Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994): Season 1, Episode 9 - Hide And Q - full transcript
The Enterprise encounters Q again, and he tempts Riker by endowing him with the powers of the Q.
Captain's log, stardate 41590.5.
Having dropped off Counselor Troi
for a visit home,
we were fortunately close
to the Sigma III system
when its Federation colony made
an urgent call for medical help.
An accidental explosion has
devastated a mining operation.
Include a burn unit with each kit.
Identify the most critically injured
and beam them to cargo bay six.
- Dr Crusher, this is the Captain.
- Dr Crusher here.
Additional information. The number
of colonists at the site is 504.
- Are you prepared for that many?
- We believe so, sir.
Captain, we are now at warp 9.1, sir.
We will be at the colony
in 3.2 hours, sir.
Schematics suggest
the explosion was caused
by a methane-like gas
seeping in from underground.
Captain, I'm picking up
a force field. It's...
The Q entity. It's identical
to the grid we encountered...
- It reads solid, sir.
- Emergency. Full stop.
Reversing power, sir.
Not now, damn it, Q.
Shields and deflectors up, sir.
Now reading full stop, sir.
Humans. I thought by now
you'd have scampered back
to your own little star system.
If this is Q I'm addressing,
we are on a mission of rescue...
We the Q have studied our contact
with you, and are impressed.
We have much to discuss,
including perhaps the realization
of your most impossible dream.
Intriguing as that is, we are on
an urgent journey. After, perhaps...
You will abandon it! My business
with you takes precedence.
If my magnificence blinds you,
then perhaps something more familiar.
Starfleet Admiral Q, at your service.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
Space, the final frontier.
These are the voyages
of the Starship Enterprise.
Its continuing mission,
to explore strange new worlds...
...to seek out new life
and new civilizations...
...to boldly go
where no one has gone before.
Captain's log, supplemental.
Our rescue mission to Sigma III
has been halted by an immense grid
and an untimely visit from Q.
You're no Starfleet Admiral, Q.
Neither am I an Aldebaran serpent,
Captain, but you accepted me as such.
He's got us there, Captain!
The redoubtable Cmdr Riker,
whom I noticed before.
You seem to find this
all very amusing.
I might, if we weren't on our way to
help some suffering, dying humans...
Your species
is always suffering and dying.
No, Lt Worf! Make no move
against him unless I order it.
Pity! You might have learned
an interesting lesson.
Macro head with a micro brain!
You said you had the realization
of impossible dreams to offer us.
When this rescue is completed,
I will listen to your proposal.
Subject to its being acceptable...
Subject to foolish human values?
Picard, why do you distrust me so?
Why? At our first meeting,
you seized my vessel.
You condemned all humans as savages
and tried us in a post-atomic
21st-century court of horrors,
attacked my people
and again seized my vessel!
And that angered you?
"Seized my vessel!"
You interfered with
our Farpoint mission.
You threatened to convict us
as ignorant savages,
if, while dealing with
a powerful life form,
we made any mistake,
and when we didn't...
The Q became interested in you.
Does no one here understand
your good fortune?
"Seized my vessel!"
The complaints of a closed mind,
too accustomed
to military privileges.
But you, Riker, and I remember you
well, what do you make of my offer?
We don't have time for these games.
Games? Did someone say games?
And, perchance for interest's sake,
a deadly game?
To the game.
Where are we?
A Class-M world. Gravity
and oxygen within our limits.
Twin moons. Where are we?
Considering the power demonstrated
by Q the last time... anywhere.
Assuming this place even exists.
But it won't be boring.
If Q is anything, he's imaginative.
Seems our Captain
wasn't meant to be here.
Security, this is the Captain.
Security?
Engineering, this is the bridge.
Turbolift control, do you read?
This is the Captain.
Sir! Over there!
Join me, Riker. A good game
needs rules and planning.
Didn't your own Hartley say,
"Nothing reveals humanity so well
as the games it plays"?
Almost right.
Actually, you reveal yourselves
best in how you play.
Sir, what he has in mind might
provide us with vital information.
Incredible. I was just thinking
about an old-fashioned lemonade.
And so it became that.
An excellent thirst-quencher.
It gets rather hot
out here on this plain.
What about my people?
Whatever they'd like, of course.
"Drink not with thine enemy."
The rigid Klingon code. That explains
something of why you defeated them.
Still fascinated with the human past?
Perhaps you're not that original.
Au contraire. It's the human future
which intrigues us.
And it should concern you the most.
Of all the species,
yours cannot abide stagnation.
Change is the heart of what you are.
But into what? That's the question.
That is what humans call... a truism.
- You mean hardly original?
- You're the one who said it.
While we're at it...
this isn't part of any human future.
True. I borrowed this
from your stodgy Captain's mind.
