Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 1x07 — Q-Less

Aired 1993-02-07

SpaceOpera.com rating:6

Average reader rating:4.17

Synopsis

Frequent U.S.S. Enterprise visitors Q and Vash introduce themselves to the crew of Deep Space Nine, while the officers struggle to save the station from imminent destruction.

Filler rating: good filler

There's no essential plot or exposition in this episode that renders it unskippable, but it's a decent episode, even though it could have been better.

Remarkable scenes

Bashir telling the story of his medical finals.
Vash and Q appearing.
O'Brien explaining what he knows of Vash's relationship with Picard.
Vash to Q: "You're arrogant, overbearing, and you think you know everything." Q: "But I do know everything!" Vash: "That makes it even worse!"
Quark ignoring the weirdness of being transported about by Q due to his strong desires to do business with Vash.
Vash sexually arousing Quark.
Q toying with Julian.
O'Brien's reaction to seeing Q: "Bloody hell."
Q to Sisko: "Is Starfleet penalizing you, or did you actually request such a dismal command?"
I like the inside joke about the uniforms. Q: "I like your new tailor." He then magically switches from the TNG uniform to the DS9 uniform. :)
The conversation between Quark and Odo regarding Odo eavesdropping on him. Quark: "What were you this time? The table? One of the chairs? The wine bottle!" Odo: "When are you going to realize that you have no secrets from me?" Quark: "I have nothing to hide. I'm selling quality merchandise to select clientele." Odo: "And what makes them so... select." Quark: "They're all ridiculously wealthy. And not too bright." Odo: "I'll never understand this obsession with accumulating material wealth. You spend your entire life plotting and scheming to acquire more and more possessions until your living areas are bursting with useless junk and then you die. Your relatives sell everything and start the cycle all over again." Quark: "Isn't there anything you desire?" Odo: "I have my work. What more do I need?" Quark: "A suit of the finest Andorian silk. A ring of pure sorax! A complete set of Tenaish pottery. How about a latinum plated bucket to sleep in?" Odo seemed tempted by the last one. ;)
O'Brien to Q: "O'Brien. From the Enterprise." Q: "Oh yes, weren't you one of the little people?"
Q mentioning that the station is "hurtling toward its doom" to the auction crowd.
Julian having slept through the whole episode thanks to Q.
Morn appearances; 1. Can be seen walking behind Vash and Sisko during their first meeting. 2. Behind Quark when he tries to convince Vash to sell him her artifact at an absurdly low price. 3. In the crowd when Q creates a boxing match between himself and Sisko. 4. In Quark's Bar when Vash is leaving in the end of the episode.

Review

Certainly a bonus to bring back Vash and Q, further tying the series to TNG, yet allowing us to see that it can stand on its own against TNG villains. This episode bears a resemblance to TNG: Encounter at Farpoint. Both episodes featured Q, both episodes featured a trapped alien being exploited, both episodes ended in the release of that alien as a puzzle for the Starfleet crew to solve, and both episodes ended with Q being proven wrong. The repercussions of this episode are of course not as grand as Farpoint's, but it is nevertheless a fun episode, even if it gets annoying waiting for the crew to solve the painfully obvious puzzle at times.

2 reader comments

This is a nice fun episode that ties in nicely with TNG, and provides some light-hearted relief from the relatively heavy mood set by the batch of DS9 episodes (compared to much of TNG anyway). The plot doesn't do much except update us on what Vash has been up to on her travels. The real highlight is, as always, John de Lancie's performance. There doesn't seem to be any real reason for Q being there, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.
My favourite moment of this episode is Q's little double-edged jibe at O'Brien. "Weren't you one of the little people?". It highlights the fact that O'Brien has moved on from his lesser role in TNG, where he was a minor character who was never far from a transporter console; one of those "little" people who beaver away in the background to keep everything running. It's also a nice reference to his Irish ancestry, "little people" being another name for the leprechauns of Irish legend (as in the hokey Disney movie "Darby O'Gill and the Little People").
by Mark McC | 02/19/2009 at 3:02 am

There is a reason that Q never returned to DS9, he doesn't really work does he?
I'm glad they stopped rehashing TNG villains because there was absolutely no reason for Q to be in this episode just like there was no reason the Duras sisters needed to be in 'Past Prologue'. It's nice when they tie in to TNG, but at least make said tie in relevant to the plot (I know they think Q is behind everything that is going on but we all know he isn't and that's getting very old by now - see TNG's Deja Q for this false blame type of thing).
Vash on the other hand is central to the plot and fits into the underworld of DS9 perfectly. Overall a fairly satisfying episode with a mundane plot, I'd give it a 4.
'Picard and his lackeys would have solved all this technobabble hours ago', love that line.
by Bernard | 11/24/2009 at 1:57 pm