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  • Episode aired Nov 21, 1987

John de Lancie in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

The Enterprise encounters Q again, and he tempts Riker by endowing him with the powers of the Q. The Enterprise encounters Q again, and he tempts Riker by endowing him with the powers of the Q. The Enterprise encounters Q again, and he tempts Riker by endowing him with the powers of the Q.

  • Gene Roddenberry
  • Maurice Hurley
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • LeVar Burton
  • 24 User reviews
  • 13 Critic reviews

John de Lancie in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

  • Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Jonathan Frakes

  • Commander William Thomas 'Will' Riker

LeVar Burton

  • Lieutenant Geordi La Forge

Denise Crosby

  • Lieutenant Natasha 'Tasha' Yar

Michael Dorn

  • Lieutenant Worf

Gates McFadden

  • Doctor Beverly Crusher

Marina Sirtis

  • Counselor Deanna Troi
  • (credit only)

Brent Spiner

  • Lieutenant Commander Data

Wil Wheaton

  • Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher

John de Lancie

  • Female Survivor
  • 25 Year-old Wesley Crusher
  • (as William A. Wallace)
  • (uncredited)
  • Operations Division Officer
  • Command Division Officer

Nora Leonhardt

  • Science Division Ensign

Daryl F. Mallett

  • Ensign Bennett
  • Gene Roddenberry (showrunner)
  • All cast & crew
  • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

  • Trivia The removal of the character of Deanna Troi from this episode alongside three other episodes made Marina Sirtis believe at the time that she was about to be cut from the show.
  • Goofs On the planet, when Riker puts the glass of lemonade down on the table, it contains more than in the previous shot when he drank from it.

Q : You seem to find this all very amusing.

Commander William T. Riker : I might - if we weren't on our way to help some suffering and dying humans, who...

Q : [dismissively] Ah, your species is always suffering and dying.

  • Connections Features Star Trek: The Next Generation: Encounter at Farpoint (1987)
  • Soundtracks Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Title Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage

User reviews 24

  • anarchistica
  • Mar 17, 2020
  • November 21, 1987 (United States)
  • United States
  • Official site
  • Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
  • Paramount Television
  • See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

  • Runtime 46 minutes
  • Dolby Digital

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The Untold Truth Of Q From Star Trek

Q

He's an enigmatic, seemingly omnipotent being who manipulates people like they're chess pieces. He's a mischievous trickster who can go anywhere and be anything in our three-dimensional space. He's Q — no other name necessary — and he's proven himself to be both a  great ally and antagonist within the Star Trek franchise .

Played by classically trained actor John de Lancie, Q is easily one of Star Trek 's most iconic creations — even though he's only appeared in 13 episodes to date in multiple Star Trek television series. Nevertheless, it sometimes seems Q is everywhere, thanks to all the Star Trek novels, comics, audio books, and video games he's popped up in.

With John de Lancie set to reappear as Q in  season 2 of Star Trek: Picard , now's a perfect time to get up close and personal with this omnipotent trickster and find out what makes him tick. Be warned though: de Lancie himself has claimed that Q, much like the infamous English poet Lord Byron, is "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." With that in mind, let's delve into the many secrets of Star Trek' s Q.

Q is named after a Star Trek fan

At first glance, Q's name seems ridiculously simple. It's just one letter — how hard could it have been to come up with? But according to the 4th edition of the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the story behind Q's designation has a curious link with the Star Trek fandom.

Q was named by none other than Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who chose the unusual alias in honor of his friend Janet Quarton. A  long-time Star Trek fan , Quarton was the president of the Star Trek Action Group (STAG), an early Star Trek fan club. She also helped publish  Star Trek fanzines and organize Star Trek conventions in Britain. Her involvement in the Star Trek fan community caught the attention of Gene Roddenberry who corresponded closely with Quarton over the years.

Later, when Roddenberry helmed Star Trek: The Next Generation, he decided to name the new series' first antagonist after the last initial of his friend — and John de Lancie was dubbed "Q" for the series' pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint." Given how much future Star Trek fandom would embrace the superbeing, it seems only appropriate that a fan helped name him.

He's not the only Q

John de Lancie may be the face of Q for Star Trek fans, but the truth is he's not the only member of his species — nor do all members of the Q act like him. Over the years, fans have seen many different "Q" entities who all belong to the "Q Continuum," an extra-dimensional plane of existence.

Where de Lancie's Q comes across as a trickster figure, other Qs are more benevolent. In the  Star Trek: Voyager season 2 episode "Death Wish," the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager encounters a Q who's been subtly influencing human society for the better — making sure an apple fell on Sir Isaac Newton's head to inspire his theory of gravity and saving Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes)'s ancestor during the Civil War. Other Q members prefer to live quietly, including a couple who disguised themselves as humans and had a daughter,  Amanda Rogers (Olivia d'Abo) , in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6 episode "True Q."

In fact, in "Death Wish," it's revealed that most of Q society is bored with their immortality and power, which helps explain why de Lancie's Q likes hanging out with human beings so much — they're much more fun than his own people.

Q is very similar to a classic Star Trek antagonist

When Gene Roddenberry first came up with the idea to put Q in the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, other members of the writing team hated the character and advised him not to use him in the pilot.

Why? According to the Star Trek reference book, The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years — From the Next Generation to J.J. Abrams, the team saw Q as a copy of Trelane, a character who appears in the original Star Trek season 1 episode "The Squire of Gothos." In the story,  Captain Kirk and his crew encounter a powerful alien named Trelane (William Campbell) who makes the Enterprise crew his playthings. Although Trelane appears all-powerful, we learn he's the child of two other omnipotent beings who make him stop bothering the U.S.S. Enterprise.

While similar to Trelane, both Roddenberry and de Lancie worked to make Q a unique entity. Nevertheless, fans continue to see the parallels and non-canon Star Trek media makes links between the two. In his novel Q-Squared, writer Peter David reveals Trelane is, in fact, another member of the Q Continuum. Then in the Star Trek comic book storyline "The Q Conflict," Q assembles a team of omnipotent beings including Trelane to make multiple Star Trek crews battle in a cosmic-level game.

Q can make other people omnipotent

Q's powers are immense, which he's repeatedly demonstrated throughout his appearances throughout the Star Trek franchise. With a snap of his fingers, Q can teleport himself and anyone else to any place or time. He can rewrite the very fabric of our universe — moving asteroids or even creating pocket realities. And he's nearly omniscient, claiming in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3 episode "Deja Q" that he has "an IQ of 2005."

And thanks to his powers, Q can give anyone the abilities of a god — which he does to  Commander William Riker in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 episode "Hide and Q." Riker gains the ability to transport his crew mates anywhere he wants without relying on their usual transporter technology. He resurrects Worf (Michael Dorn) from the dead, ages teenager Wesley Crusher (Will Wheaton) to an adult, and even gives blind Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) natural vision.

However, every member of the Enterprise rejects Riker's "gifts" (although Worf does get to stay alive), causing Riker to reject his new powers. And it's a good thing too. Q only gave Riker god-like abilities as part of a bet he had with Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). By choosing not to be a Q-level entity, Q is forced to leave the Enterprise alone — although he does find enough loopholes to make multiple return visits.

Q isn't all-powerful

While Q might appear to be an all-knowing and all-powerful god to some, the truth is he doesn't have limitless powers. Other members of the Q Continuum can overpower Q or even strip him of his powers, as they did in the episode "Deja Q" by turning him into an ordinary human being with back problems.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 4 episode "Qpid," Q transports the Enterprise crew to a pocket reality where Picard becomes Robin Hood, his crew becomes his Merry Men, and Q himself adopts the guise of the Sheriff of Nottingham. As he explains the rules of his new game, Q reveals that he's given this reality a life of its own and not even he can predict what will happen. This shows that Q is not omnipotent or omniscient, as a truly all-powerful being could not create something capable of overpowering or outsmarting him.

Indeed, this quasi-omnipotence may be the one saving grace for the Q, as involving themselves in games of chance gives them the thrill of not knowing what will happen next.

Star Trek's Q once became super-omnipotent

Q may have been at the mercy of the Q Continuum in many of his early appearances, but a non-canonical comic book storyline shows that he once became super-omnipotent — thanks to  J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot .

In the IDW Star Trek story "The Q Gambit," Q journeys to the Kelvin timeline of the Abrams' films where the younger alternate versions of Captain Kirk and Spock are having their own adventures. Q transports the crew forward into the future where they meet alternate versions of Benjamin Sisko and the crew from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

Although this seems to be another one of Q's games, the trickster later reveals the Q-Continuum is in a war against another extra-dimensional race, the malevolent Deep Space Nine  villains, the Pah-Wraiths, whose power allows them to fight the Q. To stop them, Spock engineers a situation where Q merges with a member of the Pah-Wraiths' ancient enemy The Prophets. Q evolves into a supremely powerful being who eliminates the Pah-Wraiths with a wave of his hand, and then pops back into the Prime Star Trek universe to show off his super-godly powers to Jean-Luc Picard.

Let's be real: Q is in love with Jean-Luc Picard

Jean-Luc Picard may treat Q with annoyance, but Q has a unique affection for Picard. In "Deja Q," Q admits, "in all the universe, you're the closest thing I have to a friend, Jean-Luc." Data (Brent Spiner) also observes in the  Star Trek: The Next Generation series finale "All Good Things..." that, "Q's interest in you has always been very similar to that of a master and his beloved pet" before hastily adding, "That was only an analogy, Captain."

However, in the season 6 episode "Tapestry," Q indicates his interest in Picard goes beyond mere fondness when he  shows up in Picard's bed and wakes him with the words, "Morning, darling." The same episode has Q transport a dying Picard back to his Starfleet Academy days so the captain can gain a better appreciation for the mistakes of his past. This indicates Q views himself as Picard's guardian angel, albeit an impish one, who has a special love for the one he calls "Mon Capitane."

Screenwriter Ron Moore agrees, noting in Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection #90 that, "Q was in love with Picard, for some reason. That was the underpinning of the relationship... The weird love affair that he had going with Jean-Luc made that whole thing work."

Q is a lousy boyfriend and father

Sadly, when it comes to showing affection, Q's ego inevitably gets in the way of his relationships. In the Star Trek: Voyager season 3 episode "The Q and the Grey," Q's girlfriend "Lady Q" (Suzie Plankson) shows up when Q flirts with Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). The two have been a couple for four billion years, but Q emphasizes, " I never said it was exclusive " while bragging that he uses his omnipotence to seduce females across the galaxy.

In the episode, Q and his girlfriend are on opposite sides of a Q civil war, causing their relationship problems to threaten the universe with multiple supernova explosions. Q's idea to end the war is to impregnate Janeway and adding human DNA to the Continuum — an idea the Voyager captain roundly rejects. However, Janeway convinces Q to have a child with Lady Q instead, leading to a truce between the two factions.

Unfortunately, Q turns out to be a lousy father and in the Star Trek: Voyager season 7 episode "Q2," his son "Q Junior" (played by de Lancie's real-life son Keegan de Lancie) becomes a juvenile delinquent who starts wars, tampers with gene pools, and punches holes in space time. To get him to reform, Q strips Junior of his powers and dumps him on Voyager, where Junior makes friends and learns to value life. While this is good for the universe, it shows Q still tries to get other people to solve his problems instead of dealing with them himself.

Q really hates the Enterprise's bartender (and she hates him back)

Q's antics have earned him plenty of enemies across the universe, but oddly enough, one of the people who hates him the most is the  Enterprise's beloved bartender Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) . One of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's most serene and level-headed characters, Guinan reveals in "Q Who" that she has had "some dealings" with Q during the 22nd century that left them enemies. Q himself dislikes Guinan, calling her an "imp" and warning that wherever Guinan went, trouble follows.

Guinan gets a chance to strike back at Q in the season 3 episode "Deja Q" when the Q Continuum strips Q of his powers and renders him a mere human. Taking the opportunity to taunt the powerless Q, Guinan takes a fork and stabs him in the hand. Shortly after, one of Q's other enemies, the Calamarain, attacks him. As he screams in pain, Guinan only smirks and comments, "How the mighty have fallen."

Q gave Starfleet a head start against the Borg

Q once put the  U.S.S. Enterprise through a hellish experience that, strangely enough, turned out to be a favor in disguise. After Picard arrogantly tells him that his crew is prepared to deal with any dangers the universe might hold for them, Q transports the Enterprise into an uncharted sector of space where they encounter  the Borg, a powerful cybernetic race intent on assimilating all useful life and technology into its collective consciousness.

Unable to adequately counter this advanced form of life, Picard loses eighteen members of his crew to the Borg and admits his crew's shortcomings to Q, who transports the Enterprise back to the Alpha Quadrant. While Q's actions appear cruel and vindictive, Picard later realizes that the trickster gave Starfleet a "preview" of one of the biggest threats they would soon face — granting the Federation time to prepare an adequate defense. it seems appropriate that the Federation is one of the few galactic societies to have successfully fought back the Borg time and time again — probably due in part to Q giving humanity a glimpse at the threat the Borg would eventually pose.

