Hide and Q

DVD, TNG S1 (Hide and Q)

Q makes his first return to Picard's ship, and this time he is closest to the Trelane-inspired template, even down to the ending where he seems to be carried away by his fellow Q. This really shouldn't be as enjoyable an episode as it turns out to be. For one thing it takes a long time to get to the point, with more talk about what could happen and what will happen, from Q or the crew, than action. It also feels a bit clunky as if it hadn't been completely finished by the time the script was used. The soldiers on the planet are constantly described as 'things' which seems out of place, and lines of dialogue seem not quite right, with pauses or whatever. And Tasha Yar the tough security chief starts snivelling simply because Q has put her in the 'penalty box' so that she needs comfort from her Captain. As touching a scene as it is, it doesn't ring true for her character.

Q's insistence that they will play games (another big facet of Trelane's) is, again, mostly talk. The only game they have is shooting (or not shooting as the case may be) at the soldier creature... things. Q is as enjoyably irreverent as before, but I notice in these early episodes that Picard hasn't yet come to understand the being as much as later, and he tends to give him more rope than in their later meetings, instead of immediately getting angry! I just realised that Deanna Troi wasn't in the episode at all. Does that mean her character is so superfluous that she doesn't even register as missing, to me?!

There are some really good visual moments in the episode, with Q taking on Data's unique appearance for a while, Worf and Wesley both skewered (the boy graphically so!), and the first time we see Geordi with real eyes. It's always such a magical moment in the snatches of a glimpse he gets (it was done best in 'Star Trek: Insurrection'), and though the episode had some moments of oddness in characters, there were also these strong and very true times as well.

The female Klingon was a bit crazy, and it seems strange to hear Worf say his culture is alien to him as he later learns to embrace it much more. Also, Wesley takes man form, yet creepily still talks in the same boyish voice. With those huge hands he looks something along the lines of freakish! We didn't get to find out what Picard, Crusher or Tasha's dreams were, but probably just as well. Again I say it: despite all the craziness and a buggy script, it comes out really rather well, even if Riker does become haughty a little too quickly. And the first episode title to have Q in it, as would become the norm.

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