Star Trek: Picard 2x1 "The Star Gazer" Review

rating: ****

the story: Picard finds himself drafted into a most unexpected scenario, and then, of course, things spiral out of control...

review: The focus of this review will be the window into the background of Jean-Luc Picard that "The Star Gazer" uses for its title, the relationship with his mother that we're allowed to see for the first time.  This is an essential contribution to the character's lore.

Storytelling in the franchise originally focused only on the moment.  Any information about biographical details surfaced in dialogue.  There were never flashbacks.  The first exception to this occurred in Deep Space Nine's pilot, "Emissary," in which the Prophets grant Sisko, and the viewer, a vision allowing him to revisit how he met his wife Jennifer, and of course the first moments of the episode, in which we see how she died, during the Battle of Wolf 359.  Later, in Voyager, Tuvok's past is glimpsed in "Gravity," and "Flashback" provides a visit into his early Starfleet career.  The precedent to all this was The Animated Series' "Yesteryear," in which Spock visits himself when he was a child.  It wasn't until Star Trek, though, that the storytelling was allowed to be a truly organic element, where the narrative was able to jump from one time period to another, from the moment of Kirk's birth to Spock's formative years as he struggles to reconcile his Vulcan and human halves.

In "The Star Gazer" we see our first-ever look back at Picard in a similar manner.  Through the rivalry with his brother, explored in "Family" from Next Generation, we knew something of his origins, and we had even seen both his mother and his father in various visions.  In this episode, however, we see Picard as a child, interacting with his mother.  Interestingly, this sequence even evokes the Picard we hear about in Nemesis, whose conversations with Shinzon explore how he became interested in space.  The rest of the episode, as has the series itself, is steeped in more of his career than the mere fact that he was once in command of a starship that was lost in battle with a mysterious foe (that turned out to be the Ferengi!).

So yes, this is not Next Generation Part 2, but very much its own story, very much centered on Picard, for anyone still confused about this.  And this is the episode some of us have been really clamoring for, a visit with Guinan!  It happens to delve into the nature of Picard's romantic aloofness, as he happens to be falling in love with the nice Romulan lady who assists him at the vineyard and still trying desperately to deny such a thing could be happening...

The cast of the first season returns and they're all off on new adventures of one variety or another...until the final moments of the episode, in which the Borg are once again rearing their technological and biological distinctiveness and...Q!  Even more than Guinan, true aficionados have been craving for another clash between Picard and Q ever since 1994.  So it is very much cause for celebration.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A relatively new tradition of allowing a character's full history to be seen and entered into canon is embraced.
• series - Picard, for all intents and purposes, fulfills several long-held desires by welcoming both Guinan and Q into the fold.
• character - Picard, as never before, blossoms as a fully-dimensional character free from the typical constraints of franchise storytelling.
• essential - Perhaps more so than Kirk and Spock's arcs in Star Trek, seeing this come about at the end of a long life is if anything even more rewarding.  This is historic in all the right ways. 

notable guest-stars:

Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)

John De Lancie (Q)

Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x8 “Veritas” Review

 rating: ***

the story: The junior officers stand trial (probably).

review: If Star Trek since 1991 has proven anything, it’s that The Undiscovered Country looms large in the production offices. Voyager revisited it with its Sulu episode, “Flashback,” Enterprise held another Klingon trial in “Judgment,” and now Lower Decks riffs on the trial with “Veritas.”

The whole thing ends with a swerve, but it’s also an excuse to spend quality time with the personality quirks of the four lead characters, out of whom Rutherford finally gets to shine with his implant glitching, leaving gaps in his memory and therefore his testimony.

But the biggest surprise? Q! Really! John De Lancie, no stranger to vocal performances, provides the voice and everything! He’s not nearly the lead element, but it’s still fun to have him around, not the least because Q is no stranger to trials (first and last episode of Next Generation, “Death Wish” in Voyager). 

criteria analysis:

>franchise - The sixth Star Trek movie is revisited! Again!

>series - With a distinctive, and unexpected, Lower Decks twist!

>character - Finally Rutherford is getting to showcase his potential (even if it revolves around that implant of his).

