Q Who

Omnipotent being Q does Starfleet a favour by warning them of their new arch enemy - the hive-minded robotic Borg. Q catapults the Enterprise towards a giant cube-shaped Borg vessel. Here, the Enterprise can investigate the hibernating Borg before their ultimate invasion into Federation space two seasons later. Recall: At the beginning of the entire Next Generation show, we are shown that Klingons stop being the Federation's (Starfleet's) mortal foe. A Klingon even serves aboard Starfleet's flagship, the Enterprise. As a result, there seems to be no more reason for Starfleet to be organised as a military hierarchy. Vessels could explore space independently from now on. Klingons pose no more threat to unaffiliated travellers. As a result, it remains unanswered as to why Starfleet does not disband into independent starships. We are told in the later Star Trek show 'Voyager' that the Borg are e.g. Not interested in attacking weak species, such as the many Kazon sects. Therefore dissolving would have been a (another) solution to surviving the Borg. Admirals go home. Really, it's you admirals the Borg seem to want. --- Search "Trek Greenspace" on Google Play Books and join my Star Trek Fan Project!

As all Trek fans know, "Q Who" is the episode that introduced the Borg, arguably the greatest antagonist the Federation ever faced. Besides it's significance in the development of the Trek franchise, the ep boasts some pretty memorable lines, mostly delivered by Q (played by John de Lancie).

Unfortunately the episode is also flawed by several scenes (totaling about five minutes) devoted to introducing Ensign Sonya Gomez, a meaningless throwaway character. Perhaps the producers were auditioning the character for a larger role but if so nothing ever came of it.

The episode is also flawed by the showrunner's bizarre decision to have Picard stop in the middle of the battle with the Borg to leave the bridge and have a conference. The whole thing comes off as a joke on corporate culture in the Eighties.

Interestingly, "Q Who" was first shown on May 6, 1989 which is about six weeks after the beginning of the long-running Dilbert cartoon series. Ridiculing Eighties corporate culture was the original driving force of the Dilbert series. Given that Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert is a science fiction fan, it is highly likely he saw this ep and found it as ridiculous as many other Trek fans did.

"Q Who" is one of the ten most important episodes in the "Next Generations" series, and one of the top twenty in the development of the franchise, but for itself, as a dramatic production, I cannot rate this ep any higher than '7' on the IMDb scale.

Despite the illogical Borg costumes and having to tolerate Whoopee Goldberg, I like this one. I've always like the episodes that feature John de Lancie as the 'Q' character. I found it very humorous when Riker opened a drawer and found a baby Borg, complete with tiny skull cap and implants on the Borg ship !

The rest is just filler -- I'm done.

A wonderful series This is an interesting, thought provoking, and most of all entertaining series. Gene Roddenberry not only gave us a "Wagon Train to the Stars," but he gave us interesting stories reflecting the great values our society holds as truths. I know that "some" episodes were not that good, but that can be said of any series that has a long history. For the most part this program exceeds the mark of excellence in writing and entertainment. The delivery of the writing by Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner et. Al. Truly brought the Star Trek future to life. The casting of this program is wonderful!

Q wants to be part of the Enterprise crew and attempts to force Captain Picard into admitting he is needed.

This is a memorable episode with a strong introduction to an important villain for the franchise and a number of great performances.

The plot involves Q making an appearance and using his power to prove a point to Picard. This is the best of the Q episodes so far in TNG as it isn't the standard Godlike being v Enterprise as it involves a different main antagonist.

There are memorable moments for characters like Picard, Q, Riker and Guinan who all have important contributions to the story.

The visuals are fantastic, particularly the ship designs, sets and make-up effects. I enjoyed the lighting on the space shuttle scenes and during other interior locations. Also the scene where Guinan notices something isn't quite right is done well.

All performances are strong but for me Patrick Stewart is excellent as ever. John de Lancie as Q and Caryn Johnson as Guinan give the next best performances with charisma levels almost on par with Stewart.

While "Q" drives me crazy (because of his omnipotence stealing free will from the Enterprise), this episode is still quite startling. John Delancy's character shows up demanding to be made part of the crew. Picard can see nothing positive about this. He rejects the great one's offer and the next thing we know, the ship is sent 700 light years from there, into another quadrant that should not have been explored for years. Q continues to taunt the crew and Picard holds firm. It's probably that he sees the reality that if he relents, there is no purpose any more. The sad thing is that the Enterprise now meets the Borg, one of the most creative entities produced in fiction. They, of course, are a bee-like culture where there is a collective rather than individuals. They act in concert rather than alone. They are also a humorless juggernaut, beyond reason, whose sole purpose is to absorb other species and add this information to their collective. When attacked and damaged, they move quickly to repair and move on their insidious journey. Unfortunately, in the process of investigating this thing, a number of crew members are killed. Picard is largely responsible and must look inward to see if his ego was central to this loss of life. This is a pivotal episode, setting up an amazing series of encounters that will take place along the way.