‘Q-LESS’ (DS9)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Here we are on what’s considered to be the third in a trilogy of ‘Star Trek’ episodes. This episode features the third TV appearance of Jennifer Hetrick as Vash, who was Captain Picard’s flame in ‘TNG’.
The episode also features John de Lancie as Q, who makes his only appearance in the ‘DS9’ series. It’s intriguing how Vash and Q make an appearance in this ‘DS9’ TV episode, carried over from ‘TNG’ itself.
The first two times Vash appeared in the ‘Star Trek’ series were in the ‘TNG’ episodes ‘Captain’s Holiday’ and ‘Qpid’. Ironic that Vash’s journey should end in this ‘DS9’ episode and without Captain Picard this time.
I’m surprised Picard didn’t make an appearance in ‘Q-Less’ to complete Vash’s journey, considering he was a guest star in the first ‘DS9’ episode ‘Emissary’. But hey! It’s nice to see Vash and Q in this one.
In the episode, Jadzia Dax and another crewmember return from the Gamma Quadrant in a runabout with problems on the way. They’re also joined by a third member who happens to be Vash herself. 😀
Chief O’Brien recognises Vash from the time she visited the Enterprise in ‘Qpid’ whilst he was the transporter chief. This is ironic considering O’Brien didn’t appear in ‘Qpid’. So how does he know Vash?
Mind you, Vash could’ve met O’Brien when Riker gave her a tour of the Enterprise in that episode. It was a big ship after all. I like the connections made between O’Brien and Vash from the ‘TNG’ episode.
Anyway, it seems Vash has been in the Gamma Quadrant for about two years. Jadzia and her crewmate picked her up from the Gamma Quadrant without an explanation on how she first got there.
But of course, she got there because of Q who was giving her a guided tour of the universe since the last time we saw her in ‘Qpid’. In this story, Vash has broken up with Q after learning his true colours.
I enjoyed the scenes between Vash and Q where she told him to go away and leave her alone. But Q seems determined to have her back as her partner and is constantly observing what occurs in the tale.
Vash also attracts her admits in Dr. Bashir who invites her to dinner as well as Quark who takes an interest in the Gamma Quadrant she’s acquired. Quark makes a partnership with Vash in the episode.
Both she and Quark work together to get some profit out of the artefacts acquired from the Gamma Quadrant. They do this by putting up an auction as they invite a variety of aliens to bid for these items.
O’Brien soon learns of Q’s presence and informs Sisko about it. I like that Sisko knows about Q already from a Starfleet briefing and she shares this information with Major Kira who doesn’t know about him.
Throughout the episode, a series of unusual power drains occur aboard the station. The ‘DS9’ team are quick to suspect that Q is behind all of this. Sisko confronts Q about when they’re in Quark’s bar.
I like how the point is made that Sisko is not Picard when he interacts with Q. This occurs when Sisko punches Q during a fight-out between them in Quark’s bar. It’s pretty amusing when that occurs here.
During the auction arranged by Vash and Quark, the power drains continue to grow worse. Very soon, the space station gets drawn towards the wormhole. The DS9 team are at a loss as to what’s going on.
But it turns out that one of the artefacts brought back by Vash from the Gamma Quadrant is causing problems. It’s a beautiful orange-like crystal. During the action, the bid for gold-pressed lantium gets made.
The bid grows into an excess of 1,000 to 2,501 to 1 million bars of gold-pressed latinum (the last bid was made by Q strangely). Incidentally, gold-pressed latinum is the currency utilised by the Ferengi in ‘DS9’.
Quark is astounded by the bid being raised. But as soon as the DS9 team discover the crystal, they beam it out into space where it transforms into an alien whale-like creature before it enters the wormhole.
I like how the episode ends with Q agreeing to let Vash go and have her life back. Q admits he’s going to miss her being his companion in the universe. Vash admits that she’ll miss Q too, but not too much.
‘Q-Less’ is a satisfying conclusion to the Vash trilogy featured in ‘Star Trek’ and is an enjoyable episode to feature Q in the ‘DS9’ series. A shame Q only did one ‘DS9’ episode compared to ‘TNG’ and ‘Voyager’.
‘Q-Less’ (DS9) rating – 8/10
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