>essential - Maybe not, but it’s still good fun!

notable guest-stars:

John De Lancie (Q)

Kurtwood Smith (who also appeared in Undiscovered Country and Voyager)

Voyager 7x19 "Q2"

rating: ***

the story: Q's son proves every bit as out-of-control as his old man.

what it's all about: "Death Wish" was a Q episode every fan seemed to agree on as worthy of continuing the legacy.  "The Q and the Grey" less so.  "Q2" ended up being known, if at all, as yet another example of Voyager being somewhat pointless to the overall franchise legacy.  And yet, popular opinion isn't always right.  "Q and the Grey" was an episode that Next Generation never quite got around to, despite ample evidence that Q had represented the Continuum as less than a well-functioning machine, many times over.  It presented these being as collectively identifiable, continuing the work of "Death Wish" in more ways than one.  A lot of fans were just angry that Q cared at all about Janeway and her crew, that if he had anything to resolve, it really ought to have been done with Picard, his most famous rival.  And yet, any cursory examination of Q and Picard's encounters will admit their intellectual nature, whereas Janeway, as she had with her crew as a whole, presented a familial quality.  Long story short: Janeway stuck her neck out for Seven, the most obvious single example.  Q figured, he could trust his problems with someone like that.  And yeah, it made for a totally different storytelling dynamic, if he could have sexual tension with his sparring partner.  (Sisko took sparring quite literally, you'll recall.)

Anyway, "Q2" is a revisit of the basic Q template, removing all the heavy implications of the two previous Voyager episodes and seeing what it looked like...from his son's point of view.  This son was conceived in "Q and the Grey," remember, four seasons earlier.  In typically sped-up Star Trek childhood fashion (and also, because he's a Q), he's a teenager now.  So this is actually an Icheb episode, the last real opportunity, and really, the first time Icheb just gets to be a teenager, as Q's son bonds with him (odd couple syndrome), and they become entangled in Q's efforts to get his kid to...be less like him. 

And that's really the strength of the episode.  Q certainly could never admit that kind of vulnerability to Picard.  Yet, all three Voyager appearances have him on the defensive, which arguably was Q at his best (see Next Generation's "Deja Q," the template for this one).  But getting him to admit vulnerability?  That was kind of the whole point of his Voyager arc, and why this culmination was actually necessary, as it gives him that chance, and being able to save face, too.  Because it's, y'know, his son who has to admit it.  Technically.

It can seem a little disappointing, that the last Q episode actually features someone other than John de Lancie as the featured Q.  At least it's de Lancie's son, too.  That counts for something!

criteria analysis:

• franchise - It's the last Q episode!
• series - The final of three Voyager Q episodes completes the arc nicely.
• character - It's actually an Icheb spotlight, and a welcome one at that.
• essential - Of course, it's hard not to admit that in the best of all possible worlds, John de Lancie's final appearance in the role might have been a spotlight for, y'know, John de Lancie.

notable guest-stars:
John de Lancie (Q)
Manu Intiraymi (Icheb)
Keegan de Lancie (Q2)

Voyager 3x11 "The Q and the Grey"

rating: ****

the story: Q shows Janeway the results of "Death Wish."

what it's all about: In a lot of ways, Q's appearances in Voyager were a direct continuation of his Next Generation episode "Deja Q," where his story is changes from the obnoxious omnipotent being who put humanity on trial to the obnoxious omnipotent being whose main concern is...the rest of the obnoxious omnipotent beings in the Q Continuum.  So in a lot of ways, Voyager managed to tell an incredibly important franchise story in the midst of being a series that was supposed to be removed from incredibly important franchise stories.  And Q is a character who lends himself to that possibility, after all.

Naturally, it infuriated fans to no end, the idea that Voyager could improve on Next Generation material.  I mean, precious few Star Trek episodes improve on "Tapestry," but in terms of Q being Q but still having a good reason for showing up...it's kind of really hard to argue exploring the nature of Q in real depth.  Because that's what the one-two punch of "Death Wish" and "The Q and the Grey" are all about.  It's comparable to the Mirror Universe episodes in Deep Space Nine, certainly the first few ("Crossover," "Through the Looking Glass," and "Shattered Mirror"), all of which function as sequels to the original series classic "Mirror, Mirror," and are arguably far superior to it in terms of nuanced storytelling.

