History Literature / TheQContinuum

* AbusiveParents: More of the neglectful variety, and [[spoiler:some of this can be attributed to 0’s influence]], but Lem Faal is so dismissive towards the needs of his children that Riker muses that Faal is making his own father look like Father of the Year by comparison.

* AGodAmI: The One constantly speaks in the manner of a wrathful god.

* EvenMoreOmnipotent: In the confrontation with 0 in the present, Q observes that 0 has become more powerful than him due to 0's current insanity, [[spoiler:requiring Q and the Calamarain to join forces to gain the necessary power to defeat him]].

* TheGodsMustBeLazy: Essentially the reason why the Q Continuum don't stop 0 the moment he got out, as in the aftermath of the Q Civil War they're more focused on rebuilding the Continuum and won't be paying attention to an exiled criminal they believe they dealt with millennia ago. Q does concede that they would likely notice 0's return in a couple of hundred years, but by that point it's unlikely there would be anything of the Federation left, and given his own ties to 0 he doesn't want to put his son at risk of growing up in a galaxy contaminated by 0's presence.

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Q began his explanation to Picard by turning them both into beings that actually existed in the time frame: Aldebaran serpents, which are three-headed. Picard becomes disoriented and uncomfortable (especially when two of his heads look at each other), and implores Q to return him to human form, despite the anachronism. During their later 'trip' through Q's past, Q manifests himself and Picard in old Earth clothing, such as Grecian togas or Georgian tunics, to give a sense of anachronism. When presenting Picard with events involving higher beings such as 0's associates, Q confirms that much of what they are witnessing has been 'translated' by him into a form that Picard can more easily perceive, justifying such instances as the One manifesting as a pillar of flame centuries before Christianity created that particular image.

* DramaPreservingHandicap: For undisclosed reasons, 0 is unable to travel at faster-than-light speeds under his own power, represented as his human form having a crippled foot. As a result, when [[spoiler:0 escapes back into the galaxy, his existing 'injury' prevents him instantly returning to his old habits, as he has to essentially hijack the ''Enterprise'' to travel to the centre of the galaxy to release the One]].

* EvilIsPetty: 0 destroys an entire civilisation just because they were about to 'win' his game after his actions provoked a civil war that lasted for around fifty years.

* {{Foil}}: 0 is basically this to Q; they may both 'test' lesser races for their own agenda, but while Starfleet is frustrated by Q's actions, Picard must concede that Q has allowed his human opponents to 'win' on occasion where 0 just changed the rules the second he was about to lose.

* HopeSpot: Just as it looks like the Tkon have beaten everything 0 and his gang have thrown at them, [[spoiler:0 wipes them out in a fit of pique by destroying their sun.]]

* CassandraTruth: Not directly depicted, but when Picard asks why Q didn’t just tell him about 0 in the first place to deter him from the experiment to open the galactic barrier, Q asks if Picard would have believed him without sufficient evidence of 0’s threat, and Picard privately concedes that he’d be reluctant to take Q’s word about the time of day, never mind something this significant.

** Q mentions the then-recent [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E10TheQAndTheGrey Q Continuum Civil War]].
** Q's [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E07QLess visit]] to Bajoran space is brought up in ''Q-Zone'' when he's wondering what's become of Worf in the interim since "All Good Things".
** Sisko decking Q (and how Q's never been back to [=DS9=]) gets brought up. Picard half-jokingly wishes he'd followed Sisko's lead back when his crew first encountered the entity; if he had, Q might have left the ''Enterprise'' alone, too. Q is not amused.

* AndIMustScream: After his attempt to harness the Calamarain like a team of horses fails, 0 flies into a rage and compresses them down into a single inert lump. Picard notes it looks no different than any typical comet, thinking if they'd seen them on the ''Enterprise's'' scanners they'd note it and fly right by. And 0 would have ''kept'' going, possibly reducing them to a miniature black hole, had Q not stopped him.
** 0's final fate is a further example of this; [[spoiler:trapped outside our galaxy by the Galactic Barrier, and crippled in some undefined manner that prevents him from travelling at faster-than-light speeds under his own power, Picard compares 0's fate to a man marooned in a distant ocean with the only land in sight forever cut off from him, musing that 0 would be alone for millennia even if he had set off immediately after the Barrier was established to try and reach the nearest other galaxy]].

*** Sisko decking Q (and how Q's never been back to [=DS9=]) also gets brought up. Picard half-jokingly wishes he'd followed Sisko's lead back when his crew first encountered the entity; if he had, Q might have left the ''Enterprise'' alone, too. Q is not amused.

* ShoutOut: When Q arrives on the ''Enterprise''-E for the first time, he's dressed as an Buckingham Royal Palace Guardsman. He then asks Picard, [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail "What is your name? What is your quest?"]].
** Making it even funnier, Picard refuses to play along and Q grumbles that people don't appreciate the classics. In other words, the implication is that even a higher-dimensional entity like Q has seen ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' and it was an intentional In-Universe Shout Out.

** Making it even funnier, Picard refuses to play along and Q grumbles that people don't appreciate the classics. In other words, the implication is that even Q has seen ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' and it was an intentional In-Universe Shout Out.

