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Star Trek: The Next Generation 2x16 "Q Who" - Full Watch-along (Patreon)

Published:
2026-05-01 18:00:04
Imported:
2026-10

Content

Follow along with me using your own copy of the episode!

Files

Star Trek: The Next Generation 2x16 "Q Who" - Full Watch-along

Comments

Summer

The borg have entered the chat

Greg

There's about a dozen or so episodes of TNG that I'm just WAITING for Bunny to get to, and it's a VERY hard wait in some cases cause some of them she won't see for a long time. This is one of those episodes, and I'm thrilled that she enjoyed it as much as I did. I knew from talking to Bunny already that she was aware of the Borg from the movie First Contact, but the movie assumes that you know a lot about the Borg already, so this episode -- where they are first introduced -- is very important in laying down the foundation for what was to come. Even if Bunny HAD recalled the movie in perfect detail, again, they don't really talk much about the Borg in that movie, instead having them as the driving force. You recall how disappointed that you were the end of Season 1 didn't have a two parter? And about how the plot dealt with the Federation having missing outposts and the Romulans the same on their border? The ORIGINAL script called for a two part episode to go into Season 2 with the Borg being introduced and them the ones behind the attacks, and the Enterprise would work together with the Romulans on this. The writers strike scuttled those plans though, and so the Borg were pushed back for their introduction. I think it's better with the way they did it, with Q being the one responsible for it and all, but it does leave that plot point from "The Neutral Zone" totally no longer true -- the Borg are far FAR away, they didn't even KNOW about humans. So no way they can be responsible for the attacks. And yet Data compares what they found on that planet to what happened in the Neutral Zone. Major plot hole they just couldn't fix due to the fact the Borg had planned to be introduced before. I said before Star Trek doesn't do horror very often. I wouldn't consider the Borg to be FULL horror, but there totally is a horror aspect present with them, they are downright scary and creepy in equal parts. As far as Q vs Guinan and who was to blame for what happened -- I've always been of the belief (and I can recall arguing this point with fellow fans online in BBS's when the episode first aired!) that after Q sent them here, what Picard did didn't matter as the Borg had already detected the Enterprise and were moving to intercept. Yes, Picard took a risk in deciding to stick around a bit to explore. However, no danger was clear, and I've always believed it didn't matter, the Borg wold have caught up to them anyway. This is all Q's fault for exposing them to a race that, as said, the Federation was not prepared to deal with. I've always loved the design of the Borg as well as their ship, and I had forgotten that their famous catch phrase -- "Resistance is futile" -- hadn't been coined yet. The writers wanted to give Star Trek a major antagonist and a long standing foe after past efforts had failed, and boy, did they succeed!

Mark Gosine

Bouncing baby Borg, oh, boy! I remember so much anxiety watching the first time. Banger episode.

William Terry

Interesting episode. I wonder if the reason people like Guinan and Q are so obscure about what they know is because there's a Prime Directive in the continuum to limit exchange of information with the federation. The Borg ship seems small, like a destroyer, in the Borg fleet. Hopefully the set up means the Enterprise won't be able to hack the Borg, like they made Nomad, M5, et al, blow themselves up, since the Borg learns, and adapts.

Jim Jones

Love this episode! Fun facts! The Borg weren’t initially imagined as cybernetic beings. Early ideas had them as an insect-like species, but budgets and physicality pushed them back to what we see in this episode. Personally, I'm glad it ended up this way. The writers used Q very deliberately here. Not just as comic relief, but as a way to forcibly humble Picard. Roddenberry’s vision of a confident, evolved humanity gets challenged hard in this episode. The cube shape wasn’t just creative; it was easier and cheaper to film repeatedly from different angles without worrying about continuity errors. It also ended up making them feel alien and unnatural.

Falconheart

I'm so happy to get to watch this one with you (sort of). This has long been one of my all time favorite TNG episodes, as I love Q and the Borg are my favorite adversary for the crew to face. Glad you enjoyed it!

reply

Sonia s-s-stutter reminds me of G-g-grace a bit!