The best material in the episode is onboard the ship.  Discovering Q's ex gave Suzie Plakson, who was already a legend in the franchise, a bold new character to play, arguably her most important.  It's hard to play opposite John de Lancie, but Plakson was absolutely up to the challenge.

And Janeway?  After "Death Wish" it became easier to believe Q would take her seriously.  Picard was always the skeptic, who thought Q a menace and not much else.  Janeway, though, stood up to him, too, and in that episode helped him understand that not every human was like Picard, that some would stand up for the likes of him.  No doubt an incredibly intoxicating thought.  But the very idea of why he shows up, it's fraught with the kind of natural comedy the character had become best known for, none of the serious "trial of humanity" business that bookended his Next Generation existence.  Putting aside all prejudices, these appearances are by definition classics.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The last great Q appearance.
• series - A hugely effective sequel to a prior standout episode.
• character - Works extremely well for Q, and for helping further define what sets Janeway apart.
• essential - To truly understand Q, you need to see this episode.

notable guest-stars:
John de Lancie (Q)
Suzie Plakson (Q)
Harve Presnell

The Next Generation 7x25/7x26 "All Good Things..."

rating: ****

the story: Q offers Picard a chance in the past, present, and future to prove that humanity has evolved.

what it's all about: It's hard to conceive of a better way to end Next Generation than with Q, returning to the same trial begun in the very first episode, "Encounter at Farpoint," and exploring three separate timelines along the way. 

This was a series that had a rough start.  Providing new material set in the tumultuous first season is kind of the best gift "All Good Things..." could've given fans.  I mean, you could interpret the title of the episode a number of ways because of it: 1) as the incomplete phrase that concludes "must come to an end," and 2) this is the best version of the series, as in, all the good things about it.  (Heh.)

Those who later thought the four movies that followed misrepresented the series will no doubt agree, even though there has been plenty of debate over the years about the science of the way the spatial phenomenon works backwards through time (the argument being, if it starts in the past, the future characters should always have seen it, for instance).  Putting that aside, because if you worry about such things in fictional storytelling you have too much time on your hand, it's kind of hard to view the final episode as anything but what it is, which is the most satisfying and accessible final episode of the franchise.  (You really have to be a Deep Space Nine fans to appreciate "What You Leave Behind.") 

The camaraderie of this crew, whether the timelines agree as to how it functions, if it functions, is in full effect, right down to the classic final scene, in which Picard finally sits down at the poker table with his senior staff.  There's classic Data ("to ignite the midnight petroleum"), the Riker/Troi/Worf triangle, and old friends popping up (Yar, O'Brien). 

Oh, and Q!  Since he didn't appear in the movies, there are conceivably fans who have no idea what this character is all about.  In truth, sometimes he could be too silly for his own good, and there might be an argument that he was hard to take seriously as a result.  But the cleverness of his role in "All Good Things..." proves beyond all doubt that Q was always more than he seemed. 

The point of putting humanity on trial for being too barbaric is a clever way of suggesting that the work of reaching its full potential doesn't end by perfecting life on Earth, that in fact the whole idea behind Star Trek was to push our definition of the possible to its limits ("to seek out new life" and all that).  Too often the franchise, and its fans, lose sight of that goal.  To have a character like Q embody this challenge, in the first and last episodes of the series, is a way of keeping everyone honest. 

So in some ways, how you regard "All Good Things...," and its science, is a kind of litmus test for how you view Star Trek in general.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Good for this.
• series - Good for this.
• character - Good for this.
• essential - Yeah, four for four.

notable guest-stars:
John de Lancie (Q)
Denise Crosby (Yar)
Colm Meaney (O'Brien)
Patti Yasutake (Ogawa)
Andreas Katsulas (Tomalak)

The Next Generation 6x15 "Tapestry"

rating: ****

the story: Is Picard dead?  And is Q waiting there in his afterlife?  God help us all!

similar to: Yeah, I think this one's pretty unique.

my thoughts: Arguably the best Q episode, and arguably the best Picard episode (seriously, this sixth season had some really good material), "Tapestry" is the uniquely Star Trek answer to It's a Wonderful Life, in which Picard is granted a second chance at a crucial moment in his life, only to discover things really couldn't have worked out better for him, and that even his mistakes were crucial in making it all happen.  It's a profound statement on the human condition, maybe one most easily appreciated by fans, but if ever there was a continuity statement made in this franchise, this was the mother of them.