This is the dressing
for a game we will play.
Now, games require rules, rewards,
dangers, familiar settings.
That sort of thing.
This isn't that familiar to me. Data?
This is from Europe's Napoleonic era.
Late-18th, early-19th centuries.
This is
a campaign-headquarters tent.
His uniform is that
of a French Army marshal.
Outranking even an admiral.
Would I go from a Starfleet admiral
to anything else?
Of course you wouldn't.
But Napoleonic equipment
on an alien planet,
one so different it has twin moons?
As you said,
I am nothing if not imaginative.
The game should reflect that.
Shall it be a test of strength?
Meaningless, since you have none.
A test of intelligence, then?
Equally as meaningless!
But it needs risk, something to win.
And something to lose.
If we must play a game,
what would we win?
The greatest possible future
you can imagine.
Which requires something
totally disastrous if you lose.
The point of this game shall be,
can any of you stay alive?
If your game is fair, we will.
For shame, Worf!
Fairness is such a human concept.
Think imaginatively!
This game shall in fact be...
completely unfair.
- You've gone too far!
- Game penalty!
Where is she, Q?
You can forget your game...
To use a 20th-century term,
she's in a penalty box.
She'll remain there unharmed
unless one of you merits a penalty.
Unfortunately, there's only one box.
If any of you are sent there,
dear Tasha must give the box up.
And where does she go?
Into nothingness!
I entreat you to obey
the rules of the game.
The only one who can destroy
your Tasha now is you.
Captain's log...
Damn it.
I can't even make a log entry.
I wish I could help you, Captain.
Where is everyone else?
Down on some planet.
- Some planet? Why are you here?
- Well, I...
It sounds strange...
...but, I'm in a penalty box.
A penalty box?
Q's penalty box. It sounds strange,
but it definitely isn't.
I know that one more penalty...
...by anyone... and I'm gone.
- Gone?
- Yes! I am gone!
It is so frustrating
to be controlled like this!
Lieutenant...
Tasha, it's alright.
What in the hell am I doing?
Crying?!
Don't worry.
There is a new standing order
on the bridge.
When one is in the penalty box,
tears are permitted.
Captain...
If you weren't a captain...
Consorting with lower-rank females?
Especially ones in penalty boxes?
Destructive to discipline, they say.
But then again, you're what?
Only human.
Penalty... over.
A marshal of France?
Ridiculous!
One takes the jobs he can get.
For example,
starlog entry, stardate today.
This is Q speaking
for Capt Jean-Luc Picard,
who we consider too bound
by Starfleet customs and traditions
to be useful to us.
The Enterprise is now helpless,
stuck like an Earth insect in amber,
while its bridge crew plays out
a game, whose real intent is to test
whether the First Officer is worthy
of the greatest gift the Q can offer.
So, you're taking on Riker this time.
Excellent.
He'll defeat you, just as I did.
Shall we wager on that?
Your starship command against...
Against your keeping out of
humanity's path for ever!
- Done?
- Done. You've already lost.
Riker will be offered something
impossible to refuse.
Geordi, can you see Worf?
I'd see the freckles on his nose
if he had them, sir.
He's at the third ridge.
The third ridge?
Moving well, too.
Good. He sees them.
Listen to me, Q. You seem
to have some need for humans.
Concern regarding them.
Why do you demonstrate it
through this confrontation?
Why not a simple, direct explanation,
a statement of what you seek?
Why these games?
Why these games?
Why, the play's the thing!
I'm surprised you need ask. Your
human Shakespeare explained it all.
He did
but don't depend on one view...
A pity you don't know
the content of your own library.
Hear this, and reflect.
"All the galaxy's a stage..."
World, not galaxy.
"All the world's a stage."
You know it. If he were
living now, he'd have said galaxy.
How about this?
"Life is but a walking shadow,
a poor player that struts
and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more."
"It is a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing."
I see. So how we respond to a game
tells you more about us
than our real life?
This... tale told by an idiot.
Interesting.
Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it.
Perhaps a little Hamlet?
I know Hamlet. 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."
You don't see your species like that?
I see us one day becoming that, Q.
Is it that which concerns you?
Those soldiers have formed
a skirmishing line, I think it is.
And they're headed this way.
Armed with ball-and-powder muskets?
That's what they look like, sir.
Muskets are appropriate to the
1790-1800 French uniform, sir.
But it is hardly a weapon
by our standards.
A lead ball propelled by gunpowder.
100 meters at best, with accuracy.
Against phasers? Just one phaser
could finish off an entire regiment.
Except that it hardly sounds like Q
to give us an advantage like that.
Unless...
Drop your weapons!
That was me, Worf. I was checking
that the phasers still operate.
Incredible. He came out of nowhere.
A warrior's reaction.
