Fi's Five Favorite Hero/Villain Pairings #4: Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Q (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

(Also check out Hero/Villain Pairing #5)

I’ve hinted at my love for Q in my mini-list, Fi’s Five Favorite Star Trek Villains, but his relationship with Captain Picard demands its own full entry here.

With Star Trek taking place in one of the most sprawling fictional universes ever created, they’re not the most – for lack of a better word – monogamous of hero/villain pairings. Picard faces new bad guys practically every week and has a few other recurring nemeses, and Q branches out to pester the casts of Deep Space Nine and Voyager when The Next Generation is over, but the dynamic between the two of them is something special.

Yes, Q dares to take Picard's chair.

Q isn’t the first character to spring to mind as archnemesis material. He’s essentially a trickster god. His omnipotence allows for lots of surrealism and absurdity, so his episodes generally have a lightness to them that doesn’t accompany other recurring villains, like the Cardassians or The Borg.

Though all three have canonically seen Picard naked.

For main villain credit, though, Q does have the advantage of being the first villain of The Next Generation. He sets the scene for the whole series in the first episode when he intercepts the Enterprise and decides to put humanity on trial for his own amusement.

This episode isn’t funny. It’s terrifying. It ruthlessly establishes how very far out of its depth humanity is in its exploration of the universe. Picard and the crew have absolutely no recourse against this omnipotent being, no options but to keep humoring and talking to him and hoping that he’ll get bored with them and leave them as they were when he does.

And in the final episode, Q is the one who ties everything together, reminding Picard of how they met and telling him, before sending him on his way again, that the trial never ends.

There’s plenty of silliness in between…

But that’s what makes their relationship so fascinatingly different from the unrelentingly serious ones. It’s not about trying to destroy each other. All Q really wants out of Picard is attention and amusement to break up his eternity of boredom.

All Picard wants out of Q is to be left alone, and even though he knows Q is all-powerful and could think him out of existence in an instant, he refuses to bend an inch for him or be anything but himself.

Whenever Q shows up with his distinctive introductory sound effect, announcing that everyone is now subject to his whims for an indeterminate period of time, Picard isn’t scared or even seriously angry.

Go away, Q. I don’t have time for your shit.
(Okay, not a direct quote, but almost)

And that’s exactly what Q finds so interesting about him. Groveling would be boring.

The odd closeness this creates between them comes out in the episode when Q is banished and stripped of his powers by his own kind for being too much of a troublemaker. He can live out a mortal life as anything he wants, and he chooses the human form he’s been using to appear to the crew of the Enterprise and asks Picard to take him in.

Why? He confesses to Picard,

“Because in all the universe, you are the closest thing I have to a friend.”

Not much changes when Q regains his powers. The two of them continue to clash. Q never stops being a villain, and Picard never stops regarding him as an irritation. And it continues to be fascinating, because Q isn’t a villain who can be fought, but what Picard has done is even more impressive under the circumstances. He’s made an impression on him.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!