As touched on in the second season's "Samaritan Snare," the young Picard was a lot more like Kirk than his present incarnation would indicate.  What makes this so interesting is that Picard was literally created to be the opposite of Kirk, cool and calculating where the other was famously brash and impulsive.  What's more, by the time Next Generation debuted, we'd already seen the later career of the aging Kirk, and knew that he never turned into Picard.  So what was the difference?  Well, he learned a costly lesson in a youthful bar fight, and paid with his heart, so that ever after he would have to depend on an artificial one, that could sometimes prove less than dependable.  It's not so much that he shrank back from his early self, but that he started to look at the world differently, began to think about his actions before making them. 

Yet, had he done so without learning the lesson, in his youth, Picard would never have become the brilliant officer and commanding officer we came to know and love.  And it's not that his lowly position in that alternate reality, where Riker diagnoses his career as spoiled potential, is a sad one, even pointless, but that he would never have blossomed, never learned the value of taking risks.  Because even the older Picard takes risks, just not the way Kirk did it. 

Really, it's fascinating character analysis, and at the same time, it shows how he can interact with Q on equal footing, which no other episode ever dared to present, not even the time Q was briefly human.  They always made a delightful odd couple, but Q actively helping Picard makes such a difference (see how the effect is nearly duplicated, pointedly, in the final episode, "All Good Things...," Q's next appearance (after a flurry of them this season, including the episode of Deep Space Nine broadcast a week earlier, "Q-Less," his only appearance in that series, and "True Q").

It provides some wonderful comedic moments, as Q needles Picard at every opportunity, playful jabs like butchering the pronunciation of his name, or even the opening conceit of making Picard think this really is the afterlife (provoking Picard to his best barb: "The universe is not so badly designed."), which for argument's sake is clearly not.  (Right?)

It's also fun seeing Picard in a Kirk's-crew movie era uniform (we'd also get to see Voyager's Tuvok in one, thanks to "Flashback").  Remember that the young Picard pictured in Star Trek Nemesis (as depicted by Tom Hardy, presumably at a time Picard was merely shaving his head bald) sports that, too, and realize Shinzon wasn't so far off the mark.  I mean, that whole movie makes much more sense when you remember "Tapestry."  It actually takes on greater resonance, and poignancy.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
John de Lancie

The Next Generation 6x6 "True Q"

rating: ***

the story: Q has a dilemma when he's forced to decide the fate of a girl whose parents quit the Continuum.

similar to: "Death Wish" (Voyager)

my thoughts: "True Q" has long been considered one of the weaker Q episodes, since it doesn't really focus on Q himself, but on a human who turns out to be a Q.  The thing is, in hindsight it looks like a prelude to "Death Wish," one of the few Voyager episodes fans generally get behind, the one where a Q not only wants to quit, but commit suicide (thus being that rare thing: a Q episode that's also a social message episode).  And the other thing: "True Q" is all about two other Q who decided to quit the Continuum.

We'd already seen Q himself suffer from the consequences of his actions ("Deja Q"), kicked around by the Continuum and exiled, so to see it happen not once but twice more creates a chain, a bona fide arc, beyond the trial narrative presented in Next Generation's first and last episodes.  "True Q" becomes an important part of Q lore in that regard.  So you can forget, for the moment, that it's not nearly as good as the other sixth season Q episode ("Tapestry"), or entertaining like the third Q episode that TV season (Deep Space Nine's "Q-Less").  At its heart, it's another sappy Riker romance.  (Don't get me wrong.  I fully appreciate Riker's addition to the Kirk legacy.  But it never worked as well on Riker, that ladies man reputation.  It always seemed forced.  Well, except maybe in Deep Space Nine's "Defiant."  But that was, technically, his transporter duplicate.)

