Line #65 Literature/IQ


1	[[quoteright:306:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/i_q_9332.jpg]]
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3	->''"Know you that I, Q, am the trickster. I, Q, am the lord of chaos. I, Q, defy you to the last, and if you think you can stop me by ending the universe, then I'm here to tell you that you're going to have to do better than that!"''
4	--> -- '''Q'''
5
6	''I, Q'' is a [[Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse standalone]] Franchise/StarTrek [[Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse novel]] set mainly in [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]] era. Published in 1999, ''I, Q'' was co-authored by Star Trek writer Creator/PeterDavid and Q's actor Creator/JohnDeLancie (who likewise narrated the abridged audiobook).
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8	The main story is narrated by Q, the character that John de Lancie played in various Star Trek episodes. Q's story begins with him and his family enjoying some [[VillainsOutShopping deep sea fishing]] at the bottom of a mighty ocean. (The Q family is [[PhysicalGod omnipotent]], the crushing depths of a mere ocean is nothing to them.) Suddenly a giant fissure opens up on the ocean floor, and a massive whirlpool above it begins to pull everything in the ocean down into the newly formed canyon, including Q's wife and son. Strangely enough, the whirlpool disaster wasn't exclusive to just the one ocean. Every body of water in the galaxy was completely drained into the single canyon, even virtual bodies of water like the holodeck environment Picard and Data were [[HeroesGoneFishing fishing]] in. Fortunately, Q was able to save himself, Picard, and Data; unfortunately, Q was unable to save his family, and is now mad as a hornet about their disappearance.
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10	Q, Picard, and Data [[TeethClenchedTeamwork grudgingly]] decide to team up to find out what caused the metaphysical whirlpool, albeit for different reasons. Picard and Data fear the possibility that the universe is ending, Q only cares about finding his wife and son. Either way, the three have to work together to figure out what kind of force is behind it all.
11
12	----
13	!!The novel contains examples of:
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15	* ABoyAndHisX: Q snarkily refers to Picard and Data as "A boy and his computer".
16	* AboveGoodAndEvil: Right? Wrong? Trivial notions.
17	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: [[spoiler:Melony chuckles at Q's rant, which is what saves the Universe.]]
18	* AlwaysABiggerFish: [[spoiler:Melony is a being -- maybe God herself -- far more powerful than anyone in the Q continuum.]]
19	* AnvilOnHead: Happens to someone about to attack Q, courtesy of M.
20	* ApocalypseHow: Class Z.
21	* ApologeticAttacker: While our heroes are fighting their way through a chaotic train car, Data apologizes to everybody he hits. Q admits that it would be funny if not for the life-threatening danger.
22	* AppearanceIsInTheEyeOfTheBeholder: [[spoiler:Melony]] appears different to everyone who sees her. Only Q's son sees her in her true form (or, at least, what the narrative suggests is her true form); Q sees Lady Q, Picard sees Vash, and Data...well, [[TheUnreveal it's never revealed how Data sees her]].
23	* BadassBoast: Q's declaration that they'll have to do better than ending the universe to stop him. [[spoiler: AND HE'S RIGHT!]]
24	* BirdPoopGag: Happens to Q when he gets [[TakenForGranite turned into a statue]].
25	* BoldInflation: Data vs. M: Not just '''Bold''' inflation, but '''[+Font+]''' inflation as well; to illustrate the rage in each participant's voice, several pages are written in fonts at least five times bigger than normal.
26	* BroughtDownToNormal: What the crevasse does to Q's powers. The longer you stay in one place, the more powerful you become...but Q isn't staying in one place for very long due to his wanting to find his wife and son.
27	* BurningWithAnger: M, when Data's angry rhetoric turns the crowd against her.
28	* CensorSuds: {{Invoked}} by [[spoiler:Melony]]. While otherwise an InnocentFanserviceGirl, she creates a dress out of sea foam when she finds [[spoiler:Q's son]].
29	* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler: Melony.]]
30	* DeadpanSnarker: Q--endlessly. His narration is filled with wit, from the beginning:
31	--> ''"[[TitleDrop I, Q.]] My instinct is to start with me. It's a natural instinct, I suppose, since I was there at the beginning. [[CaptainObvious I've been around for as long as I can remember.]]"''
32	* DespairEventHorizon: As per the FiveStagesOfGrief metaphor that our heroes are trapped in, the DeathWorld after the merchant bazaar is a representation of this.
