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Omnipotent? Apparently not, but definitely god-like. Zeus was able to kill Cronos, Seth was able to kill Osiris (although he got better,) all of the gods of the Eddas awaited their death at Ragnarok and Balder was killed by a hurled sprig of mistletoe.

Teaos wrote:Picard kept the peace between the Klingons and Romulans, he beat the Borg, he earned the respect of a god like being (Q), he saved humanity countless times.

Q didn't show up around TOS because Kirk scared him.

Kirk looked 'God' in the eye and dared to defy him.

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:Kirk looked 'God' in the eye and dared to defy him.

"What does god need with a starship?" Best question ever

Maybe that was just a Q with a serious ego trip.

MORE of an ego trip?

From "Death Wish" :

QUINN : "But you mustn't think of us as omnipotent, no matter what the Continuum would like you to believe. You and your ship seem incredibly powerful to life-forms without your technical expertise. It's no different with us. We may appear omnipotent to you, but believe me, we're not."

Well, I guess that settles it.

GrahamKennedy wrote:From "Death Wish" :

QUINN : "But you mustn't think of us as omnipotent, no matter what the Continuum would like you to believe. You and your ship seem incredibly powerful to life-forms without your technical expertise. It's no different with us. We may appear omnipotent to you, but believe me, we're not."

So Quinn was an Arthur C. Clarke fan I see.

Cpl Kendall wrote:So Quinn was an Arthur C. Clarke fan I see.

Or Clarke was a Quinn fan. Given Quinn's track record (throwing apples at Newton for example) it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he inspired Clarke's comparison between advanced technology and magic.

Captain Seafort wrote:
Or Clarke was a Quinn fan. Given Quinn's track record (throwing apples at Newton for example) it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he inspired Clarke's comparison between advanced technology and magic.

You know a reference to something like that in Trek would be pretty cool.

The Q aren't all-powerful, no, but still hella powerful. Although I gotta wonder what would happen if Q met up with Ayelborne from 'Errand of Mercy'...

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:The Q aren't all-powerful, no, but still hella powerful. Although I gotta wonder what would happen if Q met up with Ayelborne from 'Errand of Mercy'...

Baseball tournament?

I always took it that the intent of the writers is that the Q are the ultimate development of power. They aren't there so we can all debate the precise meaning of omnipotence, or ask whether a Q can make a rock so heavy that another Q can't lift it or whatever. The basic question posed by the Q is "what would you do, if you were more powerful than everybody else? If you had as much power as it is possible to have?"

So while we've seen that one Q can kill another, or strip another of their powers, etc, I would argue that the intent of the Q as characters is that nobody and nothing else but a Q can touch them.

Excellently put, GK. I think the idea is that the Q are omnipotent enough, as it were, for day-to-day dealings with us mere mortals.

I always took it that the intent of the writers is that the Q are the ultimate development of power. They aren't there so we can all debate the precise meaning of omnipotence, or ask whether a Q can make a rock so heavy that another Q can't lift it or whatever. The basic question posed by the Q is "what would you do, if you were more powerful than everybody else? If you had as much power as it is possible to have?"

So while we've seen that one Q can kill another, or strip another of their powers, etc, I would argue that the intent of the Q as characters is that nobody and nothing else but a Q can touch them.

But we have yet to see a single thing they cant do unless it involves another Q. They seem to have unlimited power of time and creation. I may be missing something but what else is there? The all knowing thing is debateable but with there powers if they dont know natrally then they could find out pretty easily.