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Space, the final franchise, these are the voyages which are
destined to be repackaged and sold repeatedly. The studios
forty year mission to explore strange new ways of selling
the same property, to seek out new sources of revenue, and
to avoid boldly going onto any new expensive series...
Not content to package up the poor old Borg and a bunch of
time
travel stories, this month sees the release of
the Q Fan Collective box set. It's a little redundant
to say who the main character in this set is or to go into
great detail about each of the shows; rather we'll have a
look at what you're getting for your hard earned dosh. All
the audio tracks have been remixed into 5.1 with varying results
and thankfully all the episodes look like they have been sourced
from some decent prints.
The
first DVD starts with the two-parter, Encounter at Farpoint,
from The
Next Generation and we have the introduction
of Q, although to be honest in re-watching the episode Q is
missing a lot of the mischievousness which made him such an
asset in later shows.
Next up we have Hide and Q, wherein Q offers Riker
the chance to have the power of the Q. It's all very manly
stuff with Riker spending way too much time with his legs
planted as far apart as he can get them to accentuate his
testosterone poisoning. At this stage Q is still more bully
than omnipotent sprite.
The last episode on disc one is Q Who. While Q is starting
to become the character we all came to love, the episode is
more notable for the introduction of the Borg, when Q throws
the Enterprise across the galaxy in response to Picard's
hubris.
On
to the second disc and we're still in the land of The Next
Generation with Deja Q, which comes with the usual
insightful and interesting text commentary by Michael and
Denise Okuda. At this point the show has become more assured,
with the actors feeling more comfortable with their characters.
This is also the episode where Q finally kicks in as the cosmic
child, so we have Q's quips at Worf's expense and the great
one liners and word jokes which made the character such a
delight to watch. Thrown out of the Continuum, for various
transgressions, Q must adapt to life as a human.
Next
up is one of my personal favourites, Qpid, if only
to hear Worf's exclamation that he is not a merry man. Q,
having recovered his powers, feels indebted to Picard and
in order to repay his debt transfers the crew to medieval
Nottingham where Picard, in the guise of Robin Hood, can rescue
Maid Marion. Overall a very funny story and the one in which
the writers finally got what Q was all about.
True
Q is an all together darker story. When the Q discovers
that one of the Enterprises crew is actually the child
of another pair of Q's they give her a stark choice, either
join the crew or be terminated.
With
such a well loved character, it was only a matter of time
before Q started cropping up on other Trek shows causing
his usual level of mayhem. So the last story on disc two is
Q-Less from Deep
Space Nine. To ease his transition to DS9
from TNG the story also includes Vash who was last
seen gallivanting around the cosmos with Q. Following their
arrival at DS9, the station starts to suffer strange
power fluctuation and all eyes turn to Q for the source of
the problem. This episode also comes with a text commentary.
DVD three and we're back in TNG with Tapestry,
a thoughtful story which shows Q softer side and his growing
admiration and fondness for the human race. He offers Picard
a gift, the chance to go back and change anything in his past
which he regretted. This being Q you don't actually get to
say no. For once instead of trying to preach to Q, the story
actually teaches Picard that the man he has become is a combination
of all his past experiences and that to change a single instance
may just unravel his whole life.
For
the Last of TNG stories we have the show's finale,
All Good Things, a mind bending time twister which
depicts the shows beginnings, its present and a possible future,
as Q tries to make Picard think outside the box to save the
universe and to remind him that the trial which began at Farpoint
never really stopped.
Last up and we're now into Voyager, with Death Wish,
the last series that Q would appear in. This show comes with
a text commentary and poses the question can omnipotence ever
become so dull that death would be preferable.
Last DVD in the set and I'm starting to overdose on Q regardless
of how great John De Lance is in the role, and lets face it
he generally gave scene stealing performances. The last disc
is a bit short on stories containing only the two.
The
Q and the Grey finds Janeway caught up in a civil war
in the Q Continuum, which started as a consequence of the
events in Death Wish. Janeway's rather odd solution
to this conundrum is for the Q to start having babies; well
I suppose it will give them something else to occupy their
time. Not a bad story but by now you get the feeling that
the writers are starting to run out of ideas for the character.
Last,
but not least, is Q2 and yes you've guessed it Q has
had a baby and wants Janeway to act as nanny.
The
box sets are a great way of getting a taster of the various
series, but surely they must be running out of people to sell
the shows too. Still if you're a fan of Q then you're going
to be in pig heaven, though it's a shame there was no input
from Q himself, a commentary would have made the package that
little more special.
Charles
Packer
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