Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 2, Episode 16

Antagonistic alien races are a staple of many sci-fi properties and help to fill out the colorful mythology of a property. Each chapter of the Star Trek franchise has featured many enemy races, but few have captured the enduring appeal of the Borg that were introduced in The Next Generation’s second season episode “Q Who.”

As the title of the episode implies, it’s not just the Borg that are featured here, and the episode is notable for its inclusion of one of the series’ other main antagonists. Q had played heavily into TNG’s pilot and the incredibly bizarre and off-putting first season episode “Hide and Q.” The execution of Q as a character was a bit all over the place throughout his appearances in TNG, Voyager, and DS9. De Lancie always gave an entertaining performance full of gusto as the omnipotent dickhead you love to hate. Some facets of Q were more compelling than others, and I think “Q Who” is one of the best representations of who he is and how he fits into the framework of The Next Generation.

I think what makes Q work so well in this installment is that he seems scarier than he’s ever been, but in an indirect and complex way. In “Hide and Q” he plunged the crew into a very weird life or death game for his own amusement, but none of it really inspired any fear. It’s some interesting irony that Q isn’t scarier given that he has unlimited powers and seemingly no conscience. This is a guy who can do anything to anyone and there’s absolutely no way of stopping him (not even making him say his own name backwards). This is the central premise of The Boys, a show that squeezes a lot of effective terror out of a central, superpowerful character that can’t be stopped and barely reasoned with. Although Q may share some of Homelander’s sociopathy and emotional fragility, he is a higher being of more supreme cosmic awareness and wisdom.

It’s that superior wisdom about the universe that drives Q’s actions in “Q Who” and is the source of the terror here. Q knows things about what’s out there that Picard and his people can’t conceive, and decides to teach them a lesson by showing them a tiny glimpse of it. There’s a Lovecrafttian quality to it, and although Q isn’t an Eldritch horror himself (he certainly could be if he wanted), the plot involves him introducing the crew to just one of those horrors in their own galaxy.

The episode starts off in a very low-key way by introducing a new crewmember of La Forge’s, the squeaky and adorable Sonya Gomez. It’s kind of a wacky way to start given what’s coming in the rest of the episode, but I think there’s some effective tonal whiplash to it. Focusing on this anxious and yappy youngster who says “thank you” to the replicator and accidentally douses Captain Picard in hot chocolate is like the calm before the storm. One can imagine Q eavesdropping on this and snickering to himself “Oh honey, you’re concerned about your career? LOL, let me give you something to really worry about…”

It’s not long before Picard finds himself trapped in a shuttlecraft in the middle of nowhere and alone with Q. It’s interesting that he steals a shuttle from the Enterprise rather than just conjuring one from scratch. It lets the Enterprise crew know that he’s gone and compels them to waste time on a wild goose chase to find him (it also eats up some episode time). What a dick.

At first refusing to play along, Picard finally relents and agrees to hear Q out, who returns them to the Enterprise. Appearing in Ten Forward, Q immediately runs afoul of Guinan, and we get the interesting tidbit that they know one another, but absolutely nothing more. It helps to elevate Guinan’s otherworldly wisdom (she immediately senses something is afoot when Picard disappears and contacts the bridge), and the two of them play off each other well.

Q finally reveals that his intention is to become a member of Picard’s crew, in no small part because his antics have gotten him excommunicated from the rest of the Q Continuum. He couches it as a desire to guide them in dealing with what’s to come, and speaks forbiddingly of the dangers they’re about to encounter. He even offers to renounce his powers and act as a mortal member of the crew.

Q’s demeanor seems a lot more down to earth this time around, with grave energy and even some sincerity. Picard admits that Q’s alien nature fascinates him and that learning more about him would be interesting, but ultimately he’s too chaotic to keep around and his godly nature wouldn’t allow him to function among the crew. Which is totally, 100% correct. Like, how long would Q last doing menial labor amongst the crew before getting antsy and trying to spice things up, God-Like-Being Style (which is the name of my Trek-themed J-pop hit with over a trillion YouTube views). Ten minutes? An hour, tops?

The script in the episode is pretty great, and Q exudes a lot of menace and terror with his dialogue: “Picard, you are about to move into areas of the galaxy filled with wonders you cannot possibly imagine. And terrors to freeze your soul.” But enough about central Pennsylvania. After Picard rebuffs him, Q seems offended by their arrogance (how ironic) and even complains to Guinan about it. He decides to give them a taste of what’s waiting for them and snaps his fingers, hurling the Enterprise about 7,000 light years away to an unexplored part of the galaxy.

It turns out to be a region that Guinan’s people have been in, and she darkly suggests that they set a course for home and GTFO ASAP (actual dialogue). Cut to Picard’s captain’s log in which he actually says he wants to explore this part of space “in spite of Guinan’s warning.” LOL. He’s determined to prove Q right! This is actually a recurring character flaw of Picard’s – he’s too much of an explorer and perhaps a little too confident in his crew’s ability to weather any situation to leave well enough alone.

