Nineteen-ninety-four was a great year to be a Star Trek. The franchise was in a great place, offering new episodes on television, a new movie in theaters, and monthly tie-in novels on our bookshelves. And no novel was bigger than Peter David’s magnum opus, Q-Squared.
I haunted bookstores each Tuesday, hoping the book would finally arrive. And then, one glorious day, there it was, at long last, waiting for me. I couldn’t plunk down my cash fast enough to get a copy and start reading. I’m pretty sure I consumed the novel in record time, telling myself I should savor it, but unable to resist turning just one more page.
Since his first appearance in the premiere of TNG, speculation had run rampant that the self-proclaimed “Squire of Gothos” from TOS, Trelliane, must somehow be connected to the Q Continuum. And what if the two met and faced off — Who would win? What would happen?
David had already written a tie-in novel featuring Q, the superlative — and hilarious — Q in Law that saw Q crossing paths with Luxwana Troi. So, we knew David could translate Q to the printed page. The only question was could he do it on a bigger stage in a way that would be satsifying to all of us who had crafted our own version of Q vs Trellaine in our minds for seven years.
The answer as, of course, he could. Again, I consumed Q-Squared in record time, loving every moment of it. It then sat on my shelf in a place of honor as one of those favorite books that I was actually lucky enough to get David to autograph during my sole visit to DragonCon. Luckily, i still have that copy, the one I read all those years ago and loved. Scenes from it still come to mind when I think about some of my favorite reading moments.
And yet, somehow over the years, I’ve never revisited it. Part of it was a concern of tampering with the memories — what if it wasn’t as superlative as I recalled? What if I tainted my memory of it? But when David passed away, I decided to revisit a few favorites from one of my favorite authors. So it was this summer that I picked up Q-Squared in paperback and sat down to visit an old friend.
Within the first few pages, any fears of not enjoying it as much as I had thirty-plus years ago were erased. Instead, a big smile was probably across my face, and I found myself enjoying this great Trek story again.
Long before Marvel brought a multi-verse to our screens in the MCU, David was playing with the concept on the printed page. Three “tracks” run parallel to each other, with Q and Trellaine crossing them at will during the course of the story. Trying to summarize exactly what happens would ruin some of the fun of reading the book — and honestly, I’d probably not do any of them justice here. Suffice it to say, each track is fascinating and full of David’s usual assurance and story-telling prowess. And don’t worry — you won’t get confused following the threads once the universes start to collide.
Where the novel really shines is how David pulls in various threads of Trek canon into the battle of Q and Trellaine. At one point, Q is banished by Trellaine, spending centuries trying to get back to the events unfolding across the three tracks. My inner geek lapped up with a spoon the idea that Q was somehow connected to Gary Mitchell’s gaining powers in the second TOS pilot to the point that I can see reflections of Q now in Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner’s growing arrogance at gaining power.
As with the original time I read it, this one lingered with me long after I finished reading the novel. David’s take on Q and the crew is spot-on and some of the most enjoyable writing I’ve read in a while.
It holds up. It absolutely holds up.
Nashville Book Worm 