Q Who?

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Star Trek: TNG episode
"Q Who?"
"The Enterprise encounters a massive Borg Cube in "Q Who?".
Episode no.	Season 2, Episode 16 (42nd ST:TNG Episode)
Prod. code	142 (Season 2, Disc 4)
Airdate	May 8, 1989
Writer(s)	Maurice Hurley
Director	Rob Bowman
Year	2365
Stardate	42761.3
Episode chronology
Previous	"Pen Pals"
Next	"Samaritan Snare"

"Q Who?" is an episode from the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The episode introduces the Borg.

1 Plot
2 Continuity
3 Quotes
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, after having hot chocolate spilled on his uniform by a young ensign named Sonya Gomez, is once again abducted by Q.

Q takes Picard aboard a shuttlecraft outside the Enterprise to warn him of the dangers in this region and advise him to turn back. When they return to the Enterprise, they materialise in Ten Forward, where a heated argument ensues between Q and Guinan, hinting at a two century long history of enmity between the two.

Q requests to be added as a member of the Enterprise crew, arguing that his services will be needed if they continue to explore at the present rate. Picard rejects Q's offer, stating that human-kind makes its own way in the universe without omnipotence to aid them. Enraged by this perceived arrogance, Q sends the ship 7000 light years away to System J25 as a lesson in refusing the Q. A planet is identified nearby, its cities having been destroyed. The damage to the surface was identified later as the same as the damage from the season finale of the first season on the planets in the Neutral Zone with the Romulans. Shortly after their arrival, they are greeted by a large, cube-shaped vessel that Guinan identifies as belonging to the Borg.

The crew is then startled by the sudden arrival of a Borg drone that beamed itself aboard despite the fact the Enterprise's shields are raised. After it accesses a few of their records, they are forced to kill it, but a second drone appears, this time protected by a force field which is immune to phaser fire. After completing the work of the first drone, it leaves without making any attempt at communication. Only after this do they receive a signal from the alien vessel. (Having just achieved access to the Enterprise's computers, it is possible that no previous communication had been attempted since any linguistic knowledge of Federation space was unknown to the Collective until that time.) The message warns the Enterprise crew that the Borg "have analyzed (their) defensive capabilities as being unable to defend (against the Borg)" and that if they attempt to defend themselves, that they will be punished. The ship subsequently locks onto the Enterprise with a tractor beam which slowly drains the ship's shields. The Enterprise is able to disable the tractor beam, but not before the Borg use a laser-like beam to slice out a section of the ship's saucer section, resulting in the loss of 18 crewmembers.

Picard then sends an away team to investigate the vessel. When they learn that the Borg are able to use their collective power to regenerate their ship, the away team is immediately beamed back. The Enterprise attempts to flee, but the Borg cube pursues them.

The Borg are about to overtake the Enterprise, so Picard swallows his pride and turns to Q for help. Q, satisfied not only that his words are finally being heeded, but that Picard is actually asking for help, returns the ship to its original location.

Since Q rebuked Picard's stubborn refusal to heed his warning, (thus introducing the Borg to the Federation), the Enterprise's now compromised computers revealed the location of Earth. Picard and Guinan surmise over a game of 3D chess that it would then only be a matter of time before the Borg arrived at Earth, ready to assimilate Humanity.

[edit] Continuity

This episode is the first appearance of the Borg. The existence of the Borg was first hinted at in the first season finale, "The Neutral Zone". The Borg would appear again in "The Best of Both Worlds". Q's next appearance is "Déjà Q", in which he has been stripped of his powers for abusing them.

Later Star Trek indicate that Starfleet and the Federation were aware at some level of the existence of the Borg by the setting of this episode (2365). In Star Trek: Voyager, for example, Seven of Nine's parents are aware of rumours about the Borg in the 2350s. In the feature film Generations, we learn that Guinan's world had been destroyed by the Borg and that her people fled to the Federation, nearly a century before the Enterprise first encounters them. Another early appearance of the Borg occurred in Enterprise following on from the events of Star Trek: First Contact.

While not known for sure, it is likely^{[citation needed]} that the title of this episode pays homage to the BBC Science Fiction series Doctor Who, in which recurring villains the Cybermen share many of the characteristics of the Borg. The episode's French title further suggests this, as it translates back into English as "Doctor Q." "The Neutral Zone" also includes a reference to Doctor Who.

The character Sonya Gomez was later used in the S.C.E. novels as second-in-command of the USS Da Vinci.

[edit] Quotes

"You want me to say 'I need you' Q? I NEED you!" — Picard

"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. 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, scolding Picard for complaining that 18 members of the Enterprise crew died during the Enterprise's first contact with the Borg.