I loved this episode. It fixes everything that was wrong with the episode Hide And Q from the first season. I can't believe the premise had to be submitted by a 17 year old boy (who was hoping to be cast in the guest part) for them to create exactly what Hide And Q should've been. Anyway, I always love it when they fixed the mistakes from the early seasons and this one of the best examples.
The Enterprise is at a starbase picking up relief supplies for Tagran IV, a planet that is far into ecological decline. They also pick up an intern. A plain-Jane girl named Amanda Rodgers. She has ambitions to go to Starfleet Academy and while she's on board the Enterprise she will be assisting in as many areas as possible in order to decide on what field she's most interested in studying. She's greeted by the Captain and Dr. Crusher personally because she'll first be spending time in sickbay. Riker comes in to escort her to her quarters. She doesn't really need assistance because she's memorized the Enterprise's layout, but she is obviously attracted to the handsome and charming commander, like any young girl would be. When she gets to her room she tells him about her dogs and wishes that she'd been able to bring them along. When Riker leaves, a group of puppies appear on the floor. It's clear that she didn't mean for them to be there, but that they appeared because she was thinking about them. She snuggles them and tells them that they have to go back and then they disappear in groups. So, we see she's not a normal girl, but accidentally making puppies that you miss appear isn't necessarily suspicious in the Star Trek universe. Moving right along, she's next seen in sickbay bonding with Beverly while she's set testing tricorders that will be distributed to the Tagrans. They have a lot in common besides the fact that Amanda is super smart like Beverly's own son. Amanda was adopted because her parents died when she was very young. Beverly shares that her husband died when Wesley was young too. Geordi is assisting her as she takes the tricorders to the cargo bay where the supplies are being gathered and we get the whole spiel of how the inhabitants of Tagran IV irresponsibly polluted their planet and instead of cleaning up their evil industries, are just using a thousand filters that aren't helping much. I always roll my eyes at liberal dystopian ideas, but this will be used to good effect later, so it's not just gratuitous pontification.
Riker arrives and Amanda watches him as girls with crushes are apt to do. A container falls from the upper level and Amanda pushes it away from him as it falls with a wave of her hand. Nobody notices because Geordi was looking away at the time. Now the audience can't help but be suspicious since this ability is like Q's. It's confirmed when she's in engineering later. Geordi and Data are giving her the full tour and she's impressing them with all of the things that she already knows when there's a freak warp core breach that happens out of nowhere. The pressures build rapidly and Geordi can't eject the core. As it bursts, Amanda pushes it back and repairs the breach, as much to her surprise as everyone else's.
They discuss Amanda in a staff meeting, noting that she's medically normal and try to figure out why the warp core decided to fail randomly. Q appears, as we all knew he would at some point from the title, and explains that Amanda is a Q. He confesses to causing the warp core breach which annoys Picard as always, and tells them that he's there to evaluate the girl and take her back to the Continuum. Crusher objects, stating that Amanda's parents were human. Q explains that they were Q that had taken human form and also reveals his disgust at the fact that they chose to breed like humans. He tells them that they were killed in an accident and the Continuum has been monitoring Amanda ever since. They weren't sure if she would really become a Q and although he has very little interest personally, the Coninuum wanted her to be accessed and sent him. Beverly is insistent upon him leaving her alone though, so he sweeps Picard away to his ready room where he insists that he has to test her to make sure she's not a danger to herself or others. He reluctantly agrees to introduce them. Of course, the idea of Amanda's Q parents dying in an accident sends up red flags for Picard, so he tells Data to check into it while he tries to set up an introduction between Q and Amanda. Naturally, Q has no decorum and as Picard is in Amanda's quarters with Beverly beginning to explain that a person called Q wants to meet with her, Q comes bursting in through a wall and starts examining her. He declares that she has potential and insists on taking her to the Continuum immediately, but Amanda pushes him off across the room. Q complains about her behavior to Picard who suggests that he try a less aggressive approach since this is all new to her. Amanda stays with Beverly who understands that she's a little afraid of what she is and also can't stand Q. But she has to admit that Q is the only one who can help her understand her powers, so Amanda agrees to meet with him again. When Q is walking down a corridor, he's approached by a shadow figure that he reports to, saying that all is well, but the girl may need to be killed.
