Star Trek: Everything We NOW Know About The Q Continuum
2. What Is A Life Worth When A Continuum Doesn't Know What Happens When It's Over?
In 2012, Kirsten Beyer, who would go on to co-create Star Trek: Picard, as well as write several stories and scripts for Discovery and Strange New Worlds, was already an established author. She took over the Star Trek: Voyager relaunch novels and, as part of that series, was responsible for a major revelation about the Continuum.
Her novel, The Eternal Tide, reveals that the Continuum has its own set of commandments, including one that specifically warns Q not to reanimate the dead. The Q Continuum don't fully know what happens after death.
In Hide And Q, Riker, when imbued with Q powers, refuses to bring a dead child back to life, though as part of his promise to Picard, rather than any restrictions of power. Worf and Wesley are both seemingly killed by soldiers in Q's war game. While the child stays dead, Worf and Wesley are returned to life - without any real repercussions.
From Q, Who? onwards, the dead tend to stay dead - with a notable exception. Beyer's novel seems to confirm that this is a conscious choice, by the Continuum, so as not to disrupt reality, and those living in it, any further. However, there is another consideration here.
According to the Captain's Logs: The Complete Unauthorised Trek Voyages, René Echevarria felt that Hide And Q was symptomatic of some early season teething issues. He said:
...a lot of first season stuff we try not to feel bound by because a lot of it wasn't well executed.
By his own admission, as the years went on, some of the writers hoped that people hadn't watched the debut season of The Next Generation. Beyer's novel may simply be another extension of that hope!