Tapestry

Episode 157

Friday 13 June 2025

Picard is sleeping in a sunlit bedroom, lying on his side facing us, smiling post-coitally as he gently wakes up. A hand appears from behind him and strokes his ear. (It's Q.)

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Series 6, Episode 15

Stardate: Unknown (2369)

First broadcast on Monday 15 February 1993

When Q first turned up on the Enterprise bridge in 1987, he came to teach all of humanity a lesson about its terrible past. But this week his mission is more personal: to teach Picard how much he owes his young, undisciplined self, and to remind us that youth is silly and difficult, and that the people living through it deserve our respect.

(On that topic, if you wish to see the inspiration for Joe’s preferred 1990s hairstyle, you should check out the cover of Star Trek: The Next Generation — Boogeymen (1991) by Mel Gilden.)