Q has been out-debated by Spock

If there's one Star Trek character who's the antithesis of Q, it's  Spock — the cool, logical Vulcan immortalized by actor Leonard Nimoy . While Spock and Q were introduced in two separate series, they get to spend some time together when Nimoy and John de Lancie teamed up to produce the audiobook Spock vs. Q . Recorded in front of a live audience, the performance sees Ambassador Spock attempt to warn humanity of an approaching asteroid, only to be stopped by Q who believes humanity is not worth saving.

The two get into a lively debate over humanity's strengths and flaws, with Spock's clever logic ultimately triumphing over Q's chaotic ego. In the end, the Vulcan manages to convince the trickster to push the asteroid away so it'll hit Earth a several years later, buying humanity enough time to work together and stop it when it finally does arrive.

The audio drama proved popular and was followed by a sequel, Spock vs. Q: The Sequel . Weirdly, in this new story, Spock and Q switch personalities, causing Spock to become goofy and silly while Q gains a more logical perspective. More of a comedy routine than a debate, this audio performance ends with the two realizing there are higher powers in the universe than the Q.

Q appears in five different Star Trek shows

While Star Trek fans may love Q, the producers and writers tend to use him sparingly, arguing that the super being is more effective when he only appears every now and then. Nevertheless, Q has managed to appear in four separate Star Trek television shows — and will appear in a fifth when season 2 of Star Trek: Picard comes out.

Unsurprisingly, most of Q's appearances are in Star Trek: The Next Generation where he manages to annoy or threaten Picard and the Enterprise crew on eight separate occasions, including in the series pilot and the series finale. Q also appears in the  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 1 episode "Q-Less" where he meets (and boxes with) Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks).

Q is reimagined in the three Star Trek: Voyager episodes he appears in, which portray him as a reluctant family man as well as a representative of the Q Continuum rather than a wandering rogue. His most recent appearance is an extremely brief cameo in the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks season 1 episode "Veritas," where he shows up just to poke fun at (who else?) Jean-Luc Picard.

Given all the different ways Q has been portrayed over the years, it's anyone's guess how de Lancie will play the trickster in Star Trek: Picard. Considering that Q's main appeal has always been his unpredictability, here's hoping his next appearance will show us some new truths of the enigmatic Q.

Star Trek: William Riker Only Exists Because of Q Interference

Without a Q rescuing Thaddeus Riker from a grisly Civil War death in Star Trek, Will Riker wouldn't exist, and the Borg would've won.

The Q Continuum is a well-loved piece of modern Star Trek . Once Q became a guest star guaranteed to excite, the challenge for the franchise was to always find fresh, fun ways to integrate them into a story. It's a bit of remarkable restraint, and it kept those appearances an event. After appearing once on Deep Space 9 , it took another three years for the Q Continuum to visit Star Trek: Voyager , and once they did, it revealed a strange connection between the Q and the existence of Commander William Riker.

Q (John de Lancie) teased and tormented the crew of the Enterprise across eight episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Season 2's "Death Wish" brought him to the Voyager, stranded deep in the Delta Quadrant, and the episode tells a special story about another member of the Q Continuum. It begins as Janeway's crew accidentally releases a Q (Gerrit Graham) from confinement in a comet. Later taking the name Quinn, this new Q causes some confusion when his attempt to quickly commit suicide before the rest of the Continuum catches on to his escape. Star Trek 's familiar Q appears on the bridge of the Voyager before the situation gets out of hand and quickly catches on to what Quinn was attempting.

RELATED:  Star Trek: Here's How Stardates Work

The Continuum love their trials, and the two Qs turn the Voyager into a courtroom for a hearing between the stability of the Continuum and Q's right to seek asylum so that he may die. An immortal being who muses on the mortal experience of death, Quinn was confined by the Continuum so that his beliefs wouldn't spread. Arguing for the Continuum's case that Quinn's life is worth immortality, Q brings forth an array of witnesses to show some of the crucial moments that Quinn's assistance caused. It's a surprise when Q pulls Commander Riker in alongside some famous faces of human history, including to Riker himself. But Q's case reveals some wild trivia.

Quinn's jaunts through intergalactic history included a trip to June 1864, during the height of the American Civil War. Quinn rescues Riker's wounded ancestor, Thaddeus Riker, from the front lines of the Battle of Pine Mountain . Q makes the argument that without Quinn's interference, William Riker would never have been born. With his signature casual understatement, Q also suggests that, without Quinn's simple moment of kindness, the Federation itself would one day be doomed. Without Riker's lineage, the Borg would have succeeded in flooding the Alpha Quadrant, assimilating the Federation and moving on, unstoppable.

RELATED:  Star Trek: Two Random TOS Characters Were ALMOST Series Regulars

It's a poignant demonstration of the butterfly effect , and it may have become a reliable trope, creating an underpinning theme in fiction from Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder to Life is Strange . But it's the delivery that makes it count, and Q is unusually passionate about trying to get Quinn to rescind his wish to die. It doesn't work, and Quinn and his advocate, Tuvok, make a successful counter by showing the crew the way Quinn perceives life in the Continuum. It's an endless road full of all the things he's already done before, and all those moments that mean so much to people like Riker are lost in the dust. Janeway's decision is a heavy one, but in the end, Quinn does get his wish.

Quinn's death causes a ripple of change in the Continuum and a civil war of their own. But it also shapes destiny for Riker, though the episode makes it clear he's not supposed to remember what happened. Riker goes on to marry Deanna Troi, and their first son together is named Thaddeus, for Riker's long-ago Civil War ancestor. Through young Thaddeus' brief life, Quinn's lesson retained its importance.

KEEP READING: Star Trek: The Truth About Gabriel Lorca's Eyes in Discovery Season 1

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E9HideAndQ

Recap / Star Trek: The Next Generation S1 E9 "Hide and Q"

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Original air date: November 23, 1987

Q returns to the Enterprise to tempt Commander Riker into joining the Q Continuum with the lure of Q's powers.

This episode contains examples of:

  • Actor Allusion : Of course Picard would read and know the works of Shakespeare, Q.
  • Big "NO!" : Q, at the end of the episode, when he is being pulled back into the Continuum, against his own will.
  • Buffy Speak : It seems as though nobody can come up with a better term for "beast-men dressed like Napoleonic soldiers with nineteenth century muskets that shoot energy blasts" than "vicious animal things."
  • While trapped alone on The Bridge , Picard complains that he can't even make a recording. Poor guy.
  • Q then mockingly make his own log entry describing the Enterprise 's situation.
  • Characterization Marches On : Q is still being written as a largely hostile Sufficiently Advanced Alien , who here is revealed to be acting out of concern that humanity will someday surpass the Q. It wouldn't be until his next appearance that he evolved into the Trickster Mentor that he would act as for the rest of the show's run.
  • Deadly Game : Q subjects the crew to one, in order to test Riker.
  • Deal with the Devil
  • Death of a Child : Near the end, Riker goes on a rescue away mission where a young girl is among the fatalities from a cave-in. Riker decides not to use his Q power to bring her back to life, though the decision weighs heavily on him.
  • Destructo-Nookie : Worf and the Klingon woman provide a brief glimpse of this. No furniture-throwing, though.
  • Drunk with Power : Riker, temporarily.
  • When Worf blows off the Klingon woman that Riker creates, he says that she is from a world now alien to him. While this is the first, albeit indirect acknowledgement that Worf was raised among humans, future episodes show him to be extremely proud of his Klingon heritage, and even blowing off the idea of dating any non-Klingon (albeit he'd later backtrack on that). He'd probably still have rejected the woman, but because there'd be no challenge in seducing someone specifically created to please him.
  • One of Q's lines implies that the peace between the Klingons and Federation came about as the result of the former suffering a devastating military defeat at the hands of the latter. It would later be established in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country that the impetus for peace was the explosion of the Praxis moon rendering it unviable for the Klingons to maintain their military.
  • Eldritch Abomination : Q first appears as an "Aldebaran Serpent", which looked like a floating bubble with three cobras sticking out of it.
  • First-Name Basis : Riker: Everyone looks uncomfortable. Picard: Perhaps they're remembering that old quote, "Power corrupts—" Riker: "And absolute power corrupts absolutely." Do you believe I haven't thought of that, Jean-Luc? Picard: And have you noticed how you and I are now on a first-name basis?
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With : When the crew don't like his Aldebaran Serpent form, Q switches to his normal John de Lancie.
  • Gory Discretion Shot : When Worf gets stabbed by one of the soldier creatures, the camera cuts away at the moment the bayonet actually enters his body. Inverted, surprisingly enough, by Wesley's own impalement, which is depicted in a shot that's shockingly graphic by TV standards of this era.
  • Humans Are Special : The Q believe this, and are afraid of it. The purpose (according to Q) of tempting Riker into joining the Q Continuum is to give the Q knowledge of humanity's special qualities, which they can use to head off humanity's advancement before the species surpasses the Q themselves.
  • I Gave My Word : Riker promises Picard not to use his new powers.
  • Instant Death Stab : Worf and Wesley are both stabbed through the abdomen. In Worf's case at least, it's clear that he dies within seconds.
  • It's Okay to Cry : Q puts Tasha into a "penalty box" and threatens to kill her if someone else makes a penalty. She cries, and is embarrassed about it, but Picard says that crying in the penalty box is fine.
  • Large Ham : John de Lancie is particularly over-the-top in this episode.
  • Leeroy Jenkins : Worf when he attempts to fight the Napoleonic soldiers, getting a bayonet in the gut and setting the stage for seven years of getting his ass kicked .
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot : The aforementioned beast-men dressed like Napoleonic soldiers with nineteenth century muskets that shoot energy blasts.
  • No Man Should Have This Power : Q turns Riker into a Reality Warper , if not a Physical God . This is the conclusion that Picard, and later Riker, come to, so Riker refuses to use his power.
  • Oh, No... Not Again! : Geordi's reaction to everyone getting transported back to the planet with the "vicious animal-things."
  • Patrick Stewart Speech : One of the best in the series. Picard: Oh, I know Hamlet. And what he might say with irony, I say with conviction: "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god!" Q: Surely, you don't see your species like that, do you? Picard: I see us one day becoming that, Q. Is that what concerns you?
  • Precision F-Strike : Riker: Dammit! Dammit to HELL!
  • Quote-to-Quote Combat : Involving Shakespeare, one area in which Picard can easily hold his own against Q.
  • Rash Promise : Picard asks the Q-empowered Riker to promise not to use these new powers, and he does. It doesn't take long before he regrets it, as on an away mission he finds a recently deceased child that he could save if it weren't for that vow.
  • Reed Richards Is Useless : Riker could have used his powers to help countless people.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them! : Q: "Fairness" is such a human concept. Think imaginatively! This game shall, in fact, be... completely unfair!
  • When Geordi is given his sight, he looks at Tasha and says, "You're more beautiful than I ever imagined."
  • Tasha and Picard also get one when he comforts her while she's crying and she looks at him and says, "Captain. Oh, if you weren't a captain..." before Q interrupts .
  • Shout-Out to Shakespeare : Several, from Q, Picard, and Data, quoting Hamlet , Macbeth , and As You Like It . For example: Q: Hear this, Picard, and reflect: "All the galaxy's a stage." Picard: "World," not "galaxy"; "all the world's a stage." Q: Oh, you know that one. Well, if he was living now, he would have said "galaxy."

star trek q riker

  • Smug Snake : Q, in tempting Riker to hold onto his new powers and abandon his shipmates.
  • Smug Super : Riker starts acting like a cocky Jerkass once he realizes what power he has been given.
  • The first shot, depicting medical crewmembers hurrying out of sickbay, is recycled from the pilot, " Encounter at Farpoint ".
  • The vfx shots of the Enterprise stopped by Q's net are also taken from the pilot.
  • Tempting Fate : Data notes how their phasers are vastly superior to French muskets. Turns out that the "vicious animal things" are using energy weapons that just look like muskets.
  • Throwing Off the Disability : Riker gives Geordi actual eyes, which lets him appreciate Tasha's attractiveness, but Geordi asks to stay blind , saying "I don't like where it came from."
  • What the Hell, Hero? : We know that Picard hates children, but did he just give Riker a pat on the back for not using his powers to save a dying child? Riker: I could have saved that little girl! Picard: You were right not to try!
  • Wesley tries to help the impaled Worf, but gets impaled himself.
  • Picard demands that Riker let a little girl remain dead despite having the power to save her.
  • Written-In Absence : Troi has been left on Starbase G-6 to catch a shuttle home on leave, prior to the opening scene.
  • Your Heart's Desire : Q encourages Riker to give his friends on the Enterprise what they most desire. Captain Picard tells him to go ahead. However Data rejects the opportunity to Become a Real Boy because it would be no more real to him than his android self. Wesley is made an adult, but he says that he would prefer to grow up naturally . Geordi's blindness is cured, but even though he's smitten by the sight of Tasha Yar's beauty, he doesn't want to owe Q any favors . And Worf is offered a Klingon mate, whom he rejects as she's from a world that's now alien to him.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation S1 E8 "The Battle"
  • Recap/Star Trek: The Next Generation
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation S1 E10 "Haven"

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William Thomas Riker is a 24th century Starfleet officer known for serving as first officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise-D and U.S.S. Enterprise-E under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard . In 2361, a transporter accident resulted in the creation of his duplicate, Lt. Thomas Riker .