Report. What did you find?
They may wear old Earth uniforms,
but they aren't human at all.
More like vicious animal things.
Those soldiers
are moving in fast, sir.
Data, if you've got a theory
about what's happening...
Think fast, Cmdr Riker,
and move fast.
Those aren't muskets!
You have one chance to save them.
Send them back to the ship.
You'll let me beam them?
Send them the same way I do.
I've given you the power.
Do you understand?
I've given you the power of the Q.
Use it.
Use your power.
Use your power.
Lieutenant, take the conn position.
Engineering?
- Engineering, sir.
- Are all systems back on line?
Back on line, sir?
They were never off.
Captain, you'd better look at this.
There's been no interruption in
course or speed. Both are constant.
It's as though we never stopped.
We never did, Lieutenant.
Q suspended time.
- Where's Cmdr Riker?
- He was with us.
He must still be on the planet.
We were under attack
by these... animal things.
- Animal things?
- Maybe Data can explain better, sir.
You may find it aesthetically
displeasing. I'll file a report.
Data...
Sir, the important thing is
why is Cmdr Riker missing?
Understood. But I suspect
Cmdr Riker is perfectly safe,
at least in a physical sense.
Q has an interest in him.
In fact, Q's entire visit
concerns our First Officer.
- And the reason for that, sir?
- I wish I knew.
Q first became interested in him
at Farpoint.
I have no idea what it means.
Meanwhile, we must proceed
with our rescue mission.
Something amuses you? Perhaps
you'll share the joke with me.
The joke is you!
Strange gratitude,
from one who has been granted a gift
beyond any human dream.
How can you not appreciate being able
to send your friends to their ship,
or send the soldiers back to the
nothingness from which they came?
You must understand that you can
send yourself back to the ship,
or to Earth, or change your shape,
become anything you want to be.
- What do you need?
- Need?
You want something from us.
Desperately.
Want something from you foolish,
fragile nonentities? Come, Riker!
You sound like your Captain.
Now, that's a compliment, Q,
but not an answer.
Riker, we have offered you a gift
beyond all other gifts!
Out of the goodness of your heart.
After Farpoint, I returned
to where we exist, the Q Continuum.
Which means what?
The limitless dimensions
of the galaxy in which we exist.
- I don't understand.
- Of course you don't.
And you never will,
until you become one of us.
Until? Would you mind
going over that again?
If you'd stop interrupting me!
This is hardly a time to be teaching
you the true nature of the universe.
However...
At Farpoint...
we saw you as savages only.
We discovered instead
that you are unusual creatures...
...in your own limited ways.
Ways which, in time,
will not be so limited.
We're growing.
Something about us
compels us to learn, explore.
Yes, the human compulsion.
Unfortunately for us,
this power will grow stronger,
century after century,
aeon after aeon.
Aeons... Have you any idea
how far we'll advance?
Perhaps in a future that you cannot
yet conceive, even beyond us.
You see, we must know more
about this human compulsion.
That's why we selected you
to become part of the Q,
so you can bring to us
this human need and hunger,
that we may better understand it.
I suppose that's meant
as a compliment.
Or maybe it's my limited mind.
But to become a part of you?
I don't even like you.
You're gonna miss me.
Come on! Not again!
Cmdr Riker, what's going on?
I was sitting in school and...
Worf! My phaser's gone.
Are you armed?
No.
Where is Q? lf you have an answer
to any of this...
Look out!
Wesley! No!
No, damn it!
Damn it to hell!
You... !
You did that!
And that's not all!
That grid, their wounds...
Only the Q can do that.
Captain's log, stardate 41591.4.
1 minutes out
from Quadra Sigma III,
where the survivors of a disaster
desperately need us.
On the Enterprise,
First Officer William T Riker
needs help nearly as badly.
But this is a subject
far out of my experience.
Out of any human's experience.
How the hell do I advise you?
You know the implications
as well as I.
No one has ever offered
to turn me into a god before.
What the Q has offered you
has to be close to immortality.
It's no lie
about controlling time and space.
- We've seen it in what they can do.
- And in what I can do.
If you are to refuse his offer,
you must not use this power again.
It's too great a temptation
at our present stage of development.
You fear I won't be able to say no?
You tell me. Are you strong enough
to refuse to use that power?
Certainly.
No matter how tempted?
No matter how difficult Q makes it?
You have my word.
Good. I know what your word means.
In orbit of Quadra Sigma III.
Ready to beam down rescue team
to underground emergency area.
This way, sir.
Are there any others?
Gone. It's just us.
Commander!
There's somebody under here!
You're getting close, Data.
It's too late. She's dead.
If only we'd gotten here
a little sooner.
Sir, if indeed
you have the power of Q...
I don't understand. Certainly
you can't bring her back to life.
