I also had no idea the top portion of the Starship Enterprise could separate like that. That was pretty sweet.

  • GreenMario@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Idk John DeLancie has that “Tim Curry” energy where he chews the scenery well and is fun to watch but wasn’t much a fan of Season 1 Q.

    It gets better.

  • DrChaotica@startrek.website
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    Hot take: you don’t fully appreciate Q until you’ve watched all the episodes he’s in. That includes the ones in Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

  • FrickAndMortar@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I hated him in the first couple of episodes too; but when TNG started, I felt like everything was overly dramatic. Picard bellowing out heavy-handed soliloquies, Worf growling and gnashing his teeth, Riker swaggering around pretending to be Kirk from the old days… things settle down pretty quickly though, and the characters become less two-dimensional.

    As for Q specifically, he’s not around a whole lot, but he makes an appearance or two per season maybe. He ends up more curious about humanity than being adversarial against humanity, but he still sometimes just throws a monkey-wrench into everything for his own amusement or to test a theory, once in a while.

    Stick with it, it’s a really good show.

  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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    1 year ago

    You’re supposed to kinda hate Q. He plays a recurring role here and there throughout the series, but not a central one.

    The first season of TNG is a bit rough; it definitely improves.

    • Doug [he/him]@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Season two also isn’t the greatest. But its got some solid stories that do affect things later.

      Mostly I just can’t stand Pulaski

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        I don’t like her either, but I would say that’s not because Muldaur is a bad actress, or because she was a bad character.

        For example, her being a dick to Data really helped his character growth. She was abrasive but it really helped TNG grow its beard.

          • Nakedmole@lemmy.world
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            I don´t really care if they tried to recreate a Spock/McCoy rivalry. Pulaski is a great character by herself. Don´t let your sympathy for Data cloud your judgement. Pulaski is introduced as a character full of prejudice against synthetic humanoids, who overcomes her bias while actually getting to know Data. She learns to see her mistake and ends up fully respecting Data as an equal, sentient being. It is one of the earliest examples of actual character development on the show and much more interesting to watch than two dimensional, over perfect characters.

        • Doug [he/him]@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          100%

          She’s a great actress doing a fantastic job of playing a very unlikable character. Except that she’s not unlikable in the way a good unlikable character is. She’s not the way OP is feeling about Q.

          But it’s not just the way she interacts with Data, which does result in character growth for both of them. I’m sure they were going for the adversarial thing but it didn’t work, with Data or anyone else.

    • Fuck spez@sh.itjust.works
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      He’s like Murdoc from MacGyver. You hate the character but you can sense that he’s going to be defeated eventually and it’ll be a fun ride getting there.

    • Gork@lemm.ee
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      I’m not sure Picard actively hates him. However, I do think his reaction is basically the Picard facepalm jpg whenever he interacts with Q.

      • Codex@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m pretty sure the Picard face palm is a shot from S3 episode “Deja Q”. He literally is facepalming at Q.

      • Venicon@sopuli.xyz
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        I think to Picard, Q is just this buffoon with god powers and chooses to use them purely for wind ups. He knows he can’t do jack to stop him but scolds him at every opportunity.

        I would have loved one character to just disappear on a massive bender with Q for a while and come back totally fried but just slot back into their spot on the ship

      • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Picard doesn’t hate him, but Picard understands that Q isn’t operating in good faith and is always aimed at undermining humanity.

        The problem I would think, as Picard sees it, is there is no reasonable way to do battle with Q or stop him, and so instead of a radical path of eliminating Q’s ability to interfere entirely, we’re given what appears to be a very tepid, liberal response where we’re supposed to work with terrible people who aren’t operating in good faith simply because they have power and aren’t afraid to use it.

        Picard is from a strictly socialist society, and that means at some point, they understood how to deal with people like this, who are operating in bad faith. The new wrinkle is that Q is so powerful, you have to hope that you can just talk him down, because there is no way to remove him from the equation or remove his powers.

