Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue our series on the best of TNG with a look at the best moments of Q.
While Q is only a recurring character on TNG, he is perhaps the most notable one and recurs in enough important episodes to be like a main character. His involvement with Picard's crew as a sometimes antagonist, sometimes benevolent alien being stretches all the way from the pilot to the series finale. With Mike and Darrell planning to cover that finale next week in Episode Insight, now is a great time to review the best episodes and moments of Q.
Shortly after Q's first appearance in the pilot Encounter at Farpoint, where he puts humanity on trial, he appears again to test the crew with a deadly game to try and lure Commander Riker to join the Q Continuum. He gives Riker Q powers to try and encourage him to join them and help them understand humanity's drive to explore and expand, but he ultimately rejects the offer at the end of Hide and Q.
QUOTE (from Hide and Q, S1):
Riker - Something about us compels us to learn, explore.
Q - Yes, the human compulsion. Unfortunately for us, it is a power which will grow stronger century after century, eon after eon.
Riker - Eon? Have you any idea how far we'll advance?
Q - Perhaps in a future which you cannot yet conceive, even beyond us.
One of the most critical moments comes later in the episode Q Who, in which Q offers his services as a member of Picard's crew and Picard rebuffs him by saying the humans can handle any threat they encounter. Q then throws the Enterprise to the Delta quadrant to face the Borg for the first time. This, of course, leads Picard to eventually beg Q for help and later, the Borg invasion that would define the futures of Picard, the Enterprise-D, and all the Federation.
QUOTE (from Q Who, S2):
Q - I'll be leaving now. You thought you could handle it, so handle it.
Picard - Q, end this.
Q - Moi? What makes you think I'm inclined or capable of terminating this encounter?
Picard - If we all die, here, now, you will not be able to gloat!
My personal favorite moment for Q comes in his next appearance in the episode Deja Q, where Q is stripped of his continuum powers and requests asylum on the Enterprise. During this time, he learns more about humanity from interacting with Data than he had in his previous encounters with the Enterprise, an important character moment for Q and for Data. His selfless acts in this episode lead to his powers being restored, and this fun exchange just when Picard thinks he is done with Q for now.
QUOTE (from Deja Q, S3):
Picard - I suppose that is the end of Q
Q - Au contraire, mon capitan! He's back! I'm forgiven. My brothers and sisters of the continuum have taken me back.
Riker - Swell.
Q - Don't fret, your good fortune is my good fortune!
Riker - I don't need your fantasy women.
Q - Oh you're so stolid. You weren't like that before the beard.
There's many further fun episodes and interactions with Q, like when he decides to teach Picard a love lesson by putting the crew in a Robin Hood scenario in Qpid, but it all culminates in the finale All Good Things. Q says that the trial and test of humanity never ends, and then puts Picard through a time-traveling challenge to save humanity from an anomaly of anti-time erupting in Picard's past, present, and future. It's a fitting send off for Picard and the crew as Q challenges them once more and teaches them just as much about their own character as Q learns about humanity in the process.
QUOTE (from All Good Things, S7):
Picard - I sincerely hope that this is the last time I find myself here.
Q - You just don't get it, do you Jean-Luc? The trial never ends. We wanted to see if you had the capability to expand your mind and horizons. And for one brief moment, you did.
Picard - When I solved the paradox.
Q - Exactly.
The character of Q is kind of the glue that holds the overall narrative of TNG together, and the fun portrayal of this character by John de Lancie was key to making this work. His most famous role outside Trek is on the soap Days of our Lives, but he continues to act and voice act today, perhaps most notably as the weaselly antagonist Discord on the My Little Pony series. It will be fun to see if he appears again in any form on the new Picard series in development.
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