Matthew Graves (Graviton)

I think i like "Meow-Meow" better than "Doo-doo" :) "Her Whoopie senses are tingling!" - oh my, no comment. Ok, so I'm gonna make a slightly embarrassing confession here. I was highly critical of this episode when it first came out. The Borg, (at least at this stage) are,as a concept, lifted wholesale from an alien baddie from classics Doctor Who called the Cybermen. At the time I was very critical of this. probably overly so. With hindsight, while the comparison is definitely valid, it's much less of a flaw than I felt at the time. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I'll just say that Trek has it's own spin on the theme. They certainly make an impression, with elements of body horror, creeping inevitability, and philosophical questions about technology and individuality all wrapped up in a scary package. One strength of the episode is that, at the core, it's about Q pointing the finger at Picard's, and by extension the Federation's, hubris. And in his own supremely condescending and aggravating way, he's right. As you noted Bunny, they had numerous opportunities to avoid the danger and were fully warned. Q "wins" by getting Picard to beg for help, but as Q himself points out, that is acptually the strongest thing Picard could do. It's a great reminder that Q is not purely a villain. When he's written well, there are always layers to what he's trying to do.

Desmond

Yeah, I love how Q was used here. Was the insectoid idea related to the aliens in Conspiracy? Because they were clearly already thinking about a major villainous race in season 1.

Jim Jones

It's possible but I've never read any tie in with them. But up to this point TNG didn’t really have a truly intimidating recurring enemy. The Ferengi were supposed to fill that role, but they didn’t land as threatening. The Borg were created specifically to fix that problem, and I think THAT landed.

Carlos Stevens

Q-Who... I think this is my favorite Q episode.

Desmond

Yeah, this was a good one. The Borg are pretty iconic and very different from anything encountered before. Now this system J-25 was just a couple years away from the nearest Starbase, so they would have iikely encountered the Borg fairly soon anyway. Q just forced the encounter a bit early. And remember how they reference what happened to the outposts along the Neutral Zone; it is strongly implied in this episode that the Borg were responsible.

Carlos Stevens

Alas... Gordie... giving off all those "Try Hard" vibes.

bunnytails

Oh yeah. I kind of remember about the Cybermen and can see the similiarities here!

Carlos Stevens

OMG! Yes there's a toilet in the shuttle craft... there is also a replicator, which implies they have the inverse replicator that turns waste into energy. Bathroom breaks will come and go in the Star Trek Universe.

Carlos Stevens

I can just say... Guinan is one of my favorite characters in the Star Trek Universe.

TJ

Over these last four episodes, Season 2 was really firing on all cylinders, and this episode was truly brilliant in spawning The Borg. The writers also made great use of Q in this episode, as he wasn't just "toying" with the crew for fun as he'd done in the past. He truly wanted to teach Picard a lesson in humility... Nice catch at the beginning when you noticed the connection to The Neutral Zone, the final episode of Season 1.

Preaching to the Horse's Mouth

I like that Deanna was able to sense Picard's absence from the ship, the way she came tear-assing onto the bridge to her chair. My queen letting the whole wide galaxy know she belongs in that command centre. (You didn't think I could make this one about Troi, did you B lol You were wrong 😉😆)

Philip

Back in the '90s, I was in a Star Trek club. A number of us volunteered at Creation Conventions and William Shatner's annual Charity Horse Show. One year about a dozen of us were at a restaurant in Pasadena for a holiday lunch/get together when one of the club members had gone to use the restroom and comes back with John de Lancie. When de Lancie heard that a Star Trek club was having a luncheon, he graciously came over to our tables, chatted for a bit and signed autographs for everyone.

InfinitelyJesting

Love this episode. Starts off with some standard Q shenanigans but turns into a new species intro (a totally modern and unique species- the Borg) and the first time the federation has been completely outclassed. I feel like this episode really marks the departure point from the old series into something different, where episodes can feel like full-blown condensed sci-fi action movies, something I love about TNG.

Andrew Westcott

"Picard is already in an infuriated mood". Only Q can amplify that iritation.

Andrew Westcott

Hi Bunny, no spoilers but you will find out more about Guinan (and her race) in the Episode(s) "Time's Arrow" and "Star Trek: Generations".

Skye Maidstone

There are no toilets on the shuttlecraft or on any Starfleet ship. The Ferengi might still have them but humans have grown beyond the need for money, possessions and toilets in this century.

Skye Maidstone

Mine too. I like when he's more scary than jokey.

bunnytails

Okay now you're just messing with me!