omniscient entity-- could know about. Then Q brings up the death of Jean-Luc's little brother Claude, who fell into a well and died. Picard cannot bring himself to discuss the incident, so Q, gloating over his triumph, recounts it-- his downfall, as the parents realize that their son would not force them to relive such a horrible event. Whoever Q is, he is not their son. Picard and Q reappear in Q's "home away from home." "I won!" Picard shouts. "I defeated you! My parents are to remember none of this, do you understand?" Q, meanwhile, is confused. "I don't understand... I remembered everything perfectly, and yet they still chose you. Obviously I have a lot to learn about humans. Let me make it up to you, Picard." He offers Picard his brother's life back, and Picard, not realizing the consequences of his brother's resurrection, accepts-- and then realizes what has happened. "You've tricked me?" he questions. "Would I do that?" Q asks. In the meantime, on the Enterprise, Riker has decided they are going to sit right there until Q comes back with Picard, though in his heart he's not at all sure Q will. Guinan, too, is troubled. "If I'd been on the bridge, I might have been able to stop him," she tells Wesley. "But Q and I have an... understanding. I won't-- can't- - interfere." She believes that Q's capacity for pettiness and malevolence has no real boundaries, and that, by seeing Q when he was vulnerable (in "Deja Q") and saving his life, making it possible for Q to be reinstated in the Continuum, Picard has managed to win the entity's enmity. As they wait for Picard, time shifts around them. Suddenly the Enterprise is the last Starfleet ship holding out against the conquest of Starfleet by the demagogue dictator, Claude Picard. Q shows a horrified Picard his people's last stand against, and death at the hands of, his brother. Q takes Picard on a journey through time. In various forms, both human and animal, they observe the growth to adulthood of Claude Picard, a sullen child resentful of his older brother who grows into a bully and eventually a petty dictator. Finally, at Jean-Luc's insistence, Q takes him to confront Claude, who pulls a gun and threatens to kill Jean-Luc. Q intervenes, and offers Picard the choice to undo what was done. Reluctantly, grieving for his brother but seeing the necessity, Picard accepts, and Q blows Claude backward into the well. As the two of them look down at the broken body, now a small child again, Q says, "Who says there is no God?" Back on the Enterprise, Riker once again offers Picard a chance to go to the party, and this time, Picard accepts. Q, in the shadows, smiles. "That's my gift to you, Picard-- to be free of your past. Wear it in good health!" And he vanishes. Review: This is a much different view of Q than anyone else has presented us with. He is more malevolent than he's been since.. well, since ever, actually, his mind games far more subtle in their cruelty than his threat to kill Amanda Rogers in "True Q" or his throwing the Enterprise to the Borg. There is humor here, but it's a darkly malevolent humor, not the usual silly glee. In some respects, this story parallels "Tapestry" (which it predates by a good bit), in Q's intensity and in the basic plotline behind the second half of the story. One of my problems with the thing, in fact, is that Q is *too* malevolent. I cannot buy that Q would want to destroy Picard so utterly for having had the temerity to save Q's life-- "Q-pid", as silly as it was, seemed a lot more in character. This story makes more sense if set after "Hide and Q", where Picard defeated Q and tricked him into getting himself banished, or "Q Who?", where Picard rejected Q's request to join the Enterprise-- it does not make sense happening after "Deja Q". Q's petty, but not that petty. (In fact, we know-- though de Lancie didn't at the time-- that Q's not that petty, because we saw "Q-pid".) I think de Lancie did this in part as an antidote to "Deja Q"-- he's made no secret of the fact that he prefers playing the character as more malevolent than humorous-- but the timing was bad. There is another point to make here. On the credits to this issue, it says, "With additional dialogue by Michael Jan Friedman." When I first read that, I thought, "Aha-- so *that's* why an actor can write. He can't-- this was ghostwritten!" Then I realized that Michael Jan Friedman is the guy who can't write Q to save his life. Later, in a biographical sketch of de Lancie, I read that DC had rewritten his