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.

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!

Two recurrent entities share this particular Star Trek TNG episode. John DeLancie the scamp of the Universe known as Q whisks Patrick Stewart away from the Enterprise for a bit of heart to heart. He warns them of unknown and unimaginable dangers and when Captain Picard is back on the Enterprise, DeLancie hurls the Enterprise 7000 light years away where they encounter the relentless and monolithic Borg for the first time.

It's quite an encounter with this square shaped space ship handled by a crew of half carbon based humanoids and half robotic all part of the same mind and obeying one will. All the Borg want is technology. To try it, absorb it and absorb those who have it in their singular collective.

This was the first of many encounters with the Borg in this and subsequent Star Trek franchise series. Memorable it is.

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.

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.