Q Who

This Story: Season 2 Episode 16 (production code 142)
TNG Overall: Episode 42
Trek Overall: Story 142, Episode 144
Airdate: 8 May 1989
Written by Maurice Hurley
Directed by Rob Bowman

Notes

• The first on screen appearance of the Borg.  Their existence was hinted at in the past, but never named or shown.
• Dr Pulaski does not appear in this episode.
• This is the only episode where we see Guinan’s office.
• This episode references events in the Season 1 finale (The Neutral Zone), which was originally intended to introduce the Borg, but writer’s strike issues prevented that at the time.
• This episode was nominated for three Emmy awards, and won two of them (Sound editing for a series & Sound mixing for a drama series).
• The first of two appearances for Sonya Gomez.  She was intended to be a recurring character, but was dropped after her other appearance. Gomez was played by Lycia Naff – who is well known for playing the three breasted woman in Total Recall.
• The apparent conflict between Q & Guinan is revisited in one later episode (Deja Q), but is never fully explained in any episodes.
• Q refers to Guinan as an “imp”, but it’s never established if that was a legitimate description, or some insult by Q.

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