I can't. I'm prevented from that
by a promise.
I was wrong to make that agreement.
I could have saved that child.
You were right not to try. Once you
get accustomed to that power...
When I used it before,
I saved most of our bridge crew!
And when you grow to like it
too much?
As soon as it's convenient,
I want a meeting with you
and your bridge staff.
As soon as we are secure
with this rescue operation,
I'll discuss all
that this new power...
We can confer here,
if no one objects.
The bridge is fine.
I've called the entire staff.
Correction.
Knowing the decision you face,
I have permitted you this gathering.
Of course, Jean-Luc.
Wesley, this meeting is not for you.
Why not, sir? You helped
make me a bridge officer.
Acting Ensign.
Alright. He stays.
Because I've been given unusual
powers, I'm not suddenly a monster.
Except for these abilities,
and I don't yet know how far they go,
I'm the same William T Riker
you've always known.
Well?
Everyone still looks uncomfortable.
Perhaps they all remember
that saying, "power corrupts."
And absolute power
corrupts absolutely.
You believe I haven't thought
of that, Jean-Luc?
And have you noticed how you and I
are now on a first-name basis?
Number One.
Will...
something has happened already.
In what way?
Haven't you seen how much
I regretted not saving that child?
Using the power of Q to save her
may not have been wrong.
No more than it was wrong to save you
from those soldier things.
Let's keep in mind that that
particular danger was invented by Q.
What we represent to the Q,
Commander, are lowly animals,
tormented into performing
for their amusement.
Actually,
they think very highly of us.
We have a quality of growth
which they admire.
Or fear.
No, we've learned the Q
do not admire us.
The Q has muddled your mind.
Don't you understand
his incredible gift to me?
Are these truly your friends,
brother?
Let us pray.
For understanding and for compassion.
Let us do no such damn thing! What is
this need of yours for costumes?
Have you no identity of your own?
I come in search of the truth.
You come in search
of what humanity is!
I forgive your blasphemy!
Don't you see, Riker?
He's nothing but a flimflam man.
He has been since we met at Farpoint!
Flimflam?
You offer Riker jealousy.
What I offer
is clearly beyond your comprehension.
How can you claim
friendship for Riker,
while obstructing the greatest
adventure ever offered a human?
Obstructing? Then it's not certain.
He's not yet committed.
The truly evil part of this
is your jealousy.
You love each one of your people.
Demonstrate it. You have the power
to leave each one of them with a gift
proving your affection.
There'd be no harm to give them
something I know they'd like?
How touching!
A plea to his former Captain.
"May I please give happiness
to my friends, sir? Please, sir?"
In fact, I authorize and support
your idea, Riker.
Please, feel free to cooperate
with him if you wish.
- Are you certain, sir?
- Quite certain.
By all means,
demonstrate your gifts of affection.
Don't be frightened. There is
no way I could harm any of you.
Shall I guess your dreams?
We'll leave now, Wesley.
No! Wesley I may know best of all.
Our friendship, our long talks...
No, please!
Have your favorite wish,
my young friend.
You're ten years older. A man!
Not bad!
No!
No, sir.
But it's what you've always wanted,
to become human.
Yes, sir. That is true.
But I never wanted to compound
one... illusion with another.
It might be real to Q...
...perhaps even you, sir.
But it would never be so to me.
Was it not one of the Captain's
favorite authors who wrote,
"This above all:
to thine own self be true"?
Sorry, Commander, I must decline.
And you, my friend.
I know what you want.
You're as beautiful as I imagined.
And more.
Then we can throw away the visor?
I don't think so, sir.
The price is a little too high
for me.
And... I don't like
who I'd have to thank.
Make me the way I was.
Please!
Proud warrior Worf!
Without a single tie
to his own kind.
No!
She is from a world now alien to me!
Worf, is this your idea of sex?
This is sex.
But I have no place
for it in my life now!
No place, micro brain?
What possesses you?
Cmdr Riker, it's too soon for this.
Is this because your mother objects?
No.
I just want to get there
on my own. Honest.
But it's easier, boy!
Listen to Riker!
How did you know, sir?
I feel like such an idiot.
Quite right. So you should.
It's over.
You have no business here.
You have destroyed yourself.
- Pay off your wager.
- I recall none!
Your fellow Q know you agreed
never to trouble humans again,
just as they know you failed
to tempt a human to join you.
No! lf I can do one more thing...
I strongly suspect it's some
explaining you have to do now.
Extraordinary!
Captain, we are showing
that same hole in time again.
Our instruments say we just
beamed back from our rescue mission.
Sir, how is it that the Q can...
...handle time and space so well,
and us so badly?
Perhaps someday we will discover
that space and time
are simpler than the human equation.
No coordinates laid in, Number One?
