#87, Deja Q, The Next Generation, Season 3, Episode 13

"As an android, I'm incapable of disliking you, Q, and yet, somehow, I do." — Data

Q's introduction to the series was, frankly, off putting. His first meeting with the Enterprise feels mashed together with another adventure. Two puzzle pieces that never quite connected together smoothly. Which fits, as from my understanding of the history of Encounter at Farpoint, that's very much what happened as Roddenberry and crew were launching the series. Granted, it was a pilot, and chock full of expositiony bullshit that plague many pilots. However, it seems to me that they only had a vague notion of what Q was and what they wanted him to be, but he wasn't there yet. He came to the Enterprise appearing as a 16th Century Explorer complete with thous and thees, a WWII soldier worried about Gerry, then some post-apocalyptic judge in a robe in a weird hat. It didn't help that Encounter was still figuring out literally everything about the series, and Q was as much a mouthpiece for exposition as anything. He was there to help set the status quo, explain where humanity was, and how far they had yet to go. His powers were ill defined, his mannerisms erratic, and the logic behind his encountering with humans is, shall we say, convenient with the needs of the show. Why the Enterprise and not Earth proper? Why use a weird forcefield? Why go through different eras of humanity (and appropriate accents) to communicate with Team Picard when you've reportedly been watching humans for a very long time? Eh, why the fuck not? Let's get on with the show, people, we have a fictional world to establish!

He'd appeared a few more times before this episode, Deja Q. Once to temp Riker with the god-like powers of the Q-continuum. And once to introduce the Borg and teach Picard a lesson in humility (the latter episode is not great, but the things it leads to are). DeLancie seems to relish playing Q, and he plays the smug, arrogant, and self-serving god-like being with a wink and a smile.

In many instances, Q has to stoop to humanity's intellectual level, and he seems exhausted doing it. He's a malicious scientist, poking at a mouse, trying to get the mouse to run through a maze. The mouse never understands why, it just has to run the course until it gets its cheese. Or not. Sometimes the mouse gets the cheese, sometimes, (as in the first Enterprise's first encounter with the Borg) he has to take the mouse out of the maze and reset the experiment. He's a great foil for the series, the Mr. Mxyzptlk to Picard's Superman. Logic and technobabble don't matter when he shows up. He's freaking magic. And the Enterprise crew has to cope with a power they can't understand. The Enterprise is never any real threat to him. Not ever, in the series. Except once. Here, in Deja Q.

Both figuratively and literally, Q is, for all intents and purposes, the trickster god archetype. And in this, his fourth appearance, they finally figured out that he should just be fun. Because this is a fun episode. Mostly because humans, and being human, are so effing stupid. Q is stripped of his godlike powers, turned human, and abandoned on the Enterprise to spend the rest of his limited existence as a mortal.

Space onesies. Mortality apparently means space onesies.

Do they trust their former tormenter? No, dear reader, they do not. Picard is facing a crisis of his own, a moon to an alien world is threatening to crash into its parent planet. Not only does he think that Q is responsible for the natural disaster, he also believes that this is some intricate ruse on Q's part to test them. Side note, only Picard can use the word 'ruse' and get away with it. I can't even type it without feeling like a fraud.

In contrast to the flamboyant DeLancie as the newly mortal Q, he's paired with Spiner's ever-quizzitive and serene Data. And while in normal circumstances it would be so completely on the nose it would be painful -- having a being who is revolted by having humanity thrust upon him, and the being for whom humanity is a goal forever out of reach -- I forgive it here because the interplay between Q and Data is just that damned entertaining. While Q learns the hardships of his newfound biological needs -- like sleeping, gross, and hunger, double-gross! -- Data is there to remind him of the gift of, if not humanity, than at least perspective. Q has spent countless millennia toying with lesser species. Now that he's vulnerable, he at least has some idea of what it means to face his mortality.

To prove his worth to Picard, Q is assigned to help Geordie and Data figure out how to stop the alien moon from crashing, which may literally be the most boring thing any Star Trek crew has ever faced ever. Even the people on the planet can't seem to muster any sense of urgency faced with the eradication of their populous. Seriously, why are these people so damned calm? The aliens appear slightly tense, but otherwise, they're just doing their jobs. Pushing the space buttons and what not. I, on the other hand, would be freaking the freak out if the moon were going to crash into the planet. And not just a little bit. I'm talking full-on, last-days-on-Earth-shenanigans-that-would-only-come-to-pass-if-society-rules-were-out-the-windows-dogs-and-cats-living-together-mass-hysteria-level fun. I would not take the end of the world well is all I'm saying.

"No, it's fine. Our planet is going to be destroyed, and we're relatively okay with that." — Doomed Aliens

In the midst of this, the most boring challenge ever in the history of space, Q is attacked by one of the species that he formally tormented. Picard makes the choice to protect Q, against all logic, because it's the right thing to do. Does Picard like having to risk his ship to protect this former god-like being? No, dear reader, he does not. But Q is now a member of his crew, and it's the right thing. There's a bemoaning hesitation on the Captain's part, but it soon passes. He's risking his ship and his crew over one person. Would he do the same for a nameless gold shirt serving on the lower decks of Engineering? I would have to say, probably. Which is why Picard is the best man suited for the chair of the Enterprise D.

Q eventually realizes that he must sacrifice himself to save the Enterprise. With that, another member of the continuum appears (LA Law's Corbin Bernsen, randomly, of all people), confirms that Q has learned his lesson, and restores Q to his former power. Q snaps his fingers and resets the moon, and all's right with the alien world below.

"Remember me? No? Maybe as the dad from Psyche? Still no? Understandable." -- Other Q

Now, if this episode totally sucked, unequivocally and inexorably, if the entire episode had lacked the wonderful exploration of humanity between Q and Data, the ending would have still have earned it a spot on the list of Top 100 Episodes of Trek of all time. Because when Q is absolved of his crimes and has his powers are restored, he celebrates is a manner fitting of a next generation trickster god. With a battle cry of "Mon Capitan!" Q presents a full-on mariachi band on the bridge. Picard and Riker are given celebratory cigars, and Data is given a glimpse at humanity in the form of uncontrollable laughter.

The best part of this is that it happened.  

Throughout the episode we're treated to the sarcastic outsider's view of the Enterprise and the world of the Federation, with Q holding up the funhouse mirror to the absurdity of what it means to be human.

Therefore, Data's laughter at the end is wholly, wholly deserved.

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Up next, the crew of Voyager examines the morality of war with Memorial.