Chalcedon: The Word Made Flesh 4th Quarter, 2019 Final essay Colin Taylor The Q from Star Trek, Gods or Christ or just pretending? God “is absolute, infinite, exalted, active, impassable, transcendent, but in all this He is the One who loves in freedom, the One who is free in His love, and therefore not His own prisoner. He is all this as the Lord, and in such a way that He embraces the opposites of these – Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics Man can certainly flee from God... but he cannot escape him. He can certainly hate God and be hateful to God, but he cannot change into its opposite the eternal love of God which triumphs even in his hate – Karl Barth In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself. 2 Corinthians 5:19 Q: Blasphemy! You're lucky I don't cast you out, or smite you, or something. The bottom line is, your life ended about five minutes ago under the inept ministrations of Dr. Beverly Crusher. Capt. Picard: No, I am not dead. Because I refuse to believe that the afterlife is run by you. The universe is not so badly designed. The Q are, or more correctly, is a recurring character in the Science fiction series “Star Trek”. Omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent they seem to fulfil the requirements of gods and in their human form could be described as Christ like figures. The purpose of this essay is to illustrate in the first part how the Q are in many ways figures that could be described as the incarnation of the word but, are in fact not at all Christ like. They do in fact show us in their seeming god like status and power that there can be pretenders and seeming analogues but only Christ is the Word made flesh. Q is a fictional character as well as the name of a race in Star Trek appearing in the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager series, as well as in related media. The most familiar Q is portrayed by John de Lancie. He is an extra-dimensional being of unknown origin who possesses immeasurable power over normal human notions of time, space, the laws of physics, and reality itself, being capable of violating or altering them in unpredictable ways with a hand gesture cue. Despite his vast knowledge and experience spanning untold eons (and much to the exasperation of the object(s) of his obsession), he is not above practical jokes for his own personal amusement, for a Machiavellian and manipulative purpose, or to prove a point. He is said to be nigh-omnipotent, and he is continually evasive regarding his true motivations. In some ways his actions could be described as god or even Christ like but whilst we could argue he moves in mysterious ways his actions display a fickleness and contrariness that are often at odds with the munificence of the word or God. We first meet the Q in the very first episode of Star Trek The Next Generation (TNG henceforth). In her book “Star Trek and Sacred Ground: Explorations of Star Trek, Religion, and American Culture” Jenifer Porter explains the Q thus “The first mission of the new Enterprise and its crew involves negotiating the entry of a new world into the Federation, of which Earth is a primary member. On the way, however, they are held up by a representative of the Q Continuum. The Continuum is a collective of very highly evolved creatures. Their powers, conventionally speaking, are unlimited. While the Continuum is plural, it acts as one, and now it has sent one of its kind, simply referred to as Q, to stop the Enterprise specifically as the beginning of a more general effort to stop the spread of humanity, the “savage race.” Porter later continues Q goes on to describe human history as a series of self-inflicted barbaric atrocities that the human species now threatens to unleash upon other worlds. The implication is that religion has had no small part to play in these events. Porter p.66 As Ross Kraemer notes in the compendium “Religions of Star Trek” the role of Q is ambiguous and not a little confusing. The shows creators were never afraid to introduce perplexing metaphysical elements and the Q represent perhaps its fullest flowering, Despite the crew’s irritation at the appearance of Q and its consistent refusal to treat him (and the Q Continuum) as anything but an annoying, perplexing life-form, Q displays the core attributes of God in Western monotheist traditions: omniscience, omnipotence, and immortality. Despite these attributes, Next Generation never explicitly affirms Q’s divinity. From the perspective of figuring out how this fictional universe works, Q’s introduction changed fundamental assumptions about the “truth” of Star Trek’s reality. In short: Q became the “god” of all Star Trek, and he wasn’t the benevolent kind. Q wasn’t a vengeful, evil god either though but more like the final answer in terms of Star Trek’s mission of seeking out new life forms. Essentially, Star Trek: The Next Generation started out with the most powerful alien ever in its first episode, and then had to figure out how to raise the stakes after that. Because the conflicts on Star Trek generally have less to do with killing-the-bad-guy and more to do with banishing-the-bad-guy-who-lives-inside-you, Q’s introduction was deft and totally brilliant. With “Encounter at Farpoint,”, the first episode Star Trek said, “It turns out God is real but he’s he insufferable, vainglorious, preening and loves to get dressed up.”