Series: Star Trek: TNG
Episode: 6.06 True Q (11/02/1992)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Status: 0/3/38
Notable Guest Stars:
Olivia d’Abo (Amanda Rogers) – d’Abo might be recognized as Karen Arnold, the character she played for seven years on the Wonder Years. Which oddly enough, I don’t think I’ve watched other then clips. Might have to do that one of these days.
John de Lancie (Q) – He’s back, back again. Still causing trouble, still judging humanity.
Review:
This episode is kind of odd because I’ve seen Voyager and there is a specific episode in that series that seems to forget this episode happened, but Oh well, we will get to that when we get to Voyager and Lady Q.
In this episode, Q finds himself sent to the Enterprise on a mission to decide if Amanda Rogers, a Q raised by human parents, is worth bringing back into the Continuum. If not, they want him to destroy her. I have trouble believing Q ever considered that an option, especially has he had ready options later in the episode, but at least one point the Continuum was concerned enough to desire it.
There is a scene where Amanda creates for herself a Austen-esque love sequence with Riker, which I fast forwarded for because it made me cringe a little. To be honest, I don’t think I would have cared for it regardless of who the object of her affections was. Its realistic to think that Amanda, whose portrayed as a teenager (probably 16ish, since she isn’t in the Academy yet), would have a crush on Riker, who cuts a dashing figure. Still weirds me out, and I find it hard to explain why. Maybe it’s the age difference. Riker’s 20 years older then her. He’s 35 at this point, maybe 34 at the youngest. Amanda is 15-16.
Also it might have been nice for her to have a crush on one of the others, maybe Geordi?
It is interesting that in the end Amanda chooses to go to the Continuum because she can not see a way to not use her powers when people are in danger. She saves an entire planet and several Enterprise officers over the course of this episode. She’s a good Q, and I wish we saw her again. Alas, only in the books.
Interesting Notes:
- Written by Rene Exhevarria based on an idea submitted by a teenage fan, Matthew Corey.
- Directed by Robert Scheerer
- This episode might also be connected to the season 1 episode where Riker is also given Q powers. However, Amanda is Q, rather then just getting the powers as a test.
- This was an attempt to bring back some of the Menance of Q from the first episode (something I think they do better in other episodes).
Pros
- I find the idea that there are Q who choose to leave and live as a species interesting.
Cons:
- So, in Voyager the Q are having problems. Our Q ends up convinced that he needs to have a child. So he goes to a human (maybe inspired by Amanda) but somehow the fact that Amanda was born to two Q is never brought up. He and Lady Q are quite surprised by the idea of reproduction. Q Jr. is supposedly the first Q to be born in quite some time, which again ignores Amanda.
- No sign of Amanda after this episode.
Screencap via CygnusX1.net
Sokorra Lewis 