Q-Less

I remember watching this episode way back when it first aired in the 90s. I remember wanting sisko to punch out Q during that mock fight and he did. I still get a kick out of that.

The one thing I could never understand about Vash is why does she (a human) need money? I can see maybe some other species but humans in the 24th century (according to star trek) have no need for financial wealth anymore. In an earlier episode of TNG picard says to a passenger that they have no need for personal wealth anymore and they can simply "manufacture these items ourselves". ( he was speaking of precious diamonds and jewels). And what drives humans is "we now work to better ourselves".

The only thing I can think of is maybe to travel and live throughout the galaxy, she needs to have certain currency of different worlds.

All in all , still a pretty ok episode. This first season, just like TNG has it's growing pains but eventually work itself out.

The show features Vash arriving at Deep Space 9. If you don't remember, Vash is a lady friend of Captain Picard and she appeared in a few episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation". This character was enjoyable but never made a lot of sense regarding her relationship with Picard, as she is clearly amoral and steals antiquities--so why would the very straight-laced and very moralistic Picard like her? What doesn't make sense in this episode is her relationship with Q. Although Q is all-powerful and clearly very condescending, he chases after her like a love-starved puppy-- almost constantly begging her to rejoin him in adventures. What also didn't make a lot of sense is Q's stating that he knows everything--yet didn't remember Miles O'Brien when they meet once again. And, speaking of not making sense, why did EVERYONE on the ship behave so incredibly calmly and non-emotive when the station was about to be torn apart?! Logic is NOT a strong suit in this episode!

Despite all these and several other inconsistencies, the show is enjoyable enough. Q is always enjoyable (well, maybe not so much in the old Farpoint episode) and his banter with Vash is nice.

John De Lancie and Jennifer Hetrick reprise their TNG roles as omnipotent cosmic pest and ethically-challenged archaeologist. Vash arrives on a ship which appears to be experiencing inexplicable problems. Soon, Q shows up and DS9's crew thinks they've found the explanation for the problems. But it seems that Q has only one thing in mind - convincing Vash to return to his sidecar. As Q becomes more frustrated in his attempts at persuasion, DS9 begins to experience inexplicable problems as well.

The plots seems a bit disjointed and - more than once - one has to question the intelligence of the station's safety protocols. But the real purpose of this episode seems to have been to lend DS9 some ratings through the appearance of a popular TNG character (Q) and to resolve the Vash story arc without doing another dull romance between her and Picard.

De Lancie's performances have always been heavily dependent on the script he is presented with. This DS9 episode presents Q as the intergalactic trickster, not the child-like god which he typically plays in the heavier TNG Q episodes. The dialog here is written well and both Hetrick and De Lancie do well with their roles.

Although I like Vash's risky personality and Jennifer Hetrick's smile, I have to point out - as a professional archaeologist - that it is unlikely that Vash would be permitted to exist for any length of time in a lawfully constituted government, let alone being accepted into a major scientific think-tank. As cool as she may be, she's as much of a looter as Indiana Jones.

The best part of what is really not that good of an episode is when Sisko punches the irritating Q and knocks him down. Q is the reason I don't like this episode. I couldn't stand the character on TNG and liked him less when he turned up on DS9 and Voyager. At least he never showed up on Enterprise, which would have made a bad show even worse. I'll never understand Star Trek's need for mere mortals to defeat supposedly omnipotent beings. For a guy who claimed religion was passe, Roddenberry certainly loved using god like characters.

I have really enjoyed DS9 so far, and seeing that Q was going to be in this episode I was expecting an enjoyable story. Unfortunately, the irritating and uninteresting Vash came with him. I cannot fathom why anyone thinks this woman is interesting, or why the writers seem to think the way her character is written would make her seemingly irresistible to men. I always found her relationship with Picard totally unbelievable; someone of his class and intelligence would never be romantically involved with a trashy, immoral con-artist. I also find it unbelievable that Q, who is highly intelligent, immortal and can do absolutely anything he wants, would ever waste one second of his time on someone like Vash, let alone pursue her. Ridiculous. She actually seems to have sucked all the charm out of Q; he wasn't his usual witty, fascinating self. The story was just disjointed and boring.