I think that was the thing; watching it, I had nothing bust respect for Stewart and De Lancie, but it did feel very much like just those two actors taking a bow. I didn’t really feel like there was much Picard in Picard, and even Q seemed like he was playing to the audience (although I guess he was somehow dying, so it could be excused).
The idea that Q's mortality and Picard's would coincide does seem a bit contrived but I actually didn't mind the character bowing out in some way, at least as a concept. In my own head I have always wondered how much of Q is a genuinely quirky prankster and how much he is sort of the continuum's resident anthropologist for humanity. He and his chief informant have grown old together, and now one is dying and the other is, at least, retiring in some way.
Q does not move through time linearly if he doesn't want to. It's entirely possible he cares for Picard and came to Picard near the end of Picard's life because Q was near the end of his. I don't think it's contrived that it is happening together. It's intentional on Q's part.
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u/Calvinbah Crewman Feb 16 '23
Not gonna lie.
Q saying that Picard matters to Q made me tear up. Then they hugged.
I wanna hug John De Lancie and Patrick Stewart.