Yes, sir.
You have my coordinates, La Forge.
Aye, sir.
On the board.
Engage.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
Having dropped off Counselor Troi
for a visit home,
we were fortunately close
to the Sigma III system
when its Federation colony made
an urgent call for medical help.
An accidental explosion has
devastated a mining operation.
Include a burn unit with each kit.
Identify the most critically injured
and beam them to cargo bay six.
- Dr Crusher, this is the Captain.
- Dr Crusher here.
Additional information. The number
of colonists at the site is 504.
- Are you prepared for that many?
- We believe so, sir.
Captain, we are now at warp 9.1, sir.
We will be at the colony
in 3.2 hours, sir.
Schematics suggest
the explosion was caused
by a methane-like gas
seeping in from underground.
Captain, I'm picking up
a force field. It's...
The Q entity. It's identical
to the grid we encountered...
- It reads solid, sir.
- Emergency. Full stop.
Reversing power, sir.
Not now, damn it, Q.
Shields and deflectors up, sir.
Now reading full stop, sir.
Humans. I thought by now
you'd have scampered back
to your own little star system.
If this is Q I'm addressing,
we are on a mission of rescue...
We the Q have studied our contact
with you, and are impressed.
We have much to discuss,
including perhaps the realization
of your most impossible dream.
Intriguing as that is, we are on
an urgent journey. After, perhaps...
You will abandon it! My business
with you takes precedence.
If my magnificence blinds you,
then perhaps something more familiar.
Starfleet Admiral Q, at your service.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
Space, the final frontier.
These are the voyages
of the Starship Enterprise.
Its continuing mission,
to explore strange new worlds...
...to seek out new life
and new civilizations...
...to boldly go
where no one has gone before.
Captain's log, supplemental.
Our rescue mission to Sigma III
has been halted by an immense grid
and an untimely visit from Q.
You're no Starfleet Admiral, Q.
Neither am I an Aldebaran serpent,
Captain, but you accepted me as such.
He's got us there, Captain!
The redoubtable Cmdr Riker,
whom I noticed before.
You seem to find this
all very amusing.
I might, if we weren't on our way to
help some suffering, dying humans...
Your species
is always suffering and dying.
No, Lt Worf! Make no move
against him unless I order it.
Pity! You might have learned
an interesting lesson.
Macro head with a micro brain!
You said you had the realization
of impossible dreams to offer us.
When this rescue is completed,
I will listen to your proposal.
Subject to its being acceptable...
Subject to foolish human values?
Picard, why do you distrust me so?
Why? At our first meeting,
you seized my vessel.
You condemned all humans as savages
and tried us in a post-atomic
21st-century court of horrors,
attacked my people
and again seized my vessel!
And that angered you?
"Seized my vessel!"
You interfered with
our Farpoint mission.
You threatened to convict us
as ignorant savages,
if, while dealing with
a powerful life form,
we made any mistake,
and when we didn't...
The Q became interested in you.
Does no one here understand
your good fortune?
"Seized my vessel!"
The complaints of a closed mind,
too accustomed
to military privileges.
But you, Riker, and I remember you
well, what do you make of my offer?
We don't have time for these games.
Games? Did someone say games?
And, perchance for interest's sake,
a deadly game?
To the game.
Where are we?
A Class-M world. Gravity
and oxygen within our limits.
Twin moons. Where are we?
Considering the power demonstrated
by Q the last time... anywhere.
Assuming this place even exists.
But it won't be boring.
If Q is anything, he's imaginative.
Seems our Captain
wasn't meant to be here.
Security, this is the Captain.
Security?
Engineering, this is the bridge.
Turbolift control, do you read?
This is the Captain.
Sir! Over there!
Join me, Riker. A good game
needs rules and planning.
Didn't your own Hartley say,
"Nothing reveals humanity so well
as the games it plays"?
Almost right.
Actually, you reveal yourselves
best in how you play.
Sir, what he has in mind might
provide us with vital information.
Incredible. I was just thinking
about an old-fashioned lemonade.
And so it became that.
An excellent thirst-quencher.
It gets rather hot
out here on this plain.
What about my people?
Whatever they'd like, of course.
"Drink not with thine enemy."
The rigid Klingon code. That explains
something of why you defeated them.
Still fascinated with the human past?
Perhaps you're not that original.
Au contraire. It's the human future
which intrigues us.
And it should concern you the most.
Of all the species,
yours cannot abide stagnation.
Change is the heart of what you are.
But into what? That's the question.
That is what humans call... a truism.
- You mean hardly original?
- You're the one who said it.
While we're at it...
this isn't part of any human future.
True. I borrowed this
from your stodgy Captain's mind.
This is the dressing
for a game we will play.
Now, games require rules, rewards,
dangers, familiar settings.
