Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 7.
Star Trek: Picard has finally answered the mystery behind Guinan and Q’s hostility toward each other in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Towards the end of the Picard season 2 episode “Monsters”, Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard returns to Ten Forward, seeking the assistance of a younger Guinan. He needs her to summon Q so that he can confront his old nemesis in the hope of finally understanding him.
It’s established in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Q Who” that Guinan’s race of El-Aurians has a history with the Q Continuum. Materializing in Ten Forward, Q is immediately on the defensive when he finds Guinan behind the bar. He’s fearful of her, something that has intrigued Star Trek viewers for years. Picard season 2 is finally shedding light on this decades-old Next Generation mystery.
In “Monsters”, Guinan explains some of the history between her people and the Q. She tells Picard that there was “a long cold war” between the two species but doesn’t elaborate further as to the cause. It’s not a huge stretch to suggest that the conflict is rooted in the El-Aurian’s time sensitivity and the Q’s propensity for meddling with reality. Both species eventually forged a truce “over a bottle” and the war was at an end. The bottle forms a key part of the summoning ritual that Picard requires. As Guinan explains further that “[when] an El-Aurian summons a Q, a Q appears.” Guinan’s ability to summon Q at will appears to be the root of his fear.
Prior to visiting Ten Forward, Picard is told by Tallinn, a Supervisor who can control the bodies of others, that not even she has the power to summon a Q. The El-Aurians are clearly unique in this regard, as Qs tend to appear throughout Star Trek of their own will, at often inopportune moments. The ritual as presented in “Monsters” is a sensory spectacle that sees glasses shatter, lights flicker, and the ground beneath Picard and Guinan shake. Given the ferocity of the summoning ritual, it’s unsurprising that Q fears Guinan when he first meets her in “Q Who”.
Interestingly, the younger Guinan refuses to refer to the Q as gods. She clearly sees them as a tangible species, something to be known. Guinan contrasts Star Trek mythology and Picard’s confession that he always thought Q was “unknowable”. As a trickster god, Q relies on people feeling powerless against his godlike status as he toys with their lives. With Guinan referring to him as merely a “denizen” it’s clear that she doesn’t buy into his elevated status. That could very well be the thing that frightens him most of all.
The cold war between the El-Aurians and the Q is another key factor behind their hostility towards each other. While the nature of the conflict between their two races is still shrouded in mystery, Guinan and Q’s hostility could be rooted in a post-conflict prejudice. This is a theme that Star Trek has tackled before through Kirk and the Klingons in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Picard and the Borg across the character’s life on TV and in movies. In framing this age-old Q and Guinan mystery from Star Trek: The Next Generation within a similar historical conflict, Star Trek: Picard can further develop these two enigmatic species. It may even aid Picard’s own understanding of his old nemesis.
Star Trek: Picard Season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