It also serves as a nifty follow-up to yet another Q episode, "Hide and Q" from the first season, the first time we see a human get the powers of a Q.  It's also, more than "Hide and Q," the Q variant of one of the franchise's very first episodes, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (original series), where Gary Mitchell gains god-like powers.

Bottom line, "True Q" is not the waste-of-a-Q-episode its reputation suggests.  It's actually pretty significant, and not a bad episode, either.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
John de Lancie (Q)
Olivia d'Abo

The Next Generation 4x20 "Qpid"

rating: ****

the story: Q uses Vash and the tale of Robin Hood to teach Picard a lesson.

similar to: "A Piece of the Action" (original series), "Our Man Bashir" (Deep Space Nine), "Bride of Chaotica!" (Voyager)

my thoughts: "Captain's Holiday" guest character Vash makes the second of three appearances (the third occurs in Deep Space Nine's "Q-Less"), entangling herself in the affairs of Q in the process.  She thusly becomes a sort of next generation Harry Mudd, a character fans hopefully identify with the series even if her overall impact is less than other familiar faces end up being.

Airing the same year as Kevin Costner's blockbuster Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, "Qpid" could very easily have come off as a bad gimmick, but the contributions of Vash and Q, as well as how the proceedings help distinguish the dynamics of the crew (notably, Worf's immortal line, "Captain, I must protest, I am not a merry man!") elevates it to a classic very easily.

Picard's near-romance with Vash is exceptional enough, and this return engagement of its very possibility helps flesh out Picard, how he interacts with the crew (Crusher is always at her best playing off of him).  The only person who seems more hapless at finding love than Geordi is Picard, and this is a fun way of exploring that status.

Even better?  His increasing chemistry with Q.  The more flippant Q becomes, the more regular his appearances, the better he is, and this is one of his best.  The more exasperated Picard becomes, the more he has to break from his most comfortable bearings.  It's not even Q, but the whole Robin Hood scenario that further reveals how even in action mode he differs from Kirk.  The frequent allusions to how in his youth Picard was considerably more carefree make it all the more rewarding when we see glimpses of what exactly that might have looked like, or what it looks like now, given an opportunity to stretch a little.  When he climbs into Vash's chambers, for instance, he's not looking to storm the premises, but make it as quick and painless as possible (never mind what Vash does to him in return!), so that even carefree doesn't mean careless for him.  (Which is not to say Kirk was careless, but certainly, reckless.)

And to fit in his archeology hobby, too seldom in the spotlight, and how he fits in to the greater galactic community outside of his role in Starfleet, and his feelings on that...This episode is just firing on all cylinders.  It's the season, and the series, once again completely owning its own potential.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character -essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
John de Lancie (Q)
Jennifer Hetrick (Vash)

The Next Generation 2x16 "Q Who?"

rating: ****

Memory Alpha summary

via Pinterest
Of particular interest in this debut of the Borg
...is the clash between Guinan and Q!

This is a Q episode.  This is the debut of the Borg.  And surprisingly, this makes perfect sense.

Let's start with Q.  After his debut in the series pilot "Encounter at Farpoint" and follow-up appearance in "Hide and Q," the god-like being to end all franchise god-like beings is on-hand to help shove the series to new and greater heights, like a cue (heh) for everyone to acknowledge that to this point Next Generation had not really lived up to its potential.

Everyone loves Q, though, right?  Do I have to do a hard sell for him here?  Yet this is perhaps the only other time besides the concept of the trial in the pilot and reprised in the series finale ("All Good Things...") where he gets to be something other than an imp, can be taken seriously, because he forces Picard to acknowledge once and for all that humanity has much to learn.  And it's the one and only time he scores on that point, too, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

By introducing the Borg.  Yes, the first season teased these most formidable of foes, but it took until "Q Who?" to not only to know what they actually look like, but what they are, what they represent, and that, yeah, they really are like nothing Star Trek had seen before.

