TNG Flashback: Q Who

After the failure of the Ferengi as a credible recurring enemy on Star Trek: The Next Generation, the writers set about imagining a replacement. Writer Maurice Hurley, who I've criticized in past reviews for many reasons, did at least make one great contribution to Star Trek in conceiving that replacement, and thus was born the pivotal episode "Q Who."

The powerful entity Q abducts Picard and strands him aboard a shuttlecraft, skirting around his previous agreement never to trouble the Enterprise again and forcing the captain to listen to a request. Kicked out of the Q-Continuum for his failure to entice Riker to join them, Q is now homeless and wishes to become a permanent member of the Enterprise crew. When Picard rejects the offer, boldly declaring that humanity does not require help in facing the unknowns of space, Q instantly transports the ship to a section of the galaxy that has been ravaged by an alien race -- the Borg. This first encounter with the powerful and inscrutable aliens proves to be the greatest threat the Enterprise has yet faced.

The introduction of the Borg was one of season two's biggest successes, but it didn't go according to the original plan. Maurice Hurley had already dreamed up his "invincible alien race" and planted the seeds for their introduction in the terrible first season finale, "The Neutral Zone." He planned to start the next season with a multi-part episode that featured the Romulans and Federation teaming up in the face of the new threat, a hive-minded race of insectoids. The writers' strike laid waste to those plans, as no work on the scripts could be done over the summer production break. When the strike's ultimate resolution delayed the start of the fall television season, every series had to rush something back in front of the cameras as quickly as possible. There was no time on Star Trek to work out the introduction of the new alien race.

As the first half of the season filmed, Maurice Hurley continued to develop his idea with Gene Roddenberry's blessing, but the realities of the budget were considerable. There was simply no way they could pull off a believable insectoid race. Once the idea was finally refined into that of a half-cyborg threat (retaining the hive mind concept of the insects), the Borg were ready to go before the cameras.

This episode could easily have gone wrong. Even this more reasonable incarnation of the Borg was a massive challenge for the budget. And the episode script could easily have come off overstuffed. Not only was a new adversary being introduced, but there was also the return of Q. And he couldn't just show up; some screen time would have to spent in explaining how he could return, following the events of his previous episode. And then, just for good measure, the episode also introduced a new side character, engineering Ensign Sonya Gomez. (More on her later.) The fact that the episode managed to include all these elements, and felt like it gave each their due, was quite an accomplishment.

That said, I do have a few quibbles here and there. The way they write Q back into the mix is to mischaracterize his deal at the close of "Hide and Q." In that episode, he wagered and lost, his penalty being to "stay out of the path of humanity forever." In this episode, the deal has transfigured into an agreement not to trouble the Enterprise anymore -- a much easier bargain for the writers to maneuver out of. Still, it's a more than acceptable cheat for getting John de Lancie back on the show. His performance of Q remains simultaneously nuanced and larger-than-life, and is a real treat to watch. The writers clearly love him, and for good reason.

They also love Whoopi Goldberg's Guinan, and so you can understand why they'd want to imply a backstory between her character and Q. But this is another minor misstep in the episode. A strange and unnecessary confrontation between the two characters last for only a few seconds, leaving the audience only with questions that would never be answered. What kind of dealings has Guinan had in the past with this Q and others? Does she actually have some kind of ability to resist his powers? (She acts as though she might.) What "imp"-like trouble follows her, as Q suggests? Don't get too interested in any of that, because you'll never know.

Actually, the portrayal of Guinan in general in this episode is a bit off. To this point, she's always been enigmatic, and uses circumspection to make other people come to her conclusions. But this situation makes that behavior seem ridiculous. With the Enterprise transported into the heart of Borg territory, and Guinan asked point blank what's there, she says she can tell them "only that if I were you, I'd start back now." She continues to hand out information in miserly fashion throughout the episode, when it seems to me that even a deliberately enigmatic person would be screaming at the top of her voice: "we're in danger of being attacked by an invincible race of genocidal monsters!"

My one last quibble with the episode would be that the portrayal of the Borg is inconsistent with future episodes. Don't get me wrong, what's here within this episode certainly works on its own. The idea of a race that takes no interest in life, only in the technology it can consume, is a fascinating one. The idea that they can't be reasoned with, and can't be defeated by the time the end credits roll -- that's all wonderful. But what the Borg became later on wasn't just fascinating, it was scary. The abduction of Picard by the Borg in "The Best of Both Worlds" was a high mark for the entire series. And the Borg further evolved in the film "First Contact," into a terrifying race of body snatchers. The Borg were certainly good here (except maybe for the "bouncing baby Borg" we see briefly, which Star Trek: Voyager later retconned into a "maturation chamber"), but the race would get even better later.

Still, the quibbles fade away in the face of how good the rest of the episode is. Director Rob Bowman does some of his best work on the series, loading the episode with unusual close-ups, fast zooms, and clever staging. Q is effectively placed in truly odd locations on the sets, from a perch in the windows of Ten Forward to a lazy recline on the bridge ramp. Atypical camera angles are deployed throughout, from a beam-out viewed from the back of the transporter pad to a massive pullout on the interior of the Borg cube (rendered by a gorgeous matte painting back from the time before computers made such work easier).

Composer Ron Jones also steps up with a fantastic score that lays down hints of his later, most famous work on the series, "The Best of Both Worlds." There's spooky tension for the abduction of Picard and the arrival of the Borg scout in engineering. There's powerful action in the battle sequences against the Borg cube. And there's a marvelous fusion of gothic overtones and synthesizer that gives perfect voice to this new nemesis.

The acting is great throughout, especially from John de Lancie and Patrick Stewart. Their work in the final act is superb, as Picard concedes defeat and Q then delivers a wonderful summation of the lesson he sought to teach. (There's also a genius little take by Jonathan Frakes when Riker is teleported back into his chair and reacts to suddenly being in Picard's face.) Also strong are Levar Burton, who shows Geordi in an uncharacteristic role as a mentor, and guest Lycia Naff, who convincing plays the awkward and high-strung Ensign Sonya Gomez.

I've read that Sonya Gomez was considered as a recurring character, and possibly even a love interest for Geordi. They even brought her back in the very next episode... before dropping her entirely. I'm not sure what happened there, but it does seem as though the "socially awkward recurring engineer" character was ultimately embodied by Reginald Barclay instead.

Other observations:

• Q off-handedly suggests that he would renounce his powers if necessary to join the Enterprise crew. This notion may have inspired his next appearance, in which his powers were stripped from him by the rest of the Continuum.

• After all the times I've watched Star Trek: The Next Generation, I only just now noticed how the lights in the mural behind the Ten Forward bar shift subtly over time.

• Actress Lycia Naff may be familiar to you as the three-breasted mutant in the original Total Recall. So, there's that.

• There's an unintentionally hilarious moment when Picard orders Worf to stop the Borg intruder in Engineering, and Worf immediately delegates the task to a no-name security officer (who promptly gets thrown across the room). At least for once, Worf doesn't get beaten up to show how tough someone else is.

Ultimately, the one great failure in introducing the Borg may have been that the writers made them too invincible. Though they were intended as a recurring villain, the Next Generation writers rarely used them for lack of ideas on how to defeat them. Sadly, Star Trek: Voyager later chose to "solve" this problem by dumbing down and defanging the Borg. But then, that's one reason among many that you'll never see any "Voyager Flashback reviews" here on the blog. (Seriously, that show hurt sometimes.) I give "Q Who" an A-.