Star Trek: The Next Generation — 6x06 — True-Q

Aired 1992-10-26

SpaceOpera.com rating:6

Average reader rating:4.72

Synopsis

A gifted young intern learns that she is a Q.

Remarkable scenes

Amanda displaying Q-like powers.
Q's entrance, and the revelation that Amanda's a Q.
Amanda describing to Beverly that she can bring back her lost loved ones but she's having trouble wrestling with the morality of that ability.
Beverly complaining that Q ruined her experiment by speeding it up unnaturally.
Q turning Beverly into a dog, Amanda turning her back, all without Beverly noticing.
Q and Amanda playing hide and go seek.
Amanda transporting Riker.
Riker: "You can't make someone love you." Amanda: "Can't I?" She waves her hand and Riker falls for her instantly...
Picard describing the tornado that killed Amanda's parents.
Picard lecturing Q on morals.
Q: "Jean Luc, sometimes I think the only reason I come here is to listen to your wonderful speeches."
Amanda making the decision to embrace her powers.

Review

A pleasing episode in that the fans have always been curious about the Q. We get to see another bit of the psychology of the Q continuum in this episode; that they are extremely ethnocentric. Only pure Qs are allowed to exist, it seems. Despite the fanboy trivia in this episode that makes it fun, the plot is little more than slightly above average because of it. Really what we see here is a recycled TNG: Hide and Q when Riker was given the chance to become a Q, except less silliness and more moral debate.

6 reader comments

Crusher tells Picard that Amanda has done honors work in "neurobiology, plasma dynamics, and ecoregeneration." Later in the episode, Crusher gives Amanda the task of testing several tricorders and explains their function to Amanda. Shouldn't someone who's done honors work in neurobiology already know how to use a tricorder?
When Amanda begins testing the tricorders, she holds the first one pointing away from her body. The rest she holds correctly, pointing toward her body.
Q gives Amanda only two choices at the end of the episode: Return to the Continuum, or refrain from using her powers. Isn't there another choice? Amanda claimed that she just wanted to become a normal human again. Isn't that the third choice? In "Deja Q," the Continuum turned Q into a human and stripped him of his powers. Why couldn't they do the same to Amanda, if that's what she really wants?
Until this episode, the first contact between humans and the Q Continuum supposedly came during "Encounter At Farpoint." During "Hide And Q," both Picard and Q make several references to this "first encounter." This episode definitely gives the impression that until Farpoint, the Q Continuum knew little and cared less for humanity. However, two members of the Q Continuum had been on Earth, took on human form, and even conceived a child at least a decade before "Encounter At Farpoint"!
The transformation of the former turbolift on the right side of the island in Main Engineering proceeds in this episode. In "Realm Of Fear," it leads to some kind of auxiliary engine room. While giving Amanda a tour, Geordi points to the door and identifies it as an entrance to a Jefferies tube.
by DSOmo | 10/11/2007 at 10:42 am

Q says she can do anything she wants as a Q, then why can't she just live as a Q among humans for a while, why couldnt her parents? It would only be a fraction of their existance, anyway. Its not like Q never spent time with the humans, he even got plenty of em killed,too.
by online broker | 10/07/2009 at 11:42 am

So dull!
The outcome is obvious from the start and nothing that happens during the episode changes that.
by Rob Herbert | 06/14/2010 at 9:59 pm

I kind of like the idea of the Enterprise having an intern program (although I wonder why we never see any other interns). Also, the type of dog that Q turned Beverly into was just perfect. I think it was a red Irish Setter? Very funny.
by Quando | 08/24/2011 at 12:35 am

Rotten: like all Q episodes. The most overrated character in all of Star Trek.
by Keefaz | 01/22/2017 at 12:15 am

Q is a very irritating introduction to the series, and considering that Roddenberry was an "Atheist" (Clearly not even close) it's amazing that the subject of superior beings came into play so often! I am always irritated that they never tied Q back to Trelaine… Ultra irritating! I seem to be getting irritated over and over on this subject!! No omnipotent being would EVER concern themselves with my being's emotional welfare, much less HUMANS! The notion is beyond absurd and… IRRITATING! The whole concept of creating gods that somehow can be tweaked by human emotion is just plain moronic…self serving in the extreme and throwing credit where nothing any human is worthy of! Human morality was Pickard's stupid argument?!?!? Laughable in the extreme!!!
by Chris Long | 05/23/2020 at 8:09 pm