TNG: “True Q” and “Rascals”

Date: May 11, 2020

Season 6, Episodes 6 and 7

Musical Accompaniment: Chants du Sud et du Nord by Arianna Savall & Petter Udland Johansen

Interstellar News: Social distance walking and dinner was a great success.

Favorite Quote from “True Q”:

Q: She was being impetuous. She’ll just have to start behaving like a Q.

Picard: If I’m not mistaken, she just did.

Picard telling Q “what for”.

“True Q” begins with the arrival of honor student Amanda Rogers who is going to intern aboard the Enterprise. After attempting to flirt with Riker a bit, puppies randomly appear and then disappear… whoa! Dr. Crusher gives Amanda a task and has her deliver tricorders to La Forge in the Cargo Bay, just in time for her to save Riker from sure death. Amanda, Data, and La Forge are down in Engineering when the warp core is about to blow, but Amanda quiets it. As Picard and crew sit down to discuss Amanda, Q pops in and explains that Amanda is the child of two Q’s who masqueraded as humans and he’s there “to help”.

Picard and Q agree to give her a choice, but Q is all grabby and gets shot across the room. He’s also in cahoots with a shadowy figure, but he does try to help train Amanda a bit. In the meantime, Picard has Data investigate the death of Amanda’s biological parents and find out they were terminated. Q comes clean that they were told they could keep Amanda as long as they didn’t use their Q powers, but they violated that rule, though he will give Amanda the same choice. Amanda, of course, swears she can resist temptation and then goes and fixes the entire planet… so she agrees to go off with Q.

As some of you may know I have four cats, one dog, a husband, and until recently I also had a roommate who had two dogs. I have therefore been calling my house “the zoo” for the last two years. I write all that because Amanda calls her three dogs “her zoo” and I thought that was adorable and fitting, especially when all of the puppies appeared. She also started out with the best of intentions and may have made better decisions if it wasn’t for the influence of Q. We see it at the end where she really is human in sentiment and heals the planet, she just couldn’t let everyone die… especially Riker. That is, however, the end of my love for this episode.

Here’s the thing. In “Deja Q” it was established that you could take away a Q’s power, so why wasn’t that one of the choices? Why was it you can just not use them or you can come back to the Continuum? Also, Q was a little flirty with Amanda which is just awful since she was begotten by two Q’s in the first place. Amanda also has a strong fascination with Riker, going so far as to whisk him away and force him to love her, but in the end she just can’t live with her choices. While I love Q and his snottiness, Picard and his speeches, and Dr. Crusher and her new hairdo, I don’t love the inconsistencies that make my head hurt. As a normal Trek episode this would normally earn a 5, but in comparison to the other “Q” episodes, I’m only assigning 4 puppies.

Favorite Quotes from “Rascals”:

O’Brien: No. I mean, of course you’re my wife. But you’re also ten years old.

Keiko: Beverly said it’s actually closer to twelve.

O’Brien: That’s not the point.

O’Brien making a VERY valid point.

Guinan: At the moment I can’t do anything about it, so I might as well enjoy it.

Ro: Enjoy what? Where did you get the idea that being short and awkward is some kind of wonderful gift?

As someone who is 5 foot tall, Ro makes a spectacularly valid point.

“Rascals” begins with Picard, Ro, Guinan, and Keiko heading back to the Enterprise via shuttlecraft. There’s a distress call so they have to get back quickly when their craft suddenly gets stuck and O’Brien has to beam them back. He gets them back but in the bodies of their pre-teen selves, but with all the knowledge and understanding… oh my! Young Picard dives right back into work until Dr. Crusher talks him into allowing Riker to be in control until things are settled. Guinan wants to play and enjoy being young, Ro wants to pout, and Keiko is off with O’Brien.

Troi and Picard discuss options if this happens to be permanent, Crusher tries to find a way to revert them back to their appropriately aged bodies, La Forge and O’Brien sift through the shuttlecraft parts, and there’s still the distress signal to take care of. The Enterprise arrives at Ligos VII, are shot at by two Klingon ships, and are boarded by Ferengi. The “children” are put in a room together and Picard enacts a plan, looping in Alexander to help as well. It’s very Home Alone where things have to happen just so in order to be effective, but the kids save the day. The Ferengi are arrested, the science colony is squared away, and O’Brien and Crusher fix the kids, except for Ro who colors with adult Guinan for a bit.

There were some adorable bits to this episode. Young Picard acting like the boss he is, throwing a tantrum, and running his hands through his hair as often as possible when he’s young. It was heartbreaking to see Molly ask for Keiko and not accepting her now 12 year old mom. It was hysterical that Riker was just spouting technobabble at the Ferengi while he was giving access to the kid’s room computer, and seeing Riker and Picard play father and son was so totally worth it. The smile on Alexander’s face when he was able to help was awesome, I was worried about that kid. It was also good to see that Guinan and Ro are still friends. The rest of the episode, however, is just god awful. The Enterprise is taken over by about 10 Ferengi, Worf is a worse shot than even the shortest Stormtrooper, and the voices were so terrible. Maybe it’s the Netflix version, but they all sound like a bad dub and it totally ruined the episode for me. I’ll just take 2 flux capacitors and be on my way… thanks.

TA Out!