"Q Who?" is an episode from the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The USS Enterprise is entering a previously unexplored region of space.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard, after having hot chocolate spilled on his uniform by a young ensign named Sonya Gomez, is once again abducted by Q.
Q takes Picard aboard a shuttlecraft outside the Enterprise to warn him of the dangers in this region and advise him to turn back. When they return to the Enterprise, they materialise in Ten Forward, where a heated argument ensues between Q and Guinan, hinting at a century-long history of enmity between the two.
When Picard refuses to heed Q's warning, Q sends the ship 7000 lightyears away, into the region formerly inhabited by Guinan's people, and now conquered by the Borg.
The Federation has not previously encountered the Borg, so Picard sends an away team to investigate a Borg cube. When they learn how dangerous an enemy the Borg are, the away team is immediately beamed back, and the Enterprise attempts to flee. The Borg cube follows in pursuit, intent on assimilating the Enterprise.
The Enterprise is rapidly losing the chase, so Picard turns to Q for help. Q, satisfied his words are finally being heeded, returns the ship to its original ___location.
Notes
- This episode is the first appearance of the Borg.
- Sonya Gomez was later used in the S.C.E. novels as second-in-command of the USS Da Vinci.
- Although this is technically the first appearance of the Borg, there is enough speculation from other Trek sources to indicate that Starfleet and the Federation were quite aware of the existence of the Borg. In Voyager, for example, Seven of Nine's parents were intrepid scientists who were intent on studying the Borg close up, following rumors about their existence that predated "Q Who". In the feature film Generations, we learn that Guinan's world had been destroyed by the Borg and that her people fled to the Federation, nearly a century before the Enterpise first encounters them.
- The existence of the Borg was first hinted at in the first season finale, "The Neutral Zone".
Quotes
"You want me to say, I need you, Q? Well, I need you!"--Picard