The Enterprise soon discovers a planet scarred by damage that is identical to the Federation and Romulan planets ravaged in the Season 1 finale “The Neutral Zone.” Soon after they encounter a gigantic cube-shaped ship that appears to have no life aboard and shows no activity. Its design is highly decentralized and contains none of the typical accoutrements that most starships have. I always loved the design of the Borg cube and how symbolic it is of their philosophy – it’s the least aerodynamic shape possible and unlike the ships of other species, has no aesthetic appeal whatsoever. It’s a completely unnatural shape and its colossal size instantly makes it an unnerving and threatening sight.

Picard asks Guinan for info, and she replies, “Oh yeah, they call themselves the Borg. They destroyed my people’s entire civilization and they’ll do the same to you.” And Picard is like, “Huh, interesting. Helm, move us in closer. Much closer…!”

An intruder transports into engineering, and it’s a well-composed little sequence. The Borg appears in the background, but obscured by glass. As La Forge spots him, a cybernetic arm swings into the foreground, followed by a close-up of Geordi’s face as he calls for help. There’s a comic book-like quality to the stylized perspective of it all.

Picard and security arrive in engineering to see a cybernetic person systematically scanning all of the consoles and technology. Q pops in over Picard’s shoulder to be as unhelpful and irritating as possible. “He might try to take over the ship,” he warns Picard. “I wouldn’t let him!” he chuckles in the most bemused, shit-eating tone.

Picard tries to greet the Borg, but gets no reaction in response. He starts fucking with the ship’s systems and after he casually tosses aside another security dude Worf shoots him down in response. Seconds later, another one appears and resumes what the previous one was doing. This time the phaser blast harmlessly collides with a forcefield, and I love the dark and icy blue palette of the shot as the Borg casts a sideways glance at Picard and co. He really looks like a malevolent techno-corpse. The impassiveness of the Borg were always a huge part of their terrifying nature, and it’s presented masterfully from their first scene. As Q says, the crew means nothing to the Borg and they just casually swat aside anything that gets in their way.

The Borg finishes what he was sent to do, and removes some components from his predecessor before beaming out. The other body disintegrates instantly. Another scary aspect of the Borg is that in addition to not caring about the lives of others, they don’t even care about their own lives. Each Borg is an expendable automaton in service of their grand desires. How do you even fight that?

Still not quite scared enough yet, Picard holds a little staff meeting and invites Guinan. She shares a bit more detail about how the Borg swept through her star system and left almost nothing behind of her people’s civilization. Picard asks how they can reason with the Borg, and she flatly replies that you don’t. Troi reports that the Borg don’t exist as single individuals, but as one unified collective with no leader. The Borg chime in via hailing message to inform the Enterprise that their defenses are no match for them and that if they resist they will “be punished.” Ooh, do tell, you kinky bastards! 🥰

The Borg ship locks onto the Enterprise with a tractor beam and with another beam slices a section of its hull out like a soil sample. It’s pretty gnarly, and ends up taking 18 of the crew with it. The Enterprise counters with a phaser attack that severely damages the Borg ship enough to shut it down.

The staff sits down to yet another meeting (which really could have been an email – subject line “Fwd: Fwd: WE NEED 2 GET OUT OF HERE!!!1”) and Picard decides to send an away team over to the Borg ship to investigate. The normally unflappable Guinan is like WHAT. Holy shit, Guinan is flapped, everyone. It’s officially Joever; we’re doomed.

Riker, Data, and Worf take a beam on over and witness the inside of the Borg ship. It’s a cramped and mechanical place with alcoves for each individual Borg to plug themselves into. Curiously, the Borg that are walking around totally ignore the away team. I absolutely love that Worf’s immediate instinct is to blast a new head hole into the drone that passes them by before Riker stops him. She’s already walked by them without harm and he’s clearly SO offended at not being perceived as a threat. You just lumber on by and don’t even try to kill me or my friends? That’s a phasering.

I love the camera pullback which shows a wide shot of the vast interior of the Borg cube. There’s a river at the bottom of some type of liquid. It’s so cool and I remember it inspiring so much fascination when I first watched it. Although “Q Who” has the feel of a bottle episode, there’s an impressive amount of work put into the Borg costuming, ship, and sets. The style and detail of the Borg aesthetic would improve as time went on, but given that it’s a TV show from 1989, it’s pretty damn good.

They also find a nursery of big bad baby Borg in drawers. Neat. Not so neat, Data reports that the Borg are collectively using their energies to repair their vessel. Finally, finally having learned his lesson, Picard immediately orders the away team to be beamed to the bridge and sets an escape course at high warp.