script and he was very unhappy about it. So it's hard to know exactly where to lay the blame for things. For instance, the storytelling-- the way the panels flow to tell the story-- is poor. This is either the fault of the artist, or it's de Lancie's fault-- probably both, as when you have an inexperienced comic book writer and an artist who's not especially good at compensating for a writer's experience, this sort of thing can happen. On the other hand, at one point Q says, "If I'd know it would be this much fun talking to a goat, I'd have picked another 'Q'uadruped!" No. Q does not make lame jokes about his own name. I think I can safely lay that one on Friedman's doorstep, as I know Friedman makes lame Q jokes and de Lancie really has got to know better. The plotting in this is not brilliant-- again, probably de Lancie's fault; a good editor could have tightened this up. The plague of forgetfulness seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the story, and the intercut scenes of Q as a ball of flame hurtling toward the Enterprise are overdone. Some of the transition sequences are weak. This is where a rewrite by Friedman should have-- and apparently didn't, unless it was a lot worse in de Lancie's original- - helped, since Friedman is workmanlike and boring, but strong on storytelling and plot. What makes this so much superior to the other Q issues, however, are the ideas and the characterization of Q and Picard, and *that* is definitely de Lancie's doing, as Friedman couldn't write Q out of a wet paper bag (that sounds funny...). Given some training in comic book writing, de Lancie has definite promise. The sad thing is that I've gathered from reading interviews with him that he feels pretty burned by the whole experience, and will probably never write another comic book. I'd like to see him turn to prose fiction-- the author has a lot more creative control there, with less editorial meddling. As for the art... perhaps the artist took especial care in drawing Q, considering who was writing the book, or perhaps Gordon Purcell is simply a better artist than the ones on previous issues, but the art is also the best in this. Q still doesn't look exactly right-- he looks younger, a bit more unlined, a bit more classically handsome (and with more hair... did de Lancie stand over this guy's shoulder and make suggestions? ) The Pablo Marcos Q in the Dixon Hill saga erred on the side of making Q jowly and older-looking; this errs on the side of making him more classically good-looking than he actually is. (Hmm...) Other characters are drawn reasonably well-- although, ironically, Picard is kind of weird-looking in some of the panels in this-- and I really, really love the depiction of Q as the judge. Finally someone makes creative use of Q's shapechanging powers, instead of just making him look like a headbumpian or sticking his head on statuary! The interesting thing is that he looks completely alien and yet he still looks like Q. I know, because I read an interview with de Lancie and saw preliminary sketches for this, that de Lancie had a vague idea what he wanted the character to look like, Purcell did up three different sketches and de Lancie decided on which one to use, so this seems to be a genuine collaboration. I'm happy with it. Overall I'd recommend this one. Next issue: We do professional fiction-- "Encounter at Farpoint" the novelization, "Q-In-Law", "Q-Squared", and "All Good Things" the novelization. --The New Q Reviews are solely the responsibility of the author. No offense is intended. Send comments, suggestions and flames to Aleph Press at aleph@netcom.com. If you want to be reviewed, send your story along. If you *don't* want to be reviewed and you've posted stories to the net, let me know. All stories posted to newsgroups on the net are considered fair game. (Stories posted to me in private e-mail will not be reviewed unless requested.) Info on where to find other Q stories in fanzines or on the net to review cheerfully accepted. --The New Q Reviews comes out whenever I get around to writing up a new one, though I'd like to make it monthly or so. Tentative Upcoming Schedule (can be rearranged by request): Issue #3:Fanzine: QUBED Issue #4:Fanzine: QUISINE #1-#4 Issue #5:Net Stories (serious and parody) Issue #6:The Naughty Issue (erotica) Issue #7:Fan Novels: I,Q; Resurrection; Q&A. Issue #8:Random Stories from Fanzines. Guest reviewers will be solicited for the stories that the author has written herself, just to be fair.