Q Who

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.

Q returns, abducting Picard and demanding to be given a place on board the Enterprise's crew. When Picard turns his request down, Q angrily throws the Enterprise into an uncharted area of the galaxy where they discover a terrifying new adversary - the cybernetically augmented threat known as the Borg.

And here's where TNG really got started, delivering a new threat to the Enterprise unlike anything seen before and really pushing the show forward in terms of production. A great story with the always welcome return of de Lancie as everyone's favourite god of mischief (Loki who?) plus Goldberg's Guinan is also given much more to do than offer cryptic advice. One of the strongest episodes of the whole show so far.

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.

How I love this episode! Of all the Next Generations, this episode is still my favorite. Words cant describe the chill that went down my spine when they first encounter the Borg in the engine room. I think what I enjoy the most about it is the fact that the producers, writers and directors seemed to be working in complete harmony with regards to every faucet of the shows production. Comparatively, there is also very little background music, which to me only heightened the tensions inherent in the scenario. In an old issue of a European film magazine, they once had an issue dedicated to ST:TNG where they had a brief synopsis of every episode as well as behind the scene stories. With regards to this episode, it was said that Patrick Stewart actually grew angry with some members of the crew because they were goofing around and not taking things more seriously. He stated that it was a particularly difficult episode to do because of the themes introduced...and the fact that for the first time there was a large number of crew killed in the storyline. He thought the fact that they were encountering an enemy that had the capability to defeat them...and was actually on the verge of doing so before Q interceded...had a profound impact on how the mood of the shoot progressed.

As for myself, I enjoyed it so much because of those very reasons! In the entire history of Star Trek and through all of its incarnations, the rosy, happy or optimistic nature of the shows sometimes tended to overwhelm. This seemed to be a very realistic encounter...especially when you consider that the vast majority of the episodes or films that introduce a new species or culture invariably resolve in a very optimistic manner. Q Who simply, but effectively, went the other way and showed us a reality in which the Enterprise, and the Federation itself, was NOT up to the challenge and was very nearly doomed.

Like the episode, "Yesterday's Enterprise," all was not well in the universe and there was death without reason or purpose...as there is in real life. It was the first time that the Enterprise and crew had simply run out of options and/or hope of survival...and it was that theme that made the episode so strong.

The episode starts with a nice misdirect in the form of Ensign Gomez, a clumsy proto-Barclay who is new to the ship. You expect the episode to be about someone integrating into the crew, but instead Q shows up.

While we never really got to know who or what Guinan was, her interactions with Q are always fun and she was interesting and 'powerful' in a different way. Here she is used mostly to deliver exposé, which works really well. Whoopi might be a terrible person but she did a fine job here.

The Borg themselves are fantastic. Sure, they are somewhat derivative of the Daleks and Cybermen from Doctor Who, but they transcend both. Some people think they represent the threat of Communism, with their lack of individuality. In the episode itself they are ironically called the ultimate consumers, who absorb who and what they want.

Their design is fantastic, with their weird ship and their odd implants. Having seen Voyager it is easy to forget how menacing they originally were, especially because they methodically study the Enterprise and practically ignore the crew - even when they're boarded! Now humans have become the new life that is sought out.