Star Trek: Every Q Episode Ranked Worst To Best

With the plot device of the courtroom put to one side, this is the episode that really could have served as the introduction to Q in Star Trek. Here, his temptation of Riker examines the strength of humanity and their ability to learn and grow, something the Q have long since lost. It would have made a fine exploration of what humanity was capable of, rather than forcing the storyline into an already slow pilot.

His creation of this game of sorts was already closer the Q that the audience would come to know and love (from time to time). Here, de Lancie gets to show off some more range, something which pleased Director Cliff Bole, who found the episode itself to be something of a disappointment.

It was also another example of the seemingly relentless war that was taking place backstage between the producers. Roddenberry gave this script to Maurice Hurley to rework, who allegedly did such a bad job on it that Roddenberry would ignore him whenever they passed in the halls.

On screen, the episode is notable for offering one of the many great speeches of Picard, where he quotes Shakespeare to define his belief in the power of Man to Q. The episode, while far from the strongest Q related story, manages to hint at the playful relationship that de Lancie and Stewart would be able to develop as the years went on.