The addition of Jazz Musician Riker on December 28, 2016 made Riker the first crew member to have a unique character available at each rarity level.

The presence of Riker in Star Trek Timelines was first revealed in a dev blog .

star trek q riker

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  • William T. Riker at Memory Alpha
  • Thomas Riker at Memory Alpha
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  • Appears in The Next Generation
  • Appears in Deep Space Nine
  • Appears in Voyager
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Q is a highly powerful individual from a race of godlike aliens known as the Q .

  • 1.1.1 Trial
  • 1.1.3 Guide
  • 1.1.4 Being Human
  • 1.1.5 Meeting Vash and acting as benefactor
  • 1.1.6 Never-ending trial
  • 1.2.1 Quinn
  • 1.2.3 Junior
  • 1.3 The Cerritos
  • 1.4 The Road Not Taken
  • 1.5 Visiting Jack Crusher
  • 2 Q's disguises
  • 3 Locations "created" by Q
  • 4.1 Appearances
  • 4.2 Background information
  • 4.3 Apocrypha
  • 4.4 External links

History [ ]

Q appeared to the crews of several Starfleet vessels and outposts during the 2360s and 2370s . As a consequence, all command level officers in Starfleet were briefed on his existence thereafter. One such briefing was attended by Benjamin Sisko in 2367 . ( DS9 : " Q-Less ") Q typically appeared as a humanoid male , though he could take on other forms if he wished, and was almost always dressed in the uniform of a Starfleet captain . ( VOY : " Death Wish ")

In every appearance, he demonstrates superior capabilities, but also a mindset that seemed quite unlike what Federation scientists expected for such a powerful being. He had been described, in turn, as "obnoxious," "interfering," and a "pest." However, underneath his acerbic attitude, there seemed to be a hidden agenda to Q's visits that often had the best interests of Humanity at their core.

On Brax , he was known as "The God of Lies ." ( DS9 : " Q-Less ")

In the 22nd century , Q had "some dealings" with the El-Aurian Guinan . These encounters resulted in strong antipathy between them. ( TNG : " Q Who ")

When temporarily rendered Human by the Q Continuum , Q claimed to possess an IQ of "two thousand and five". ( TNG : " Deja Q ")

Q occasionally used verbal contractions in regular speech, but not often, as part of his chaotic god title. ( citation needed • edit )

By 2401 , Q was, for an unknown reason, dying, something that he had not believed to be possible. ( PIC : " Mercy ") Not wanting Picard to die alone as Q was about to, he endeavored to unshackle Picard from his past guilt so that he could move forward with his life simply because Q genuinely cared about Picard and wished to help his friend rather than for a grander design of some kind. To this end, Q intervened to save Picard and his friends from the destruction of the USS Stargazer and created an alternate timeline by altering the history of the Europa Mission in 2024 . After Picard and his friends restored the original timeline, Q revealed his true intentions and used the last of his power to send them home and to resurrect Elnor . Q's death saddened Picard who had come to see the being as a true friend and who ensured that Q was not alone when he finally met his end. ( PIC : " Farewell ")

In 2402 , despite his apparent death, Q appeared to Picard's son Jack Crusher , simply chiding him for thinking too linearly when asked about his death. Q told Jack that while the trial of humanity had ended for Picard, it had only just begun for Jack. Q's response to Jack's question about his death suggests that either Q never died or Jack was not meeting him in linear order to Picard's last encounter with Q, meaning that this Q may have been a version from before his supposed death. ( PIC : " The Last Generation ")

Picard and the Enterprise -D [ ]

Q was first encountered by the Federation when he appeared aboard the USS Enterprise -D in early 2364 . He warned the crew of the Enterprise that Humanity should return to their home star system or be destroyed.

Q 21st Soldier

Q appearing as a soldier of the Third World War

When he encountered resistance, Q placed Humanity on trial, with Jean-Luc Picard and his command crew as representatives. Q accused Humanity of being a "dangerous, savage child-race". Picard managed to strike a deal with Q, however, and submitted to a test of conduct to prove that Humanity had evolved beyond its previously savage state.

The Enterprise 's mission to Farpoint Station served as this test. The Starfleet crew sufficiently proved their evolved state of being by discovering and assisting a space vessel lifeform that had been coerced by the Bandi to take the form of a starbase . Q disappeared, but promised the crew they had not seen the last of him. ( TNG : " Encounter at Farpoint ")

Picard Q Ready Room

Q explaining to Picard that how Humans respond to a game tells more about them than a direct confrontation

The next time Q appeared on the Enterprise later that year, he created a bizarre and deadly "game" for the ship's crew, in order to demonstrate that he had given Commander William T. Riker Q-like abilities. His motives for this were that Humans had a desire to grow and explore, which the Q did not have or understand. Q wanted Riker to join the Continuum so they could understand and possess this desire because if they did not, Humanity could one day surpass the Q.

Q and Picard settled on a bet that, if Riker rejected his offer, the Q would leave Humanity alone forever. Ultimately, Riker rejected these new powers, and Q was forced back into the Continuum. ( TNG : " Hide And Q ")

Because of those actions, Q was asked to leave the Q Continuum. ( TNG : " Q Who ")

Q and Picard

" Do we stay out here years? Decades? "

Q's third appearance on the Enterprise was in 2365 . He presented himself as homeless and expressed an interest in joining Picard's crew, his reason being that Humanity would eventually push into uncharted territory and would need a guide as they were ill-prepared to face what they would find. He even offered to renounce his powers to prove that his offer was genuine. However, when Picard vehemently declined (inspired by thinking that Humanity could handle any threat), Q hurled the Enterprise into the path of a Borg cube . Ultimately, Picard had to beg for Q's help in escaping from the pursuit of the Borg ship. ( TNG : " Q Who ")

In that encounter, Q alluded to a past association with Enterprise bartender Guinan. She declined to elaborate on the nature of their relationship, other than to express an extreme dislike for Q. Based on Q's reactions, the sentiment seemed mutual. ( TNG : " Q Who ")

Being Human [ ]

Q and Guinan (2366)

Powerless, Q meets Guinan in Ten Forward

In 2366 , Q was stripped of his power and immortality and transformed into a Human by the Q Continuum, as punishment for his irresponsibility. He sought refuge on the Enterprise , and requested asylum and protection from the beings in the universe whom he had tormented. Though Captain Picard and the rest of the crew were unconvinced of the sincerity of Q's plea and indeed suspected the entire situation was merely an elaborate prank, Picard agreed to provide Q temporary asylum. During a visit to Ten Forward (almost humorously), Guinan took advantage of the situation and stabbed Q in the hand with a fork. Though not a scientist, Q provided theoretical guidance for Geordi La Forge 's analysis of Bre'el IV 's moon , which was in danger of colliding with its planet of orbit . During that time, Data was assigned to watch Q and Q gained an unusual perspective on Humanity and its condition from observing Data, in turn. However, after a Calamarain attack nearly destroyed Data (who risked his life to protect Q), Q became ashamed of his newly-discovered lack of empathy for other beings, and resolved to leave on a shuttle, allow the Calamarain to kill him, and prevent further risk to the Enterprise crew. Another Q intervened at that point, acknowledged Q's selfless act and restored his powers as a reward. In gratitude, Q corrected the orbit of the moon and also gave a special gift to Data, his "professor of the Humanities", a brief moment of genuine laughter. ( TNG : " Deja Q ")

Meeting Vash and acting as benefactor [ ]

In 2367 , the Enterprise crew encountered a woman claiming to be the mythical Ardra of Ventax II . Her demonstrations of omnipotent power resembled those of Q, to the extent that the Enterprise crew speculated that she might be of the Q Continuum or perhaps Q himself. Picard pointed out that the woman's obsession with the Contract of Ardra was atypical of Q and her powers were later proved to be the product of sophisticated technology rather than any innate ability. ( TNG : " Devil's Due ")

Q and Vash DS9

Q and Vash visiting Deep Space 9 in 2369

Later, in 2367 , Q returned to the Enterprise to "properly" thank Captain Picard for his role in helping him regain his standing in the Continuum. At the time, Picard was meeting a past lover named Vash (whom he had met on Risa ) the year before. ( TNG : " Captain's Holiday ") Q resolved to teach Picard a lesson about love, and cast Picard, Vash, and the Enterprise command crew into an elaborate scenario styled by the ancient legend of Robin Hood . Q himself assumed the role of the High Sheriff of Nottingham . Ultimately, Picard learned and everyone was returned to the Enterprise . However, intrigued by Vash, Q offered to take her on a journey of exploration to various archaeological ruins of the galaxy and she accepted. To pay his debt to Picard, he promised no harm would come to Vash. ( TNG : " Qpid ")

Amanda Rogers with Q

Q encouraging Amanda Rogers to use her Q powers

In 2369 , he once again appeared aboard the Enterprise -D, this time to instruct Amanda Rogers , a seemingly Human female who developed Q powers during an internship with Doctor Beverly Crusher . Shortly after Rogers' birth, the Continuum used a tornado to execute Rogers' parents, two Q who had assumed life as Humans on Earth, for being unable to resist using their powers while in Human guise. Although Q's petulant and acerbic attitude did little to ingratiate himself to Amanda, he eventually convinced her to go with him to the Continuum to learn to use her new-found abilities. ( TNG : " True Q ")

A few months later, Q followed Vash back to the Alpha Quadrant , after the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole created a new avenue of travel between there and the Gamma Quadrant . Having had so much fun with Vash, Q wanted to continue exploring the galaxy , but Vash wanted nothing to do with him. While the two were at Deep Space 9 , mysterious power drains were thought to be Q's doing, but they were, in fact, due to an embryonic lifeform that Vash had unknowingly returned from the Gamma Quadrant. Q had a brief confrontation with Commander Benjamin Sisko during his visit and disrupted an auction that Quark and Vash staged in Quark's . Though he was intrigued by Sisko hitting him as Picard never did, Q eventually became bored because "Sisko was so different than Picard," being so much easier to provoke. One might speculate that Q's actions were intended to ensure Vash's safety in regards to the promise that he had made to Picard two years earlier. In the end, Q and Vash went their separate ways, though both eventually admitted to retaining a certain fondness for each other. ( DS9 : " Q-Less ")

Q as God

Q appearing to Picard as "God" in the afterlife

Later that same year, Q appeared to Picard when the latter was critically injured in a Lenarian ambush. Appearing as "God", Q told Picard he died because of his artificial heart and offered him the chance to return to the incident in his youth, which allowed him to relive the events leading up to his near-fatal injury and change history. Though Picard was successful in changing history, he eventually realized the event – and his previous nature as an arrogant, brash young man – was a part of his identity, and had helped mold him into the successful Starfleet officer he became. Even though he was uncertain as to whether the experience had been real or simply a vision, Picard was grateful for Q's revelation. ( TNG : " Tapestry ")

Never-ending trial [ ]

Q and Picard, 2370

Q congratulating Picard for his method of collapsing the anomaly

In 2370 , Q returned to the Enterprise to continue the trial against Humanity. Claiming the seven-year-old trial never actually ended, Q proclaimed Humanity guilty of "being inferior" and informed Picard that his race was to be destroyed. He sent him traveling through time to his own past and present, as well as to a potential future. In all three time periods, Picard was presented with a temporal paradox in the form of an eruption of anti-time in the Devron system . In that paradox, Picard himself was responsible for the creation of the anomaly, which propagated backward in normal time, anti-time having the opposite properties of normal time, thus destroying Humanity in the past.

In addition to sending Picard jumping through time, Q provided him with hints to understanding the nature of the paradox. Ultimately, Picard determined the solution and devised a way to close the anti-time anomaly in all three time periods. Following the success, Q revealed that the entire experience had been a test devised by the Continuum and had been aimed at determining whether Humanity was capable of expanding its horizons to understand some of the advanced concepts of the universe, including the potential of Humanity's own evolution – but helping Picard had been his idea. Q promised to continue watching Humanity and proclaimed that " the trial never ends. " ( TNG : " All Good Things... ")

Janeway and Voyager [ ]

Q, 2372

Q debuting on Voyager

In 2372 , Q was sent by the Continuum to board the USS Voyager , whose crew had unintentionally released a renegade Q from confinement in a rogue comet . When the other Q (later known as "Quinn") asked for asylum on Voyager in order to fulfill his wish to commit suicide , an act considered illegal in the Continuum, Q was permitted to represent the Continuum at a hearing to determine whether the requested asylum would be granted. Q argued that permitting a Q to commit suicide would cause unspeakable chaos and disorder – a profound irony, considering Q's own history as a prankster and renegade. When confronted with his past deeds, Q commented that [his] record has been expunged.

