Nitpicker's Guide to Peter David's Q-Squared

page 1: The boy asks if "there is nothing that we are not going to do today" is a double negative, and the elder suggests that it's emphasis (ie, an acceptable use of a double negative). Generally, "double negative" refers to two negatives used in a gramatically incorrect way to emphasize a positive (eg, "We don't need no education" to mean "We don't need any education"). The sentence in question uses two negatives, but is not a double negative, since the intended meaning is not "There are things we won't do today."
page 16: Selan derides the physical makeup of Terrans; however, if all hominid forms sprang from the same root (as suggested by the Preservers theory in the television episode "The Chase"), they would be similar. Cardassians and Romulans have very nearly the same physical problems as Terrans. Then again, it's possible that Selan is just indulging in his racist beliefs.
page 66: Guinan asks if Q is on the bridge and Picard replies "not at the moment." Considering that Guinan rarely calls the bridge, that Guinan can sense Q inherently, that Q can assume any form, and that a strange being has materialized on the bridge without registering on instruments, I'm surprised Picard didn't immediately suspect that it was Q!
page 68: Trelane sends the Enterprise off in an apparentally random direction and is surprised to see them heading for a star. Space is very nearly empty, and the chances of hitting a star when heading in a random direction is virtually zero. This means Trelane's navigational skills are worse than random, or that the author misjudges the density of stars in the galaxy.
page 76: Q notes that his "godfather" "left the Continuum for a while." However, the episode "True Q" confirms that the Q are not allowed to leave the Continuum. Q is either joking, or his godfather was a special case.
page 100: Trelane's disappearance is accompanied by an explosion that was "blinding and deafening", but paradoxically "had no heat and made no noise". The opposite of deafening is "made no noise", but the opposite of blinding should be "had no light". There is no paradox in light without heat.
page 174: Picard refers to the "good of this crew and vessel" as his "paramount" concern. There is a rumor that the use of the word "paramount" (also the company that produces the Star Trek television program) is special, although I can't figure out how it applies here.
page 175: Professor Martinez notes that it was possible "[Trelane] wasn't sure how he was doing the things he did, but didn't want to admit it." Actually, it's more than possible, it's likely. In the episode where Q loses his powers, he advises the Enterprise crew to "lower the gravitational constant of the universe", but can't tell them how to do this. Most likely, the Q have high-level powers, but don't fully understand the basis of how they work.
page 185: Troi's first name is misspelled "Deanne".
page 256: Q's consciousness remembers Gary Mitchell in mortal combat with "James R. Kirk". I thought this was a typographical error, but Rob Nease (rcnease@cyberia.com) points out that, in the original series, Kirk's gravestone erroneously read "James R. Kirk". The author may be using this as an 'in-joke' or indicating that Q remembered the name off the mistaken gravestone.

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Last modified stardate: 20070609.123522

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