The use of Q as a plot device in Star Trek has a long and storied history. Before I start on the review for this episode, accompany me, if you will, on a brief history of the uses of Q.
Encounter at Farpoint, Hide and Q, Deja Q: Star Trek, particularly TOS and TNG, has a thing for extending the "absolute power corrupts absolutely" phrase to gods - and Q is the ultimate example. In these episodes, Q plays the immoral immortal, giving the writers the opportunity to show how much better humanity is than God. Now, I'll go on record as being a strong proponent of the secular humanism of Trek, but these episodes are offensively heavy-handed. I have met young earth creationists who also purport to be big Star Trek fans, but with examples like these in the canon I just cannot see how. Two of these episodes happen to share the "distinction" of being TNG season one episodes, which doesn't help; "Deja Q"'s (season 3) dialogue is very entertaining ("Oh, very clever Worf. Eat any good books lately?"), and a good Data episode on top of that, which completely rescues its watchability for me.
Qpid, Q-less: Q has also been used as an excuse to just do silly stuff. Honestly, It doesn't really matter whether the TNG cast romps around as Robin Hood ("I am not a merry man!") because of Q or because of some other alternate universe anomaly. But John DeLancie is entertaining, so why not? "Q-Less" only kind of fits in this category, largely because it is almost completely irrelevant that Q is there.
Q Who, Tapestry, All Good Things...: Other Q-uses cast him as a much more enigmatic character, still behaving impishly, but using his powers to teach lessons. He is neither the worthless, vapid god of "Hide and Q", nor is he the unfathomable and serene type of god that we see in the Prophets of DS9. These appearances are much more complex and generally interesting to watch. To this date, "Tapestry" is one of my favorite Trek episodes across all series.
True Q: This is a kind of odd-ball episode, where Q brings an internal continuum matter to the Enterprise... which also makes it the best analogue to today's episode!
Q is tricky character to weave into Voyager since he has the power to send the ship home with a snap of his fingers - in the aforementioned "Q Who" he sent the Enterprise to the delta quadrant (where they met the Borg for the first time). The writers, by introducing him to the show, have effectively trapped themselves into keeping him adversarial enough to prevent him from helping in that manner. Any episode that ends the way that "Deja Q" does, with Q being grateful to Voyager, would feel empty if he doesn't send them home. I suppose a different way to approach it would be to use Q as the imp judge of "Tapestry" or "All Good Things...", refusing to send the ship home on the grounds that it would "build character" - but that idea is not explored here.
Voyager finds a Q trapped in a comet (who they free by using the transporter); a Q that wants to ditch this immortality thing and just die. Our good ol' Q shows up on behalf of the Q-continuum, demanding that he (Quinn) stop this nonsense at once and go back to prison. Janeway somehow maneuvers herself into the position of arbitrator of this dispute, and must choose between encouraging euthanasia and sending her ship and crew home. Based on prior actions, I'd expect Janeway to outright reject the mortality-granting option on the grounds that she finds it abhorrent, but to her credit she doesn't do that this time, and we get a series of "trial" scenes wherein Tuvok/Quinn and Q must argue their points.
Quinn takes the trial directly to an abstract manifestation of the continuum to make his point: being immortal is boring. Basically, if you live long enough, you've done everything. I find that to be a rather bleak outlook. There is a lot of stuff out there. Immortal or not, omnipotent or not, you'd have to live an exceptionally long time to have done everything - and that's even assuming that there aren't new things happening every day. That's not an assumption I want to make. Not that I really care one way or the other if this Quinn guy is unimaginative enough to want to die when he can effectively do anything - rather, I just pity him. Heck, in this very episode, he says that Tuvok was able to surprise him (by representing him when personally he does not agree with him - like he's never heard of that before); what's to say that there won't be a new surprise tomorrow. I do like the way they frame Q's past actions though: in the world of boring immortality, Q had, in the past, been acting out (see: early TNG) as a way of rebelling. Not exactly retcon, but it does give a new way to look at the worse of the Q episodes.
Janeway ultimately decides in favor of Quinn, turning down Q's bribe of a free ride home. It feels a bit out of character for her, but largely because she usually wouldn't get involved in the first place. I've spent a bit thinking about what the other Trek captains would do. Picard would likely steadfastly refuse to participate, but if he were to be forced to weigh in, I think he'd probably make the same choice as Janeway. Sisko, on the other hand, I think of more as the pragmatist; he'd take the bribe, on the grounds that getting his ship home safely is his top priority as captain, and easing his conscience by hearing Quinn out would be a luxury. That, and he is on record as being almost violently opposed to euthanasia (Sons of Mogh, DS9 season 4), regardless of cultural sensitivity issues.
Q himself is on the top of his game here, dialogue wise. It is incredibly cathartic to have him needle and pester Janeway throughout the episode, behaving not as an equal, but as a superior. Key line: "You're so angry when you're beautiful" (Q to Janeway, mockingly). Q loves to appear next to you in bed, and it makes Janeway extra uncomfortable. Even better, it is Quinn who teaches Q his lesson at the end of the show, so Janeway is denied her smug condescension moments which she so cherishes.
As a footnote: Riker has a guest appearance here too, and it feels completely contrived.
Watchability: 3/5
Bottom Line: Some interesting food for thought, as with any Q episode, and some great one-liners, also common to Q episodes. I generally felt unsatisfied by it, but certainly have mulled over it plenty afterwards.
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