Ultimately, Quinn's arguments prevailed and he was made into a mortal being. Q himself was touched by Quinn's dedication and beliefs – Quinn had previously been an admirer of Q's because of Q's propensity to stir controversy and spread chaos – and actually provided Quinn with the means with which to commit suicide. Q resolved to return to some of his old habits and to encourage the Continuum to allow more chaos into their own order. ( VOY : " Death Wish ")

Following the death of Quinn, a massive Q Civil War broke out as the forces of the status quo resisted the calls for change in the Continuum, by a faction led by Q himself. Seeking to end the conflict, Q devised a plan to mate with Kathryn Janeway , the captain of Voyager , in order to create a new Q / Human hybrid – a new breed of Q that would help bring an end to the civil war. However, Janeway flatly refused.

Q kidnapped Janeway and took her to the Continuum, where he again tried to persuade her by explaining the nature of the conflict. However, Janeway again declined, though she openly sympathized with Q for his inability to understand love and tried to negotiate a truce between the two sides. However, those negotiations failed because the status quo faction refused to accept any terms other than surrender. They tried to execute both Q and Janeway, but they were stopped by personnel from Voyager , with the assistance of Q female , an old flame of Q's. Q and the female Q were able to equip Janeway and the rest of Voyager 's crew with Q weapons , which they were able to use to battle the opposing status quo faction.

Q proposed mating with his old girlfriend instead of with Janeway and she agreed. The new child, nicknamed " Q junior ," became the first child born in the Continuum for millennia and his presence brought an end to the civil war. ( VOY : " The Q and the Grey ")

Q gives janeway a padd

Q giving Janeway a PADD

Regardless, Q's child did not prove to become the perfect "savior" child he was meant to be; he grew into a spoiled brat and caused chaos and disorder. Q tried to briefly leave his son with "Aunt Kathy" aboard Voyager and hoped that Janeway's "vaunted Starfleet ideals" would rub off on him. Q himself began to learn more about the role of being a parent, revealing that much of Junior's actions were not punished properly by Q. However, after spending years with the child, Junior only began to behave worse. As a result, the Continuum stripped his son of his powers, left him aboard Voyager (again under the care of Janeway), and told him to change his ways within a week or he would be sentenced to spend eternity as an Oprelian amoeba .

Though Q was initially unimpressed by his son's progress, he devised a test of "Q-ness" to determine whether his son had improved his attitude. He masqueraded as a Chokuzan captain and threatened Junior and his friend Icheb after they took the Delta Flyer from Voyager . Junior passed with flying colors and offered to sacrifice himself to face the consequence of his actions, which had endangered Icheb.

However, the Continuum was not impressed by Junior's progress and sentenced him to remain a Human. Outraged, Q proclaimed he would leave the Continuum if his son was not allowed to rejoin – the pair was a "package deal". "Begging for [Q's] return" as a deterrent to instability, Q earlier stated that he "holds them all together", the Continuum acquiesced, on one condition – that Q retain eternal custody of the boy. Grateful for her assistance, Q provided Janeway with a map to a shortcut that would shave three years off Voyager 's journey home. Janeway asked Q why he did not send them all the way back to Earth and his response was that it would be setting a bad example for his son if he did all the work for them. ( VOY : " Q2 ")

The Cerritos [ ]

Q aboard the Cerritos

Q aboard the Cerritos

Q's reputation preceded him aboard the USS Cerritos , when in 2380 , he was referenced by Ensign Brad Boimler in a simile explaining the existence of his girlfriend , Lieutenant Barbara Brinson , whom he described as being "as real as a hopped-up Q on Captain Picard Day ." ( LD : " Cupid's Errant Arrow ")

That same year, he made multiple appearances aboard Cerritos . At one point, while wearing a variation of his judge's garb, he abducted four members of the bridge crew to participate in one of his challenges. He dressed the crew up as chess pieces , and put them on a large chessboard, but had anthropomorphic playing cards holding hockey sticks as the opposing pieces, football goal posts at either end of the game board , and a singing , dancing soccer ball .

After the Cerritos left K'Tuevon Prime , Q appeared before Ensigns Beckett Mariner , Brad Boimler, Sam Rutherford , and D'Vana Tendi to challenge them. Mariner told him they were not in the mood and walked away, even as Q followed them and urged them – in vain – to continue, and lamented that he found Picard to be boring. ( LD : " Veritas ")

The Road Not Taken [ ]

Q appears before Picard

Q appears before Picard following the destruction of the Stargazer

At some point prior to 2401 , Q began to experience a change he believed was impossible: despite everything he believed about the Q as a species, Q was not truly immortal, and he realised that he was going to die. Symptoms of this phenomenon were that Q had begun to lose his powers. Q thought of it as being on "the threshold of the unknowable" and believed that he was about to be "enveloped in the warm glow of meaning" now that his life had a definite end in sight. ( PIC : " Mercy ")

In 2401, three decades after their last encounter, Q visited Picard at his home on Earth . After having ordered USS Stargazer to self-destruct in order to stop the Borg from seizing control of the Starfleet armada, Q had intervened to stop Picard's death. ( PIC : " Penance ") Picard had awoken in his home to find that not only was he alive, but several things had changed. Picard turned to face Q, and Q remarked that Picard was older than he imagined. Snapping his fingers, Q updated his appearance to more closely match the aged Picard and reminded Picard about the words that he imparted to him when they last parted ways, " the trial never ends. " Q reminded Picard about how he had talked about second chances and told him that he was now at the " very end of the road not taken. " ( PIC : " The Star Gazer ")

Following Picard's question as to where they were, Q explained to Picard that he had brought him "home". After Picard inquired about the whereabouts of the Stargazer crew, Q admitted that there was no Stargazer . Picard demanded to know what Q had done, to which Q responded that he had merely shown Picard a world of his own making and stated that it was "Human" of Picard to instead blame him. Picard angrily asked if Q had had enough of playing games with other peoples' lives and exclaimed that he was no longer Q's pawn, to which Q answered that Picard was much more than a pawn – he was instead the " very board upon which this game is played ". When Picard told him that he was too old for Q's "bullshit", Q angrily affirmed that Picard was old, and lamented that time was unfair and had presented Picard with " so many wrinkles... so many disappointments. " Picard demanded that Q get to the point, to " cut to the chase ". Q rambled to Picard about the chase bleeding out and how he was a suture on the wound. Noticing Q's odd behavior, Picard asked Q if he was unwell. Q responded by transporting them both to the vineyard.

At the vineyard, Picard asked again what had happened to the crew of the Stargazer , and Q acknowledged that he had intervened because he had wanted to see him. Picard demanded that Q tell him what he wanted, and Q told him that while he could tell him, Picard was too clever to listen. Picard told Q that he had enough of Q's patronizing, and Q struck Picard, angrily telling Picard that he had had enough of Picard's stubbornness, obstinance, and " insistence on changing in all ways but the one that matters ". Q declared the situation was not a lesson but instead a penance. Q explained that in Picard's original history, Humanity had found a way to spare the planet they were "murdering", but in this timeline, Humanity " keeps the corpse on life support ". Q once again transported Picard back inside the château, where he revealed several alien slaves working for Picard. Despite Picard's insistence that he would never do this, Q stated that " such moral convictions are the luxury of the victors ".

Q offers Picard a choice

Q offers Picard a choice between remaining as he is, or a chance at "atonement"

Q brought Picard inside the trophy room , explaining the life that Picard had led in this new timeline. Q talked through several of Picard's trophies – including the skulls of Dukat , Martok , and Sarek , all of whom this timeline's Picard had executed in brutal fashion. Q called Picard " the most bloodthirsty, merciless, ruthless Human to ever set out to conquer the galaxy " and asked if Picard wished to see what else had been lost thanks to Picard's fear. He offered Picard a choice: he could remain as he was in this world, trapped inside " the body of a madman, in the world of a madman ", and try to " wash the blood " from his hands for the brutal murders committed by his counterpart – though Q deemed that to be "unwashable". Q offered an alternative: Picard could show atonement, possibly forgiveness. When Picard asked what he would be forgiving, Q answered cryptically that Picard already knew. Q stated that he would not let Picard take this on alone. Picard refused Q's choice and Q left him alone.

Picard would later inform Seven of Nine and Raffaela Musiker of his encounter with Q, and explained that Q would in the past put him to the test using "games" such as the situation they found themselves in. He told them that he felt that there was something wrong with Q, as he was acting stranger than usual.

A Borg Queen held captive in Agnes Jurati 's laboratory was able to perceive the fracture in the timeline and calculated that Q had implemented a single change in the year 2024 to create the current timeline. ( PIC : " Penance ") Q briefly appeared again to Picard aboard CSS La Sirena to repeat his words about this being the only life Picard understood. ( PIC : " Assimilation ")

Q Observing Renee Picard

Q observing Renée Picard, about to attempt to interfere with her mission

Q later observed Renée Picard reading a book before she undertook the Europa Mission . Q attempted to amplify Renée's fear about the upcoming mission, but his powers failed. ( PIC : " Watcher ")

He next attempted to get assistance from Adam Soong , whom he promised to give a cure for his daughter 's genetic disorder . ( PIC : " Fly Me to the Moon ")

During a gala celebrating the Europa Mission, Q, posing as Renée's therapist, encouraged her not to go on the mission and nearly succeeded. However, Picard successfully foiled Q's plan. In response, a desperate Soong tried to run down Renée, only to have Picard take the hit himself in order to save her life. ( PIC : " Two of One ")

Jean-Luc survived and met with Guinan, who performed an El-Aurian ritual in an effort to summon Q. The ritual appeared to fail, and shortly after, Guinan and Jean-Luc were arrested by a team of FBI agents led by Martin Wells . ( PIC : " Monsters ") Q had heard the summons, however, and visited Guinan in prison, where she realized that Q was dying. Q imparted to her that he was trying to find meaning in his remaining time, and that he was using Jean-Luc as a means to that end. He also demonstrated his loss of power by attempting unsuccessfully to vaporize Guinan. Q left with a parting statement that Humans were " all trapped in the past ", which gave Guinan the clue she needed in order for Jean-Luc to pry into Agent Wells' past in order to secure their release. ( PIC : " Mercy ")

Q later hacked himself into a virtual reality program operated by Kore Soong, to reveal to her the truth and offer himself as an ally, in spite of Adam Soong not keeping his end of their bargain. Kore removed the VR headset to end the conversation, but Q had left the permanent cure – labeled "freedom" – in the airlock for her. ( PIC : " Mercy ")

Q, 2024

Q before his "death"

After the success of the Europa Mission and the restoration of the original timeline, Picard encountered Q in his home after leaving the skeleton key for his younger self to find in the future. Q noted that although Picard had the chance to potentially save his mother and change his own future, he instead accepted himself as he was and absolved himself. Because Picard had chosen himself, he may now be worthy for someone else to choose and he may even give himself the chance to be loved. Q reminded Picard that he'd told Picard that this was about forgiveness: Picard's own forgiveness of himself. Q stated that Picard had fixed all of the deaths that Q had caused by altering the timeline aside from Tallinn and Elnor . However, Tallinn was always destined to die in every timeline, but thanks to Picard's intervention, Tallinn had met Renée in this one. Picard asked why Q had taken such an interest in him for over thirty years and Q explained that he was dying alone and he didn't want that for Picard. Q had elaborated: " Even gods have favorites and you've always been one of mine. " As such, he had set it up so that Picard would travel back in time and in a round about way come to terms with his mother's death and absolve himself of his perceived responsibility for the event. " As I leave, I leave you free. " For once, Q was not acting as part of some grander design but simply because he cared about Picard and genuinely wanted to help his friend.