That sort of thing.
This isn't that familiar to me. Data?
This is from Europe's Napoleonic era.
Late-18th, early-19th centuries.
This is
a campaign-headquarters tent.
His uniform is that
of a French Army marshal.
Outranking even an admiral.
Would I go from a Starfleet admiral
to anything else?
Of course you wouldn't.
But Napoleonic equipment
on an alien planet,
one so different it has twin moons?
As you said,
I am nothing if not imaginative.
The game should reflect that.
Shall it be a test of strength?
Meaningless, since you have none.
A test of intelligence, then?
Equally as meaningless!
But it needs risk, something to win.
And something to lose.
If we must play a game,
what would we win?
The greatest possible future
you can imagine.
Which requires something
totally disastrous if you lose.
The point of this game shall be,
can any of you stay alive?
If your game is fair, we will.
For shame, Worf!
Fairness is such a human concept.
Think imaginatively!
This game shall in fact be...
completely unfair.
- You've gone too far!
- Game penalty!
Where is she, Q?
You can forget your game...
To use a 20th-century term,
she's in a penalty box.
She'll remain there unharmed
unless one of you merits a penalty.
Unfortunately, there's only one box.
If any of you are sent there,
dear Tasha must give the box up.
And where does she go?
Into nothingness!
I entreat you to obey
the rules of the game.
The only one who can destroy
your Tasha now is you.
Captain's log...
Damn it.
I can't even make a log entry.
I wish I could help you, Captain.
Where is everyone else?
Down on some planet.
- Some planet? Why are you here?
- Well, I...
It sounds strange...
...but, I'm in a penalty box.
A penalty box?
Q's penalty box. It sounds strange,
but it definitely isn't.
I know that one more penalty...
...by anyone... and I'm gone.
- Gone?
- Yes! I am gone!
It is so frustrating
to be controlled like this!
Lieutenant...
Tasha, it's alright.
What in the hell am I doing?
Crying?!
Don't worry.
There is a new standing order
on the bridge.
When one is in the penalty box,
tears are permitted.
Captain...
If you weren't a captain...
Consorting with lower-rank females?
Especially ones in penalty boxes?
Destructive to discipline, they say.
But then again, you're what?
Only human.
Penalty... over.
A marshal of France?
Ridiculous!
One takes the jobs he can get.
For example,
starlog entry, stardate today.
This is Q speaking
for Capt Jean-Luc Picard,
who we consider too bound
by Starfleet customs and traditions
to be useful to us.
The Enterprise is now helpless,
stuck like an Earth insect in amber,
while its bridge crew plays out
a game, whose real intent is to test
whether the First Officer is worthy
of the greatest gift the Q can offer.
So, you're taking on Riker this time.
Excellent.
He'll defeat you, just as I did.
Shall we wager on that?
Your starship command against...
Against your keeping out of
humanity's path for ever!
- Done?
- Done. You've already lost.
Riker will be offered something
impossible to refuse.
Geordi, can you see Worf?
I'd see the freckles on his nose
if he had them, sir.
He's at the third ridge.
The third ridge?
Moving well, too.
Good. He sees them.
Listen to me, Q. You seem
to have some need for humans.
Concern regarding them.
Why do you demonstrate it
through this confrontation?
Why not a simple, direct explanation,
a statement of what you seek?
Why these games?
Why these games?
Why, the play's the thing!
I'm surprised you need ask. Your
human Shakespeare explained it all.
He did
but don't depend on one view...
A pity you don't know
the content of your own library.
Hear this, and reflect.
"All the galaxy's a stage..."
World, not galaxy.
"All the world's a stage."
You know it. If he were
living now, he'd have said galaxy.
How about this?
"Life is but a walking shadow,
a poor player that struts
and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more."
"It is a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing."
I see. So how we respond to a game
tells you more about us
than our real life?
This... tale told by an idiot.
Interesting.
Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it.
Perhaps a little Hamlet?
I know Hamlet. 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."
You don't see your species like that?
I see us one day becoming that, Q.
Is it that which concerns you?
Those soldiers have formed
a skirmishing line, I think it is.
And they're headed this way.
Armed with ball-and-powder muskets?
That's what they look like, sir.
Muskets are appropriate to the
1790-1800 French uniform, sir.
But it is hardly a weapon
by our standards.
A lead ball propelled by gunpowder.
100 meters at best, with accuracy.
Against phasers? Just one phaser
could finish off an entire regiment.
Except that it hardly sounds like Q
to give us an advantage like that.
Unless...
Drop your weapons!
That was me, Worf. I was checking
that the phasers still operate.
Incredible. He came out of nowhere.
A warrior's reaction.
Report. What did you find?
They may wear old Earth uniforms,
but they aren't human at all.
More like vicious animal things.
