What if Q never got his powers back and ended up surviving within an inch of his life from the calamarain attacks?
I wonder how Q would deal with his life as a mortal, we never got to see the extent of how this would effect him. Would he feel any type of guilt for what he has done to the crew of the enterprise over the years? Would him being human change anything at all? What’ll happen with him in the aftermath? Would he stay on the enterprise if that’s even possible? If not, where would he go? What would he do? He has no identity outside of being a Q.
What’s so bizarre about him is that once he is rendered mortal, he isn’t just loosing his abilities but also himself and his role in the universe. He is an entity that has existed for billions of years, seen things no mortal ever has or ever will see. We can’t truly fathom his experiences nor will we truly understand what it would be like for him to stay human. How would it be possible for him to retain any ounce of sanity in the long run?
Q is already and incredibly weak minded individual, simply because he lacks a great deal of empathy which is integral to the human experience. I liked that the show decided to have Data be his escort throughout the episode. In many ways they are very similar. They’re both not truly human yet they display behaviors and habits that could be seen as human. Data wants to be human, Q is forced to become one. Unlike Q, Data is able to understand empathy even though he can’t feel it. Q doesn’t understand empathy, or at least not in a traditional sense, yet he feels it. He felt it when Data saved him, the look of shame and guilt was plastered all over his face as he admitted to Picard that he wouldn’t have done the same if the roles were reversed.
I think he shows a more pathetic part of the human experience. He isn’t a narcissist, he isn’t anti-social, he is an individual that is capable of understanding but only does so when he is forced to. This applies to him as a Q as well. Its why I think he is so fixated on Picard. He’s the only one who has challenged his understandings and won, not with power, not with status, not with age, but with words. Most characters in the show doesn’t bother with Q and his antics because they view him as an evil jester. This is especially true in Star Trek Voyager. But Picard understands that beyond Q’s performances, lies a very curious entity who desires to know more while already knowing everything.
I actually do find this an incredibly fascinating fanart and even more so thought. Because this does imply that the Enterprise had ended up being successful in both rescuing Q and in turn perhaps even defeating the Calamarian. Which would have been... such a strange and perhaps even horrifying experience for Q. Because he knows that he is utterly dependend on Picard and his crew. And I would go even go so far as to say that the Enterprise crew in general does not really view Q as someone evil and as an annoying person that to them is in need of their help. I mean, Riker did kind of smile when PIcard sighed and command that they rescue Qs shuttle. Deanna I too think would try to help Q especially since she had been able to sense his emotions when he first arrived and Q basically tried a suicide attempt.
And I think then there is Data, who in his own way has a kind of fascinatino with Q in this form since as he said himself, Q has achieved something Data has wanted for years. Geordi is more annoyed with Q but he would be able to see Qs suicidal self-sacrifice and Data kind of likes Q so... I do not even think that Worf views Q as someone.. evil. Dishonourable, childish, someone he wants far away from himself and the Enterprise but, once agian, more of a pathetic annoyance.
Beverly would be.. interesting. Because Q and Beverly clearly do not like one another but considering they rescue Q and considering the state Q is in in this fanart, he would end up as her patient and she would treat him as such.
I do not know if this is what you are going for, but this really does kind of give the vibe of Q having a whole lot of emotions he cannot comprehend. Likely realizing that the Enterprise rescued him, that he is now being taken care of more than before as he is now a patient and perhaps one of the Enterprise crew or Picard himself (although I can see Picard being a bit awkward about it considering just a few hours ago he basically told you 'don't let the door kick you on your way out' and now Q actually tried to sacrifice themselves for them) told him that he could stay on the Enterprise. After all, Q needs them.
And for Q to know and find out that the only reasons he is alive right now is because of pity and compassion of the Enterprise crew and its captain (which is kind of what he banked on in the first place when he chose the human form on the Enterprise as his punishment) and that he is really stuck as a human for the rest of his life.
But I also think that this could bring up conflicts and that Q may or may not end up sabotaging himself because Qs overall coping mechanism in the way he would try to cover up his obvious weakness by false arrogance and let's be honest his overall personality could eventually cause conflict.
Your thoughts and words are exactly what I was hoping to bring forth. His existence as a human, had they saved him, would’ve been most likely a bleak one. I like your point about how the crew doesn’t wholeheartedly view him as evil. By the end of the episode I believe the crew gained a new perspective over Q. They got to see him vulnerable which doesn’t happen often. The chances of seeing any Q in the state that he was in, might be more rare than any priceless gem out there.
His interaction with Beverly stood out to me, mostly because he now had to actually listen to her and not shrug her off like usual. I think Beverly found him endearing on a small level, as their scenes persisted, her gaze would soften. Especially when Q came to have his final talk with Data in sickbay. By the end of his speech not only did Beverly look at him with a different expression but so did Geordi. They both seemed to realize that Q was capable of being genuine and ironically human.
To see Q come to terms with his mortality would be an interesting experience. We did get some glimpses but he abides by human emotions which tend to delay reaction. So, one night while he’s in the company of his own thoughts, he realizes how much he has lost and how much he’ll never get back. How he has to rely on those he used to torment. That alone would send anyone down a spiral of self pity. But it’s not entirely hopeless. The crew would most likely help despite their personal feelings. Since Data was the one to witness Q’s vulnerability first hand, he was the one that understood him the most. It would make sense if he advocated for him. Picard would most likely let Q stay on the enterprise if he could prove that he wouldn’t stand in the way of their duties.
Ultimately, it is Q’s choice on whether or not he’ll integrate. The constant reminder that the crew is helping him out of pity would likely get to him. He already has a risqué personality as you stated, I can’t imagine him reacting well to his surroundings in the state he would be in this situation. He’d start to question the actions of those around him. Analys every detail and intellectualize every interaction he has. In an attempt to add some sort of logic as to why something happened the way it did, and talk himself out feeling anything.
At the end I think he is capable of changing because he does change in the episode itself. He returns the moon to its orbit out of his own volition. It would’ve been easy to just leave after his celebration on the bridge, after all, no one expected him to help. And as a cherry on top, he gave Data the gift of experiencing humor, which I’d argue is the emotion Data has wished to experience the most.