Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series)

Q Who (1989)

Patrick Stewart: Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Photos 

Quotes 

• Capt. Picard : I understand what you've done here, Q. But I think the lesson could have been learned without the loss of 18 members of my crew.

  Q : If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid.

• [last lines] 

  Capt. Picard : Maybe Q did the right thing for the wrong reason.

  Guinan : How so?

  Capt. Picard : Well... perhaps what we most needed was a kick in our complacency - to prepare us for what lies ahead.

• Capt. Picard : [to Q]  If we all die here, now, you will not be able to gloat. You wanted to frighten us. We're frightened. You wanted to show us that we were inadequate. For the moment... I grant that. You wanted me to say, 'I need you'? I *need* you!

• Q : [referring to Guinan]  Picard, if you had half the sense you pretend to have, you would get her off your ship immediately. And if you'd like, I'd be more than pleased to expedite her departure.

  Capt. Picard : [to Guinan]  You know him?

  Guinan : We have had some dealings.

  Q : Those dealings were two centuries ago. This creature is not what she appears to be. She's an Imp, and where she goes, trouble always follows.

  Capt. Picard : You're speaking of yourself, Q, not Guinan.

• Q : I add a little excitement, a little spice, to your lives, and all you do is complain. Where is your adventurous spirit, your imagination? Think, Picard, think! Think of the possibilities.

  Capt. Picard : Simply speaking, we don't trust you.

  Q : Oh. Well, you may not trust me, but you do need me. You're not prepared for what awaits you.

  Capt. Picard : How can we be prepared for that which we do not know? But I do know that we are ready to encounter it.

• Capt. Picard : This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the US...

  The Borg : We have analyzed your defensive capabilities as being unable to withstand us. If you defend yourselves, you will be punished.

  [introducing the Borg] 

• Capt. Picard : Let's get the hell out of here!

• Capt. Picard : How do we reason with them, let them know that we're not a threat?

  Guinan : You don't. At least, I've never known anyone who did.

• Capt. Picard : We agreed you would never trouble my ship again.

  Q : I always keep my arrangements, sir. Look! We're nowhere near your vessel.

  [he shows him that they are actually drifting alone in space in a shuttle craft] 

• Capt. Picard : They will be coming.

  Guinan : You can bet on it.

• Counselor Deanna Troi : [her empathic sense of the Borg]  We're not dealing with an individual mind. They don't have a single leader. It's the collective minds of all of them.

  Capt. Picard : That would have definite advantages.

  Counselor Deanna Troi : Yes, a single leader can make mistakes which is far less likely in the combined whole.

• Capt. Picard : Guinan, your people have been in this part of the galaxy.

  Guinan : Yes.

  Commander William T. Riker : What can you tell us?

  Guinan : Only that if I were you, I'd start back now.

• Capt. Picard : To learn about you is, frankly, provocative. But you're next of kin to chaos.