Q-Squared by Peter David
OK, I'm going to try to write this today b/c tomorrow of course I will disappear for as long as it takes, and I sure as hell won't be going online until I'm done!
If you haven't read this, and you're a Q fan, you should read this. There are some spoilers here, but the biggest one is something you find out really early on. I haven't read tons of Trek novels, but my now-ex wife had tons of them, so I read quite a few, and Q-Squared is by far the best I've read--even among Peter David's Trek oevre.
Anyway, I was listening to the novel on (hold your collective breaths) cassette tape! Now some of you young'uns might not know what a cassette tape is, so ask your elders. Wikipedia may even have an entry. But this was how we used to share music and rip off the music industry in the days of eld. Digression: When I was in grad school, a few of us were making a mix tape of our favorite rock, pop, and/or danceable tunes for the annual Welcome-New-Grad-Students party, and one of us had an actual mixer so you could have one song fade out as the other faded in. It was a brilliant tape with everything from Queen to U2 to Blondie to the Beatles to the Temptations ("War! HYUNH! What is it good for?"*) to the B-52's to the Fifth Dimension to the Grateful Dead to Bob Marley--well, you see what I mean.
Anyway, lo these many many years ago, I got tape versions "Dark Mirror" and "Q-Squared" b/c John de Lancie was reading them, and he's well, Q (who got an entire chapter of my book to himself--Q, not JDL), and an excellent reader. Of course now I want to reread the novel and get the full text instead of the somewhat abridged version, but it's still a marvelous listen.
BUT . . . There are two similar scenes that piss me off. David should have known better than to fall into such pathetic gender stereotyping. I'll quote the second one:
Her [Trelane's mother] voice was filled with concern, with confusion. She did not fully grasp what was occurring. All she knew was that her child was in some sort of danger, and she had to do something.
"Trelane!" she said in alarm, and then her voice was drowned out by the strident authority of Trelane's father's.
Trelane!" he said forcefully, for his father was a great scientist, a highly respected, awesomely knowledgeable being. He knew instantly what Trelane was about to do, and he knew that it had to be stopped.**
These are fucking Q's, damn it. Why on earth would Trelane's mother not grasp what was occurring? She's like billions of years old, an omnipotent and immortal being, and basically she's the emotional one b/c we all know that women are emotional and men are rational, so of course Trelane's daddy acts kind of like a Q. This is just really disappointing gender stereotyping to read in an otherwise excellent novel.
And, frankly, it seems ridiculous to me that Q's have gender, which is why I was so irritated by the introduction of Q's wife on ST:VOY, even if she was performed by the very hot Suzie Plakson. She, at least, acted like a Q.
But why the fuck would Q's have gender? I mean they're supposedly waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more evolved than we are, they don't have a material form, but can create one when they need it. They're energy beings--omnipotent, immortal, etc.
At least in TNG, Q's form is entirely arbitrary--a costume chosen for maximum effect on whoever they're interacting with.
So here's the situation from the episode "Qpid" (Season 4, IIRC). First of all, I am firmly convinced that there's a homoerotic subtext in b/t Picard and Q during the whole series, about which I've discoursed at length. OK, Spoilers for "Qpid" ahead:
Q is jealous (my interpretation) of Picard's relationship with Vash (Jennifer Hetrick). He enters Picard's bedroom at night, joins him in bed, and says "You seem tense, preoccupied, somewhat . . . smaller." :-) Picard leaps out of bed, and we see he's wearing little shorty pajamas with short shorts and a shirt that has the largest V-neck in the history of humankind. There is a lot of Captainly chest exposed. And Q is stalking after Picard in his usual Starfleet uniform, using the fact that JDL is quite a bit taller than PS, to loom over Picard, always from behind--the threat is there, but only implied. And he does this thing, if you recall, where he leans over Picard and speaks directly into his ear--with his lips this close. The reason the following quote is mostly in italics is b/c Q says each word very deliberately and intently:
This human emotion, love, it's a dangerous thing, Picard, and obviously you're ill-equipped to handle it. She's found a vulnerability in you, a vulnerability I've been looking for for years. If I'd known sooner, I would have appeared as a female.
Need I say more? Well, you knew I would. :-) This quote is all about the arbitrariness of gender; Q is disappointed with Picard's conventional heterosexuality, and Q also states directly that his gender appearance is arbitrary--a costume. I love this quote too b/c it is an explicit statement of Q's attraction to Picard. I think the "If I'd known sooner" refers to Picard's conventionality wrt gender and sexuality. And he is always falling in love w/ the wrong woman: Vash, that scientist Picard realized he wouldn't be able to send on dangerous missions b/c of his feelings (can't remember the ep name and am sleepy), and that chick who was destined to marry someone else but bonded with Picard. (Well, wouldn't you? :-) )
Anyway, so this whole gender thing with the Q just strikes me as wrong. Q's having husbands and wives takes away so much of the Q Continuum's mystery. Giving Q's genders does the same thing. They just seem less and less "evolved" and more human the more we see of them, and I think that's a mistake. And Peter David really dropped the ball, IMO, with his 1950's depiction of Trelane's parents. And [BIG SPOILER], it doesn't say much for Q's taste in women.
Finally. A must-read rant about the VOY ep, "The Q and the Grey by alara_r, an episode of such supreme suckage (IMHO) that it's probably an understatement to say that it über-sucks. You need to scroll a while down the page until you get to the header "The "Q And Grey Is Canon" timeline." It's worth it.
*Seeing a very pregnant Lucy Lawless singing this in the ep XWP "Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire" is a treat.
