Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 11: Hide & "Q" [VHS]

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Q Number 2?

In this poignant episode; the notorious Q decides that Riker is to become another member of the continuum. He takes his away team and Wesley and Worf perish in the first half of the episode! It's how Riker decides to bring them back that makes this story a keeper. This is what tempts him to the dark side.

Aboard the bridge, Picard has to deal with a first officer with the power of a God. Riker takes it upon himself to attempt to cure Geordi's blindness, make Data human and Wes into a mature man. It's the outcome of this tele-play that makes this one that I call a Q classic.

This episode is in many ways a combination of two of the episodes of the original series. When "Q" is on the desert planet with Riker and some of the other officers, his speech and mannerisms are very similar to those of Trelane in "The Squire of Gothos." Riker is granted the power of the "Q", which is similar to what happened to Gary Mitchell in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." However, unlike Gary Mitchell, while Riker grows very arrogant, he maintains his fundamental humanity and does not turn into a monster that must be destroyed.
The most significant event in the episode takes place in the conversation between Riker and "Q" on the surface of a desert world. "Q" admits to Riker that the "Q" continuum is concerned that humanity is advancing quickly and they believe that over thousands of years, the human species may even advance beyond what the "Q" can do. At first, this seems absurd, as the relative evolutionary development between humans and the "Q" is roughly equivalent to that between humans and microbes. However, this demonstrates that the "Q" are governed by a very severe code of ethics when it comes to their interaction with humans. Even though "Q" treats the Enterprise and her crew like toys, the fact that the continuum is concerned about the potential of humans means that he is essentially powerless to affect it in any substantial way. With their tremendous power to alter time and space, it would be a simple matter for the "Q" continuum to eliminate any potential threat that humans may pose.
In the end, Riker renounces his powers and "Q" is forced to return to the continuum against his will, much like Trelane was forced to do. Nevertheless, we learn that even the "Q" have their limits, although we do not know if they are self-imposed or a requirement of an even more powerful authority. I rank it barely in the top quarter of TNG episodes.

John de Lancie has always done an outstanding job whenever he has guest-starred as the mischievous and omnipotent Q. The unique interplay Q had with the crew, especially with Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), was always amusing to watch as he never failed to cause some trouble whenever he could. In fact, Q-episodes actually developed into its own sub-genre of Star Trek: The Next Generation with many of them still remaining fan-favorites. Yet, every now and then there came along a clunker Q episode and "Hide and Q" was one of them.

Q intercepts the Enterprise-D as it is heading to a planet that has just experienced a terrible mining disaster. The entity grants Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) the powers of Q so that he can be studied by the Continuum. Eventually Riker comes to the conclusion that being a God is not all it is cracked up to be and declines Q's gift in order to remain with the Enterprise.

"Hide and Q" is one of the more serious Q outings that just comes across as too heavy-handed and too narrow in scope. The notion of having God-like powers given to Riker is intriguing but instead of exploring how this development will redefine his place in the universe and the implications of accelerated evolution, we are treated to Riker performing parlor tricks for his fellow crew members. "Hide and Q" had a chance to explore genuinely profound ideas but instead chose to limit its ambition by only exploring how Riker's friends would react to his new place in the galactic food chain.

This episode marks the second appearance of the entity known as Q. Q gives Commander Riker the power of Q in an attempt to make Riker one of the Q. To this end, Q places the crew of the Enterprise in some 'games' to tempt Riker to join with him.

All in all it's not a bad episode for the first season.