Cheap Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 42: Q Who? (Video) (LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Gabrielle Beaumont, Robert Becker, Cliff Bole, Timothy Bond, David Carson, Chip Chalmers, Richard Compton, Robert Iscove) Price

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Customer Reviews of Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 42: Q Who?

Finally, the deadly mystery from "The Neutral Zone" is uncovered!
Plot: Things start out innocently enough, with a very ambitious ensign spilling hot chocolate on Capt. Picard (First sign that this is going to be a good episode). Picard decides to head back and change and instead meets up with Q. Well, Q explains that he's been kicked out of the Continuum. So, to put it bluntly, he's bored and wants to have some fun. He wants to join Picard and the Enterprise and explore the galaxy. Picard, after thinking it through carefully, denies Q's request, explaining that they don't trust him. Q gets a little ticked and snaps his fingers, launching the Enterprise into the Delta Quadrant (The Federation is in the Alpha Quadrent to give you some perspective here). Fortunately, Guinin's people used to live in the area and they ask her what they need to know. She tells them cryptically that they should leave now. Well...they don't (the episode would have been ruined if they had) and they encounter planets very similar to what happened to the starbases back in "The Neutral Zone". Suddenly, a huge cubical ship is detected and Guinin identifies it as...the Borg. The Enterprise is attacked and after a fierce exchange, things quiet down with the Enterprise and Borg ship both having holes punched in them. But, things are about to get worse for our heroes... <
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>High Quality episode. This is the real deadly foe that Starfleet should have been dealing with as opposed to the parasites from "Conspiracy". A really good episode with plenty of suspense, humor, and...(you guessed it) weapons fire. <
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>6 pushing 7 out of 5 stars.

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Q and the Borg
While on a routine mission in deep space, captain Picard and crew encounter the powerful super-entity Q.This time around Q wants to join the Enterprise crew.After having his request denied,Q decides to teach the crew a lesson: he sends the Enterprise hundreds of light-years across the galaxy to the uncharted sector J-25. It is not long before the crew encounters a powerful race of machines known as the Borg. The Enterprise is nearly destroyed but Q intervenes in the nick of time. However the lesson is plainly obvious:there are some things in outer space humanity is not prepared for,but Picard knows the Borg will return. This is one of the better episodes of the second season and serves as a prequel to season three's THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS.This episode has everything:Action, humor,drama and serious discussion on the human condition.I heartily recommend that everyone interested in good science fiction buy this video.

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Q as a teacher of the Enterprise crew
After viewing and re-viewing episodes of STTNG involving the entity known as Q, I have formulated a theory as to his popularity. So well played by John de Lancie, he also has some of the best dialog to deliver in all of the Star Trek episodes. There is also a deeper undercurrent in the relationship between Picard and Q, something along the lines of a great and eccentric teacher and a student. Q is so powerful that he could be considered the equivalent of a god, and some of his actions with Picard are those of a god with far greater knowledge than his pupil.
This episode, which also introduces the Borg, is an example of a powerful lesson to Picard and all beings of the Federation. Picard and Riker are both brimming with confidence that they can handle anything the universe can throw at them. Q then sends them packing across the galaxy, to a location where they encounter the Borg, an enemy that they are nearly powerless against. Picard is finally forced to ask for Q's assistance in order to avoid being assimilated into the Borg collective.
After the encounter, Picard and Riker complain to Q about the loss of life aboard the Enterprise. He is quite correct in his response in telling them that if that is their position, they should run back to their cribs. It is quite likely that the lesson would not have been so deeply learned if their "nose had not been bloodied."
This is one of the best episodes in the STTNG series in two ways. It is a hard lesson for the Enterprise crew and it introduces one of the best collection of characters to ever appear in Star Trek, the enigmatic, deadly, efficient and unemotional Borg.