Tag: Q

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Encounter At Farpoint

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41153.7: The new USS Enterprise, en route to pick up its final crew members and investigate a mysterious space station, is confronted by a godlike entity known as Q who puts Captain Picard, Counselor Troi, Data and security chief Yar on trial for the crimes of all humanity in the past, a challenge Picard grudgingly agrees to meet.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander William Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Geordi La Forge), Denise Crosby (Lt. Tasha Yar), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher)

Order the DVDswritten by Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana
directed by Corey Allen
music by Dennis McCarthy

Star Trek: The Next GenerationGuest Cast: John de Lancie (Q), Michael Bell (Groppler Zorn), Colm Meaney (Battle Bridge Conn), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mandarin Baliff), Timothy Dang (Main Bridge Security), David Erskine (Bandi Shopkeeper), Evelyn Guererro (Young Female Ensign), Chuck Hicks (Military Officer), Jimmy Ortega (Torres), DeForest Kelley (Admiral McCoy)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Hide And Q

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41590.5: Q returns, this time to tempt Commander Riker with the taste of godlike powers, through trials in which Riker’s crew are forced to play a game whose rules change with Q’s mood, and then Riker’s willpower is tested when Picard orders him to avoid using the power of Q.

Order the DVDsteleplay by C.J. Holland (a.k.a. Maurice Hurley) and Gene Roddenberry
story by C.J. Holland
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: John de Lancie (Q), Elaine Nalee (Female Survivor), William A. Wallace (Wesley Crusher, age 25)

Notes: Maurice Hurley used a pen-name on this script, claiming Gene Roddenberry had changed the original story so much that it bore no resemblance to its original draft.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 02 Star Trek The Next Generation

Q Who

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 42761.3: Q returns once more to the Enterprise to plead his case to Picard for a position as a crewman on the ship after being expelled from the Q Continuum. When refused, the godlike alien propels the Enterprise thousands of light years to prove to Picard that some threats are too much for humanity, and the Borg is one of these threats…

Order the DVDswritten by Maurice Hurley
directed by Rob Bowman
music by Ron Jones

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), John de Lancie (Q), Lycia Naff (Ensign Gomez), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)

Notes: This episode is the first to show the Borg, a race first mentioned (though not by name) in The Neutral Zone. According to writer/producer Maurice Hurley, the Borg were originally intended to be insects instead of cyborgs; budget shortfalls meant costuming cutbacks, even to the point that “stillsuit” costumes from Dune were heavily redressed as Borg costumes.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 03 Star Trek The Next Generation

Deja Q

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 43539.1: Q returns once again to the starship Enterprise, but this time his immortality and his powers have been rescinded by the members of the Q Continuum, and he must help the crew contend with an asteroid that threatens to devastate an entire civilization, while the Calamarain, aliens who have been chastised by Q in the past seek revenge on the ex-immortal.

Order the DVDswritten by Richard Danus
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: John de Lancie (Q), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Richard Cansino (Dr. Garin), Betty Muramoto (Scientist), Corbin Bernsen (Q 2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

Qpid

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44741.9: Picard is readying a speech on the subject of the planet Tagus 3, whose archaelogical digs are off-limits to outsiders, to be delivered to a group of distinguished archaeologists, and is surprised to find that Vash, a very fondly remembered acquaintance from his visit to Risa, is present as well, no doubt to fulfill her nefarious urge to go treasure-seeking. She and Picard seem to be able to agree on nothing, which catches the attention of Q, who, to force Picard to admit that he does indeed love Vash, sends the crew, Vash, and even himself, into Sherwood Forest. Picard, of course, becomes Robin Hood, his crew become Robin’s merry men, Q becomes Guy of Gisbourne, and Vash, naturally, is the damsel in distress…a role she doesn’t play willingly, or, indeed, correctly!

Order the DVDsteleplay by Ira Steven Behr
story by Randee Russell and Ira Steven Behr
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Jennifer Hetrick (Vash), Clive Revill (Sheriff of Nottingham), John de Lancie (Q), Joi Staton (Servant)

Notes: Clive Revill, the Sheriff of Nottingham in this story, also has another well-known science fiction saga in his resume: he provided the voice (and a shimmering but fuzzy image) of the Galactic Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 (Ian McDiarmid took that role over in 1983’s Return Of The Jedi when the Emperor finally made a personal appearance in the saga).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 06 Star Trek The Next Generation

True Q

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 46192.3: Student intern Amanda Rogers is transferred to the Enterprise to get a sample of Starfleet duty. An accident occurs in engineering which almost forces Geordi to blow the warp core out of the ship, but Amanda astonishingly reverses the impending catastrophe. Shortly afterward, Q arrives and informs the crew that Amanda is a fledgling Q whose powers, just emerging, are beginning to concern the Q Continuum. The crew is left with no choice but to allow Q to tutor Amanda on matters of the responsibilities involved with possessing godlike powers, since, obviously, none of them have any knowledge on the subject. But it gradually becomes apparent that Q, and his fellow occupants of the Continuum, may not have a benevolent fate in store for the confused Amanda.

Order the DVDswritten by Renè Echavarria
based upon material by Matthew Corey
directed by Robert Scheerer
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Olivia D’Abo (Amanda Rogers), John de Lancie (Q), John P. Connolly (Orn Lote)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 01 Star Trek

Q-Less

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 46531.2: A Runabout barely returns from the Gamma Quadrant after experiencing a power loss on its way back to DS9. The crew must be rescued by Sisko, Kira and O’Brien on arrival, and they have brought a passenger back from the other side: Vash, Captain Picard’s old flame from a vacation on Risa, last seen going off to explore the universe with Q. Vash has apparently been wandering through the Gamma Quadrant on her own for two years, and once she gets settled in on the station, begins making plans to sell several artifacts from the Gamma Quadrant. In the meantime, power failures begin occurring on DS9, coinciding with the arrival of Q, who is pestering Vash to continue her travels with him. Q also introduces himself to Sisko and the station crew and delights in irritating them as much as he has always enjoyed badgering the Enterprise crew. In the meantime, Vash meets Quark and they begin planning an auction of her Gamma Quadrant loot – off of which they both expect to make a fortune. Power failures and Q continue to plague the station, climaxing with a gravitational force sucking DS9 straight toward the wormhole. Sisko is unsure whether an unknown natural phenomenon is dragging the station to its doom, or if Q is simply playing another of his infamous pranks.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Robert Hewitt Wolfe
story by Hannah Louise Shearer
directed by Paul Lynch
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: John de Lancie (Q), Jennifer Hetrick (Vash), Van Epperson (Bajoran Clerk), Tom McCleister (Kolos), Laura Cameron (Bajoran Woman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 06 Star Trek The Next Generation

Tapestry

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate not given: After a diplomatic meeting with aliens goes drastically wrong and ends in an exchange of fire, an away team is beamed into sick bay with a dying Picard. As Dr. Crusher tries desperately to resuscitate Picard, a near-death vision begins in Picard’s mind…or so he thinks, until Q is revealed to be behind it. Q informs Picard that his artificial heart – which Picard gained after, as a newly-commissioned ensign 30 years before, he instigated a brawl with three huge Nausicaans and got stabbed through the heart – is the cause of his death in the present. Q tempts Picard with the opportunity to change his personal history by depositing Picard’s current consciousness in the body of Ensign Picard within a few days of his fateful encounter with the Nausicaans. Picard must weigh the moral implications of changing the past to ensure his present survival against adhering to the tragic dictates of his destiny.

Order the DVDswritten by Ronald D. Moore
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), John de Lancie (Q), Ned Vaughn (Corey), J.C. Brandy (Marta), Clint Carmichael (Nausicaan #1), Rae Norman (Penny), Clive Church (Maurice Picard), Marcus Nash (Young Picard), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

All Good Things…

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate not applicable (prehistory): On the planet Earth, the crucial moment in which life is sparked in primeval chemicals fails to occur. The planet remains uninhabited and the human race never comes into existence.

Stardate 41148: A vaguely disoriented Captain Jean-Luc Picard arrives aboard the starship Enterprise to take command, shortly after which he suddenly orders a red alert. After this incident passes, he issues a number of inexplicable orders, trying to deliberately bring about a meeting with an entity known as Q, and later setting the Enterprise on a fateful course for a spatial anomaly in the Devron system…

Stardate 47998.1: A very disoriented Captain Picard reports that he has been shifting from the present to two very specific points in the past and future – seven years ago when he first arrived aboard the Enterprise, and 25 years into the future. En route to the Neutral Zone to investigate a massing of Romulan forces near a spatial anomaly in the Devron system, Picard is accosted once more by Q, who finally pronounces the verdict of humankind’s trial which began at Farpoint – guilty.

Stardate unknown (the future): A retired Jean-Luc Picard, suffering from a degenerative neurological disorder, has settled in France to tend to the family vineyards. Geordi, now a writer, visits Picard, who complains of unsettling images from nearly three decades ago. In the course of tracking down the cause of Picard’s visions, nearly all of his old crewmates are recruited in the quest, made difficult by strained relations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, as well as those among the crew. Their destination is the Devron system, where, to Picard’s surprise, there is no sign of the existence of a spatial anomaly. At the heart of Picard’s mystery lies the secret needed to restore the flow of human history.

Order the DVDswritten by Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: John de Lancie (Q), Denise Crosby (Lt. Tasha Yar), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Andreas Katsulas (Tomalak), Clyde Kusatsu (Admiral Nakamura), Patti Yasutake (Nurse Ogawa), Pamela Kosh (Jessel), Tim Kelleher (Lt. Gaines), Alison Brooks (Ensign Chilton), Stephen Matthew Garvin (Ensign), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 02 Star Trek Voyager

Death Wish

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: When the crew investigates a strange comet, they accidentally beam aboard a renegade member of the Q continuum who had been imprisoned for wanting to die. When Q comes to take him back, the new Q requests asylum from Captain Janeway who convenes a hearing to determine whether asylum will be granted. Although Q attempts to influence the outcome, the Captain comes to a difficult decision on her own.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Michael Piller
story by Shawn Piller
directed by James L. Conway
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres), Jennifer Lien (Kes), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim), John de Lancie (Q), Gerrit Graham (Q), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), Peter Dennis (Isaac Newton), Maury Ginsberg (himself)

LogBook entry by Paul Campbell

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Season 03 Star Trek Voyager

The Q and the Gray

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate 50384.2: After the crew witnesses a supernova explosion from a safe distance, Janeway retires for the evening, only to be wooed in her quarters by Q, who claims to want to mate with her. Naturally, Janeway rebuffs Q’s every advance, and eventually a female member of the Q Continuum appears, claiming that she is bonded to Q. As an argument ensues between the Qs, more imminent supernovae are detected and Janeway orders the ship clear of the destruction, but with so many stars exploding, Voyager can’t avoid all of the shockwaves. Just before the first wave hits the ship, Q whisks Janeway into a representation of the Q Continuum in the context of the American Civil War. Q explains that the Continuum is in the throes of its own civil war, sparked by the death of a fellow Q he prosecuted on charges that a Q suicide would imbalance their whole society. Q’s desire to mate with Janeway is the result of his belief that, from his past experiences with Janeway and Picard, a hybrid child would introduce the omnipotent Q to the nobility of humans. Caught in a civil war among immortal beings, and hoping that her crew can enlist the help of the Q’s scorned mate, Janeway tries to negotiate a peace with the Q traditionalists…but she’s unaware that her attempt to open talks will do nothing more than deliver Q into the hands of his enemies.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Kenneth Biller
story by Shawn Piller
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: John de Lancie (Q), Suzie Plakson (Q), Harve Presnell (Q)

LogBook entry by Paul Campbell

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Audio Dramas Star Trek

Borg

Star Trek: BorgTen years after the U.S.S. Enterprise barely stopped a Borg attck on Earth, Cadet Furlong is evacuated from his cadet cruise when his ship is diverted toward another battle with an incoming Borg cube. Furlong is angry with the decision – and his new orders bring painful memories of his father’s death aboard the U.S.S. Righteous at Wolf 359 to the surface. Before Furlong can evacuate, however, Q appears to him and offers him a chance to fight the Borg – not in the here and now, but in the past, aboard the Righteous, alongisde his own father. Furthermore, Q gives Furlong the chance to change history and save his father’s life. After a few false starts, Furlong – with Q’s help – assumes the role of Righteous bridge officer Lt. Sprint, with Q taking on the guise of the ship’s doctor to advise (and admonish) Furlong. Every decision Furlong makes could change history and help his father and his crew survive – or it could making his father’s death at the hands of the Borg inevitable. Q is able to give Furlong the chance to go back and correct some of the mistakes he makes, but even the omnipotent being says he can only give Furlong so many chances to change the past. But even if Furlong can save his father and the Righteous crew, will they escape destruction in one Borg attack only to face another?

Order this CDwritten by Hilary J. Bader
based on the CD-ROM game Star Trek: Borg scripted by Hilary J. Bader
directed by Karen Frillman
audio from game movie sequences directed by James L. Conway
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Howard McGillin (Cadet Furlong), John DeLancie (Q), Jeff Allin (Lt. Ralph Furlong), Barry Lynch (Captain Andropov), John Cothran Jr. (Counselor Biraka), Marnie McPhail (Ensign Targus), Murray Rubinstein (Dr. Quint), Juli Donald (Shoreham), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

Notes: This audio drama essentially adds narration to bridge the gaps between the interactive movie sequences filmed for the computer game Star Trek: Borg; only Furlong’s retrospective “log entries” were newly recorded just for the audio drama, while the non-narrated, full-cast scenes were simply the audio from the game’s filmed segments. The game’s time frame of ten years after The Best Of Both Worlds places the Borg attack that results in Cadet Furlong’s evacuation sometime during Star Trek: Voyager’s fifth season – or two years after another Borg attack chronicled in Star Trek: First Contact.

The cast of the game and the audio drama based on it is loaded with Star Trek veterans; Barry Lynch played the role of Federation defector DeSeve in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Face Of The Enemy. John Cothran Jr. appeared in Next Generation as the garrolous Klingon Nu’Daq in The Chase, as Telok in the Deep Space Nine episode Crossover, and as Gralik in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode The Shipment. Jeff Allin played the role of Ensign Sutter, whose daughter’s Imaginary Friend was the villain of the episode of the same name. Marnie McPhail appeared as an ill-fated Enterprise crewmember in Star Trek: First Contact (who, ironically, was among the Borg’s first victims in that movie), and the Star Trek: Voyager episode Innocence, as well as numerous guest appearances in Sliders and The X-Files. While Murray Rubinstein hasn’t appeared in any other Star Trek projects, he did appear as Thomas Veil’s ill-fated friend Larry in another UPN series, Nowhere Man. Juli Donald appeared in the Next Generation segment A Matter Of Perspective and in the Deep Space Nine episode Prophet Motive; she was also one of the Starfury pilots in the Babylon 5 episode The Fall of Night.

James L. Conway directed many episodes of Next Generation and Voyager, while Dennis McCarthy scored dozens of episodes from the Next Generation premiere onward. (The packaging for Star Trek: Borg mistakenly credits Jonathan Frakes, not Conway.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Spock vs. Q Star Trek

Spock Vs. Q

Spock Vs. QUsing the Guardian of Forever, Spock travels back to the twilight of the 20th century to warn humanity of an impending asteroid collision – one which history doesn’t record. The unflappable Vulcan is annoyed when an omnipotent being named Q appears, frustrating Spock’s efforts to save Earth from disaster. Spock quickly learns, however, that he can manipulate Q almost as well as Q can manipulate time, space and matter, and sets about engaging Q in a battle of wits that, if Spock wins, will mean that Q must put his powers to use to set history right.

Order this CDwritten by Cecelia Fannon

Cast: Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), John de Lancie (Q)

Notes: Recorded before a live audience as part of Nimoy and de Lancie’s Alien Voices live radio project, Spock Vs. Q was a pet project for both actors; there are no other cast members at all. The dialogue is clearly rooted in the late 90s, with references to infomercials, Seinfeld, and “yadda, yadda, yadda” thrown into the mix. If one is going to actually try to fit this into the Star Trek timeline, it is hinted that Spock is already in his post-Starfleet, Next Generation-era diplomatic career, though if one is going to try to slot this into continuity somewhere, one might as well blame the mystery asteroid threat on the temporal cold war.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 07 Star Trek Voyager

Q2

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate 54704.5: Q returns to Voyager, not having been encountered by Janeway and her crew since he begged Captain Janeway to be the mother of his child. Q managed to conceive a child without Janeway, and now that child is running into trouble with the Q Continuum. Q brings his son to Voyager in the hopes that the crew can teach the boy the qualities of humanity that Q has learned from Starfleet officers past. But the junior Q is undisciplined, bored, and has the same degree of boundless power as his father – and the resemblance of his antics to those of the Q of old are striking. But the younger Q’s impetuous nature may turn deadly for Voyager if neither Janeway nor the elder Q can reign him in.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Robert Doherty
story by Kenneth Biller
directed by LeVar Burton
music by Paul Baillargeon

Guest Cast: John de Lancie (Q), Keegan de Lancie (Q2), Manu Intiraymi (Icheb), Michael Kagan (Alien Commander), Lorna Raver (Q Judge), Anthony Holiday (Nausicaan), Scott Davidson (Bolian)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Picard Season 2 Star Trek

The Star Gazer

Star Trek: Picard2401: A year and a half after the death of his organic body, Jean-Luc Picard has become the Chancellor of Starfleet Academy, but still spends his downtime at the Picard family vineyard. Laris, now a widow, tries to drop a hint that she has an interest in him, but something distracts him. In deep space, an anomaly forms, attracting the immediate attention of everyone from Starfleet (represented by Captain Rios aboard the new U.S.S. Stargazer) to Seven of Nine, aboard Rios’ old freighter, La Sirena. Something in the anomaly begins broadcasting a very specific plea for help, including the portions of the Federation Charter governing the acceptance of new members – and specifically asks for Picard. The ship that emerges is of an unfamiliar design, though Seven immediately recognizes it as Borg technology. The Borg insist on beaming their Queen over to negotiate in person with Picard; when Rios raises the shields, the Borg force the issue. Understandably interpreting these very aggressive moves as hostility, Picard sets the Stargazer to self-destruct. Moments before the countdown reaches zero, the Borg Queen cryptically repeats something Picard’s mother once told him: “Look up.”

And when he does, Picard finds himself in a completely different world – one where he is awaited by Q.

Order DVDswritten by Akiva Goldsman & Terry Matalas
directed by Doug Aarniokoski
music by Jeff Russo
additional music by Sam Lucas

Star Trek: PicardCast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Michelle Hurd (Commander Raffi Musiker), Evan Evagora (Cadet Elnor), ORla Brady (Laris), Isa Briones (Dr. Soji Asha), Santiago Cabrera (Captain Cristobal Rios), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), John de Lancie (Q), Madeline Wise (Yvette Picard), Menik Goonerathe (Alien Emissary), April Grace (Admiral Sally Whitley), Rich Ceraulo Ko (HAndsome Deltan), Kay Bess (La Sirena Computer), Alex Diehl (Harvey), Dylan von Halle (Young Picard), Richard Jin (Moshe), Floyd Anthony Johns Jr. (Pirate #1), Swati Kapila (Decorated Officer), Geri-Nikole Love (Urtern), Adele Pomerenke (Kemi), Anushka Rani (Sing), and Number One

Star Trek: PicardNotes: This episode marks the first appearance of Guinan since Star Trek: Nemesis, and the first appearance of Q in a live action Star Trek episode since Voyager (Q2); John de Lancie had reprised the role of Q in animation on Star Trek: Lower Decks prior to this season of Picard. Perhaps in response to the previous season’s finale featuring the U.S.S. Zheng He and an enormous fleet of identical ships, the Borg threat receives a response from a much more varied contingent of Starfleet ships, including ships that had originally been designed for the game Star Trek Online. Though Isa Briones continues to appear in other roles this season, this episode marks the final appearance of Soji in the series. Although April Grace played a recurring role as a transporter chief aboard Picard’s Enterprise in both The Next Generation and the first episode of Deep Space Nine, she plays an unrelated Starfleet Admiral here.

LogBook entry by Earl Green