Synopsis: Two characters originally seen on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Q and Vash, make an appearance on the station.
Just as I mentioned in a previous post that Deep Space Nine has no control over what might come through the wormhole that connects it to the Gamma Quadrant, in this episode Vash is found in the Gamma Quadrant and brought back to the Alpha Quadrant, and where Vash goes, Q follows.
However, in “Q-Less” even when viewers thought that they were seeing a couple familiar characters, what was unknown to all of us is that they had with them. In this case, they did not even know that they carried with them an embryonic entity that had the potential to destroy Deep Space Nine. This is similar to how the conscious ego perceives the bits of unconscious matter that come into its awareness through a complex. Often the ego thinks that it recognizes something, or tries to make sense of something, that it does not understand. However, when that something comes from our unconscious, what we think we are understanding is not what is really there. In this episode, because Q is perceived as a threat, the Starfleet officers on Deep Space Nine are late to identify what really is causing the danger to it. As it turns out, it is a completely new life form that was trapped in a vessel, and that lifeform needed to be set free in order to become what it was and travel back into the Gamma Quadrant.
As for moments of somatic awareness, there is a scene in this episode in which Q creates a boxing ring for himself and Commander Benjamin Sisko to spar. Sisko hits Q. Startled, Q states: “Picard never hit me.” To which Sisko responds: “I’m not Picard” (Wolfe & Lynch, 1993), and that is the heart of this series. That on Deep Space Nine, as in our psyches, there is not one “right” way to be, even if that comes across as a shock to our controlling conscious ego. Our psyches, and the space station are stronger when it uses input not only from Starfleet, but also from all the other inhabitants of the station.
Reference:
Wolfe, R. H. (Writer), & Lynch, P. (Director). (1993, February 7). Q-less (Season 1, Episode 7) [TV series episode]. In R. Berman & M. Piller (Executive Producers), Star trek: Deep space nine. Paramount Television.
mydailysoultrek 