I call this a classic although it's to be understood that "Q Who?" doesn't really compare to the series high point, "The Best of Both Worlds," in which the Borg make their biggest-ever impact, in effect giving Next Generation its lasting legacy.  For one the look of the Borg isn't quite nailed, although everything else is, including their cube ships that are perhaps more distinctive and menacing than any drone could ever hope to be.  The menace of the cube is amply demonstrated all right...

Besides Q and the Borg, there's also Guinan.  Throughout the series but especially in her debut season the amiable bartender existed in an impenetrable air of mystery, and only sometimes is there any real attempt to dispel it.  Even after two additional appearances in the movies, the portrait remains unfinished, even though she emerges as less than she's suggested to be in moments like the one that helps make "Q Who?" that much more impactful.  She is in fact presented as a legitimate threat to Q.  Which ends up being, for anyone knows based on all remaining evidence, a wild overstatement, but in this moment it does more than any prior appearance to prove how important Guinan really is.  Like Q she ultimately transcends any efforts to limit her despite growing familiarity doing its keen best.

So that's a lot to chew on.  Aside from "Measure of a Man," it's hard to conceive of another episode from the first two seasons as significant or worthy of significance as "Q Who?," and that's really all you need to know if you're looking for a simple enough recommendation.

four quarter analysis
franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:
John De Lancie
Whoopie Goldberg
Colm Meaney

The Next Generation 3x13 "Deja Q"

****

In his last appearance ("Q Who?") Q made a play of wanting to join Picard's crew, but ended up going on and on about the same kind of ideas that had brought humanity to the Continuum's attention to begin with, whether or not it was ready to take the next step.  He seemed to come to the reluctant conclusion that humans were not as barbarous as they first appeared, yet also far less capable than they imagined themselves to be (well, meeting the Borg will do that).

This time around he does join the crew, although no one's happy about it.  For one, Q has been banished from the Continuum, stripped of his powers and made for all intents and purposes human (by his own choice!) for being unruly.  As always, no one's happy to see him, but that hardly proves a challenge, even in Q's diminished capacity.

What's perhaps equally interesting is the B-story, which is a strict contrast to some of the less memorable episodes of the third season to this point, our crew facing a crisis on one of those alien-worlds-of-the-week, yet interacting with it only via viewscreen, maintaining a strict distance between the two, so that or crew can do what it does and the viewer doesn't have to worry too much about the anonymous folk that rarely have any significance anyway.  And yes, it's a model that Star Trek uses in earnest from this point forward.

Anyway, the whole point is that there's a crisis the crew is trying to handle, and immediately suspects Q being behind, although all things truly are equal in this instance.  Q really has lost his powers and the crisis is most definitely happening.  Eventually this puts our impish acquaintance under the care of Data, the android who wishes to become more human, or as far as this episode is concerned the polar opposite of Q.

The third season, strangely enough, took its time getting around to addressing Data, who had previously stolen the entire second season with a single episode, "The Measure of a Man," in which his rights as an individual were put on trial.  That would always be a tough act to follow, so perhaps it's not surprising that the creative forces who sought to drastically reshape the whole series approached Data from a distance.  He was perhaps the last element that needed any fixing.

Yet "Deja Q" begins a more sober approach, presenting him on more equal terms, less a curiosity than before.  It's by no means an episode worth watching if you're only following the arc of Data, but it's a beginning, a new beginning, much as it is for Q.  Watching the two together, this is probably the only moment they could have synced up together.  You may recall that at first Q was obsessed with Riker, and yet the writers realized perhaps as much as Q that Picard was his true foil, and from this point on, at least in Next Generation, there's very little remaining to separate them.  For one moment it's Data, however, who intrigues Q, because Q sees the android not as an artificial being or for his awesome abilities, but very much as Q is at the moment himself, merely an imperfect being, striving to be better than what he is, even if that may seem contradictory.

It's a subtle moment of clarity, and you have to pay attention to catch it.  The episode itself doesn't draw too much attention to it, but there it is.  Sometimes it's easy to think of Q simply as the annoying pest who happened to be extremely entertaining.  Yet the genius of the character was that he was always much more than that.  This was the episode to prove it, and it's a great success.

