Star Trek: Voyager — 2x18 — Death Wish

Aired 1996-02-19

SpaceOpera.com rating:10

Average reader rating:6.7

Synopsis

A rebel Q demands asylum on Voyager.

Remarkable scenes

A new Q showing up.
The new Q being very appreciative of Voyager freeing him.
The old Q showing up.
Tuvok: "I am curious, have the Q always had an absence of manners or is it the result of some natural evolutionary process that comes with omnipotence?"
The new Q explaining to Tuvok that the Q are not in fact omnipotent. Tuvok's response: "Intriguing. Just what vulnerabilities do the Q have?"
The old Q calling himself to the stand at the hearing. A double of himself appears. :)
Tuvok: "You find nothing contradictory in a society that outlaws suicide but practices capital punishment?"
The old Q bringing people from Earth with the promise that they will not remember the experience and no one will know they are gone. He brings Maury Ginsberg, Sir Isaac Newton, and Commander Riker!
The new Q demonstrating his prison.
Old Q: "You could live a perfectly normal life, if you were simply willing to live a perfectly normal life!"
The old Q bribing Janeway with a free trip back to Earth.
The visit to the Q Continuum.
The new Q making his case for self termination. His life's work is complete. Let life end!
Quinn killing himself.

Review

One of Star Trek's best offerings. Voyager features a number of rare great Q episodes and this is the first. The humor is mixed extremely well with the very real issue of suicide. Not only does the situation parallel that of present day Earth, for Tuvok's statement "You find nothing contradictory in a society that outlaws suicide but practices capital punishment?" is a reference to the hypocrisy of present day Earth laws regarding suicide and capital punishment, but the episode presents extremely good science fiction at the same time, by presenting us a side of the Q continuum culture we've never seen before. Immortality is unbearable to certain Trek aliens we've seen, even to certain members of the Q continuum. One Q wants to kill himself, and now Janeway must arbitrate the dispute. An episode that many may think is just an excuse to recycle old characters from other shows to me ended up being one of Star Trek's most profound offerings, and a rare gem among Voyager.

7 reader comments

I don't wish to too overtly directly attempt to criticize your review or review this episode myself because I do not believe I am impartial (for personal reasons).
However, it must be stated that the view of, say, (various states within) The United States, having engaged in "hypocrisy" by engaging in the death penalty for murders while at the same time actively attempting to prevent suicide attempts is highly subjective at best.
The episode may very well be impressively plotted, however it is plotted in a manner designed to make the suicide arguments palatable and comforting and the those opposed to it dark and cold. You don't see the real actual arguments but fantasy arguments that the writer wants to pretend is a reality. It is clear from the beginning (as it usually is on television, unfortunately) what "moral direction" the episode is going.
Sadly, this is almost always the case when Star Trek is a "message show." But wouldn't have been braver to go against this mold? To have the characters struggle on the ethics of an issue? To actually make you ask where the show was going?
I, again, have to admit I am not impartial here. After watching this episode I did not watch Voyager regularly again. But you wonder how many viewers television loses with these "gems?"
by Jim Servo | 10/31/2006 at 2:26 am

Saw this for the first time the other day and it was terrific, IMO.
"Jim" who commented previously is correct that the plotting contained "fantasy" elements that slanted the moral issue of suicide, but in the opposite way he seems to think, IMO.
If anything, the episode invented a fantasy element which served to give the anti-suicide side of the issue more plausibility than in the "real world" of human beings, in that there was the matter of the unprecedented suicide of Quinn possibly causing harm to the entire Q Continuum as a collective entity.
But human beings are not a gestalt entity like the Q, and the suicide of one individual can only potentially effect those other individuals he or she knows personally, not the "collective" of all humans together. And such obligations as he or she might have set up in relation to those others is a private matter between them, not a concern of "society" as a whole, as they will not suffer any ill-effects.
So in this way, the writers were granting a point in favor of preventing the suicide which doesn't really exist in the "real world" of human beings presently.
Therefore, I'm surprised at reader Jim's reaction in this regard. The philosophic issue raised in the episode of the rights of the individual to determine the course of his or her own life, as against whatever fears or desires of the collective, made for very effective drama as it does in the many other Star Trek episodes that raise this general issue in various ways.
by David from California | 08/13/2007 at 5:32 pm

I enjoyed this episode, but I thought they missed a trick. They should have shown the new Q settling in to his new life a little but then killing himself anyway. Killing him off as soon as they did slightly lowered the emotional impact. Still a great outing though, and good to see Q and Riker.
by Rob Herbert | 08/19/2010 at 1:55 pm

One of the best-written Trek episodes, one worthy of singular note and a proper literary review.
It ranks right up there with TNG "The Inner Light".
It feels a little dated now. After all, the backdrop is the shallow prosperity & banality of the Clinton period, when oil was still $25 a barrel, and the right Nasdaq bet could yield a college student a brand new Mercedes Benz. Oh how monotonous & spiritually empty, all that easy wealth.
No matter -- it is a wonderful, unforgettable vignette.
by Joseph Angeles | 02/17/2013 at 3:23 am

Oh, how I hated this one. Just to much, and it is yet another episode in a string which brings in alpha quadrant elements - instead of focusing on the exoticness of the delta quadrant.
And I hated the new Q, his manners and that extremely bad overacting. The show took on a totally new feeling when John de Lancie enterered - his presence blew everyone else away.
The hearing/courtroom setting feels a bit tired too.
I dont mind the moral aspects though, but it was obvious how Janeway would rule from a 100 miles away, esp when old Q offered to take them home…
by Hugo von Ahlenius | 08/18/2013 at 7:05 pm

I loved this episode! It was great to get a glimpse of what life is like in the Q continuum. Plus, it ends on a downer with Q actually killing himself, which was a nice break from happy-happy. Janeway didn't get what she wanted - YES!
by thaibites | 11/15/2013 at 5:37 am

Alienized names for ordinary stuff in this episode:
"Gorokian" Midwife Toad "Kylerian" Goats Milk "Nogatch" Hemlock
by Erik Friend | 02/21/2016 at 5:03 am