The Borg pursue and begin to slowly close the gap even as the Enterprise pushes its engines to the limits. The cube puts itself back together before the crews’ eyes and is now totally impervious to the Enterprise’s weapons. It fires a few energy pulses that steadily drain the Enterprise’s shields before forcing it out of warp and engaging its tractor beam again.

Q is sitting there on the bridge relishing every second of the crew’s futile attempts to escape. When all hope seems lost he starts to bid adieu to Picard, who finally relents and asks Q for help, citing that if they all die he won’t be able to gloat. He then gives an emphatic, full-throated plea while admitting how helpless and up a creek they are.

Satisfied, Q responds by returning the Enterprise to its original position. He actually lauds Picard for fully admitting his inadequacies. Picard allows that the lesson Q tried to teach them was a necessary one, but laments the loss of 18 lives of his crew. Q is unapologetic for the “bloody nose” and underlines once again that it’s not safe out here. “It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it’s not for the timid,” he says before disappearing. All right, enough with the sales pitch, Q. I’ve already booked my plane ticket to Vermont.

Again, the script is great, and Q’s words strike a balance of depicting deep space as wondrous and terrifying. Q’s motives throughout The Next Generation weren’t consistent, but a somewhat persistent thread is that he seems to want to help Picard and humanity. The way he goes about it is infuriating and inscrutable, but there’s really no other explanation for his fixation with them. Other episodes leaned a lot into the “asshole prankster” persona, but here his desire to be a guide of the terrifying unknowns seems sincere.

In the final scene of the episode, Picard chills with Guinan over a scintillating game of 3D chess. She somberly muses that Q’s actions will have ramifications in the future for the Federation, and Picard realizes that the Borg will be coming for them. The way she phrases it is in that all-knowing, long-lived way that she has about her. But on a smaller scale it reinforces the unique relationship between Picard and Guinan, which was one of the highlights of the series.

“Q Who” contains the best incarnation of Q’s character because it leans less on his irritating qualities and more on the higher knowledge and awareness he possesses as a cosmic being. And that’s the source of the terror here as he casually introduces our heroes to one of the worst and most unstoppable foes not just of Star Trek, but all of sci-fi. The enduring appeal of the Borg was fully formed and present from their first appearance and provided a dramatically necessary dark side to Starfleet’s mission of seeking out new life and new civilizations.

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Stray Observations:

• The timeline of the Borg and humanity got increasingly smashed to all hell and twisted up into knots as time went on, but just taking TNG into account, it’s a bit odd that the big hook at the end of this episode is that “THEY’RE COMING!!1” Like, they’re literally already here, as per the events in “The Neutral Zone.” I appreciate the continuity and callback to that, but it also kind of spoils the ending here.
  
  Of course, we eventually learn in Voyager that the Borg’s transwarp network allows them to place ships in most every corner of the galaxy should they so choose.

• And speaking of timelines, Guinan’s got somewhat mangled as the franchise went on. We eventually see that her refugee life began back in Kirk’s era about ~70 years prior to this episode (to say nothing of being on Earth several times many, many years before that). She probably deserves some criticism for not mentioning these Borg people. Then again, so do the several dozen other of her people who apparently didn’t speak up either. But even more then again, is that Starfleet technically new about the Borg since the time of Captain Archer anyway, so just whatever, man. Balls dropping left and right like some sort of… ball-dropping parade. Of balls.
  
  However, I think Guinan’s generally blasé attitude towards the Borg is indicative of the sort of laid-back, fatalistic outlook she has.

• Sonya Gomez would go on to rise to the rank of captain and featured again in Lower Decks. She had one other appearance in “Samaritan Snare” and was intended to be a recurring character – a love interest for La Forge, even – but that was it. It’s too bad because she’s sooo adorkable. Not too keen on her being involved with La Forge since he’s her superior. But then that might have saved him (and us) from the absolute cringiest moments of the series. Or created entirely new ones!
  
  She joins other briefly featured engineers that didn’t survive past a couple appearances like Ashley Judd’s Leffler and DS9’s Munoz. Voyager had a couple of those, too.

• I never noticed until I rewatched it for this write-up, but the Borg claw insignia is clear and present from their first episode here. I always thought it was wacky and a little unrealistic that the Borg would bother to have a logo. Then again, just because you’re a cybernetic race bent on galactic conquest doesn’t mean you can’t have brand synergy.

• Likewise, the Borg’s “spaghetti noodles” display graphics that were featured heavily in First Contact and Voyager also made their first appearance here, too. I just find it impressive when something emerges fully formed like the Borg do here. As shown by the introduction of the Ferengi and Cardassians, it can take a little while for the show to “find” the spirit of a new alien race.

• Q’s warning about humanity moving into new areas of the galaxy with new and higher threats would be extra prophetic given the adventures of Deep Space Nine and Voyager. The Dominion proves to be just as existential a threat to the Federation as the Borg. 

• One of Stewart’s funniest and driest (heh) lines from the show:

• LOL @ Geordi’s exasperation here.

• Presented without context: