Summary
En route to help a colony that’s suffered a major catastrophe the Enterprise is stopped by Q and shenanigans ensue. Q gives Riker Q powers and tempts him to join them. He uses his powers to gift his crewmates, and they refuse. And so Riker refuses. And Q is taken up never to be seen again… until the next episode he’s in.
Observations
They get to re-use the Q field special effect. Frugal.
9 episodes and they’re already going back to their own well with Q.
Worf sees the threat on the bridge and literally leaps toward it, phaser drawn. Tasha Yar sees Worf react and then she reacts. Who is head of security around here? Moments later Worf again is ready to pounce on Q without orders and Picard stops him. Why did they write Tasha this poorly?
Picard recounts the events of Encounter at Farpoint then turns to the camera and says “Everyone caught up?”
They forgot to fill in the green screen on the planet set.
Geordi has no idea what’s in the glass Q creates, but he drinks it. Worf is like “Nah, son.” And pours his out.
Q refers to the humans defeating the Klingons. This is pre Star Trek VI where the Praxis incident and Khitomer peace talks are explained.
Q makes Tasha disappear. Well, the script already made her moot. Might as well just cut to the chase. Never mind, she’s back, sort of. Talking to Picard on the bridge. But she’s still unable to do anything per the rules of Q’s game.
We see a soft side of Picard when he comforts Tasha. Kind of nice.
Q says Picard’s name in a somewhat French accent… unlike Picard himself.
Q agrees if Riker wins that Q will stay out of humanity’s way forever. Spoilers… Riker wins. Q doesn’t hold up on his bargain.
Geordi: “Worf is so far away now.”
Riker: “Geordi, why do you keep telling us what Worf is doing?”
Geordi: “Because, it’s a studio set, Riker, and we can’t afford any log shots, you see?”
This episode’s title should have been “Geordi describes things that are far away due to budget limitations.”
Picard and Q get into a Shakespeare battle. One annoyance with Trek has always been that apparently human culture not only stopped when we discovered warp fields, but regressed. I wouldn’t dare suggest that much popular-art that is created now will stand the test of time, but some of it would, and probably in ways we can’t imagine. In his time Shakespeare would have seemed quite vulgar to some, but now he is revered as a master of English art. Maybe in the 24th century humanity feels the same way about Ice Cube? We just don’t know.
Q: As your poet Ice Cube once said “Drink it up, drink it up, even though she’s Catholic that don’t mean shit, cause she’s givin’ up the ass quick.”
Picard: But did he not also say in that same work “She can take on three men built like He-men. Her little-bitty twat got gallons of semen”?
Q: Touché, mon nègre. Until we meet again.
Picard quotes (explicitly that he is doing so unironically):
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
Hamlet 2.2.273-276)
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god!
Q gets freaked out by this and Picard ponders if Q is afraid this is what humanity will become. Q leaves in anger. Oh, poor Picard… if he had any idea what would happen to humanity and Star Trek’s future when he gets his own series 30 years later. He would be first wiping his ass with those words and then eating those shit stained pages.
Data is all kinds of knowledgeable about 17th – 18th century French military equipment and uniforms. Isn’t this the same tool who referred to the French language as obscure a few episodes ago? Maybe he’s been brushing up because of his earlier faux pas.
WTF? Did Riker use the kill setting on the aliens attacking them?
Worf leaps into action and attacks the advancing monster army. He takes out two and then is stabbed with a bayonet. Everyone else just chills out and watches except Wesley who charges in to check on Worf. I sure hope nobody keeps their memories of this because if I was Worf I’d be pretty pissed that nobody cared enough to help him except the boy.
Picard has a silver model of a refit Constitution Class (presumably The Enterprise) in his office, not the Stargazer. Have I noticed that before?
Riker instantly becomes a dick when he gets Q powers. Let it breathe. Show us his transformation. Maybe don’t have the episode dick around as much on the cheap set and spend more time on the character study of Riker getting these powers.
Geordi gets his eyes back and immediately pervs on Tasha.
Worf’s dream is to have a Klingon woman to fuck? What two dimensional aspirations they had for him back then.
Wait… is this the first big forehead Klingon woman we see in Star Trek? Star Trek V won’t be released for another year or two after this episode.
Worf has no place for sex in his life now… apparently? And Geordi shames Worf for his sex practices.
It’s implied Q is taken back by the Continuum to be punished.
Nitpicks
Picard calls Crusher, he broadcasts across the ship. She stops to touch a wall panel and respond. Did they not establish that their badges were communicators yet? I haven’t noticed.
Less a nitpick for this episode and more an observation about how inconsistent Warp speed is. At Warp 9.1 they will be at the colony in 3.1 hours. In the TNG era warp 9 is established to be around 834 times the speed of light (900 billion km/h). Traveling that speed for 3.1 hours would move them about 2.8 trillion km or .28 light years. At that speed it would take about 50 hours to reach Alpha Centauri from Earth. Think about that when you watch J.J. Abrams Trek and they warp from Q’onoS to Earth in like 35 seconds.
Armchair Screenwriter 