Star Trek: TNG episode
"Q Who?"
The Enterprise encounters a massive Borg Cube in "Q Who?".
Episode no.	Season 2, Episode 16 (42nd ST:TNG Episode)
Prod. code	142 (Season 2, Disc 4)
Airdate	May 8, 1989
Writer(s)	Maurice Hurley
Director	Rob Bowman
Year	2365
Stardate	42761.3
Episode chronology
Previous	"Pen Pals"
Next	"Samaritan Snare"

"Q Who?", from the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, is the episode that introduces the Borg. Image File history File links STQWho. ... Screenwriters, scenarists, or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies and television programs are made. ... A television director is usually responsible for directing the actors and other taped aspects of a television production. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Pen Pals is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation first broadcast on May 1, 1989. ... Samaritan Snare is an episode from the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... The title as it appeared in most episodes opening credits. ... The Borg are a fictional pseudo-race of cyborgs depicted in Star Trek. ...

Plot

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. Jean-Luc Picard is a fictional Star Trek character portrayed by Patrick Stewart. ... For the beverage, see Hot chocolate. ... Sonya Gomez is a Starfleet engineer on the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ...

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 two century long history of enmity between the two. // A shuttlecraft, in the Star Trek fictional universe, is a smaller type of ship, usually capable of atmospheric transport, detachable from a larger starships shuttlebay. ... In the fictional Star Trek universe, Ten-Forward is a recreation area in the starship Enterprise-D. It is located on level 10, front rim of the starship saucer section. ... Guinan, played by Whoopi Goldberg, is a recurring character on Star Trek: The Next Generation. ...

Q requests to be added as a member of the Enterprise crew, arguing that his services will be needed if they continue to explore at the present rate. Picard rejects Q's offer, stating that human-kind makes its own way in the universe without omnipotence to aid them. Enraged by this perceived hubris, Q sends the ship 7,000 light years away to System J25 as a lesson in refusing the Q. A planet is identified nearby, its cities having been destroyed. The damage to the surface was identified later as the same as the damage from the planets in the Neutral Zone that belonged to the Romulans in the final episode of the first season. Shortly after their arrival, they are greeted by a large, cube-shaped vessel that Guinan identifies as belonging to the Borg. A light-year or lightyear (symbol: ly) is a unit of measurement of length, specifically the distance light travels in vacuum in one year. ... A Borg cube ship over Earth In the Star Trek fictional universe, the Borg cube ship is a variety of immense, cubic starship that functions as part of the Borg Collective. ... Guinan, played by Whoopi Goldberg, is a recurring character on Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... The Unicomplex, a huge Borg complex in the Delta Quadrant. ...

The crew is then startled by the sudden arrival of a Borg drone that beamed itself aboard despite the fact the Enterprise's shields are raised. After it accesses a few of their records, they are forced to kill it, but a second drone appears, this time protected by a force field which is immune to phaser fire. After completing the work of the first drone and stripping it of serviceable parts, it leaves without making any attempt at communication. Only after this do they receive a signal from the alien vessel. The message warns the Enterprise crew: "We have analyzed your defensive capabilities as being unable to withstand us. If you defend yourselves, you will be punished." The ship subsequently locks onto the Enterprise with a tractor beam which slowly drains the ship's shields. The Enterprise is able to disable the tractor beam with phaser blasts, causing noticeable structural damage to the Borg vessel in the process, but not before the Borg use a laser-like beam to slice out a section of the ship's saucer section, resulting in the loss of 18 crewmembers. The Unicomplex, a huge Borg complex in the Delta Quadrant. ... Teleport redirects here. ... For other uses, see Laser (disambiguation). ...

Picard then sends an away team to investigate the vessel. When they learn that the Borg are able to use their collective power to regenerate the damaged sections of their ship, the away team is immediately beamed back. The Enterprise attempts to flee, but the Borg cube pursues them.

The Borg are about to overtake the Enterprise, so Picard swallows his pride and turns to Q for help. Q, satisfied not only that his words are finally being heeded, but that Picard is actually asking for help, returns the ship to its original location.

Since Q rebuked Picard's stubborn refusal to heed his warning, (thus introducing the Borg to the Federation), the Enterprise's now compromised computers revealed the location of Earth. Picard and Guinan surmise over a game of 3D chess that it would then only be a matter of time before the Borg arrived at Earth.

Trivia

This is the first of a handful of episodes where the USS Enterprise-D and/or its crew has been transported to the Delta Quadrant.