Those soldiers
are moving in fast, sir.
Data, if you've got a theory
about what's happening...
Think fast, Cmdr Riker,
and move fast.
Those aren't muskets!
You have one chance to save them.
Send them back to the ship.
You'll let me beam them?
Send them the same way I do.
I've given you the power.
Do you understand?
I've given you the power of the Q.
Use it.
Use your power.
Use your power.
Lieutenant, take the conn position.
Engineering?
- Engineering, sir.
- Are all systems back on line?
Back on line, sir?
They were never off.
Captain, you'd better look at this.
There's been no interruption in
course or speed. Both are constant.
It's as though we never stopped.
We never did, Lieutenant.
Q suspended time.
- Where's Cmdr Riker?
- He was with us.
He must still be on the planet.
We were under attack
by these... animal things.
- Animal things?
- Maybe Data can explain better, sir.
You may find it aesthetically
displeasing. I'll file a report.
Data...
Sir, the important thing is
why is Cmdr Riker missing?
Understood. But I suspect
Cmdr Riker is perfectly safe,
at least in a physical sense.
Q has an interest in him.
In fact, Q's entire visit
concerns our First Officer.
- And the reason for that, sir?
- I wish I knew.
Q first became interested in him
at Farpoint.
I have no idea what it means.
Meanwhile, we must proceed
with our rescue mission.
Something amuses you? Perhaps
you'll share the joke with me.
The joke is you!
Strange gratitude,
from one who has been granted a gift
beyond any human dream.
How can you not appreciate being able
to send your friends to their ship,
or send the soldiers back to the
nothingness from which they came?
You must understand that you can
send yourself back to the ship,
or to Earth, or change your shape,
become anything you want to be.
- What do you need?
- Need?
You want something from us.
Desperately.
Want something from you foolish,
fragile nonentities? Come, Riker!
You sound like your Captain.
Now, that's a compliment, Q,
but not an answer.
Riker, we have offered you a gift
beyond all other gifts!
Out of the goodness of your heart.
After Farpoint, I returned
to where we exist, the Q Continuum.
Which means what?
The limitless dimensions
of the galaxy in which we exist.
- I don't understand.
- Of course you don't.
And you never will,
until you become one of us.
Until? Would you mind
going over that again?
If you'd stop interrupting me!
This is hardly a time to be teaching
you the true nature of the universe.
However...
At Farpoint...
we saw you as savages only.
We discovered instead
that you are unusual creatures...
...in your own limited ways.
Ways which, in time,
will not be so limited.
We're growing.
Something about us
compels us to learn, explore.
Yes, the human compulsion.
Unfortunately for us,
this power will grow stronger,
century after century,
aeon after aeon.
Aeons... Have you any idea
how far we'll advance?
Perhaps in a future that you cannot
yet conceive, even beyond us.
You see, we must know more
about this human compulsion.
That's why we selected you
to become part of the Q,
so you can bring to us
this human need and hunger,
that we may better understand it.
I suppose that's meant
as a compliment.
Or maybe it's my limited mind.
But to become a part of you?
I don't even like you.
You're gonna miss me.
Come on! Not again!
Cmdr Riker, what's going on?
I was sitting in school and...
Worf! My phaser's gone.
Are you armed?
No.
Where is Q? lf you have an answer
to any of this...
Look out!
Wesley! No!
No, damn it!
Damn it to hell!
You... !
You did that!
And that's not all!
That grid, their wounds...
Only the Q can do that.
Captain's log, stardate 41591.4.
1 minutes out
from Quadra Sigma III,
where the survivors of a disaster
desperately need us.
On the Enterprise,
First Officer William T Riker
needs help nearly as badly.
But this is a subject
far out of my experience.
Out of any human's experience.
How the hell do I advise you?
You know the implications
as well as I.
No one has ever offered
to turn me into a god before.
What the Q has offered you
has to be close to immortality.
It's no lie
about controlling time and space.
- We've seen it in what they can do.
- And in what I can do.
If you are to refuse his offer,
you must not use this power again.
It's too great a temptation
at our present stage of development.
You fear I won't be able to say no?
You tell me. Are you strong enough
to refuse to use that power?
Certainly.
No matter how tempted?
No matter how difficult Q makes it?
You have my word.
Good. I know what your word means.
In orbit of Quadra Sigma III.
Ready to beam down rescue team
to underground emergency area.
This way, sir.
Are there any others?
Gone. It's just us.
Commander!
There's somebody under here!
You're getting close, Data.
It's too late. She's dead.
If only we'd gotten here
a little sooner.
Sir, if indeed
you have the power of Q...
I don't understand. Certainly
you can't bring her back to life.
I can't. I'm prevented from that
by a promise.
I was wrong to make that agreement.