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:
John de Lancie
Whoopi Goldberg
Corbin Bernsen

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x10 "Hide and Q"

**

Q returns!  It's odd and appropriate for that to have happened so quickly, considering he was an afterthought inclusion for "Encounter at Farpoint," created to fill out Paramount's desire to expand the first episode into two hours.  "Hide and Q," then, may represent one of the first moments where The Next Generation started reshaping itself into something better.

I should note, however, that while it does feature Q and by definition is must-see, it's also almost painfully like much of the early episodes of the series, trying to do character development by pointing out what makes the characters unique rather than writing the characters themselves.

Basically, Q comes back to pester Picard (the general synopsis for basically every appearance), but instead ends up choosing Riker to join the Q Continuum, and in a weird sort of way attempts to drag Q into the very original series mold he shattered in his first appearance.  From Gary Mitchell to Charlie X, that's what a lot of those characters did when they encountered godlike power, as Riker struggles to retain his humanity while examining the possibilities of his newfound power.

The oddest but most notable instance of Riker doing this is aging Wesley to adulthood, which just goes to show that even the writers knew that the boy wonder was probably annoying as he was.

One of the things I remember best about "Hide and Q" is the awkward moment where Worf refers to a band of alien soldiers Q has just conjured as "vicious animal things."  Yet another instance where the supposed enlightenment of Starfleet perhaps not being all that it appears to be.

The best part of Q's visit this time is allowing Picard, and Patrick Stewart, to begin voicing his enthusiasm for Shakespeare, which also helps shape the dynamic between our good captain and his true rival (sorry, Bok).

Other than all that?  It's up to you to determine how good this episode actually is.  Because pretty much every other appearance by Q, in any series, is better.  This one still smacks of the deficiencies inherent to most of Next Generation's first season.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
John de Lancie

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x1/1x2 "Encounter at Farpoint"

****

In some ways, it's really hard to appreciate "Encounter at Farpoint."  As with the majority of the first season of Next Generation there's an aesthetic that was outdated even upon original airing, indicated by the dramatic shift in quality beginning with the third season (although even the second season was markedly better if less distinguished).  The main crux of the episode, the crisis at Farpoint as Picard struggles to learn what exactly is going on (not the only parallel with the series finale "All Good Things..."), is hardly worth watching for the most part, much less commenting on.  We do get introductions to each of the characters of the series, however, including Data's memorable whistling of "Pop! Goes the Weasel" (which is what Riker struggles to remember in Nemesis, by the way, even though he's the one who finishes the tune, though you may be forgiven if all you yourself remember is that the scene is also the introduction of the holodeck).

The real meat of the episode was actually included as an afterthought, once Paramount decided to make "Encounter" a two-hour affair.  That meat would be Q, as memorably portrayed by John de Lancie, who perhaps is the greatest bit of continuity through the rest of the series and several others besides.  If anyone but de Lancie had been cast, Q would very easily have become just another of Star Trek's meddling omnipotent beings, another link fans just getting into the first new Star Trek cast since Kirk would have scoffed at seeing again (this would be a problem in other first season episodes).

Also memorable but not as striking is DeForest Kelley's cameo appearance as an aged "Bones" McCoy, buried under so much bad prosthetic makeup (another episode from the season would feature bad prosthetic makeup, in case you were wondering, "Too Short a Season") that even his distinctive voice might be hard to catch.  He takes a short stroll with Data (making the android easily the other character, besides Q, to make a definite impression from "Farpoint"), touring the new Enterprise.  If you didn't know it was Kelley, you certainly wouldn't know it was supposed to be McCoy.  Kelley would leave better impressions in The Final Frontier and The Undiscovered Country, both released after this pilot, though this is his final TV appearance.

For those looking for niftier continuity casting, this is Colm Meaney's first appearance in the franchise, though his character (Miles O'Brien) doesn't receive a name.  It took a long time to establish a character for Meaney, but he eventually became a regular, in Deep Space Nine.