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    1 year ago

    Unless you are a completist who’s willing to sit through the less than good episodes, you may want to use an episode guide such as this one which I found useful when I went back to rewatch it. Yes Q is kind of annoying, that’s actually his character and how everyone in the show feels about him too. But there are also some fantastic episodes with him, so once you get to those, you may not hate his presence as much.

    • williams_482@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      I feel compelled to recommend this guide by a long time Daystrom Institute contributor. It does an excellent job identifying episodes as essential, unnecessary but fun, mediocre, or outright bad. A good place to work from if you want a more flexible recommendation of what to try and what not to.

  • xyguy@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    I felt the exact same way about Q after the first episode both as a character and as a concept for the show. They basically introduced God in the first episode of a science fiction show and he is annoying and arrogant.

    But he is actually one of the best characters by the time the show is over and his all-powerful nature is toned down a little bit.

    Season 1 is pretty goofy and inconsistent overall. Give it a chance and accept it for what it is and by season 4 the writing is some of the best in science fiction TV.

  • Infynis@midwest.social
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    He’s a pretty major character, but that only means one or two episodes per season. He’s just got a thing for Picard

      • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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        I don’t know why it’s hilarious to me that Picard pulls up his covers like he’s ashamed at Q seeing him in the nude, as though he isn’t a multidimensional demigod who probably can see through Picard’s clothes anyway if he so wished.

        It’s just such a cute and pointless attempt at privacy with a nearly all powerful being. Like dude he just magicked himself into your bed, you think he didn’t already get a good look?


        Patrick Stewart : So in my film, I play a man who controls the world with his mind.

        Andy Millman : Right. Oh, that’s interesting.

        Patrick Stewart : Yeah. For instance, I’m walking along, and I see this beautiful girl, and I think I’d like to see her naked, and so all her clothes fall off.

        Andy Millman : All her - clothes fall off?

        Patrick Stewart : Yes, and she’s scrabbling around to get them back on again, but even before she can get her knickers on, I’ve seen everything. Yeah. I’ve seen it all.

          • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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            I actually remembered it after I made the comment, and edited it in. Realized how Patrick Stewart at least already understands.

            But it’s also true that I’ll drop this reference any time I get a chance because it never fails to crack me up.

  • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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    How big of an ongoing factor is “Q?” Because I kind of hate him.

    Blaspheme! Will no one rid me of this turbulent critique?

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    Keep going. It get’s much much better. Each season is better than the last, but Season 2 is where the feel of the show stablises and softens; it’ll always be jarring when you go back to season 1 after you pass it. Season 3 is definitely where it starts to hit it’s stride.

    It’s largely an episodic show; you could skip to season 3 and go back to the season 1 & 2 later without missing much. A few recurring characters and themese like do Q make more sense if you watch from the start though.

    If you’re really wavering definitely skip to season 3.

    • SickDisturbence@lemmynsfw.com
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      This advice here is it, OP. I’ve watched the whole series close to 10 times by now, and sometimes even I skip season 1. However, it does add some good context, and flashbacks in later seasons will make sense and give you a better feeling of attachment to the events if you’ve seen them.

    • ursakhiin@beehaw.org
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      While definitely true for the most part, I feel like the first episode is pretty important for a number of other reasons and there are things in season 1 that are explored for Data that are referenced throughout the series.

        • ursakhiin@beehaw.org
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          While true of OP, I was responding to the idea that I’ve could skip the entire first season on the first watch.

          The first season is rough but it sets up a lot of things that are touched on in later seasons.

  • Haus@kbin.social
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    If it helps - Q introduces a “bad guy” to the series that is so famous that people who haven’t seen the series have heard of them.

  • ArugulaZ@kbin.social
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    If you hated him on Next Gen, you’ll really hate him on Deep Space Nine. Fortunately, he only appeared there once.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    As great as TNG is, the first season is like the first season of any show: characters are less developed and the vibe is somewhat different than later offerings.

    As the show progresses, everything kind of falls into a better place. In fact, the Q character allows for some of the best episodes in the series (e.g. Tapestry). So my advice would be to stick with it and you’ll likely feel different later on.

  • atlasraven31@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    You’re supposed to hate Q. The Enterprise crew hates Q. He is an annoying trickster god.