Q Who

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.

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.

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 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.

he may have been cocky, sarcastic, amusing etc. but he was right:they were not ready. But he also did us a hidden favor.The Borg were apparently coming anyway and now we know what we'd be up against, or at least know that they are out there. in my opinion it was more than a "kick in our complacency". this episode had at least one other interesting feature.

I found myself disagreeing with the protagonists. Picard said it was "not smugness not arrogance!", but that's what it seemed like to me. OK I'd seen the other Borg episodes before this one so I KNEW they weren't ready. I realize that I am giving a lower rating than my comment might indicate but there is some really dull and ultimately pointless stuff in the episode before Q shows up. it is unfortunate that the "dealings" were never explained. The ending is great! 3 of 5 stars. And what happened to the Borg not having a single leader.