In other tech developments, the Enterprise performs a rare saucer separation, which may be another notable aspect of the episode worth watching.  It's the odd bits, not the entirety of it, that makes "Encounter" its own kind of new Star Trek classic, not just because it makes history in itself, but because there are definitely things worth remembering and savoring.

But mostly it's Q, not Jean-Luc Picard, who gets to see what's out there.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
DeForest Kelley
John de Lancie
Colm Meaney

Memory Alpha summary. 

Deep Space Nine 1x7 "Q-Less"

****

Arguably the most effective Deep Space Nine episode created to try and make it attractive to fans of Next Generation, the title already says most of the reason why, because it features Q.

The funny thing is, Q almost doesn't even notice that he's on the space station, because he's too busy obsessing over the other crossover character, Vash (I would argue this as being her best appearance in the franchise, possibly because that romance with Picard never really made sense and clearly was going nowhere fast), and mostly reacting to the actual main characters of the series as distractions.

His best encounter is with Sisko, though, and "Q-Less" as a result has the essential Sisko moment of the season, outside of the pilot, in which Q foolishly engages in fisticuffs with the commander, and gets to utter the line, "You hit me!  Picard never hit me!"  While Patrick Stewart successfully converted Picard into an action star later in Next Generation and in four movies, Sisko was already more physical in his first appearance than his predecessor ever was, willing to get down and dirty (even when reluctant about it, and rarely needing Klingons to provoke him).  It wasn't even in a strictly physical sense, since few Star Trek characters (aside from Kirk, and everyone in 2009's Star Trek) are very mobile, but more in the menace in Sisko's eyes, knowing that his was a kind that was always working, not just out of necessity, but because he was always refraining from hitting someone (making his mirror universe counterpart more appropriate than most fans probably realize).  Yes, he hit Q!

A lot of fans complain that "These Are the Voyages...," the final episode of Enterprise was hijacked by Next Generation.  The same can be said for "Q-Less," except both episodes say far more about the series they're actually in than the guest characters who supposedly steal the show.  This is about as far from a typical Q episode as you can get.  As I said, he spends most of it obsessed with another guest character, which is far from unprecedented, but without going out of his way to cause mischief.  Like "All Good Things...," rather, he's not the cause of the mischief, he's actually trying to prevent it.  It's a grounded Q, even more than the time he became human, and it's very Deep Space Nine.  Most fans dismiss this appearance, probably for the very reasons I've just explained.  I argue that they make "Q-Less" essential.

As an episode of this particular series, it's one that helps put things back in perspective, perhaps for the first time since the pilot, pulling away without losing focus, but rather gaining more than it seems.

It's one that definitely deserves another look.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
John de Lancie
Jennifer Hetrick

Memory Alpha summary.

Voyager 2x18 "Death Wish"

****

Arguably among the best Q episodes of any series, "Death Wish" is also one of the episodes where even Voyager skeptics begrudgingly admit to being exceptional.

Q, of course, is most famous for his Next Generation appearances, including in the first and last episodes, and a wonderfully complicated relationship with Picard.  "Death Wish" might simply have been another "Q-less," the episode of Deep Space Nine that tried to explain just how different Sisko really was from Picard.  Instead, it's much more than that.  In fact, it's the first of three appearances for Q in the series, something that would've been unthinkable had "Death Wish" not succeeded as wildly as it did.

It made a new context of the character.  Q is the same Q he always was, but he's thrust into an entirely new context.  He'd been existential before, but only for himself.  "Death Wish" forces him to confront the nature of the entire Q Continuum's existence.  Because Janeway doesn't hesitate in helping him on that journey, he takes a certain liking to her.  Unlike Picard, for whom he was trying to do exactly the same with humanity, the tables have been turned.  His shenanigans can't save him now.  "Death Wish" is the only time where a Q episode is completely serious.  That's got to say something.

Sure, it's about suicide, and that's what most people pay attention to, but it also helps show exactly what it really intended to, which is the particular character of Voyager.  Q in Next Generation was pretty cosmic.  Q in Deep Space Nine was meddlesome.  Q in Voyager was introspective.  That ought to tell you something right there.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
John De Lancie
Jonathan Frakes

Memory Alpha summary.