My One Summer Mission

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! This is one of my favorite Q episodes! Fair warning that I will probably just go on to quote half his lines in the notes.

Episode Notes: ( THESE AREN'T MY COLORS. )

Overall Reaction: Okay, I saved pretty much all the Q-Picard and Q-Data interactions for this, because otherwise everything would have ended up in the notes. I feel that my love of this episode can be pretty accurately summed up just through a list of quotes.

Anyway, this episode has wonderful, wonderful Q/Picard interactions! "Because in all the universe, you're the closest thing I have to a friend, Jean-Luc," is probably one of the most honest things Q says all episode even though, being Q, he obviously has other motives for ending up on the Enterprise and certainly only means to be honest in the very loosest way. But it's no surprise to anyone at all that given a split second to decide the rest of his now-mortal existence, he would turn Picard-wards. Picard is unsurprisingly grumpy throughout the episode, but I love all Q's doomed attempts to get him on board with the human!Q thing -- sitting on his desk, asking for guidance, trying to become accepted as a Starfleet officer. And all so charmingly ineptly and egotistically.

God, my heart is such a Q apologist because I'm all like, "GIVE HIM A CHANCE!" and then my brain says, "Um, Emma, he's a terrible, terrible human. And really awful at taking orders. And has a pretty bad track record." But I can't help that I love him and that I love Q/Picard.

And the episode also has great Data and Q interactions! With Data nearly sacrificing his life for Q and Q letting him laugh and, oh, be still my heart!

Plus at the end Q is a hip-swiveling mariachi band leader. And at one point he is naked on the bridge. I could watch this stuff all day.

Star Rating: *** 1/2

Quote of the Episode:
"Oh, you’re so stolid. You weren’t like that before the beard!" (Q, on Riker)

Episode Notes: ( Q! )

Overall Reaction: Okay, Q -- Q is my main man, first in my heart, light of my life and fire of my loins. My love is not a blind love, however, and I am aware that the one dearest to me is one stalkery-ass sumbitch. Picard's usual delightful pique with him is, I acknowledge, far from unmerited.

Or such was the state of affairs before I, heretofore possessed only of the most slapdash knowledge of the procession of canon in TNG and the history of the Borg, discovered that Q FUCKING INTRODUCED THE FEDERATION TO THE BORG.

My affection for Q notwithstanding, I am frankly stymied that Picard doesn't disapprove of him even more vehemently than he does, because this episode? Totally merits any retribution Picard could wish to distribute. Q introduced the Federation to the FUCKING BORG.

(Um. Today my fatigue seems to be manifesting in unnecessarily long words, pay me no mind.)

But, yes, blah blah blah, Q is even crazier than I gave him credit for, Q is damned lucky that Picard saw his point and that they share crackling sexual tension, whatever. This was a fucking PHENOMENAL episode. The Borg are so much more immediately engaging, eerie, and threatening than any previous attempts to introduce a new opponent in TNG have been. Watching the rest of S2 after this episode and waiting for them to appear was painful, but this one episode glimpse of them is enough to keep me eager going into season three.

Between Q and the Borg? One of the best episodes of the show so far.

Star Rating: ****

Quote of the Episode:
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous - with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." (FUCKING YES, Q)

Episode Notes: ( One...two...three...ninety-nine...one hundred... )

Overall Notes: While this is probably the least interesting Q episode, it still wins by virtue of having Q. He just has more fun than those Enterprise fuddy-duddies. They may say that Riker makes a "moral decision" or whatever not to join the Q, but we all know the truth is that Riker is not cool enough to become one of them (though he is consistently the crew member in TNG who approaches cross-cultural exchanges with the most gusto -- innuendo not intended, but true -- and so is actually a good selection for the "gift"). (Not to mention that it drives Picard craaaazy.)

One wish is that, if we were going to see Riker grant his friends' deepest desires, we might have gotten slightly less obvious gifts, but that might be asking a bit much. I don't think it's asking much, however, to show rather than tell the intensity of the friendships that Riker is lauding in the final scene -- since when do are he and Wes biffles?

Star Rating: ** 1/2

Quote of the Episode: "When one is in the penalty box, tears are permitted!" (Picard, in his all-time cutest interaction with Yar)

So, I have, in true summer vacation fashion, begun the EPIC AND VERY IMPORTANT project of watching (mostly for the first time) the Star Trek spin-offs. (I'm pretty much promising that Enterprise won't feature, but if anyone has an episode they think I have to watch, just for a sense of the series, I might be open to that.)

Thus, also in true summer vacation fashion, I streamed the first six episodes (counting the first two-parter as two?) yesterday and now I have THOUGHTS.

( General reactions. )

( Characters. )