Gathering outside, Q prepared to use the last of his power to send Picard and his friends back to their own time, something that would kill Q in his weakened state. With Rios choosing to stay in 2024, Q told Picard that he had an unexpected surplus of energy that he would use to give Picard one last surprise gift. Stating that Q didn't have to die alone, Picard hugged him and an emotional Q promised to " see you out there " and snapped his fingers, sending Picard, Musiker, and Seven back to 2401 moments before the Stargazer 's destruction, allowing Picard the chance to change his future. Shortly thereafter, the group discovered Q's final gift: Q had resurrected Elnor and returned him to the Excelsior . ( PIC : " Farewell ")

Visiting Jack Crusher [ ]

Q in Jack Crusher's quarters, 2402

Q in Jack Crusher's quarters aboard the USS Enterprise -G

In 2402 , Q appeared to Jack aboard the USS Enterprise -G . Jack immediately recognized the being, having heard about Q from his father Jean-Luc Picard . Jack was surprised as Q was supposed to be dead, but Q simply stated that he was hoping that "the next generation wouldn't think [time] so linearly", and told him that Jack had much ahead of him. While humanity's trial was over for Picard, Q was here to inform Jack that his trial had only just begun. ( PIC : " The Last Generation ")

Q's disguises [ ]

Q as a 16th century sea captain

Locations "created" by Q [ ]

  • A post-atomic horror courtroom of 2079 ( TNG : " Encounter at Farpoint ", " All Good Things... ")
  • The planet of the animal things ( TNG : " Hide And Q ")
  • Sherwood Forest ( TNG : " Qpid ")
  • The afterlife ( TNG : " Tapestry ")
  • The puzzle planetoid ( LD : " Veritas ")

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

  • " Encounter at Farpoint " ( Season 1 )
  • " Hide And Q "
  • " Q Who " ( Season 2 )
  • " Deja Q " ( Season 3 )
  • " Qpid " ( Season 4 )
  • " True Q " ( Season 6 )
  • " Tapestry "
  • " All Good Things... " ( Season 7 )
  • DS9 : " Q-Less " ( Season 1 )
  • " Death Wish " ( Season 2 )
  • " The Q and the Grey " ( Season 3 )
  • " Q2 " ( Season 7 )
  • LD : " Veritas "
  • " The Star Gazer " ( Season 2 )
  • " Penance "
  • " Assimilation "
  • " Watcher "
  • " Fly Me to the Moon "
  • " Two of One " ( flashback ; archive footage)
  • " Farewell "
  • " The Last Generation " ( Season 3 )

Background information [ ]

Filming All Good Things..

Filming Q's scene in The Next Generation series finale " All Good Things... "

Q was played by John de Lancie ; Q as the Chozukan commander was played by Michael Kagan .

The idea of Q was conceived by Gene Roddenberry as a way to help fill out the events of "Encounter at Farpoint" from a one-hour to two-hour running time. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , p. 28) The name "Q" was chosen by Roddenberry in honor of an English Star Trek fan named Janet Quarton. She was the first president of the UK Star Trek fan club, and Roddenberry and many others spent time at her home, in the Scottish highlands. ( Star Trek Encyclopedia  (4th ed., vol. 2, p. 191); [1] )

Immediately after Roddenberry invented the character of Q, the other members of the TNG preproduction staff realized it was very reminiscent of the character Trelane from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode " The Squire of Gothos ". " We're all looking at each other, saying, 'It's Trelane [from the original series] all over again,' " remembered David Gerrold . " We all hated it and very gently suggested to Gene that it wasn't very good. Of course, this fell on deaf ears. He said, 'Trust me, the way I'll do it, the fans will love it.' " ( The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years , p. 67)

In an interview, de Lancie likewise drew parallels between Q and Trelane, feeling Gene Roddenberry had explored his storehouse of effective creations in writing The Next Generation and had found one that would turn out to be highly successful again in The Next Generation . [2] In another interview, de Lancie stated that, upon thinking of ways to describe Q's character, he had remembered a famous quote made about Lord Byron : That he was "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." ( Star Trek 25th Anniversary Special )

Minimal makeup was used for the character of Q. " We always defined Q with a little eye makeup and a little lip color, just to make him stand out, " recalled Makeup Supervisor Michael Westmore . ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , p. 26)

Production designer Herman Zimmerman was influential in the depiction of Q as a judge presiding over a courtroom . In the script of "Encounter at Farpoint," Q seemed to be floating in that area, though none of the production crew could figure out precisely how to show Q floating without resorting to visual effects for every one of those shots. Ultimately, Zimmerman suggested putting de Lancie on a camera crane and bringing him into the courtroom out of a black hole, which was exactly how Q's arrival in that scene was shot. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , p. 30)

The depiction of Q in "Encounter at Farpoint" turned out to be extremely popular. Yar actress Denise Crosby commented, " The character of Q, and the way John de Lancie was playing it, was really interesting. " Rick Berman noted, " I think [Q] was certainly the most memorable element of that opening episode. " "Encounter at Farpoint" Director Corey Allen remarked, " Q was so clearly a wonderful idea of Gene's, about the questions we all ask ourselves; he was the interrogator that each of us carries on our shoulder. " Herman Zimmerman observed that his idea of having Q arrive in the courtroom on a camera crane "worked very well." ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , pp. 19, 28, & 30)

Though a first draft script of TNG Season 1 episode " Hide And Q " that Maurice Hurley penned was substantially rewritten by Gene Roddenberry, the character of Q still intrigued Hurley thereafter. He thought of Q as an unreliable god and subsequently intended for him to feature in a story arc through the second season . Due to a writers' strike though, he was only returned in the Season 2 episode " Q Who " before Hurley left the series. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , pp. 52 & 53)

Rob Bowman , who got an opportunity to direct de Lancie as Q in "Q Who," enjoyed the experience, finding that de Lancie was easy to direct in the role. " He really had a grasp of the peculiarities of that character, " Bowman remarked. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , p. 95)

Though Q was a recurring character over a relatively long time, he was used sparingly by the Star Trek producers in case fans got tired of him. Gowron actor Robert O'Reilly once likened these circumstances to his own situation, regarding his portrayal of Gowron. ( The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine  issue 16 , p. 22) Writing staffer Ronald D. Moore commented, " Q was a fascinating character, but I thought that he should be carefully rationed through the series. I thought if you played him about once a season, that was the most you wanted to use him. " ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 90, p. 17)

Devising Q stories challenged the writing staff of Star Trek: The Next Generation due to the character's omnipotence. Q could not be made completely into an adversary as he could simply wipe all the characters out of existence. The fact he was intended to be all-powerful also raised the question of why he even bothered with Humans and their allies. Both Ronald D. Moore and Jeri Taylor found it difficult to write for the character, though Moore also regarded doing so as "fun" because Q's extreme powers allowed the writers a wide variety of stories they could feature him in. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 113 , p. 68)

Stewart and de Lancie

Patrick Stewart and John de Lancie during the filming of " Tapestry "

Following Q's appearance in " Q-Less ", the possibility of him making another visit to DS9 was dismissed by Ira Steven Behr , when he remarked, " I don't foresee Q being back on the show. To me, his relationship with Picard was gold. And I don't think we can top it. " ( AOL chat , 1997 ) Ron Moore agreed, " The secret to Q was the Q and Picard relationship. Q was in love with Picard, for some reason. That was the underpinning of the relationship, which was why, when he came to Deep Space Nine , he wasn't as effective a character. The weird love affair that he had going with Jean-Luc made that whole thing work, and it made ' Tapestry ' work, and ultimately it made ' All Good Things... ' work. " ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 90, p. 17)

Q was originally rumored to make an appearance in Star Trek: Insurrection ; however, Michael Piller ultimately put those rumors to rest. ( AOL chat , 1997 )

In 2002 , Q placed eleventh in TV Zone 's list of the top twenty science fiction television villains, along with several other Star Trek characters; the Borg Queen was second, Dukat was fourth, Weyoun was eighth, and Seska was nineteenth. However, despite his listing, Q is not necessarily a villain, but more of an anti-hero.

Along with Quark, Morn , and Evek , Q is one of only four characters to appear in all of the first three Star Trek series based in the 24th century : Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , and Star Trek: Voyager . Of these four, Q is the only one who did not appear in " Caretaker ".

Of the thirteen Star Trek episodes featuring Q prior to Star Trek: Picard Season 2 , eight of them use the letter "Q" in the title, often forming a pun.

In " Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad ", having Harcourt Fenton Mudd say " Adieu, mon capitaine " to Captain Gabriel Lorca was intended as an homage to Q. [3]

Q was the first character to ever use the word "trek" in a Star Trek film or episode, which he does in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series finale "All Good Things...". However, Zefram Cochrane is the only character to utter the phrase "star trek," doing so in Star Trek: First Contact .

Apocrypha [ ]

According to Q in the String Theory books, omnipotent beings were actually rather fond of games of choice and chance as it was only under those conditions that beings such as Q could feel the thrill of not being in total control.

Besides the character of Trelane having been an inspiration on the conception of Q in reality, they were both featured in Q-Squared , in which Trelane was actually described as a "child" member of the Q Continuum, even implied to be Q's own illegitimate son.

The reason for Q's original interest in Picard in particular was explained in the novel The Buried Age , which also revealed he chose to call himself "Q" as he felt that his original choice of 'The Inquisitor' would be too complicated for Humans to say regularly, speculating that, if ever asked why he called himself 'Q', he would reply, "Because U will always be behind me."

The audio play " Spock Vs. Q: The Sequel " suggested there was at least one individual "above" Q, naming herself "Petunia", who, in the play, seemed to have taken Q's powers and placed him, together with Spock, on an asteroid.

In the novel Q-in-Law , Q meets Lwaxana Troi who developed romantic feelings toward him when the two came to the Enterprise during a significant wedding in 2366. Q used this to his advantage to perform a cruel experiment on the nature of the Human emotion of love and Q briefly shared his vast power with Lwaxana. When Q was finished with his experiment to prove that love made others blind to faults in their chosen partner and fixated on their own desires, citing as proof how Lwaxana had ignored all the warnings that he would do exactly this, he tried to take the power back without success. Lwaxana used her power to thoroughly humiliate Q as he had humiliated her. It was later revealed that Q2 was responsible for preventing Q from removing Lwaxana's powers as a way to teach Q another lesson about interfering in the lives of mortals.

Q returned in the Star Trek: Ongoing story arc The Q Gambit . Beginning shortly after the events of Star Trek: Countdown , Q visits Picard on board the USS Enterprise -E , informing Picard that Spock was still alive and that the black hole he was pulled into actually sent him into an alternate reality . When Q tries to discuss this timeline, Picard cuts him off, believing that the various timelines should remain separate from one another. Annoyed, Q reveals he had come for Picard's counsel as Spock had set off a chain of events that would doom that timeline. But since the former captain was uninterested, Q took his leave for the other timeline despite Picard's attempt to call him back. Materializing aboard the USS Enterprise on Stardate 2261.34 , Q introduces himself to James T. Kirk by way of masquerading as a security officer (and complimenting the shiny aesthetic of the ship).

To test Kirk's established lack of belief in a " no-win scenario ", Q replicates the Kobayashi Maru scenario in an attempt to teach Kirk that no-win scenarios are a reality. Kirk is undaunted and reveals that no matter what, he does not believe in a no-win scenario. Q takes them both back in time to when Kirk died saving the Enterprise . As the two watch the event, Q asks Kirk if this constitutes Kirk beating the ultimate no-win scenario before revealing he will show Kirk a scenario where failure is a certainty. He then sends the Enterprise and its crew over a hundred years into the future where the Federation no longer exists and the Dominion established an alliance with the Cardassian Union and took over the Alpha Quadrant while existing in a state of cold war against the Klingon Empire .

Q sporadically appears to Kirk throughout the adventure, offering vague advice as well as assuring that he and his crew would not be confined to these dire circumstances forever. After Gul Dukat had merged with a Pah-wraith and intended to ascend to godhood, Q finally appears to Kirk and reveals to him the true magnitude of the stakes: The higher species are at war and the Q Continuum is on the verge of defeat. Galvanized by their victory over the Prophets , the Pah-wraiths have turned on their other neighbors. Not even the Q can stop their onslaught because in spite of all the power they wield in the three-dimensional universe , they are as powerless and clueless as Humans in their own realm. Unable to find a path to victory, Q left to seek the counsel of Picard on what action to take. But when he could not get an answer, Q intended to instead seek the counsel of Kirk for his experience in triumphing over no-win scenarios.

When Q, Kirk, Spock , and Sisko are brought aboard the Enterprise as prisoners, Dukat kills Sisko, who transfers the last Prophet to Spock, and Spock then transfers the Prophet into Q through a mind meld . This causes the two to merge into an even more powerful entity, one readily capable of quelling the Pah-wraith threat. After returning the Enterprise and its crew back to their proper places in time and making it so that only Kirk and Spock remember what happened throughout their ordeal, Q returns to Picard to inform him of his latest adventure. Flatly, Picard said he did not want to know.

In " Connection, Part 1 ", Q is mentioned when Kirk switches minds with his prime timeline counterpart and Kirk initially assumes Q was messing with him again, with a confused Chekov asking who Q is.