Q meets with Amanda again, alone this time. He rings her door tone before entering and she plies him with questions about the Continuum. Q explains that they can do and have anything they want. Being a good girl, she wants to know if they use that power for good or if she can bring back her parents. He says she can't bring back her parents, but shows her how she can see them. He then tactfully leaves to allow her to enjoy the moment in private. It's one of Q's best moments. She's shaken by this and asks Beverly what she'd do if she could see Jack again. Crusher admits she wouldn't know what to do but tries to keep her focused on an experiment that she's having her preform. She leaves and Q comes along wanting to give Amanda another lesson. When she says she has to analyze the growth in the specimens she's analyzing, Q shows her how to speed up the process. He disappears when Riker comes in looking for Crusher. After seeing the way she perks up at his arrival, Q can't contain his repulsion at human attractions, which embarrasses Amanda. And when Beverly comes back she explains that the experiment was ruined by accelerating their growth since she was supposed to be recording the rate of mitosis. Amanda is upset that she's disappointed Beverly and Q, as usual, doesn't care saying that Amanda wasn't meant for menial tasks such as this. While Q and Beverly argue, he turns her into an Irish Setter and Amanda changes her back. All of this goes on without her knowing it and it's so funny every time I watch it. So, obviously this meeting isn't as touching as the last and Amanda isn't impressed with Q's immature behavior. Meanwhile, Data informs Picard that Amanda's parents were killed in a freak and highly localized tornado - appearing only over their house. That sounds very fishy, of course, and Picard guesses what may have really happened.
Picard studies the tornado which turned out to be three times more powerful than a normal tornado and one that the weather modification network couldn't prevent. Q meanwhile spends time with Amanda on her teleportation abilities and expanding her mind by playing a game of hid and seek in which he hides in increasingly unexpected places while she has to find him by intuition. And so what we have here is the concept of Q taking on an apprentice as
it should've been done in the beginning. Instead of endowing and adult,
Riker, with Q abilities and watching him behave embarrassingly like a
child with a powerful toy, we have an actual teenager who is coming into
powers that she didn't know she had and she's first scared, exasperated, and then in awe of how limitless the possibilities are when you're omnipotent.
Her immaturity is perfectly natural for her age, so when she jealously kidnaps Riker into a Victorian fantasy and causes him to fall in love with her it's awkward to watch, but it's awkward because it's realistic. It's the sort of fantasy a teenage girl would bring to life if she had the ability as Amanda does. Whereas when Riker was talking down to everyone like a child-king, it was embarrassing because an adult that is supposedly mature enough to be the first officer of a starship should know better than to behave like that, powers or none. It's like I said back when I was reviewing Hide And Q, it was an episode that shouldn't have happened because it happened too soon before there had been time devoted to character development. So, anyway, Amanda doesn't let the fantasy spiral out of control because she realizes that Riker's feelings for her, which she creates, are hollow and fake. Overwhelmed, she sends him back to his date and stands there in frustration over all she's learned in the past few days. Picard confronts Q about the death of Amanda's parents and he admits straight up that they were executed. He also admits that he was sent to find out if Amanda was really a Q or if she was some kind of hybrid, in which case she too would be executed. Picard is appalled but Q's reasoning that allowing omnipotent beings to wander freely would be dangerous makes a lot of sense. However, he says they haven't decided yet.
In the cargo bay Geordi has modified a field modulator to help with the reactor on the planet. So, while that part of the story is progressing, Picard is determined that Amanda should know the truth and Troi concurs. He meets with Amanda in in his ready room and tells her. She is understandably angry and calls on Q to confront him. Picard offers another lecture on how Q is unfit to make moral judgements and brings up the pilot episode where Q put them on trial for the crimes of humanity to which Q replies that the jury is still out, foreshadowing the follow up in the series finale. But Q only laughs at his speech and tells them that the Continuum has decided not to execute her but to give her the choice of either joining with the Q or completely renouncing her powers to stay human. She claims that all she ever wanted was to be normal and is certain that she can resist the temptation to use her powers. It's important that they wrote it this way because she doesn't make the final choice with these words. And it's for the best that she didn't. Picard is called to the bridge as an emergency has arisen on the planet with their reactor getting ready to overload. Picard immediately suspects Q, but he denies any part in this and disappears. Riker and Geordi are on the surface trying to fix it before it goes critical but they aren't having any luck. Suddenly the reactor starts leveling out. Picard looks at Amanda. Not only does the reactor start working again, but the brown haze in the atmosphere of the planet clears up as well. Q reappears to chide that he'd warned her that it was harder than she thought to not use the powers of Q.
She's moved to tears because she can no longer deny what she is. She brings Beverly to the bridge to say goodbye. She also takes control of her situation with Q by demanding that they go to see her adopted parents first so she can explain. They leave together and it's a good ending.
This is the last time Q would interact with the most of the cast. For his last two episodes, he would address Picard alone. It's one of my favorite Q episodes... of course, all but a couple are my favorites. This episode had a great story and a lot of heart. Can't quite give it five stars because it's technically a redo, albeit a very good redo. Four and a half stars.
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