Stardate: 42761.3
Original Air Date: May 8, 1989
Writer: Maurice Hurley
Director: Rob Bowman
“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.”
“Q Who” is a great episode that begins with a fairly silly prologue –a clumsy but overly eager new crewman, Ensign Sonya Gomez (Lycia Naff), chats with Geordi and accidentally spills hot chocolate all over Picard. She is a recent Academy graduate who has transferred over to ship at Starbase 173. Somewhat amusingly, she insists on using manners when requesting things from the food dispensers (saying “please” and “thank you”).
At any rate, after having hot chocolate spilled all over his suit, Picard decides to head back to his quarters to clean himself up on Deck 9 (Officer’s quarters) when out of the blue Q appears and suddenly confronts Picard in the turbolift. Q transports him far away him into Shuttlecraft 6 which is inexplicably relocated to the middle of deep space where the locater beam won’t work. What is going on? Didn’t Q previously promise not to interfere with the Enterprise again? The first time they saw him he put the crew on trial for the crimes of all humanity (as shown in the pilot episode “Encounter at Farpoint”) and the last time the crew saw Q, he tried to get Riker to join the Q Continuum (“Hide and ‘Q’”).
As it turns out, now Q is a “homeless entity,” abandoned by the Q Continuum, and he asks Picard if he can join the Enterprise crew and he promises to renounce his powers. But naturally, Picard doesn’t trust him. Q warns Picard that, despite their rapid expansion, humans are unprepared for what awaits them in the furthest reaches of space –there are terrifying new enemies that are nothing like the “pitiful adversaries” of the Romulans and the Klingons.
To demonstrate his point, Q then takes control of the Enterprise, sending the ship 7,000 light years away near the system J-25. Data notes that the travel time to the nearest starbase from this location when traveling at maximum warp would likely take two years, seven months, three days, and eighteen hours if they were to reach Starbase 185. After experiencing a bad extra-sensory feeling, Guinan shares that her people once traveled to this part of the galaxy where they met a horrifying alien intelligence. Still, Picard orders the ship onward. They learn that the sixth planet in this system is a Class-M planet. They briefly investigate the unusual surface of the planet which is reminiscent of the destroyed outposts in the Season 1 closer “The Neutral Zone.”
Suddenly, a huge cube-shaped ship intercepts the Enterprise. The ship is unusual. It has no command center, no engineering section, no living quarters, no bride, no shields, no weapons of any kind, and no indication of life aboard. When asked about who these creatures might be, Guinan remarks: “My people encountered them a century ago. They destroyed our cities, scattered my people throughout the galaxy. They are called the Borg. Protect yourself, captain, or they’ll destroy you.” Guinan has a confrontation with Q –apparently, they had some “dealings” two centuries ago and Q claims Guinan is an “imp.” What does all of this mean?
Before answers can be provided, a cybernetic member of the Borg beams over the Enterprise and begins scanning the ship’s computers. Geordi alerts the others of an intruder in main engineering, a robotic individual which Q calls an “enhanced humanoid,” a scout sent over to analyze the Enterprise technology. After trying a couple times, Worf neutralizes the invader and suddenly another appears. The Borg appear to be utterly unafraid of the Enterprise crew and they operate like an animatronic collective hive-mind.
“We have analyzed your defensive capabilities as being unable to withstand us.
If you defend yourselves, you will be punished.”
A tractor beam from the cube-ship then begins draining the Enterprise’s shields, while a laser beam slices into the saucer section (sections 27, 28, 29 on decks 4,5, and 6 destroyed, while 18 crewmen are missing). Then the Enterprise fires and destroys approximately 20% of the alien ship. This leads to a temporary ceasefire. Riker suggests: “Sir, if we’re going to have any further dealings with the Borg now or in the future, we should find out anything we can about them.”
A minimal away team is quickly organized consisting of Riker, Data, and Worf. They beam over to the Borg ship (despite Guinan’s protestations) to find the Borg plugged into their ship, locked in a strange stasis of sorts –there are slots in the walls with two Borg to each alcove. At one point, one member of the Borg walks right past the away team, apparently not seeing the away team as any kind of a threat. The crew then stumble upon a “Borg nursery” where the Borg appear to be harvest newborn children as biological life forms, and then after birth the Borg begin constructing artificial implants that link artificial intelligence into the humanoid brain. The away team also notes that the cube-ship appears to be regenerating itself using the collective energy of the Borg. Once the team realizes this fact, the away team is beamed back and the Enterprise attempts to speed away at a high speed (Warp 8, then 8.5, then 9, then 9.65), but each time they increase speed, the Borg continue to gain on the Enterprise.