John de Lancie shared his own origin story for the Q in an interview following the conclusion of his arc in Star Trek: Picard : " I gave myself a story, which was, Plato’s Cave. “There’s a cave with an entrance [that] the sunlight goes through, there are humans who are chained inside the cave and can only see the wall of the cave. Therefore, everything that goes in front of the cave becomes a projection on the wall. So they are only seeing shadows. Continuing the story, one of them breaks his chains, goes out to the entrance, goes outside, and goes ‘Oh, my God, that is reality – that is truth out there.’ Comes back, [and] tells the humans, ‘These are just shadows, I’m a philosopher now, I’m giving you the truth.’ And of course, they kill him. So I had in my head, what are the Q? The Q are in fact the [people] who are chained, who watch the wall. We are the witnesses, but we are only seeing the shadows. So what have I done? I’m the one who has broken out. And I’m traipsing through the universe trying to actually get the real deal. That was my backstory. " [4]

Q and the Q Continuum appeared in the following non- canon works:

  • Spock Vs. Q
  • Spock Vs. Q: The Sequel
  • Star Trek: Borg - Experience the Collective
  • #9: Requiem
  • #13: Gods Above
  • The Buried Age
  • The Eternal Tide
  • Encounter at Farpoint
  • All Good Things...
  • Q's Guide to the Continuum
  • " All Good Things... "
  • #3: " Q Factor "
  • #4: " Q's Day "
  • #5: " Q Affects! "
  • #33: " The Way of the Warrior "
  • #34: " Devil's Brew! "
  • #35: " The Dogs of War "
  • #79: " Artificiality "
  • #80: " The Abandoned "
  • Annual #1: " The Gift "
  • Star Trek Unlimited #7: " An Infinite Jest "
  • " The Q Gambit, Part 1 "
  • " The Q Gambit, Part 2 "
  • " The Q Gambit, Part 3 "
  • " The Q Gambit, Part 4 "
  • " The Q Gambit, Part 5 "
  • " The Q Gambit, Part 6 "
  • Star Trek: Borg
  • Star Trek: The Game Show
  • Star Trek: ConQuest Online
  • Star Trek Online
  • Star Trek Timelines

External links [ ]

  • Q at StarTrek.com
  • Q at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
  • Q at Wikipedia
  • 2 Hoshi Sato
  • 3 Broken Bow (episode)

Bleeding Cool News and Rumors

Star Trek: Discovery Breaking Jonathan Frakes' Unique On-Screen Streak

Posted in: Paramount+ , Star Trek , streaming , TV | Tagged: alex kurtzman , Jonathan Frakes , paramount , star trek: discovery , sxsw , SXSW 2024

Star Trek EP Alex Kurtzman dashes hopes for a Jonathan Frakes cameo in the fifth and final season of "Discovery," breaking his long streak.

Jonathan Frakes has two unique distinctions in the galaxy of Star Trek . First, he directed the most episodes as a one-time cast member. There have been several actor-turned-directors across the franchise, including his castmates on The Next Generation Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn , and Gates McFadden . Frakes has directed 30 episodes across TNG , and its films, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Discovery, Strange New Worlds, and Picard . The second is the most appearances across franchise shows, a streak that ends with Discovery . Since TNG's seven-season run and throughout its four films until 2002's Nemesis , Frakes made cameos in every single Trek series reprising his doppelganger Thomas in Deep Space Nine , his Riker cameo on Voyager thanks to John de Lancie's Q, his series finale appearance in Enterprise opposite his TNG co-star Marina Sirtis , who reprised her role as Troi. The tradition continued into Lower Decks gave us a glimpse of his U.S.S. Titan, the ship he was assigned to following Nemesis , and naturally in Picard seasons one and three.

Star Trek

Discovery , which was originally set in the 23rd century in the pre- The Original Series era, jumped to the 32nd century at the end of season two, far beyond the timeline of Star Trek in the future. Naturally, it wouldn't make any organic sense for Riker to appear short of a Q or a holodeck simulation. Producer Alex Kurtzman , while promoting the series' fifth and final season at SXSW 2024, told Den of Geek "No" when asked if Frakes will make a cameo, breaking that tradition.

Star Trek: Discovery Breaking Jonathan Frakes' Unique On-Screen Streak

There you have it. While Very Short Treks puts Riker in Star Trek: The Animated Series world, you're grasping at straws here, considering Deep Space Nine literally placed their characters in the TOS episode "The Trouble with Tribbles." What's to say Kurtzman isn't Andrew Garfield -ing us when you have Brent Spiner and Walter Koenig playing relatives of their signature characters in Star Trek canon? I can see Frakes playing this descendant of Will and Deanna, a separate original character, or at the very least, Michael Burnham's father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate. Star Trek: Discovery season five premieres April 5th on Paramount+.

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Star Trek Is About To Bust A Decade-Spanning Series Tradition

The fifth and final season of discovery won't include a familiar face.

Image for article titled Star Trek Is About To Bust A Decade-Spanning Series Tradition

When you think of the most important people in Star Trek history, in terms of actors at least you might look to the legacies of people like William Shatner or Patrick Stewart. But the real answer to that question is probably Jonathan Frakes , who has been a part of pretty much all televised Trek since the ‘70s — and when Discovery ends in a few months, it’ll break the trend of his influence, at least in front of the camera.

Since starring as William T. Riker in The Next Generation , Frakes has made a guest appearance in almost every Star Trek series since, either as Riker or a facsimile of him, or his villainous transporter clone brother Thomas (responsible for the greatest fake beard reveal in television history, thanks to Deep Space Nine ). Just three series have gone without an on-screen Frakes appearance so far— Discovery , Prodigy , and Strange New Worlds —and now we know at least one of them never will.

When asked by Den of Geek at a recent appearance during SXSW whether or not Frakes would make an on-screen appearance in Discovery ’s final season, co-creator and producer Alex Kurtzman offered a very resoundingly flat “No.” It’s not surprising considering that, as Discovery is now so far into Star Trek ’s future, Riker is extremely dead at this point. At least it will always have a special connection to Frakes through his role as a similarly consistent Trek director—Frakes has been regularly directing episodes of Discovery since its first season, and will direct the penultimate episode of the show in season five. But it does indeed mean the end to a decades-long trend of making Frakes one of the most consistent Trek actors in the franchise history, and there’s something oddly sad about that.

Prodigy and Strange New Worlds both still have time to have their own Frakes appearances— Prodigy is set in 2385, while Riker was still in active service even after the birth of his son Thaddeus, for whom he would step back from active duty to try and help treat when he was diagnosed with mendaxic neurosclerosis in the run-up to the events of Star Trek: Picard . Strange New Worlds (which like Discovery has a Frakes connection through directing ; he shot the show’s fantastic crossover with Lower Decks , “ Those Old Scientists ”) being pre-original Trek would make a Riker appearance very difficult, but Frakes could still play some role, whether it’s an ancestor or an entirely new character.

We’ll have to wait and see—and behold what Frakes cooks up as his parting gift for Discovery— when season five begins streaming on April 4 .

This story originally appeare d on io9. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Review – Episodes 1-4

In the future when all’s well….

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Review – Episodes 1-4 - IGN Image

Since its debut in 2017, Star Trek: Discovery has undergone many more onscreen changes than the average Trek show, featuring a different captain in each of its first four seasons, transporting its crew 900 years into the future for a full reset after Season 2, basically destroying the United Federation of Planets (don’t worry, it got better), and perhaps most notably, introducing its main character, Michael Burnham, at one of the lowest points possible for a Starfleet character – as a hated mutineer in Season 1 – only to eventually have her become the inspiring captain of the USS Discovery.

Indeed, as Discovery enters its fifth and final season, that is where we find Burnham, played by the always great Sonequa Martin-Green: She’s in charge of the Disco, has saved the galaxy a couple of times over, and is a pretty different person than she was when we first met her. Some might even say, with apologies to Will Riker, that she’s more seasoned now … But if the thrust of Burnham’s arc has always been to push out of the box she had placed herself in in the pilot – even last season, when she was captain, she was continuously at odds with the president of the Federation! – how can showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise keep things interesting now that the character, essentially, has it all?

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Images

Paramount Plus

For one thing, after the events of the Season 4 finale, she doesn’t really have it all anymore. Her partner, Cleveland “Book” Booker (David Ajala) – one of the best things about the show since the time-jump at the start of Season 3 – has been disgraced after falling in with the wrong crowd last season (long story). He’s doing his penance, working for Starfleet now – “I go where the Federation tells me,” he says – but Burnham and Book’s romantic relationship has seemingly come to an end… even as he rejoins the ship to help in the search for this season’s McGuffin (more on that in a bit).

Interestingly, Book’s fall from grace parallels Burnham’s own from back in Season 1, but the damage last season’s incident did to their connection isn’t the only personal challenge facing the captain now. Whereas she has so often punched up in the past – at her captains, her superiors, even, as noted, the president – at the start of Season 5 Michael is introduced to a new frenemy who she must contend with: Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie). As a Starfleet skipper who came into his own during the rough and tumble years after The Burn, Rayner takes a more raw approach to his missions, as in their first meeting when he’s willing to put his ship and crew at risk while attempting to capture some baddies.

What's the best Star Trek series of the past 10 years?

Without delving into spoilers, I will note that in the first four episodes of the season that Paramount+ has provided for review, Burnham and Rayner’s relationship goes in a different direction than I was expecting, and it’s a refreshing one that seems to affirm that Michael really has grown as a character over the course of her time on Discovery. Things reach a peak in Episode 4 (again, the last one I’ve seen at the time of this writing), as the pair find themselves on something of a standalone adventure that is fun, intriguing, and the perfect forum for a connection to begin between the two characters. Rennie, forever immortalized as Leoben on Battlestar Galactica , harnesses his edgy persona to great effect as a new regular castmember.

But about those baddies: They’re the human Moll (Eve Harlow) and alien L'ak (Elias Toufexis), a pair of couriers not unlike the pair of couriers that Burnham and Book once were (when Michael was separated from her ship between Seasons 2 and 3). Moll and L’ak are looking for an ancient piece of technology which, no joke, can be connected to an episode of 1990s Trek in the most tenuous of ways. An overreliance on treasure hunt-style stories has been a weakness of Discovery since Season 2, taking entire seasons to resolve as the characters go from clue to clue week by week. Unfortunately, it looks like Season 5 is continuing in that vein. But Harlow and Toufexis bring a certain likability to their characters that is intriguing, and as noted above, the show seems to be figuring out how to do breakout episodes if the fourth hour is any indication.

As always, the production design and visual effects on Discovery are outstanding and feature-quality, even if some of the events being depicted occasionally stretch credulity even by sci-fi standards. Burnham riding the outside of a starship while at warp speed is a tough one for an old nerd like me to take, but there’s no denying that it looks as realistic as Burnham riding the outside of a starship at warp speed could look!

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Meanwhile, the rest of the core cast are mostly given compelling things to do in these first four: Saru (Doug Jones) continues his relationship with the Vulcan T'Rina (Tara Rosling); Tilly (Mary Wiseman) returns after taking part of last season off, and she’s back to her humorous Tilly ways after encountering some Andorian champagne in Episode 1; and Wilson Cruz gets to put a unique spin on Dr. Culber in Episode 3 (sorry, no spoilers!). Stamets (Anthony Rapp), meanwhile, is confronted with the shuttering of his entire livelihood – the spore drive program – after the events of last season, though the scripts haven’t quite given the actor a chance to fully dig in on that prospect yet.

Questions and Notes from the Q Continuum:

  • I still don’t understand why David Cronenberg is a recurring player on Star Trek. I just wish he showed up more often.
  • I had almost forgotten how fast Saru can run!
  • Yes, Tig Notaro’s Jett Reno pops back in to crack wise here or there.
  • Hey, the Saurian Linus is very present on the bridge this season – with dialogue and everything! Get ready to hear about his people’s mating habits.
  • The big question about Star Trek: Discovery’s final season, of course, is… how final will it be? We know Paramount+ has a Starfleet Academy series in the works. Will that be set in the 32nd century as well, as Tilly is already an instructor there? And who’s to say that Captain Burnham or the others can’t show up again in some future Trek?

Star Trek: Discovery starts its fifth and final season in fine fashion, setting up another season-long mystery but doing so with enough interesting character developments to avoid the pitfalls of that approach that have sometimes plagued the show in the past. Sonequa Martin-Green is as strong as ever as Captain Burnham, and these first four episodes deal directly with the evolution of her character over the years, an evolution that at one point might’ve been seen as a bug of inconsistent writing but is now framed as a feature of the character. Callum Keith Rennie’s Captain Rayner makes for an intriguing addition to the cast, and the show looks as amazing as it ever has. Through four episodes, the last voyage of the USS Discovery is on course to stick the landing.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation writer hated the changes to his script and had his name removed

Star Trek: The Next Generation had its fair share of strange and/or downright unlikeable episodes. That happens to any series that runs for seven season, and usually, the first season is the roughest start. That was especially true of The Next Generation, but it did have its questionable episodes in the ongoing seasons, one of them being "The Royale," the 12th episode of season 2.

In this episode, Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner), and Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn) beam down to investigate a mysterious planet and find it decked out like a casino. Aliens accidentally killed an astronaut's crew in 2037. So, to keep him, alive, they recreated what they thought was his world from a novel the astronaut had been reading, Hotel Royale ., which takes place in a casino. Though the astronaut has long been dead when Riker and his team beam down, the manufactured humans the aliens created to keep the astronaut company are still alive and well.