33	* DeusExMachina:
34	** [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the anger level when Q finds himself trying to survive on a raging battlefield and is surprised that he's lasted this long. The next time a rabid fighter charges him he just stands there until he's about to be torn apart when...an anvil falls on his attacker. Q is quite disappointed with this largely because the Deus in question turns out to be M.
35	** Q himself has played this more than a few times as well, such as the time when he made sure that a skydiver with a faulty parachute landed in a haystack (after telling him that something about him just pissed Q off).
36	* DisappearedDad / MissingMom: Q comments that the reason he finds raising q appealing is because he has no memory of any parents himself.
37	* TheDiscoveryOfFire: Q claims responsibility for this, saying he did it as a joke. His punishment led to the myth of Prometheus.
38	* DivineConflict: The novel gives us the Q Continuum's counterpart the M (both sides being SufficientlyAdvancedAliens that screw with the universe for their own amusement, or so it would appear). Neither side has any particular reason for being at war with the other (the initial reason was, quote, "Because there's something about you that really pisses us off"), but apparently one of the M invoking YourMom was reason enough, even though nobody could figure out exactly whose mother had been insulted and nobody in the Q Continuum had a mother in the first place. And really, that's as much sense as the whole thing ever makes.
39	* [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even Jerkasses Have Standards]] Q is disgusted by the attack on Times Square that ends up taking Melony's life. [[spoiler: She gets better in the end]]
40	* DrosteImage: Data stops in the HallOfMirrors to observe one of these. Q can't resist asking him how many reflections he sees. Data gives a number in the trillions, only to be cut off with a patented "[[PhraseCatcher Thank you, Mr. Data]]".
41	* FaceNodAction: Heavily {{discussed}} by Q.
42	--> "Mr. Data--" said Picard, and then he motioned toward the far wall of the boxcar. At first, I thought that he was asking Data for suggestions. But then, as I saw Data nod, I understood that since the two of them had been working together for so long only a few words from Picard were necessary. All he needed to do to set the android into motion was nod.\
43	I hate to admit it, but to some degree I envied them that relationship. For all the uncounted centuries that I've strode the galaxy, I had never really had anyone with whom I communicated on that level. Not even the Lady Q. Granted, we were able to communicate by sharing thoughts, as were all the Q in the Continuum. But there was a difference between that and not even ''having'' to think because the other person knows what you're thinking. That entailed a level of confidence and trust that was--remarkable as it may seem--outside of my experience.
44	* FailingATaxi: After Q fails several times to flag down a taxi in the Continuum (because they deliberately ignore him), Picard and his revolver succeed in persuading a driver to take them to HQ.
45	--> '''Driver:''' I'm off duty.\
46	'''Picard:''' ''(shoots the "off-duty" sign on his taxi)'' Your shift was just extended.
47	* FiveStagesOfGrief: It turns out the ''entire universe'' is going through this, [[spoiler:as a ploy by the Continuum to make Q accept the end of the universe. It doesn't work.]]
48	* FlippingTheBird: Q tries while he's turned into a statue, but fails.
49	* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: As always with the Q Continuum...but it goes even further, as Picard's own mind adjusts the Continuum into a Dixon Hill novel...while Data's lack of ability to filter the Continuum makes him overload from the sensory perception and shut down.
50	* GoMadFromTheRevelation: At a Mardi Gras party, Q punishes several people who play a "red dot" prank on him by showing them the secrets of the universe. They promptly fall apart.
51	* GoneHorriblyWrong: Q's anecdote about The Funniest Joke in the Universe.
52	* AGoodOldFashionedPaintWatching: According to Q, this is SeriousBusiness on Sraticon IV. They even have a LargeHamAnnouncer for it.
53	* HallOfMirrors: The trio go through one in "God's" tent. Includes the DrosteImage above.
54	* HappilyMarried: Q and Lady Q.
55	* IHaveManyNames: Q. Given the number of worlds where he's considered some sort of TricksterGod, that's no surprise.
56	* InevitableWaterfall: {{Lampshaded}} by the ever GenreSavvy Q, who mentions having seen enough B-movies to see it coming.
57	* InnocentBlueEyes: Melony's eyes are described as being brilliant cobalt blue, crossing with HeavenlyBlue.
58	* ItsAllAboutMe: Q makes no attempt to deny it, downplay it, and happily illustrates it.
59	-->Me...Myself, and I. Three of the best pronouns in the language.
60	* KangarooCourt: M puts Q through one, during which she makes him TheScapegoat for the End of the Universe.
61	* LamePunReaction: Picard has a pained reaction when he learns that Q Continuum's 'Central Headquarters' is simply known as 'HQ'.