With no place left to turn, and facing the imminent destruction of the Enterprise by the Borg, Picard then admits to Q that he was right all along –the Enterprise has proven itself inadequate to handle the Borg and that the Enterprise needs Q’s help. In response to this, Q relents and returns the Enterprise to its initial location, impressed by Picard’s ability to swallow his pride in order to save his crew (Picard is no longer the “impossibly stubborn human” Q accused him of being at the start of the episode).
“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.”
Q decided to introduce the Enterprise to the Borg much sooner than they naturally would have, almost as a warning of what is to come. Meanwhile, Guinan warns the captain that the Borg are now aware of the Federation –“They will be coming.” On that note, the Enterprise departs and heads for Starbase 83.
“..Perhaps what we most needed was a kick in our complacency to prepare us for what lies ahead.”
My Thoughts on “Q Who”
At last, the arrival of The Borg! I thought “Q Who” was a truly chilling, foundational episode of Star Trek. The Borg are portrayed as a far more terrifying, impenetrable villain than I had imagined, and it’s fascinating the way Q decides to prematurely expose the Enterprise to their greatest enemy. “Q Who” oozes with a sense of ominous dread throughout the episode as the Enterprise is left helpless in the hands of both the god-like being Q as well as the hive-mind collective Borg. Is Q a villain? Or is he actually more of a noble guide for humanity? In “Q Who” his character is given greater depth –this is the moment wherein he seemingly transforms from Saturday Morning cartoon villain into extra-moral anti-villain of sorts. His decision to give the Enterprise advanced warning of The Borg might rightly be interpreted as an act of benevolence. Only time will tell.
There are a few loose ends that confused me in this episode –for example, we are left to wonder about the nature of the relationship between Q and Guinan. Are Q and Guinan immortal enemies? They had some sort of confrontation a couple hundred years earlier, and it almost seems as if Guinan has super-human powers on par with Q. What are Guinan’s powers? This episode teed up a perfect opportunity for TNG to explore more of Guinan’s past. Since her people had experience with The Borg in the past, why wouldn’t Picard trust Guinan’s advice about The Borg? And why does Picard instantly dismiss her counsel not to beam over to The Borg cube-ship? And since Guinan’s people were nearly obliterated, why wouldn’t Starfleet have any knowledge about The Borg?
At any rate, despite a fairly shaky start to this episode –with the quirky introduction of Ensign Sonya Gomez—“Q Who” packs a serious punch in the end while offering a thoughtful consideration of the fearsome life forms lurking in the outer reaches of space. This episode shows us one of the first moments that the Enterprise has seemingly met its match. In order to save his ship, Picard is uniquely forced to turn tail and run. He neither defeats nor outsmarts The Borg, but rather, he relies on Q and his powers to save the Enterprise. But now that the Federation has finally encountered its ultimate foe, how will it develop a plan to defeat them when a confrontation inevitably arrives?
Star Trek Trivia:
- Notably, there is no captain’s log to start this episode. Instead, there is a “First Officer’s Log” about ten minutes into the episode.
- Ensign Sonya Gomez mentions Ranous VI where she could work with antimatter if she hadn’t been given the honor to serve on the Enterprise. Ensign Sonya Gomez is played by Lycia Naff, who famously played the three-breasted Martian prostitue in Total Recall.
- In this episode, we are reminded that Deck 9 is where the Officer’s Quarters are located.
- There is apparently an issue when scanning for individual life forms versus collective life signs.
- In this episode, Q calls Worf “microbrain” again ( a nod to their last encounter).
- The Borg were initially going to be an insect race as featured in the Season 1 episode “Conspiracy.”
- This episode features the third appearance of John de Lancie as Q after “Encounter at Farpoint” and “Hide and Q” –the latter of which was also written by Maurice Hurley under a pseudonym.
- Ensign Sonya Gomez was originally designed to be a love interest character for Geordi as a step toward him eventually undergoing surgery to remove his visor, but this plot thread was later abandoned. Ensign Gomez appears in one more TNG episode.
- The costume designs of The Borg were created by Dorinda Wood, while Michael Westmore developed the prosthetics worn on the actor’s heads. The designs were reminiscent of the artistic creations of H. R. Giger, the Swiss artist who worked on the special effects team for Ridley Scott’s Alien, and the character “Lord Dread” from the television series Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future.
- The original voices of The Borg were completed by director Rob Bowman, his assistant, and writer Maurice Hurley.
- Production designer Richard James designed the Borg cube-ship, and Kim Bailey was contracted to construct the model of the cube. The physical model is apparently still owned by Paramount and often included on studio tours.
- It is implied in this episode that the Romulan Neutral Zone outposts were destroyed by The Borg as originally described in the season 1 closer “The Neutral Zone.”
- This episode was nominated for three Emmys, winning two –one for sound editing and the other for sound mixing.