. Of course this is not true but in typical TNG style it makes us ask the question “Who then is god?” In the book “What's Good on TV” Jamie Carlin Watson, and Robert Arp detail an episode of TNG (Hide and Q) featuring Q that involves a moral dilemma. It seems the “Q continuum” (the metaphysical entity, of which the recurring character Q is only a small aspect) has a premonition that the human race will eventually advance to the power and intelligence of divine beings that can compete with the powers of the Q. Q explains to Riker, “We discovered . . . that you are unusual creatures, in your own limited ways. Ways which in time will not be so limited.” Riker explains, in response, that humans have a drive that compels them to grow. Q continues: “Yes, the human compulsion. And, unfortunately for us, it is a power that will grow stronger century after century . . . We must know more about this human compulsion . . . that we may better understand it.” Watson et al p. 147 If we deconstruct the premise, we can see several elements that preclude the Q being any form of god. They clearly fear man, and in many ways are jealous of its existence. There is also the implied suspicion that they are observing humanity as a kind of animal experiment. As the episode develops Q attempts to tempt the other members of the crew with their greatest desires. One by one they are first tempted and then realise the folly of their ways. Q is at once disappointed and then contrite. He acts rather more like Satan in the wilderness than God and the members of the crew act with more dignity and honour than Q can muster. The only one who truly dabbles and then relents is the Enterprises first Office Riker who is given unlimited power. He soon realises the corrosive effects of this in the hands of a mere human. The Ships captain Picard notes to Q “Perhaps we’re all remembering the old saying, ‘Power corrupt. . .’,” and Riker finishes the thought, “‘. . . and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’” Watson p.147 In the end the person who learns most from this “experiment” is Q. When Q’s offer is officially and finally rejected, the continuum recognizes that Q has failed, so they strip away Riker’s power and drag Q back to the continuum. The Q is clearly not perfect and has a lot to learn. In Q’s final appearance on the show we see the most Christ like allusions. In the episode "Q2", he appears on The Enterprises successor Voyager with his immature, rebellious son, who appears as a human teenager. Q asks Captain Janeway to mentor his son, and the two adults agree that the boy will remain on Voyager, without his powers, and either learn how to be a responsible, accountable, and productive inhabitant of the cosmos, or spend eternity as an amoeba. Eventually, the young Q comes around, but the Continuum is not entirely convinced, so in negotiation with Q, they come to an agreement. Q must eternally guard, observe, and accompany the boy to ensure his proper behaviour. As Potter notes Either way, Q serves the purpose of TNG’s evolutionary eschatology. Q shows that humanity too may become like gods. By evolutionary development, aided by scientific advance, a bright and beatific future awaits us. How is this known? Because the Q continuum, like many other species, has already done it. Potter p. 75 Karl Barth could have been commenting on the Q when he said in Church dogmatics alluding to the Christian ideal when Jesus Christ takes his place, takes from him his sin, sins and transgression, deals with them Himself, removes them, takes them away, judges and destroys them in His death, purges him from them,” humanity is released from sin Barth p.256 ‘In contrast to other creatures, human beings are unusually flexible, capable of adapting, of altering their behaviors in order to adjust to changing social and natural environments’ Tanner p.41 Or to quote Kathryn Tanner our faculties were made to operate as they should, to operate well, only when incorporating what remains alien to them, the very perfection of Word and Spirit themselves. Tanner p.28 Tanner also says that we are justified ‘through attachment to Christ . . .through the humanity he shares with us Tanner p.86 The Q is all too human, but he is not God or Christ. Bibliography Porter, Jennifer E., and Darcee L. McLaren. Star Trek and Sacred Ground: Explorations of Star Trek, Religion, and American Culture. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1999 Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics IV/1, ed. Tomas F. Torrance and Geoffrey w. Bromiley, Edinburgh 1956. Kathryn Tanner, Christ the Key. Current Issues in Theology (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), Kraemer, Ross Shepard, William Cassidy, and Susan L Schwartz. Religions of Star Trek. New York: Basic Books, 2009. 2009 Watson, Jamie Carlin, and Robert Arp. What's Good on TV: Understanding Ethics through Television. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. 2012