**p. 290-91 of the hardback edition.
If you haven't read this, and you're a Q fan, you should read this. There are some spoilers here, but the biggest one is something you find out really early on. I haven't read tons of Trek novels, but my now-ex wife had tons of them, so I read quite a few, and Q-Squared is by far the best I've read--even among Peter David's Trek oevre.
Anyway, I was listening to the novel on (hold your collective breaths) cassette tape! Now some of you young'uns might not know what a cassette tape is, so ask your elders. Wikipedia may even have an entry. But this was how we used to share music and rip off the music industry in the days of eld. Digression: When I was in grad school, a few of us were making a mix tape of our favorite rock, pop, and/or danceable tunes for the annual Welcome-New-Grad-Students party, and one of us had an actual mixer so you could have one song fade out as the other faded in. It was a brilliant tape with everything from Queen to U2 to Blondie to the Beatles to the Temptations ("War! HYUNH! What is it good for?"*) to the B-52's to the Fifth Dimension to the Grateful Dead to Bob Marley--well, you see what I mean.
Anyway, lo these many many years ago, I got tape versions "Dark Mirror" and "Q-Squared" b/c John de Lancie was reading them, and he's well, Q (who got an entire chapter of my book to himself--Q, not JDL), and an excellent reader. Of course now I want to reread the novel and get the full text instead of the somewhat abridged version, but it's still a marvelous listen.
BUT . . . There are two similar scenes that piss me off. David should have known better than to fall into such pathetic gender stereotyping. I'll quote the second one:
Her [Trelane's mother] voice was filled with concern, with confusion. She did not fully grasp what was occurring. All she knew was that her child was in some sort of danger, and she had to do something.
"Trelane!" she said in alarm, and then her voice was drowned out by the strident authority of Trelane's father's.
Trelane!" he said forcefully, for his father was a great scientist, a highly respected, awesomely knowledgeable being. He knew instantly what Trelane was about to do, and he knew that it had to be stopped.**
These are fucking Q's, damn it. Why on earth would Trelane's mother not grasp what was occurring? She's like billions of years old, an omnipotent and immortal being, and basically she's the emotional one b/c we all know that women are emotional and men are rational, so of course Trelane's daddy acts kind of like a Q. This is just really disappointing gender stereotyping to read in an otherwise excellent novel.
And, frankly, it seems ridiculous to me that Q's have gender, which is why I was so irritated by the introduction of Q's wife on ST:VOY, even if she was performed by the very hot Suzie Plakson. She, at least, acted like a Q.
But why the fuck would Q's have gender? I mean they're supposedly waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more evolved than we are, they don't have a material form, but can create one when they need it. They're energy beings--omnipotent, immortal, etc.
At least in TNG, Q's form is entirely arbitrary--a costume chosen for maximum effect on whoever they're interacting with.
So here's the situation from the episode "Qpid" (Season 4, IIRC). First of all, I am firmly convinced that there's a homoerotic subtext in b/t Picard and Q during the whole series, about which I've discoursed at length. OK, Spoilers for "Qpid" ahead:
Q is jealous (my interpretation) of Picard's relationship with Vash (Jennifer Hetrick). He enters Picard's bedroom at night, joins him in bed, and says "You seem tense, preoccupied, somewhat . . . smaller." :-) Picard leaps out of bed, and we see he's wearing little shorty pajamas with short shorts and a shirt that has the largest V-neck in the history of humankind. There is a lot of Captainly chest exposed. And Q is stalking after Picard in his usual Starfleet uniform, using the fact that JDL is quite a bit taller than PS, to loom over Picard, always from behind--the threat is there, but only implied. And he does this thing, if you recall, where he leans over Picard and speaks directly into his ear--with his lips this close. The reason the following quote is mostly in italics is b/c Q says each word very deliberately and intently:
This human emotion, love, it's a dangerous thing, Picard, and obviously you're ill-equipped to handle it. She's found a vulnerability in you, a vulnerability I've been looking for for years. If I'd known sooner, I would have appeared as a female.
Need I say more? Well, you knew I would. :-) This quote is all about the arbitrariness of gender; Q is disappointed with Picard's conventional heterosexuality, and Q also states directly that his gender appearance is arbitrary--a costume. I love this quote too b/c it is an explicit statement of Q's attraction to Picard. I think the "If I'd known sooner" refers to Picard's conventionality wrt gender and sexuality. And he is always falling in love w/ the wrong woman: Vash, that scientist Picard realized he wouldn't be able to send on dangerous missions b/c of his feelings (can't remember the ep name and am sleepy), and that chick who was destined to marry someone else but bonded with Picard. (Well, wouldn't you? :-) )
Anyway, so this whole gender thing with the Q just strikes me as wrong. Q's having husbands and wives takes away so much of the Q Continuum's mystery. Giving Q's genders does the same thing. They just seem less and less "evolved" and more human the more we see of them, and I think that's a mistake. And Peter David really dropped the ball, IMO, with his 1950's depiction of Trelane's parents. And [BIG SPOILER], it doesn't say much for Q's taste in women.
Finally. A must-read rant about the VOY ep, "The Q and the Grey by alara_r, an episode of such supreme suckage (IMHO) that it's probably an understatement to say that it über-sucks. You need to scroll a while down the page until you get to the header "The "Q And Grey Is Canon" timeline." It's worth it.
*Seeing a very pregnant Lucy Lawless singing this in the ep XWP "Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire" is a treat.
**p. 290-91 of the hardback edition.