Wanderlust

2.16 — “Q Who”

2.16 — “Q Who”

Plot: Stepping out of the turbolift, Picard is surprised by Q, who claims to have been kicked out of the Continuum and is interested in joining the crew of the Enterprise. When Picard rejects this offer, Q is miffed, and hurls the ship 7,000 light years away into unexplored space. There they encounter a Borg cube, which starts by probing the ship, and then continues by demanding total surrender. Ulp.

Thoughts: At long last, a landmark episode. This is episode 42 of TNG (the 42nd episode produced in TOS, although not the 42nd to air, was “The Trouble With Tribbles”). One of its best points is that it shows the crew as being fallible, and capable of getting in over their heads.

The best part for me is the design of the Borg, and the iconic Borg cube, both its exterior and interior. Some of the elements of these villains, such as assimilation, are yet to be developed, but the show effectively leaves you wanting to know more about them.

Heck, though. I like good stories. The story here is basically 1) the ship goes somewhere, 2) meets something scary, remorseless, and more powerful than it can handle, and 3) flees before it can be destroyed. The level of narrative complexity is more on the level of a fairy tale than a short story that could have been published by Joseph Campbell. The premise works as space horror, but this is not the kind of story that draws me to Star Trek. I”m not sure I will ever love Borg stories. I think this is the first Borg episode I have ever seen, however, aside from Star Trek: First Contact and a stray episode of Star Trek: Voyager, so I may be speaking too soon.

The Guinan stuff is interesting, but never gets explained. Q appears to be overacting this time around. I like the notion that Q may have been intentionally doing Picard and the Federation a favor, disguised as an act of petulance.

Warp 4 of 6.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Q_Who

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20 responses to “2.16 — “Q Who””

  1. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Second really good episode, other than “Measure of a Man” (but without the quibbles I had with that one). Love the ensign spilling hot chocolate on Picard: great insertion of a sympathetic flawed character to whom the audience can relate, and who showcases the stellar reputation of the Enterprise.

    Love Guinan turning out to be more than she seems, the creepy introduction of the Borg (Borg babies!), Picard shouting “I need you!” while sounding anything but needy. Q’s hair reminds me of the 80’s… I will always love that hairstyle. I don’t care what anyone says.

    Reply
  2. jrj1701 Avatar
    jrj1701

    This episode has always thrilled me, because it shows the an uncompromising and hard to defeat foe. That Q was giving a backhanded heads up is beyond question, yet what is Q’s agenda?

    Reply
  3. Walter Phippeny Avatar
    Walter Phippeny

    The Borg were a real turning point for TNG. Originally, the Ferengi were supposed to be the arch-baddies for TNG which is why they get a bunch of screen time in season 1, but viewers weren’t that interested in them. Then, along came the Borg and viewer reaction showed the writers that they had hit something with their zombie-tech-hive-mind creation.

    I know that there were more Borg stories in “Voyager”. Do they ever go into the history of the Borg? How they came about? Why they made the choice to become a collective? That seems like rich story territory. How would a society transform over time into something Borg like?

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  4. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    That would certainly be an awesome story arc! Very funny that anyone thought the Ferengi would be interesting at all when they were showcased to be foolish and not particularly strong enemies in the first episode in which they were featured.

    Reply
  5. Walter Phippeny Avatar
    Walter Phippeny

    They were trying to build mystery around the Ferengi. No one had ever seen them before — which totally got thrown away with Enterprise — and they were kind of evil. The looked like monsters, treated their women like slaves, and had a society based on capitalism. Now that I think about it, the Ferengi were kind of like a mirror image of the Federation: ugly, violent, oppressive, intolerant, and motivated by greed.

    But you”re right! The writers made them way too strawman: they were dangerous, but easily thwarted.

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  6. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Honestly not that different in their attitude toward women than the early writers! Just more blatant.

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  7. Walter Phippeny Avatar
    Walter Phippeny

    Randi Cohen Now that”s funny, I don”t care who you are. Trekspertise has some pretty awesome videos about the Trek universe, including the issue of feminism. Check it out, if you haven”t already.

    Reply
  8. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    I will try when I get a chance but I also trust my own viewing experience. Take a look at Angel One or Code Of Honor or The Child or any of the female characters in the first season and tell me honestly you do not think the early writers are sexist! Particularly given the post 70s era in which the show was filmed I don’t see much of an excuse…

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  9. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    By early writers, I think Randi means the first season writers on TNG (some of whom carried on to second season). I agree, there is a dark core of mysogyny there under a thin veneer of progressivism. I will be interested in checking out +Trekspertise when I have time.

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  10. Walter Phippeny Avatar
    Walter Phippeny

    Trekspertise makes the point that “Angel One” and “Code of Honor” provide the writers the opportunity to contrast how the Federation sees gender correctly, by show us other alien cultures that are oppressive. I really recommend his channel on youtube. Here’s a link to his episode on post-feminism; it”s about 7 minutes long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opk_7ra_q9o

    Reply
  11. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Because this topic relates tangentially to “Q Who,” I’m going to take it off to a discussion thread. Please continue to talk about “Q Who” here.

    Reply
  12. Blair Jones Avatar
    Blair Jones

    Walter Phippeny There are some post-TV-series books about the origin of the Borg. Good reading, interesting finish. See the Destiny trilogy.