** Making it even funnier, Picard refuses to play along and Q grumbles that people don't appreciate the classics. In other words, the implication is that even Q ''has'' seen ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' and it was an intentional In-Universe Shout Out.

** Q mentions the recent [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E10TheQAndTheGrey Q Continuum Civil War]].

*** Sisko decking Q (and how he's never been back to [=DS9=]) also gets brought up. Picard half-jokingly wishing he'd followed Sisko's lead when the ''Enterprise''-D had first encountered the entity. Q is not amused.

* ShoutOut: When Q arrives on the ''Enterprise''-E for the first time, he's dresses as an English Guardsman. He then asks Picard, [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail "What is your name? What is your quest?"]].
** Q then drops the act when Picard refuses to play along and grumbles that people like Picard don't appreciate the classics. In other words, the implication is Q ''has'' seen ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' and it was an intentional In-Universe Shout Out, too.

*** Sisko decking Q (and how he's never gone back to [=DS9=] SINCE) also gets brought up. Picard half-jokingly wishing he'd followed his colleague's lead when the ''Enterprise''-D had first encountered the entity. Q is not amused.

*** Sisko decking Q also gets brought up, with Picard half-jokingly wishing he'd followed his colleague's lead when the ''Enterprise''-D had first encountered the entity. Q is not amused.

** Q's [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E07QLess visit]] to the Bajor Sector's brought up in ''Q-Zone" when he's wondering what's become of Worf in the interim since "All Good Things". Sisko decking Q also gets brought up, with Picard half-jokingly wishing he'd followed his colleague's lead when the ''Enterprise''-D had first encountered the entity.

** Q then drops the act when Picard refuses to play along and grumbles that nobody appreciates the classics anymore. In other words, the implication is Q ''has'' seen ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' and it was an intentional In-Universe Shout Out, too.

** Q then drops the act when Picard refuses to play along and grumbles that nobody appreciates the classics anymore. In other words, the implication is Q ''has'' seen ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' and it was In-Universe Shout Out, too.

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Q began his explanation to Picard by turning them both into beings that actually existed in the time frame: Aldebaran serpents, which are three-headed. Picard becomes disoriented and uncomfortable (especially when two of his heads look at each other), and implores Q to return him to human form, despite the anachronism. During their later 'trip' through Q's past, Q often confirms that much of what they are witnessing has been 'translated' by him into a form that Picard can more easily perceive, justifying such instances as the One manifesting as a pillar of flame centuries before Christianity created that particular image.

* DramaPreservingHandicap: After [[spoiler:0 escapes back into the galaxy, only his existing 'injury' prevents him instantly returning to his old habits, as he has to essentially hijack the ''Enterprise'' to travel to the centre of the galaxy to release the One]].

** Most of the first and second book involves Q using his time with Picard to reinforce how he differs from 0, as he always sticks to the rules of his games and allows his 'opponents' a chance to win (even if Picard considers Q's standard of 'playing fair' a flexible one considering the vast power difference between Q and his potential opponents), whereas [[spoiler:0 'changed the rules' to ensure his own victory when it looked like the Tkon were going to pass his test]].

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Q began his explanation to Picard by turning them both into beings that actually existed in the time frame: Aldebaran serpents, which are three-headed. Picard becomes disoriented and uncomfortable (especially when two of his heads look at each other), and implores Q to return him to human form, despite the anachronism. During their later 'trip' through Q's past, Q often confirms that much of what they are witnessing has been 'translated' by him into a form that Picard can more easily perceive, justifying such instances as the One manifesting as a pillar of flame centuries before Christianity.

* PetTheDog: After returning Picard to the ''Enterprise'', Q restores the ship’s artificial gravity to help them out.

* MovingTheGoalposts: Although 0 inspires Q's interest in testing lesser races, Q is willing to accept failure whereas 0 isn't. When the Calamarain refuse to allow 0 to take control of them, he turns them into a block of ice. When Q asks why he did that, 0 simply says that the Calamarain cheated and must be punished. The next "test" is to put the powerful Tkon Empire (which is trying to replace their dying sun with a new one) into a state of civil war. When the leader of the Empire manages to convince both sides to stop fighting and complete the project after fifty years of conflict, the enraged 0 causes the dying star to become a supernova and destroy the entire race. Once again, the shocked Q confronts 0 about this. 0 says that any younger race that overcomes a challenge set to it by a powerful entity like 0 [[MortonsFork must have either cheated, or the challenge wasn't sufficient]]. Q privately disagreed, and notes that every test he conducts always provides at least one achievable victory condition, and is a relatively GracefulLoser when they "won" (at the very least, no DiabolusExMachina, even if Picard privately muses that the power difference between Q and his opponents makes the concept of 'fair play' somewhat debatable).
* MyHeroZero: the antagonists name is always written as the numerical "0". Not "Zero", while apeing "Q" in [[DoubleMeaning form and appearence]], 0 is lacking in certain [[EvilCounterpart essential qualities]].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: For Riker, the fact that Picard and Q are equally concerned about something is enough to confirm that he should be really worried about the current situation.
* OracularHead: The One is reduced to one at the end of the fighting.

* MadnessMantra: 0 is almost always humming or singing odd little songs. Then at the end if one book, there's this: