The Enterprise is tasked with saving Brial 4 from imminent destruction as its moon's orbit is decaying and will soon crash into the planet. Lt Commander La Forge works on how to use the Enterprise to pull the moon off of the collision course with the planet. Q shows up unexpectedly. He claims to have been stripped of his powers by the Q Continuum. He experiences what it is like to be human for a time.
Geordie's attempts to use the Enterprise to restore the orbit of the moon are interrupted by the Callimarane, an alien race. They are there to exact revenge on Q for some past transgression of his. Just as Q is about to give himself up to the Callimarane, in order to save the Enterprise and Brial 4, his powers are restored. Q fixes things before he leaves and briefly gives Lt Commander Data the ability to laugh.
This was a fun episode to watch. Most of the entertainment value is in Q discovering what it means to be human. He experiences back pain and hunger for the first time. He talks to Data, who isn't human but has studied humanity, about what it means to be human. In a way it is a comedy of manners as it is about how Q treats those around him now that he is a mere mortal with the memory of what it was like to be a god-like being.
Data laughing was a weird sight to see. It looked so strange. He looked and sounded almost human when he laughed. I didn't know what to make of it. All of a sudden he was laughing. Why he was laughing wasn't exactly clear. It brought a smile to my face and confused me at the same time.
Corbin Bernsen makes a brief appearance in this episode in the role of another member of the Q Continuum. I believe it is his one and only appearance in any production of Star Trek.
I have been a bit reluctant to go back and watch the Q episodes of Star Trek. They can be entertaining but they aren't my favorite type of Star Trek stories. I suspect that the the culture clash that occurs when Q shows up is part what makes these episodes, or at the very least this one, fun to watch. Based on my positive experience with this one I'm now thinking about giving the earlier Q episodes a try, some of which I have probably seen before.
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