This episode was written by Tracy Tormé, but you won't see his name in the credits as he asked for them to be removed. Instead, Keith Mills is used as a pseudonym because Maurice Hurley, one of the producers on the first and second seasons of The Next Generation, rewrote the script without

Tormé's input. And the result was something Tormé disowned as he explained in 1995 oral history book "Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages" by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross. ( via Slashfilm }

"One of the executive producers and I had a severe disagreement about how the show should be done, and for reasons which I believe are personal rather than professional, I was informed that I was being removed from the script. At that point, I immediately told them that I wanted my name off the script, because I knew the direction they were going to go in, and I just knew with all my heart that it was a bad choice. I've completely disowned the piece." Tracy Tormé

Tormé had originally called the story "The Blue Moon Hotel," and the script had a lot of humor as well as surrealism. It was, by Tormé's account, bigger than anything the series had done to date. But when Hurley rewrote it, it became something the writer calls "stupid."

"Basically, there's one person who had this disagreement with me and removed me. I felt like a lot of the comedy was taken out. A lot of the surrealism was taken out. I feel that it's very heavy-handed now, and it's gone from being a strange episode to being a stupid episode."Tracy Tormé

Many fans find this episode enjoyable, but knowing the quality of Tormé's writing, "The Blue Moon Hotel," would have probably been even better. One only has to rewatch "The Big Goodbye" to know just how good it could have been.

This article was originally published on redshirtsalwaysdie.com as Star Trek: The Next Generation writer hated the changes to his script and had his name removed .

Star Trek: The Next Generation writer hated the changes to his script and had his name removed

Screen Rant

10 best star trek: the next generation episodes to hook new fans.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever, and these 10 episodes will hook even the most skeptical of viewers.

  • TNG is a worthy successor to the original series and produced some of the best sci-fi television of all time.
  • TNG's characters are just as beloved and iconic as Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.
  • TNG has some truly phenomenal episodes that can captivate even the most skeptical viewer.

Not only is Star Trek: The Next Generation a worthy successor to Star Trek: The Original Series , but it also produced some of the best science fiction television of all time. Following the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew aboard the USS Enterprise-D, TNG picks up about 100 years after TOS and introduces the world to a whole new cast of characters. Over the course of TNG's seven seasons, its characters would come to be just as beloved and almost as iconic as Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy).

Whether the episode of the week was exploring what it means to be human with Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) or celebrating radical empathy with Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), TNG always had something important to say . For those who have yet to watch TNG , starting the seven-season, 178-episode show might seem daunting, and the shaky TNG season 1 may not be enough to entice viewers to continue watching. However, TNG produced some truly phenomenal episodes throughout its seven seasons, many of which could captivate even the most skeptical viewer.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Cast & Character Guide

10 where no one has gone before (tng season 1, episode 6), the enterprise gets flung to the edge of the universe..

One of Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s earliest episodes, "Where No One Has Gone Before" hints at the great sci-fi show TNG would become and tackles some very Star Trek ideas. When a Starfleet propulsion expert and his assistant visit the Enterprise, they inadvertently catapult the ship to the very edge of the universe. Not only does this episode literally take the crew where no one has gone before, but it also discusses complex metaphysical ideas and includes some truly stunning visuals. “Where No One Has Gone Before” also introduces the Traveler (Eric Menyuk), a fascinating character who will become important to the future of the young Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton).

9 The Enemy (TNG Season 3, Episode 7)

Geordi gets trapped in a cave with a romulan..

Star Trek loves a story set in a cave , and TNG's "The Enemy" finds Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) stuck in a cave with one of the Federation's most notorious enemies. While Geordi and the Romulan, named Bochra (John Snyder), are forced to work together to make it off the planet alive, Captain Picard works to prevent an escalation of hostilities with a Romulan Commander. Despite the obvious tension between the Federation and the Romulans, Picard and La Forge both keep their heads, understanding that the situation is bigger than just them. "The Enemy" contains solid performances from everyone involved, and includes a classic sci-fi plot with a quintessentially Star Trek message .

8 Elementary, Dear Data (TNG Season 2, Episode 3)

Data and geordi solve a sherlock holmes mystery..

In one of Star Trek's best holodeck episodes , Geordi invites his best friend Data to solve a Sherlock Holmes mystery. However, when Geordi asks the Enterprise computer to create an adversary capable of defeating Data, Holmes' villain James Moriarty (Daniel Davis) becomes self-aware. After being introduced to Arthur Conan Doyle's detective in TNG season 1, Data fully embraces playing Holmes, and everyone looks to be having fun in their period-accurate costumes . Not only is "Elementary, Dear Data" an incredibly fun episode, but it also plays with some interesting sci-fi concepts about what it means to be human.

Professor Moriarty returns in the TNG season 7 episode "Ship in a Bottle," and makes an even more surprising appearance in Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 6, "The Bounty."

7 Q Who (TNG Season 2, Episode 16)

Q introduces starfleet to the borg..

After being introduced in TNG's premiere episode, the omnipotent being known as Q (John de Lancie) returns to visit his favorite captain in "Q Who." Soon after his arrival, Q throws the Enterprise across the galaxy, introducing them to the now infamous Borg. TNG episodes that involve Q are always fun, as John de Lancie and Patrick Stewart play off of one another well. The introduction of the Borg is an incredibly important development for both TNG and Star Trek as a franchise . As an episode, "Q Who" may be somewhat more satisfying for those who have seen Q's previous interactions with the Enterprise crew, but it makes for a tense and entertaining hour of television either way.

6 Darmok (TNG Season 5, Episode 2)

Picard gets stranded with an alien he can't understand..

"Darmok" focuses mostly on Captain Picard , as he finds himself trapped on a planet with an alien captain, named Dathon (Paul Winfield), he cannot communicate with. As the two captains begin working together, they slowly begin to understand one another. "Darmok" doesn’t have any massive space battles or explosions, but it celebrates the very Star Trek values of patience and finding common ground . There is no technobabble solution to Picard’s predicament; he simply has to learn how to communicate and work with Dathon. Picard’s actions and Patrick Stewart’s performance make Darmok not only an enjoyable watch, but also an exemplary Star Trek episode.

5 Disaster (TNG Season 5, Episode 5)

Picard gets stuck in a turbolift, leaving counselor troi in command..

"Disaster" opens with the crew members of the Enterprise-D performing various routine tasks, when a mysterious force strikes the ship and shuts everything down. The sudden loss of power finds Captain Picard trapped in a turbolift with three children he had been leading on a tour. Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) is the highest ranking officer left on the bridge, and she reluctantly takes command. Commander Riker and Data find themselves stuck in the Enterprise's lounge, Ten Forward, which they turn into a makeshift sickbay. Although "Disaster" breaks away from the standard formula of TNG , it's a great showcase for most of the characters , as they are separated and spread throughout the ship.

4 Who Watches the Watchers (TNG Season 3, Episode 4)

A primitive people believe picard to be a god..

Starfleet's most important rule is the Prime Directive, and "Who Watches the Watchers" highlights just why this particular law is so important. On the planet Mintaka III, the Enterprise visits a Federation outpost monitoring the local civilization. After a local villager named Liko (Ray Wise) is seriously injured, Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) insists he be taken to the Enterprise for treatment. Liko then returns to the planet believing Picard to be a god and begins telling the other villagers about him. Commander Riker and Counselor Troi then disguise themselves as locals and attempt to remedy the situation. "Who Watches the Watchers" is a brilliantly acted hour of television with a classic Star Trek moral.

3 The Best of Both Worlds (TNG Season 3, Episode 26 & Season 4, Episode 1)

Picard gets assimilated by the borg..

This two-part TNG episode has become a classic for a reason. When the Enterprise comes face to face with the Borg for the first time since their introduction in "Q Who," Picard gets assimilated and becomes Locutus. On the Borg cube, Locutus then orders the Enterprise crew to prepare for assimilation, reminding them that "resistance is futile." This leads to one of the best television cliffhangers of all time, as Commander Riker gives the order to fire on the Borg cube . The follow-up is just as captivating, as the Enterprise crew members fight to save Picard and outsmart the Borg. "The Best of Both Worlds" not only had a huge impact on the Star Trek franchise (the effects of which are still felt today), but also influenced the entire television landscape of the time.

Despite the episodic nature of TNG , the episode following "The Best of Both Worlds" two-parter, "Family," shows Picard dealing with the trauma he just experienced. Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Picard also revisit Picard's experience as Locutus, showing the long-term effects the experience had on the captain.

2 Cause and Effect (TNG Season 5, Episode 18)

The enterprise won't stop exploding..

In one of Star Trek's best cold open, the Enterprise collides with another ship and explodes before the opening credits. "Cause and Effect" then jumps to a scene of the senior staff player poker, before events lead the ship to explode again and the time loop restarts. As the story progresses, the Enterprise crew members begin experiencing déjà vu before Data eventually discovers a way to leave himself a message from one loop to the next. A spin on the classic time loop trope, "Cause and Effect" is an incredibly fun episode with wonderful direction from Jonathan Frakes.

Cheers actor Kelsey Grammer makes a cameo in "Cause and Effect" as Captain Morgan Bateson of the USS Bozeman, the ship that keeps colliding with the Enterprise.

1 The Measure of a Man (TNG Season 2, Episode 9)

Data's humanity is put on trial..

Star Trek loves a good courtroom episode and "The Measure of the Man" is Trek at its best. When Federation cyberneticist Bruce Maddox visits the Enterprise, he calls Data’s rights as a sentient being into question, insisting that the android is the property of Starfleet. Maddox wants to dismantle Data for further study in order to recreate more androids like him. For anyone who has become a fan of Data as a character, it’s grating every single time Maddox refers to the android as an “it.”

Even for those who have never seen an episode of TNG , “The Measure of a Man” has elements of everything that makes Star Trek great . It grapples with the question of what it means to be human, celebrates life in all of its forms, and includes a powerful speech from Captain Picard. With great performances all around, “The Measure of a Man” is not only a near-perfect episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation , but also an excellent episode of television, period.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Wildest, Weirdest Star Trek Action Figures

Star trek has a peculiar relationship with the world of toys—one that often makes its interactions with it incredibly weird.

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Star Trek has rarely been a series suited to action figures. Its heroes do occasionally phaser things, but they’re scientists and explorers , people who’s action involves sitting around tables and talking and investigating, or sitting at starship controls and getting them to phaser things. But that’s not stopped people trying over the years, and at Trek ’s heights, it meant we got some truly wild action figures.

Throughout the ‘90s as Star Trek rode the highs of three huge TV shows and a series of movies, Playmates—which tried, and sadly failed , to revive its Star Trek toyline in 2022 to go alongside the current Trek renaissance on streaming—made tons of action figures for the franchise, alongside ships, playsets, and roleplay toys like tricorders and phasers.

But because of the huge boom of popularity Trek was facing, this meant that basically anyone and everyone was up for grabs as a toy, not just main characters and the occasional villain. Bless the rush, because when else would you be able to get a Vedek Bareil action figure ? Click through for Bajoran Spiritual Leader Action and more, as we take a look back at some of our most unhinged faves.

(All pictures via the excellent, and spectacularly named   Trek merch repository, Wixiban !)

Vidiian, Victim of the Phage

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Hands down one of the grossest Trek aliens ever, Voyager ’s Vidiians are a tragically compelling race, brilliant scientists driven to drive-by organ theft after their species is laid low by a horrifying decaying disease. In action figure form, this just kind of looks like someone accidentally left the toy a little too close to a heat lamp for a bit.

Commander Sisko (Mirror Universe)

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Putting aside the general discomfort of a non-bald, non-bearded Sisko figure (he eventually got one), casualwear pirate Sisko from DS9 's first Mirror Universe episode is mostly on here for the accessories. Oh boy kids, a bottle of liquid nutriment!

Captain Picard (As Galen [As An Intergalactic Pirate])

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Speaking of pirates! Naturally once you’ve done a Starfleet officer in their uniform, you’re gonna have to dig deep to re-use those molds and keep characters around in future waves, and Playmates reveled at that task when it came to Star Trek . There were whole waves dedicated to “disguised” heroes in the line, but I just love the clarification to make things more exciting to kids who don’t remember that Galen is, in fact, a pirate, which is much more exciting than simply “Captain Picard in Leather.”

Worf (in 19th Century Outfit)

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Worf was a prime choice for that aforementioned “stick ‘em in a silly costume” alternate figure. Case in point, no one else in the Generations wave got a version of themselves as they appeared in the Holodeck Master and Commander LARP from the film’s opening act, but Worf? By god, you dress that Klingon up.

Captain Picard as Dixon Hill

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The dress up continues with the most exciting action figure of all: Patrick Stewart In Suit. To be fair, a Dixon Hill figure is pretty cool, even if at a glance you could pass it for anything but a Star Trek figure. Bonus feature callout: hey kids, this one’s from a Peabody-Award-winning episode! Who ages 4 and up was convinced by that one?

