Star Trek: The Q Conflict is a 2019 comic book miniseries from IDW that is a crossover between the first four live-action Star Trek series, The Original Series (during the Five-Year Mission), The Next Generation (just prior to Star Trek: Nemesis), Deep Space Nine (between seasons 3 and 4) and Voyager (season 7).
When a conflict between the resident god-like beings of the Star Trek universe threatens the galaxy, Captain Picard appeals to Q to resolve it peacefully. He gets more than he bargained for when his crew is brought together with those of Captains Kirk, Sisko and Janeway, who are to participate in a series of games on behalf of the four factions. Picard is the chosen candidate of Q, while Kirk, Sisko and Janeway find themselves working for Trelane, Ayelborne of the Organians, and the Metron respectively. Though the four captains remain in the chair of their ships, they find themselves leading mixed up crews.
Tropes
- Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Q tries to get the crews to get the Prophets' attention in order to "shake things up" since the Prophets refused to partake in the conflict. Sisko is none too please and warns Q not to provoke the Prophets. Q naturally disregard his warning as he dismissed them as "a bunch of pussycats." He is quickly proven wrong when the Prophets attacked Q in which their battle almost nearly, in Q2's words, "melted down everything in this corner of the galaxy."
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: The four crews united, wielding Q-weapons, fight against Q and Trelane's army of simulacrums.
- Boring, but Practical: When the four crews are challenged to make contact with the Prophets, where Picard attempted to use technology to draw their interest and Kira (as part of Janeway's team) tried to use an Orb, Sisko just tried to meditate and Kirk chose to enter the wormhole directly.
- The Bus Came Back: In addition to the Q, we see the return of Trelane, Ayelborne of Organia, the Metron, Q2, Amanda Rogers, Wesley Crusher and the Traveler.
- Butt-Monkey: Quark of Deep Space Nine. Since he only ran the bar on the station, it is not really clear to anyone, most of all Quark himself, why he is counted among the station's crew. Then, after the teams are chosen, Quark emerges as the last man standing, left to join a displeased Trelane's team. Honorable mention goes to Harry Kim, the eternal Ensign of Voyager, who is the last to be picked before Quark.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Iconian gateway the teams must claim as part of their first challenge is an important tool in their subsequent campaign against the higher entities.
- Continuity Cameo
- Other characters appear when the crews are taken out of time by Q: Janeway disappears when she is receiving a check-up from the Doctor, Sisko disappears in front of his son Jake, and a voice from the Enterprise sickbay (presumably Nurse Chapel) attempts to alert a now empty bridge to the disappearance of Doctor McCoy.
- The Prophets appear to Kirk in the forms of Edith Keeler, God-Mode Gary Mitchell and Captain Pike.
- Continuity Cavalcade
- The Prophets taunt Q by assuming his own form en masse, each appearing in a different costume he wore on-screen. They include 16th century ship captain Q, US marines captain Q, post-atomic horror soldier Q, Marshal of France Q, monk Q, Human Q, Mariachi Q, Safari Q, Sheriff of Nottingham Q, Pugilist Q, even Borg Q.
- For the final battle, Q conjures an army of simulacrums based on dangerous alien beings from throughout Star Trek history. They include Napoleonic animal men, Salt Vampires, Melkotians, Excalbians, neural parasites, Jem'Hadar, Mugatos, Borg, Breen and Kaylar. He is stopped just before he can summon the Talosians.
- Continuity Nod
- Jake Sisko plans to celebrate his now bald father's promotion, placing the Deep Space Nine crew shortly after their third season finale.
- Picard recognises the captain of Voyager as Admiral Janeway.
- Tuvok recognises the young Lieutenant Sulu as his old captain.
- Picard has read Sisko's report on his one encounter with Q.
- O'Brien notices that Worf is awkward around Jadzia. Worf admits that they will get to know each other in the future. What he does not reveal is that they marry, then Jadzia dies.
- Continuity Snarl
- A somewhat important one. Bashir is entrusted to be ready to take Q out using a sniper rifle, it is explicitly noted that he is the only one who can do it due to his genetically enhanced skills. However, the DS9 crew are clearly from a point before Worf transferred to the station, which means that the truth of Bashir's genetic enhancements would not be exposed for another year or so.
- Voyager is shown using quantum torpedoes like the Defiant and the Enterprise, which was never seen in the series run.
- Crazy-Prepared: Riker has memorised the prefix codes of every shuttle on the Enterprise, allowing him to disable the shuttle used by Picard's team for the first mission.
- Demoted to Extra: Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH), known simply as the Doctor, does not join the Voyager crew for the contest, appearing only in a cameo performing a check-up on Janeway before she is taken out of time.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Bashir is entrusted with a Q-killer sniper rifle in the final battle. Though he has an opening for a headshot, the doctor opts to graze Q's cheek, sparing his life and so allowing for a peace agreement to be drafted.
- Fantastic Racism: Invoked but defied when Worf is assigned to Kirk’s crew for the games, Worf observing that he’s unsure what to expect as the Federation and the Klingons are at war in Kirk’s time. However, Kirk assures Worf that he considers a Klingon wearing the uniform a sign that their differences were resolved, and he has no problem accepting Worf as a Starfleet officer.
- Godzilla Threshold: The crews decide to stop playing the game when the latest challenge is to retrieve an Omega molecule, with Picard, Sisko and Janeway all agreeing that the contest is becoming too dangerous (Kirk only doesn’t share their sentiment because he doesn’t know what an Omega molecule is).
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: After the conflict is over, every crewmember involved voluntarily chose to either keep their memories of Q's games intact or forget them, depending on a case-by-case basis.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Quark is the last one standing after all crew members have been chosen. He is left to join the team representing Trelane (captained by Kirk), who clearly regards him as a short straw.
- Mythology Gag: Sisko is the captain representing Ayelborne. The two had met in Malibu Comics' "Blood & Honor".
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: At one point, Q gets so carried away, Trelane is forced to be the adult in the room.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: The various crews are all pulled from different points in time, with no clear reason why Q and his associates drew them from these particular eras; the Defiant crew are from a point before Worf transferred to the station, Voyager is still lost in the Delta Quadrant, and the Enterprise-E is from a point just before Star Trek: Nemesis.
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What Could Have Been The writers originally wanted to feature Captain Archer and the NX-01 crew as the fifth crew conjured up by Q, but higher ups said four crews were enough so the NX-01 crew got the axe. - Unishment: As punishment for their role in assisting the starship crews, Wesley Crusher and Amanda Rogers are stripped of their powers and returned to human form, but both note that they’re happier this way.
