 Shearer 's pitch featured Vash , who had last been seen at the end of " <unk> " leaving with Q , but the pitch did not include Q himself . Executive producer Michael Piller explained that they had already been looking for a way to introduce Q into DS9 , and felt that bringing Vash onto the show would be a good way to seamlessly introduce Q. There were concerns about shoving Q into an episode but the idea of " Q @-@ Less " alleviated them . " If you just have him come on and say ' Look , is this the new show ? ' it 's silly , but this seemed to be a justifiable way " , Piller recalled . 
