Headscratchers / Star Trek: The Next Generation S2E16 "Q Who"

• It's strongly implied that Guinan has unknown powers that the Q fear/respect, but Guinan cannot help the Enterprise against the Borg other than by offering advice. Also, the Borg nearly eradicated her species. Rock/paper/scissors maybe?
  • There are two possibilities here. The first is that all El-Aurians (Guinan's race) possess the special powers she has, but when the Borg assimilated them, they gained immunity to them or added them to their own arsenal, as seen with the Borg immediately configuring their drones and ships to defend themselves from the Enterprise. The other is that Guinan is a special case whose unique gifts are a result of the time she spent trapped in the Nexus. This would explain why her abilities—whatever they are—seem centered on awareness: she can sense disruptions in time and space, has mild clairvoyance, and predict and anticipate what Q and his ilk will do. In other words, she possesses superhuman knowledge, but not the ability to act on it, and lacks any offensive capabilities.
• Why does Engineering have food replicators if it's a bad idea to have liquids near the sensitive computer panels? Then again, there seems to be No OSHA Compliance when it comes to performing dangerous experiments near the warp core.
  • The bridge is said to have a replicator on it so the crew can have drinks and snacks during their shifts, and the control panels appear to be immune to people sitting on them, so it's likely that the panels are also liquid-proof or at least resistant.
  • True, but Geordi explicitly said to be careful with the liquid around the panels.
    • My watch is also waterproof, dosen't mean i don't take it off to shower. There's always the chance that the consoles weren't properly resealed after the last time they were open, better to be safe, no?

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