I could have saved that child.
You were right not to try. Once you
get accustomed to that power...
When I used it before,
I saved most of our bridge crew!
And when you grow to like it
too much?
As soon as it's convenient,
I want a meeting with you
and your bridge staff.
As soon as we are secure
with this rescue operation,
I'll discuss all
that this new power...
We can confer here,
if no one objects.
The bridge is fine.
I've called the entire staff.
Correction.
Knowing the decision you face,
I have permitted you this gathering.
Of course, Jean-Luc.
Wesley, this meeting is not for you.
Why not, sir? You helped
make me a bridge officer.
Acting Ensign.
Alright. He stays.
Because I've been given unusual
powers, I'm not suddenly a monster.
Except for these abilities,
and I don't yet know how far they go,
I'm the same William T Riker
you've always known.
Well?
Everyone still looks uncomfortable.
Perhaps they all remember
that saying, "power corrupts."
And absolute power
corrupts absolutely.
You believe I haven't thought
of that, Jean-Luc?
And have you noticed how you and I
are now on a first-name basis?
Number One.
Will...
something has happened already.
In what way?
Haven't you seen how much
I regretted not saving that child?
Using the power of Q to save her
may not have been wrong.
No more than it was wrong to save you
from those soldier things.
Let's keep in mind that that
particular danger was invented by Q.
What we represent to the Q,
Commander, are lowly animals,
tormented into performing
for their amusement.
Actually,
they think very highly of us.
We have a quality of growth
which they admire.
Or fear.
No, we've learned the Q
do not admire us.
The Q has muddled your mind.
Don't you understand
his incredible gift to me?
Are these truly your friends,
brother?
Let us pray.
For understanding and for compassion.
Let us do no such damn thing! What is
this need of yours for costumes?
Have you no identity of your own?
I come in search of the truth.
You come in search
of what humanity is!
I forgive your blasphemy!
Don't you see, Riker?
He's nothing but a flimflam man.
He has been since we met at Farpoint!
Flimflam?
You offer Riker jealousy.
What I offer
is clearly beyond your comprehension.
How can you claim
friendship for Riker,
while obstructing the greatest
adventure ever offered a human?
Obstructing? Then it's not certain.
He's not yet committed.
The truly evil part of this
is your jealousy.
You love each one of your people.
Demonstrate it. You have the power
to leave each one of them with a gift
proving your affection.
There'd be no harm to give them
something I know they'd like?
How touching!
A plea to his former Captain.
"May I please give happiness
to my friends, sir? Please, sir?"
In fact, I authorize and support
your idea, Riker.
Please, feel free to cooperate
with him if you wish.
- Are you certain, sir?
- Quite certain.
By all means,
demonstrate your gifts of affection.
Don't be frightened. There is
no way I could harm any of you.
Shall I guess your dreams?
We'll leave now, Wesley.
No! Wesley I may know best of all.
Our friendship, our long talks...
No, please!
Have your favorite wish,
my young friend.
You're ten years older. A man!
Not bad!
No!
No, sir.
But it's what you've always wanted,
to become human.
Yes, sir. That is true.
But I never wanted to compound
one... illusion with another.
It might be real to Q...
...perhaps even you, sir.
But it would never be so to me.
Was it not one of the Captain's
favorite authors who wrote,
"This above all:
to thine own self be true"?
Sorry, Commander, I must decline.
And you, my friend.
I know what you want.
You're as beautiful as I imagined.
And more.
Then we can throw away the visor?
I don't think so, sir.
The price is a little too high
for me.
And... I don't like
who I'd have to thank.
Make me the way I was.
Please!
Proud warrior Worf!
Without a single tie
to his own kind.
No!
She is from a world now alien to me!
Worf, is this your idea of sex?
This is sex.
But I have no place
for it in my life now!
No place, micro brain?
What possesses you?
Cmdr Riker, it's too soon for this.
Is this because your mother objects?
No.
I just want to get there
on my own. Honest.
But it's easier, boy!
Listen to Riker!
How did you know, sir?
I feel like such an idiot.
Quite right. So you should.
It's over.
You have no business here.
You have destroyed yourself.
- Pay off your wager.
- I recall none!
Your fellow Q know you agreed
never to trouble humans again,
just as they know you failed
to tempt a human to join you.
No! lf I can do one more thing...
I strongly suspect it's some
explaining you have to do now.
Extraordinary!
Captain, we are showing
that same hole in time again.
Our instruments say we just
beamed back from our rescue mission.
Sir, how is it that the Q can...
...handle time and space so well,
and us so badly?
Perhaps someday we will discover
that space and time
are simpler than the human equation.
No coordinates laid in, Number One?
Yes, sir.
You have my coordinates, La Forge.
Aye, sir.
On the board.
Engage.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.