Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series)

True Q (1992)

Jonathan Frakes: Commander William Thomas 'Will' Riker

Photos 

Quotes 

• Doctor Beverly Crusher : [Picard, Riker, Crusher, LaForge and Troi have assembled in the Observation Lounge to discuss Amanda Rogers, a new intern aboard the Enterprise, who mysteriously contained a warp core breach by sheer force of will alone]  She's a little shaken up, but she's gonna be fine.

  Commander William T. Riker : You said she was adopted. Could she be an alien?

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : She's human. There's nothing more unusual about her. Not that my instruments can detect.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Commander, have you been able to determine the cause of the warp breach?

  Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge : No, Sir. Everything was normal and then suddenly it's like the laws of physics went right out the window.

  Q : [Q materialises in one of the empty chairs wearing his usual Starfleet uniform]  And why shouldn't they? They're so inconvenient.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : [a collective air of dismay suddenly descends on the room]  Q!

  Q : Mon Capitan.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Are you responsible for this incident in Engineering?

  Q : [surprisingly upfront about it]  Of course. I needed to find out if what I suspected about the girl were true.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : That being?

  Q : That she's a Q.

  Counselor Deanna Troi : Amanda's a Q?

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : How is that possible? Her, her parents... her biological parents were human.

  Q : Well, not exactly. They had assumed human form in order to visit Earth, I suppose for... for amusement. But in vulgar human fashion they proceeded to conceive a child...

  [he winks at Beverly who looks thoroughly insulted] 

  Q : ... and then like mawkish humans they became attached to it. What is it about these squirming little infants that you find so appealing?

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : I'm sure that's beyond your comprehension, Q.

  Q : I desperately hope so.

  Counselor Deanna Troi : What happened to Amanda's parents?

  Q : They died in an accident.

  [that gets Picard's attention but keeps it to himself for now] 

  Q : None of us knew whether she had inherited the capacities of the Q but recently they've begun to emerge and er... as an expert in humanity... I was sent to investigate.

  Commander William T. Riker : You... an expert in humanity?

  Q : Not a very challenging field of study, I grant you.

  Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge : Are you saying that you created a core breach just to test this girl?

  Q : Uh huh.

  Counselor Deanna Troi : What would have happened if she couldn't stop it?

  Q : Then I would have known she wasn't a Q.

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : And now that you know - what do you intend to do?

  Q : Instruct her. If this child does not learn how to control her power she may accidentally destroy herself... or all of you... or perhaps your entire galaxy?

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : I find it hard to believe that you're here to do us a favour.

  Q : You're quite right. I wouldn't. But there are those in the Continuum...

  [raises his eyes skyward] 

  Q : ... who have an over exaggerated sense of responsibility. They think that we need to take precautions to keep the little dear from running amok.

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : And once you've taught her... then you'll go away?

  Q : And leave her here? Of course not. She'll come back to the Continuum where she belongs.

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : Wait a minute! You, you can't just come in here and take her away from everything she's ever known.

  Q : [laughs that off]  I assure you I can.

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : She has plans for herself. She wants to have a career and a family.

  Q : I'm rescuing her from that miserable existence.

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : That miserable existence is all she's known for the last eighteen years. You have no right to take her away from it!

  Q : [bored with the direction this conversation has taken]  Mon Capitan, I really think that we need to speak privately.

  [Q transports them both to Picard's Ready Room] 

  Q : Well, there, that's better. Crusher gets more shrill with each passing year.

• Q : [on Amanda]  None of us knew whether she had inherited the capacities of the Q, but recently they've begun to emerge, and, uh, as an expert in humanity, I was sent to investigate.

  Commander William T. Riker : You, an expert in humanity?

  Q : Not a very challenging field of study, I grant you.

• Commander William T. Riker : You're a very lovely young lady, but none of this is real.

  Amanda Rogers : My feelings are real.

  Commander William T. Riker : I know, but you can't make someone love you.

  Amanda Rogers : Can't I?

  Commander William T. Riker : Oh Amanda, you're so beautiful.

  [kisses her neck]