The Other Q Source Hypothesis: A Different Interpretation of Star Trek

Nest week the new Star Trek film will be released, and even though I do not have high hopes for it I still feel an odd excitement. This shows that all you have to do to interest me in a movie is throw the name of a franchise I like on the cover, since these Star Trek movies don't really share a lot in common with Star Trek other than the character names. But since this movie is coming out next week I have decided to do Star Trek themed posts in honour of it (Judging by how often I post, this will probably be the only one). I would like do one before the movie comes out, explaining my problem with the portrayal of James T. Kirk in the new film but who knows if I will get to that. I may also do a review of Star Trek Into Darkness after I see it. So the next while may only be Star Trek posts, but this is my blog and I can obsess over Star Trek for a couple weeks if I want to. But none of this is certain to happen, so we shall see.

The Enterprise represents the current state of the Star Trek  franchise.

If there is one thing that people universally respect and admire it is fan theories. And so I give to you my only "fan theory" or at least the one I have put the most thought into. I call it the Q Source Hypothesis¹ because I think I am funny, but unfortunately that may only be a delusion. The hypothesis itself originates from a scene in Star Trek: Enterprise² which closely mirrors the final scene in the movie Star Trek: First Contact. Basically what happens is that humanity is greeted by Vulcans and instead of reciprocating the greeting they shoot all the Vulcans and rob their ship. This of course turns out to have happened in the Mirror Universe, which is a alternate universe in Star Trek in which everyone is a jerk.

So lets forget about the whole Mirror Universe thing for a second and instead go to Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the very first episode, the Enterprise encounters a being who claims to be omnipotent. He is referred to as Q. He also claims that humanity is a dangerous savage child race. This is very offensive to the Enterprise crew since if there is one thing that the Next Generation characters are sure of it is their general superiority over everyone else. So they explain that humanity is good and progressively getting better. Q drags them off to a barbaric trial from the dark ages in Earth's 21st Century. They are given a chance to prove that they are better than they appear and Q lets them go. After this Q appears in two distinct modes; he sometimes comes to the ship as a trickster and other times as a teacher.³ For the sake of this interpretation, I will maintain that even when he was being a trickster he was actually testing the crew. In his second appearance, for example, he offers Riker a chance to become a Q. Eventually Riker turns him down when he realizes that his powers are already corrupting him. One could interpret this as Q actually inviting him to become a Q, but I think it makes more sense to see it as Q testing his resolve and convictions in the face of absolute temptation.

"Judge Q, to you."

The next time Q appears it is to introduce them to the Borg. The Borg are made up of many alien species who have been made into cybernetic organisms and seek to add all technological and biological distinctiveness to their own. They seek out anything that they think will make them stronger and add it to their collective. The Enterprise escapes the Borg without much trouble but later runs into them again when they invade Federation space. This time Picard is briefly assimilated by them and while he does get restored back to his former self, it is not without a certain amount of emotional damage.⁴ I'm now going to skip to Q's final appearance on the show in which he tests Picard by sending him backwards and forwards through time so he can fix an anomaly before it prevents life in the universe from coming into existence. This isn't too important except for the way that Q's test's penalty is the destruction of the universe.

Alright, I am almost done here. This now brings us to Star Trek: First Contact in which Picard chases the Borg back in time to prevent them from destroying the human race. Once there they send Riker to help Zefram Cochrane bring a ship to warp speed. While there Riker teaches him about all those wonderful Federation values.

Locutus of Borg: For some reason a hive mind with no concept of
individuality still thought Borg Picard needed a name.

Which brings us to the whole point of this post. My theory is that the Star Trek universe is not the prime universe but rather the Mirror Universe is. The Mirror Universe is the natural progression of events from where we are today, but Q was unhappy with the way the Galaxy was so he created a Utopian pocket universe. Then he introduced himself to his creation and challenged their right to exist. Q needed to know that the Utopia he created was as good as he thought it was and so he did it by choosing a ship of people and tormenting them. First he tempted Riker to ensure that he could change Zefram Cochrane into a man who wouldn't murder Vulcans, and then he introduced Picard to the Borg so that he would become obsessed with them. By doing so he set up the events that would eventually lead to Star Trek: First Contact. But first he still needed to be certain, so he created a final test for Picard that if failed could destroy the universe he created. Picard passes the test meaning that Q is now ready to allow the universe he created to cause its own creation, as circular as that may be. The Borg invade Federation Space and Picard chases them backwards in time, in which they meet Zephram Cochrane and help him to become a better person thus leading to the creation of the Star Trek Universe itself.

Only through divine intervention could this man create a Utopia.

The truth is that the Star Trek Universe is somewhat silly. At some point humanity became so great that they no longer had poverty, greed, or crime, and had no need for primitive things like currency. I maintain that this could not come about naturally and could only exist through some form of intervention. In conclusion, the Star Trek Universe only came into existence because Q wanted it to.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_source
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9TdvN07ZWI
3.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBwoEXlTph0
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuzoxcErOc8