Q & A - Keith R. A. DeCandido [82]
After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I naturally said yes. Having had the opportunity to set up the Enterprise-E’s movie voyage in Star Trek Nemesis in my novel A Time for War, A Time for Peace, I didn’t imagine that I’d get the chance to help continue the ship’s adventures past that feature film.
It took me no time at all to settle on my antagonist. After all, how could we possibly do the twentieth anniversary without Q?
Margaret deserves a huge amount of credit here, both for agreeing to let me do the ultimate Q story, and for her expert story guidance, curbing my excesses, and bringing this book into much greater focus. It’s no mean feat trying to pull together all of Q’s prior appearances, and Margaret is responsible for whatever success I may have achieved in that regard.
She also allowed me to create two new characters for the Enterprise crew. The ever-talented Ms. Dillard had already provided the new ship’s counselor to replace Deanna Troi (now off with Captain William T. Riker on the good ship Titan). Since we’d lost Data in Nemesis and Worf was now first officer, the positions of second officer and security chief needed filling, and I took advantage of the opportunity to give us something we hadn’t seen on Trek before. In the case of Miranda Kadohata, it’s a woman dealing with the immediate aftermath of giving birth, something no Trek show has truly dealt with in any depth. With Zelik Leybenzon, I wanted to give us a “mustang,” a noncommissioned officer who clawed his way up the ranks.
I hope you like what you’ve seen, and that you’ve actually read this far through my self-indulgent ramblings.
Thanks must also go to a variety of other people:
Lucienne Diver, my wonderful agent, about whom I can’t say enough kind things.
Paula Block at CBS Consumer Products, who continues to be the best licensing person ever.
All the actors who have portrayed members of the Q Continuum on screen: Corbin Bernsen, Olivia d’Abo, Keegan de Lancie, Gerrit Graham, the magnificent Suzie Plakson, Harve Presnell, Lorna Raver, and, of course, the man himself, John de Lancie.
The other actors who have played the characters in this volume, who provided face and voice for me to work with: LeVar Burton (La Forge), Steven Culp (Madden), Elizabeth Dennehy (Shelby), Michael Dorn (Worf), Kirsten Dunst (Hedril), Alexander Enberg (Taurik), Michelle Forbes (Ro), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), John Hancock (Haden), Norman Lloyd (Galen), Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Dina Meyer (Donatra), Kate Mulgrew (Janeway), Stephanie Niznik (Perim), Michael Owen (Branson), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Marina Sirtis (Troi), Brent Spiner (Data, Lore), Patrick Stewart (Picard), Brian Thompson (Klag), and Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher).
Several writers who have penned episodes, movies, books, and/or short stories that were of use in the composition of this volume: Ira Steven Behr and Randee Russell (TNG’s “Qpid”); Christopher L. Bennett (the novel Orion’s Hounds); Rick Berman, Brent Spiner, and John Logan (the movie Star Trek Nemesis); Kenneth Biller (Voyager’s “The Q and the Grey” and “Q2”); Brannon Braga (TNG’s “Parallels” and “All Good Things…”); Greg Cox (the Q-Continuum novel trilogy); Richard Danus (TNG’s “Deja Q”); Peter David (the novels Q-in-Law; Q-Squared; I, Q; Requiem; After the Fall; Missing in Action; and Before Dishonor); John de Lancie (the novel I, Q); J. M. Dillard (the Star Trek Nemesis novelization, the novel Resistance); Robert J. Doherty (Voyager’s “Q2”); Rene Echevarria (TNG’s “True Q”); D. C. Fontana (TNG’s “Encounter at Farpoint”); Michael Jan Friedman (the All Good Things… novelization, the book Q’s Guide to the Continuum, and the novel Death in Winter); David Gerrold (the Encounter at Farpoint novelization); Christie Golden (the novella “Into the Queue” in Gateways: What Lay Beyond); Robert Greenberger (the book Q’s Guide to the Continuum, and the novels A Time to Love and A Time to Hate); Maurice