"Seized my vessel, seized my vessel!" Now first off, as we all know, anything with Q in it is going to be great, and in "Hide and Q", he doesn't disappoint. As usual, the episode opens with a dire emergency the enterprise is investigating and suddenly Q does just as stated above and seizes Picard's "vessel."

This is the first episode that Q begins to show his lighter side. I mean calling Worf a macro-head with a micro-brain is priceless. This was also the first "Riker" episode in the series where John Frakes's talents begin to shine.

I believe that Frakes perfectly executed the stages of power corruption. At first he shrugs it off like it's nothing. Then he finally, or in this case forced, realizes the potential of this power. Once he begins to use it liberally, his fellow shipmates realize what he has become and want their old number one back. This episode also proves that if you don't earn what you want, it is only an illusion and you don't get the same satisfaction that you earned something or you did it.

The planet set was pretty cool. The sky was kind of strange though with the funky green color. One thing that I found really cheesy and a little "kindergartenish" was when Worf and the rest of the crew began to refer to Q's soldiers as "Animal things." I mean whoever wrote this couldn't come up with a more appropriate 24th century term? "Vicious animals" or "Wild Animals" or just plain "Animals" would have been a little more appropriate imho."

I would definitely say that this is one of the better episodes of season one. It featured two of TNG's best characters (Riker and Q), it had action, morals, philosophical meaning, excellent plot, humility, humor, and as always the Enterprise. AKA, the making of a great Trek episode. I give it a 5 star rating.

RATING:

out of 5

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