62	* LargeHam: Data, of all people, when he and M start [[HamToHamCombat trying to outshout each other]]. See BoldInflation.
63	* LiteralGenie: How Q tricks the Nagus into losing the wager.
64	* MessageInABottle: Q sums up his experience and puts it in a bottle, [[spoiler: the one Melony found in the beginning.]]
65	* NothingLeftToDoButDie: God. And she wants to [[OmnicidalManiac take the rest of creation with her]].
66	* OhCrap: Plenty of these moments given the circumstances, but the one that leaves Picard completely shaken is when he sees Locutus.
67	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Both Q and Picard are shocked when [[TheStoic Data]] starts shouting with genuine rage.
68	* PapaWolf: Q's family is in trouble. ''Fuck'' the end of the Universe.
69	* PaintingTheMedium:
70	** Data and M, see BoldInflation above.
71	** When [[spoiler: the universe ends,]] the next several pages of the book are blank. The first indication that [[spoiler: Melony has changed her mind upon reading Q's manuscript]] is her chuckling written in the center of an otherwise blank page.
72	* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: When a dying Romulan starts begging to Q to save him and saying "Please," Q responds, "I don't think 'Please' is the magic word today; you'll have to try again. How about Swordfish?" The Romulan promptly dies.
73	* PlummetPerspective: Q, Picard, and Data experience this while standing over a bottomless abyss. It's when Q fully realizes that he's about to plunge into a situation where he can't see the outcome, and finds that he envies Picard's ability to do so with far less trepidation.
74	* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Q gets an awesome rant at the climax. It's so epic that [[spoiler: God herself is impressed enough to forestall the end of everything and hit the ResetButton]].
75	* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: Q lampshades the former trope namer during the shout-off between Data and M, musing that Data's volume control had gone up to eleven. The end result is several pages of [[BoldInflation bold]] and vastly enlarged text, M going mad, and Q being briefly impressed with Data's speech.
76	* RousingSpeech: Picard gives one on the train, encouraging everyone to rise up and take control. As much as Q admits to it being a good speech, it is unfortunately directed to the most unresponsive audience ever and falls completely flat.
77	* ShoutOut: They take advantage of the fact that Creator/WallaceShawn played Grand Nagus Zek to deliver a nice one to ''Film/ThePrincessBride''.
78	* SillyReasonForWar: The Q and the M. [[LampshadeHanging They have trouble finding a reason pointless enough to start one]], until somebody shouts "[[YourMom Your mother!]]" and the war is on.
79	* SkewedPriorities: How Q thinks about Picard's reaction to seeing him with a giant clamp on his mouth, courtesy of M.
80	--> Picard, for his part, took one look at my trussed-up mouth and promptly smiled. That figured. The universe collapsing around our ears, and he would find it funny that I had a large clamp across my mouth. His priorities were as out of sync as M's.
81	* SureLetsGoWithThat: When Picard and Data are apprehended and brought before M, she asks Q why he never asked about them. Picard claims that Q was simply trying to keep their presence hidden (which Q knows is bullshit), and M acts like it's convincing.
82	* TakenForGranite: The Q's first try to stop Q has them turning him into a statue. He's able to talk Bernsen!Q into releasing him.
83	* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Picard tries to [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talk AU!Locutus to death]]...on top of a train that's going to be incinerated while everyone aboard is in denial about it. It fails, leading to a TraintopBattle.
84	* {{Technobabble}}: When Q visits Q Continuum, which is in a state of utter chaos, he describes it in technobabble, then after his lengthy, jargon-ny description of what the heck's going on, he proceeds to [[LampshadeHanging hang the lampshade]]:
85	-->'''Q''': This must sound like a lot of technobabble to you. In layman's terms: ''The [[PrecisionFStrike shit]] had hit the fan''.
86	* TheWallsAreClosingIn: When our heroes are trapped in the house in the despair world. Q and his son escape; Picard and Data don't.
87	* WorthLivingFor: Q decides that his son is this, giving him what it takes to defy the End of Everything.
88	* YourMindMakesItReal: According to Q, this is called "mindality", a combination of "mind" and "reality". Picard takes advantage of this in the Q Continuum (which looks to him like a ''Dixon Hill'' novel) to make whatever he needs appear, be it a revolver or a thousand-dollar bill.
89	* YourMother: How the war between the Q and the M got started. More hilarious: none of the Q (or the M, for that matter) actually ''had'' a mother to insult.
90	* ZeeRust: In the book, there's a terrorist bombing in Times Square on New Year's ringing in 2000.

Context Literature / IQ