Continuity

This episode is the first appearance of the Borg. The existence of the Borg was first hinted at in the first season finale, "The Neutral Zone". The Borg would appear again in "The Best of Both Worlds". Q's next appearance is "Déjà Q", in which he has been stripped of his powers for abusing them. The Borg are a fictional pseudo-race of cyborgs depicted in Star Trek. ... The Neutral Zone is the finale of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... The Best of Both Worlds is a two-part episode from the third/fourth seasons of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... Déjà Q was the 61st episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the 13th episode of the third season. ...

"The Best of Both Worlds" and this episode establish differing motives for the Borg's aggression. In "Q Who?", Q is quite clear that the Borg's motives were acquisition of new technology, and makes no mention of assimilation of other life forms into their collective. Furthermore, at the end of the episode Guinan speculates that in the future Federation would be able to negotiate with the Borg while later episodes reveal that the Borg are never open to compromise with other species.

Later Star Trek episodes and films indicate that Starfleet and the Federation were aware at some level of the existence of the Borg by the setting of this episode (2365). In Star Trek: Voyager, for example, Seven of Nine's parents are aware of rumours about the Borg in the 2350s. Another early appearance of the Borg occurred in Star Trek: Enterprise following on from the events of Star Trek: First Contact. However the latter can be seen as a change in time that was not originally intended and is therefore here not yet known. The starship Voyager (NCC-74656), an Intrepid-class starship. ... Seven of Nine (born Annika Hansen) is a fictional character in the television series Star Trek: Voyager, portrayed by actress Jeri Ryan. ... Star Trek: First Contact (Paramount Pictures, 1996; see also 1996 in film), is the eighth feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series. ...

Fans have speculated that the Borg just may have been the "robotic race" responsible for altering the V'Ger craft featured prominently in Star Trek: the Motion Picture.^[1] In the video game Star Trek: Legacy, they were actually created by V'ger. Others have theorized that the Borg sent out the vessel called Tan-Ru,^{[citation needed]} which collided with the original Nomad probe, creating the unit destroyed by Kirk in the Star Trek episode "The Changeling". However, all of this has been relegated to being apocryphal at best. For the author, see Frantz Fanon. ... Vger (Vejur in the novelization by Gene Roddenberry) is a fictional character in the Star Trek universe. ... Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Paramount Pictures, 1979; see also 1979 in film) is the first feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series and is released on Friday, December 7. ... Nomad is a fictional space probe featured in the Star Trek episode: The Changeling. ... James Kirk redirects here. ... The starship Enterprise as it appeared on Star Trek Star Trek is a culturally significant science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. ... The Changeling is a season two episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast on September 29, 1967 and repeated May 17, 1968. ...

The character Sonya Gomez was later used in the S.C.E. novels as second-in-command of the USS Da Vinci. Sonya Gomez is a Starfleet engineer on the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... Starfleet Corps of Engineers ( for short) is a series of books in the Star Trek universe. ... The USS Da Vinci (NCC-81623) is a fictional spaceship in the Starfleet Corps of Engineers (S.C.E.) series of Star Trek novels. ...

This article is about the entire Star Trek franchise. ... The Borg are a fictional pseudo-race of cyborgs depicted in Star Trek. ... The title as it appeared in most episodes opening credits. ... Q Who? is an episode from the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... The Best of Both Worlds is a two-part episode from the third/fourth seasons of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... I, Borg was an episode of the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation in which a member of the dangerous cybernetic race known as the Borg is captured by the crew and examined. ... Descent is a two-part episode from the sixth/seventh season of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... Star Trek: First Contact (Paramount Pictures, 1996; see also 1996 in film), is the eighth feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series. ... Space station Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (ST:DS9 or STDS9 or DS9 for short) is a science fiction television series produced by Paramount and set in the Star Trek universe. ... Emissary was the first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. ... The starship Voyager (NCC-74656), an Intrepid-class starship. ... Unity is an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the 17th episode of the third season. ... Scorpion was a two-part episode of Star Trek: Voyager. ... == The Raven == An episode of star trek: voyager where we are told the story of seven of nines passed. ... Hope and Fear is an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, from the programs fourth season. ... Drone is an episode from the fifth season of Star Trek: Voyager. ... This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Survival Instinct is the second episode of the fifth season of the television series Star Trek: Voyager. ... Collective is an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the 16th episode of the sixth season. ... Unimatrix Zero is a two-part episode of Star Trek Voyager. ... Endgame is the title of the final episode in the Star Trek spin off series, Star Trek: Voyager. ... The starship Enterprise (NX-01) Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. ... Regeneration is the title of a Star Trek: Enterprise television episode from season two. ...

References

Vger (Vejur in the novelization by Gene Roddenberry) is a fictional character in the Star Trek universe. ...

External links

• Q Who? article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
• Q Who? at StarTrek.com