Use the Power of the Q, Riker!
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."
- Captain's Log:
- 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.
"Starlog entry. Stardate...today..." - 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.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- 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!
- Ship Tease:
- 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." - Shown Their Work: When Picard makes his Patrick Stewart Speech and quotes Hamlet, he notes that while Hamlet was sarcastic when listing humanity's virtues, he himself is being sincere, thus averting Analogy Backfire. Unsurprising given Patrick Stewart's Shakespearean background. Somewhat averted later on when Data quotes another famous Hamlet line ("To thine own self be true") to justify turning down Riker's offer to make him human. While in the modern day the line has entered popular usage unironically, the character who says it in the play is a bit of a windbag and isn't really supposed to be taken seriously. (Though this could also be
Fridge Brilliance, since it's been well-established that Data has trouble with human concepts such as irony and would be less likely to make such a distinction in tone.) - 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.
- Stock Footage:
- 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! - Would Hurt a Child:
- 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.
