Television’s Greatest Episodes: Star Trek TNG Q Who

Captain Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is on his way back to his quarters after a mishap with a new ensign onboard the U.S.S. Enterprise when he mysteriously finds himself on a shuttlecraft with the powerful entity known as Q (John de Lancie).  Far from the Enterprise, Picard refuses to talk to Q and the two make a deal, that if Q returns him to his ship, Picard will listen to his proposal.  They are then instantly transported to Ten Forward, a lounge back on the Enterprise, where Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) recognizes Q and warns Picard not to trust Q.  Q’s request is to join the crew of the Enterprise, since he has been kicked out of the Q Continuum.  Picard is intrigued but initially declines as he doesn’t trust the powerful being.  Q warns that without him, they are not prepared for the threats they will discover as they push further into unexplored space.

To prove his point and with a snap of his fingers, Q sends them light years across the galaxy.  They are two years away at maximum warp from the nearest StarBase.  Guinan, who is from this quadrant, warns Picard to turn back now and head home as fast as possible, but Picard can’t resist the urge to explore, and the crew finds a planet that was once civilized but now destroyed with all its technology stripped away.  They then encounter a large spacecraft shaped like a cube.  Guinan informs the captain that it belongs to the Borg, a race of enhanced humanoids who have integrated technology with biological material.  The Borg beam aboard the Enterprise and examine their capabilities and then attack the ship, killing 18 crewmembers.

The Enterprise damages the Cube, disabling it, and against being warned again, decide to pay the Cube a visit to learn all they can.  The Away Party find the inhabitants in individual stations, where they connect and become part of a hive type of mind. The Cube is repairing itself quickly, prompting the away party to get back to the Enterprise where they attempt to escape but are pursued by the Borg.  Even at full warp speed, the Borg Cube gains on the Enterprise and is able to bring down their shields, all weapons have become useless against their enemy and destruction is imminent. Picard pleads with Q and admits that they were wrong and need his help, and with another snap of his fingers, Q sends the Enterprise back to where they started.

Q Who is the sixteenth episode of the second season and originally aired on May 5, 1989.  This is the first introduction of the Borg, although they were supposed to be introduced in the first season’s episode “The Neutral Zone”, but the writers’ strike made that difficult. Gene Roddenberry did not want to re-use a lot of aliens from “The Original Series” as villains, so the Ferengi were developed to be the main adversaries for “The Next Generation”, but that race proved to be too comical, so Maurice Hurley, writer and executive producer of the series, came up with the idea of an insectoid race with a hive mind.  Due to budget constraints, this was changed to the cybernetic Borg, but the hive mind aspect was retained. The episode was nominated for three Emmy Awards, winning two for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series.  It failed to win for Outstanding Special Visual Effects.  Q Who was well received with many reviewers calling it “One of the best hours of TNG”.  De Lancie’s, Stewart and Goldberg’s performances are all singled out.  Zack Handlen, writing for The A.V. Club said it best saying that the plot was “brilliant” mainly because Q is proved correct.  The fact that Picard and the crew do not find a solution to their predicament but instead need to ask for help make it the first “great episode” of the series because “it admits that these humans… can be arrogant, and weak, and that they can be bested”.

I remember watching this episode when it aired and how exciting it was.  Visually, the episode is stunning with an H.R. Giger inspired design and a new race that were both intriguing and frightening. John de Lancie shines as the whimsical yet diabolical Q, and although it was mentioned that the Borg was meant to be the main villains of TNG, I have always felt that Q holds that spot. The Borg are ruthless and powerful, but Q is far more interesting and complex a character who isn’t always villainous but always mischievous. Re-watching the episode so many years later with all of the other Borg interactions, you start to notice some inconsistencies with later appearances as the future writers morphed the aliens into what we finally know them to be.  These are small things that do not detract from the quality of the overall show or this particular episode.