Riker as a Malcorian

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A lot of the disguise series figures are on here, because they are ultimately very funny, like Jonathan Frakes With Noticeable Brow.

Thomas Riker

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Continuing with Mr. Frakes, the even better way to reuse the sculpt is to just say it’s a Thomas Riker figure instead! Tom actually got a figure in the TNG uniform too, to go with his original appearance, but the DS9 figure is mostly fun by implication—the implication being that those sideburns are very much fake .

Edith Keeler

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You can’t really sell an action figure about what Edith Keeler was really famous for—being hit by a car in “City on the Edge of Forever”—so she just comes with a series of insane accessories. Coffee pot! Handbag! Typewriter! Mug!

Tom Paris (Mutated)

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An ode to one of the most delightfully terrible episodes of Star Trek ever made, the infamous “Threshold,” unfortunately this one doesn’t come with a Janeway amphibian accessory, but does  come with three of their mutant babies. 

Sheriff Worf

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Worf dress-up continues, and is delightful, but once again it’s the accessories here that seal the deal: a whole ass Alexander Rozhenko for your pleasure, given the same equivalence as a shot glass.

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Every single subdescription for these figures is perfect, but “Morn, Frequent Visitor of Deep Space Nine!” as a way of getting around saying ‘that guy who just sits silently in Quark’s bark drinking for seven seasons” is immaculate. You enjoy that exotic beverage in that exotic beverage glass, my good man.

Lwaxana Troi

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When we say these figures are weird or silly, this is not to disparage them. I would 100% purchase a Majel Barrett as Lwaxana Troi action figure today, I would’ve done so for this one if I wasn’t like, three years old when it came out. Do you realize how insane you have to be as a toymaker to put something like that out into the market? This is delightful , and once again, a great combo of insane feature callout—Ambassadress to Betazed!—and accessory. Love a crystal gong moment.

Geordi LaForge as a Tarchannen III Alien

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Another alien disguise, this time from “Identity Crisis.” In the episode Geordi is a very stark electric blue for the most part thanks to lighting, but in figure form it’s more... a very unfortunate set of colors.

Admiral McCoy

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Dr. McCoy would go on to get more suitable figures when Playmates expanded the Trek line to cover past movies and the classic show. But for a good while, the only way to get the iconic TOS character was as a pensioner. At least it’s kinder to DeForest Kelley’s aging than the TNG makeup department was.

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No one will deny that “Darmok” is incredible television, but this once again speaks to the inherent weirdness of trying to make a show like Star Trek into something toyetic. “Discover commonalities in language through delicate social interaction and embrace a tragedy of communication!” is not exactly going to be a toy feature now, is it?

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Harry Mudd comes through as the only Star Trek character whose toy accessories simply include “drugs!”

Martia the Shape-Shifter

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Playmates going back to the earlier Trek films led to some bizarre moments, like this figure of the Rura Penthe con Martia, who was arguably best known for shapeshifting to Kirk to double cross him to the Klingons, and then being killed after actual Kirk managed to dupe the Klingons into believing that he was Martia in disguise. At that point, why not just buy a second Kirk figure?

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As the line began to wind down, Playmates got more and more eager to find new ways to make figures, even beyond the inspiration of the show—and, once again, to keep dressing Worf up. The Starfleet Academy series came with a CD of fact files and new versions of TNG characters aged down to their academy days. Days Worf apparently spent on night recon disguised as wallpaper paste.

Alien Combat Klingon

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Once again, “action” and Star Trek in the figure sense rarely go in hand, but Playmates kept trying with things like this “Alien Combat” series, which gave villain-themed toys exaggerated stylization and moving action features. This Klingon could wave his batleth around, but for the most part just looks like he really needs the bathroom after a bit too much gagh.

Captain Picard (With Fencing Action)

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Playmates tried this with more regular figures too, which was arguably even funnier when it led to things like Picard with fencing action . Not even a phaser quickdraw, the man just wiggled an epee at you..  

Vedek Bareil

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Ah, there he is, the most boring action figure imaginable. Vedek Bareil—a one time love interest of Kira Nerys, occasional theological rival to the villainous Kai Wynn, and 100% of the time walking, breathing slab of cardboard on DS9 , this is handily represented in figure form by the fact that he comes with a candleholder. And a box. Sure the box contains a prophetic orb, but as an accessory, it’s just a box.

IMAGES

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  2. Star Trek: The Next Generation

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VIDEO

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COMMENTS

  1. William T. Riker

    Occupation: Starfleet officer Serial number: SC-231-427 Status: Active ( 2402) Born: August 19, 2335, Alaska, United States, Earth Duplicated in 2361, Nervala IV

  2. William Riker

    William Thomas " Will " Riker is a fictional character in the Star Trek universe appearing primarily as a main character in Star Trek: The Next Generation, portrayed by Jonathan Frakes.

  3. Riker & Q's History Means They Must Meet Again In Star Trek: Legacy

    Published Sep 28, 2023 The god-like Q once had a particular fascination with Commander William Riker on Star Trek: TNG, but the two have rarely interacted since. Summary Commander Riker's history with Q is different from Captain Picard's, as Q once granted Riker the powers of the Q.

  4. Hide And Q (episode)

    English Hide And Q (episode) Sign in to edit 0 seconds of 24 minutes, 28 secondsVolume 0% 00:00 24:28 Watch 24:28 Star Trek Timeline [INTERACTIVE] Real world article (written from a Production point of view) "Hide And Q" TNG, Episode 1x10 Production number: 40271-111 First aired: 23 November 1987 ← 10th of 176 produced in TNG → ←

  5. Hide and Q

    Q transports the bridge crew to a landscape where they are attacked by humanoids and grants Commander Riker ( Jonathan Frakes) the powers of a member of the Q Continuum, which he is forced to use to resurrect both Worf ( Michael Dorn) and Wesley ( Wil Wheaton ).

  6. Death Wish (Star Trek: Voyager)

    Star Trek: Voyager. ) " Death Wish " is the 18th episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, the 34th episode overall. The episode originally aired on February 19, 1996. The episode features a new member of the Q Continuum named Quinn, and appearances by Star Trek: The Next Generation ...

  7. Deja Q (episode)

    Richard Danus Directed by Les Landau In-universe date 43539.1 ( 2366 ) Q is seeking asylum on the Enterprise after he has been thrown out of the Continuum and stripped of his powers. Contents 1Summary 1.1Teaser 1.2Act One 1.3Act Two 1.4Act Three 1.5Act Four 1.6Act Five 1.7Log entries 2Memorable quotes 3Background information 3.1Production history

  8. "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Hide and Q (TV Episode 1987)

    6.9 /10 3.9K YOUR RATING Rate Action Adventure Drama The Enterprise encounters Q again, and he tempts Riker by endowing him with the powers of the Q. Director Cliff Bole Writers Gene Roddenberry Maurice Hurley Stars Patrick Stewart Jonathan Frakes LeVar Burton See production info at IMDbPro STREAMING +2 Add to Watchlist 24 User reviews

  9. The Untold Truth Of Q From Star Trek

    Q is a lousy boyfriend and father. Sadly, when it comes to showing affection, Q's ego inevitably gets in the way of his relationships. In the Star Trek: Voyager season 3 episode "The Q and the ...

  10. Star Trek: Riker Exists Because of Q Interference

    Star Trek: William Riker Only Exists Because of Q Interference By Margaret David Published Jun 16, 2021 Without a Q rescuing Thaddeus Riker from a grisly Civil War death in Star Trek, Will Riker wouldn't exist, and the Borg would've won. The Q Continuum is a well-loved piece of modern Star Trek.

  11. star trek

    Jan 6, 2017 at 21:17 1 Agreed. If the Q are genuinely worried about humanity's "potential" then they aren't going to give a human their powers and just let him walk away from the Continuum. Riker himself may not even be aware the powers were removed, assuming he was sincere about never trying to use them again. - Steve-O Jan 6, 2017 at 21:20 5

  12. Star Trek TNG -- Q Tempts Riker With the Power of the Q

    Then save $22/month for 3 months. Season 1 Episode 10Episode: "Hide & Q"Whilst running at high warp to aid an Earth colony in distress, the Enterprise is halted by a visit from Q. Boasting an...

  13. Recap / Star Trek: The Next Generation S1 E9 "Hide and Q"

    Death of a Child: Near the end, Riker goes on a rescue away mission where a young girl is among the fatalities from a cave-in. Riker decides not to use his Q power to bring her back to life, though the decision weighs heavily on him. Destructo-Nookie: Worf and the Klingon woman provide a brief glimpse of this.

  14. Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Will Break a Longstanding Trek TV

    Of course, Frakes played Commander Riker for seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation.His twin/clone/variant Thomas Riker showed up as a Maquis agent on Deep Space Nine, while Q shenanigans ...

  15. Every Q Appearance In Star Trek TNG, DS9, Voyager & Picard

    Published May 10, 2023 Q's one of the best-loved of Star Trek's cosmic beings, and he's appeared in multiple Trek shows, to wildly differing responses from each Captain. Q (John de Lancie), Star Trek 's omnipotent being has appeared across multiple shows since his debut in the 1987 pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

  16. Every Star Trek: TNG 2-Part Episode Ranked, Worst To Best

    Q went on to become one of Star Trek's best recurring characters, and a major influence in the life of Captain Picard. Q returned to antagonize Jean-Luc in Star Trek: ... Picard and Riker then secretly work together to infiltrate the mercenary crew, eventually discovering the ancient Vulcan artifacts the mercenaries have been searching for ...

  17. OK, I'm putting it out there. Did Riker stay a Q after "Hide ...

    r/startrek • 7 yr. ago [deleted] OK, I'm putting it out there. Did Riker stay a Q after "Hide and Q" and just keep it secret (or was unaware)? TNG Spoilers for those who are 20 years late. Bear with me here, I should post this in /showerthoughts. Here's the thing-- as we all know, Riker gets Q powers in "Hide and Q".

  18. Riker

    William Thomas Riker is a 24th century Starfleet officer known for serving as first officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise-D and U.S.S. Enterprise-E under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. In 2361, a transporter accident resulted in the creation of his duplicate, Lt. Thomas Riker .

  19. Q

    24:28 Watch 24:28 Star Trek Timeline [INTERACTIVE] Species: Q Affiliation: Q Continuum Status: Active ( 2402) Spouse (s): Miss Q Children: Q Junior Played by: John de Lancie For additional meanings of "Q", please see Q. " You, by definition, are part of our charter.

  20. Star Trek: TNG Wanted To Replace Will Riker With His Doppelganger

    Star Trek: Picard season 3 reunited the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation and provided a satisfying and resonant closure to the crew of the USS Enterprise-D, but the fate of Thomas Riker was ...

  21. Star Trek: Discovery Breaking Jonathan Frakes' Unique On-Screen Streak

    Jonathan Frakes as Riker in "The Next Generation" Episode 301, Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Trae Patton/Paramount+. ©2021 Viacom, International Inc.

  22. Star Trek Is About To Bust A Decade-Spanning Series Tradition

    Since starring as William T. Riker in The Next Generation, Frakes has made a guest appearance in almost every Star Trek series since, either as Riker or a facsimile of him, or his villainous ...

  23. Discovery Will Be the First Star Trek Show in 50 Years to End ...

    Since starring as William T. Riker in The Next Generation, Frakes has made a guest appearance in almost every Star Trek series since, either as Riker or a facsimile of him, or his villainous ...

  24. Star Trek TNG -- Riker Uses His Q-Powers to Make His Friends Dreams

    Season 1 Episode 10Episode: "Hide & Q"Whilst running at high warp to aid an Earth colony in distress, the Enterprise is halted by a visit from Q. Boasting an...

  25. Q (Star Trek)

    Q is a fictional character, as well as the name of a race, in Star Trek, appearing in the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Lower Decks, and Picard series and in related media. The most familiar Q is portrayed by John de Lancie.He is an extra-dimensional being of unknown origin who possesses immeasurable power over time, space, the laws of physics, and reality itself, being capable of ...

  26. Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Review

    Star Trek: Discovery begins its fifth and final season in fine fashion, setting up another season-long mystery but doing so with plenty of interesting character developments.

  27. Star Trek: The Next Generation writer hated the changes to his ...

    In this episode, Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner), and Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn) beam down to investigate a mysterious planet and find it decked out ...

  28. 10 Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes To Hook New Fans

    Star Trek loves a story set in a cave, and TNG's "The Enemy" finds Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) stuck in a cave with one of the Federation's most notorious enemies. While Geordi and the Romulan, named Bochra (John Snyder), are forced to work together to make it off the planet alive, Captain Picard works to prevent an escalation of hostilities with a Romulan Commander.

  29. The Wildest, Weirdest Star Trek Action Figures

    Throughout the '90s as Star Trek rode the highs of three huge TV shows and a series of movies, Playmates—which tried, and sadly failed, to revive its Star Trek toyline in 2022 to go alongside ...