7. Q Less

Summary

Dax returns from the Gamma quadrant with an unexpected passenger: Vash, Captain Picard's old flame, who tells the puzzled crew that she's been in the Gamma quadrant for two years but refuses to say how she got there...but as they leave the airlock, Q is there masqerading as a crewman. Vash makes arrangements with Quark to auction off some aritifacts from the Gamma quadrant, including a captivatingly beautiful yellow crystal that defies analysis. Q visits her in her quarters and tries to persuade her to start traveling with him again, but she abjectly refuses. Meanwhile, the station begins to experience puzzling power drains that are accompanied by dangerous graviton surges that start poking holes in the station. Sisko begins to suspect a cause when O'Brien spots Q on the Promenade, but Q denies any responsibility and takes great delight, as expected, in needling Sisko. As Vash's auction begins, another power drain occurs and the resulting graviton field is so strong that the station begins to move towards the wormhole. Dax traces the power drain to Quark's and to the strange crystal, which Quark has just auctioned off to Q (who's been watching the auction with a great deal of interest) for a million bars of gold-pressed latinum. They beam the crystal off the station where it "hatches" into an large glowing lifeform that immediately flees through the wormhole. Life on the station returns to normal, Vash convinces Q to leave her alone and spurns her planned trip to Earth and the stuffy Daestrom Institute in favor of more artifact-hunting.

Analysis

This was one of the series' early, abortive attempts to make connections to TNG, connections that they were really better off without...a fact that was evident to everyone and the reason Q has never reappeared on DS9. They don't need him, and he really doesn't fit in there all that well...as opposed to Lwaxana who really fits *better* on DS9 than she did on TNG. Although he has his usual share of sharp-witted one-liners, he doesn't *do* anything. The power drains aren't his doing, the only reason for his presence is to torment Vash. Q's sparring with Picard only worked because the two are so different...but Sisko lacks Picard's buttoned-down stiffness and so he and Q don't really click all that well. Bashir's lasciviousness is far overplayed, probably worse than at any other time in the series, and yet another destruction-of-the-station plot gets the back-burner treatment. I hate that. I never liked Vash all that much and she is at her most abrasively annoying here. All in all, Q is always entertaining but the episode, as a whole, is a waste of time.

Rating: 4.5

Memorable Quote:

"I suppose it's my fate to be the universe's whipping boy...oh, heavy is the burden of being me." --Q

Q: You hit me! Picard never hit me.
Sisko: I'm not Picard.
Q: Indeed not. You're much easier to provoke...how fortunate for me.

Classic Scene:

There is one amusing Odo/Quark scene. Odo is bemoaning the humanoid occupation with accumulating material wealth, but Quark has a hard time believing there's nothing Odo wants. A suit? Rare pottery? Odo disdains them all...until Quark mentions a latinum-plated bucket to sleep in. Odo actually considers for a moment, then shrugs it off.

Sexually Slanted Line 'O the Episode:

"I'm going to just sit right here and watch." --Q...I always suspected he liked to watch.

The O/K Status Report

Nothing.

Special Alerts

1