    Reply
  13. Walter Phippeny Avatar
    Walter Phippeny

    Blair Jones There’s not much about their history on Memory Alpha: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Borg_history It seems like they kept it mysterious. But, the Borg Queen–herself a little bit of sloppy writing that doesn’t really fit the species as first developed–says that the Borg where once like humans: individuals with their own minds. So, what would prompt this society of individuals to turn themselves into a hivemind and then conquer every species they come across. There would have to be a group asking, “can we talk about the whole “assimilating” thing, sir?” And what happened to them? Was there like a Devros type character that pushed the whole hivemind thing and stomped out all opposition?

    There are some good stories in there…

    But, back to the “Q Who” episode. I need to rewatch it again, if I’m going to add anything more to the conversation. I remember the overall parts, but not the details. Was there any character development here? Do we see any characters in a new light?

    Reply
  14. Blair Jones Avatar
    Blair Jones

    Walter Phippeny Do you mean about the Borg history? you could read the books. 🙂

    Also check out Memory Beta.

    I don’t want to say more in case it might be a spoiler. 

    Reply
  15. sunny jim Avatar
    sunny jim

    I’d like to step back a moment and talk about the production design for this episode, because it’s really fantastic.  The borg cube, itself, is a thing of beauty.  It’s nice, for once, to point out that aerodynamics are a wasted effort in space. 

    The borg costumes, also, pretty genius.  I think this was before cyberpunk hit in any real way, and most of us had never seen anything like this at all. 

    Best, however, is the composition of the conference room scene.  Cool grey walls, purple chairs, Guinan in purple (her costume is better now than the first version they had her in), Deanna in maroon, Riker and Picard in reds that tend to the blue side of red (which might be the lighting)…. and Data, an accent of greenish gold, just to the left of center, and slightly below the mid-line vertically,  in the placement that, in classical art, is known as the Golden Ratio (or Golden Rectangle).  It’s really quite masterful.  

    It’s hard to remember the late 80’s clearly, but at the time, the “futuristic” set design and graphics of the Federation were really pretty cool.  I remember that we really liked the menu screens and isolinear chips.  This one conference room scene, however, tells me that at least the directors and designers have something going on, even if the writers are still catching up.

    Reply
  16. Walter Phippeny Avatar
    Walter Phippeny

    sunny jim​ You make a lot of good points. The configurable touch screen consoles and tablet devices were very forward thinking for the time.

    I would say that Cyberpunk as a literary genre was close to played out by this point, but you’re right that the cyberpunk aesthetic was getting into the mainstream. Maybe to avoid cyberopsychosis the Borg embraced the hive mind model. And serious points to anyone who gets the cyberpsychosis reference.

    The cube design IS pretty awesome, making the point that travel through a vacum is very different than travel through an atmosphere.

    Reply
  17. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Yeah, also the Cube makes the point that the Borg are utilitarian and completely indifferent to aesthetics. It’s a great design.

    Reply
  18. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    I’m going to plug the comment section for this episode at TheViewscreen.com–interesting stuff: http://www.theviewscreen.com/q-who/

    Reply
  19. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    Ensign Gomez, recent academy graduate with high qualifications in technobabble, gets to spill hot chocolate on and put her hands all over Picard’s manly chest.  Trying to make us jealous much, writers?!  On his way back to his quarters to change, Picard gets stolen off the Enterprise for a F2F with Q!  

    In Ten Forward, Guinan senses Q’s presence.  Can’t wait for that meeting.  I hope that Gomez and Guinan both play roles in retrieving Picard.

    Now Troi senses something is off, and the bridge figures out that Picard and the shuttlecraft are missing.

    Picard’s return to the Enterprise is a bit of an anticlimax; it’s not the point of the episode.  But, if it’s not the point of the episode, did we really need to spend that much time and effort on it?  Oi… Q keeps trying to get to the point of his request, and the writers keep throwing people in the way.  First Guinan, who appears to have some seekrit history with Q, then Riker and Worf.  I feel a little let down by the meeting between Guinan and Q, actually.

    Oh… this is all setup for the first encounter with the Borg.  Gotcha.  That’s why we have to resolve the “Picard is missing” dilemma quickly.

    The initial Borg foray onto the Enterprise begins a slow buildup to the Enterprise sending an away team to the Borg ship.  The payoff is the shot of the interior set of the Borg ship, which is awesome.  The fact that the Borg simply ignore Riker, Data, and Worf is chilling.  I like Picard’s decisiveness in bringing the away team back to the ship as soon as Data discovers the Borg are regenerating their Cube.  

    During the Enterprise’s flight from the Borg, I like Q spinning around in the chair on the bridge.  That’s a nice bit of theater.

    “You want me to say, ‘I need you?’  I need you!”  Stewart sounds like Shatner, in a good way.

    I know we get to see the Borg again.  This is a fine introduction to a long-term threat.  Dare I wish that we get to see more of Ensign Gomez? [note: I looked it up; she’s in one more episode before being dropped]

    Reply
  20. Blair Jones Avatar
    Blair Jones

    R. Alex Reutter You’ll be happy to know that Gomez reappears in the Starfleet Corps of Engineers books; she’s got a promising future! They’re good reads.

    Reply

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