Synopsis: Q returns to the Enterprise and sends the ship to a distant part of the galaxy where she encounters the Borg for the first time.
In “Q Who” Captain Jean-Luc Picard tells Q “you’re next of kin to chaos” (Hurley & Bowman, 1989), which is something that the rational Logos-driven conscious ego abhors. It also describes what bits of unconscious material can feel like to the ego when such things are brought into the ego’s sphere of consciousness. In this case, an up close and personal meeting with the equivalent of the collective unconscious.
In this episode Q flings the Enterprise deep into an unknown area of space where she encounters an alien culture completely unknown to her officers, the Borg. The Borg are not individual life forms, instead they are born as a humanoid biological life form and then artificial intelligence is linked to the human brain. Something in 1989 that was probably a most fearful thing for the Western popular culture.
Sending the Enterprise out into the far reaches of the galaxy can be analogous to the rational ego being sent to the Underworld, the human unconscious. The Borg, who live as one can also be interpreted as the collective unconscious. Q here is in the role of Hermes, the messenger of the gods in ancient Greek myth, who was not only a Trickster, but was able to travel from Olympus, to Earth, and then to the Underworld.
At the end of the episode Picard is forced to tell Q, to Q’s satisfaction, that yes, he does need him, and Q returns the Enterprise to her prior location. But Picard and the rest of the crew have now seen what lurks in the Underworld, that part of the galaxy where the Borg rule, and they are forever changed.
Reference:
Hurley, M. (Writer),& Bowman, R. (Director). (1989, May 6). Q who (Season 2, Episode 16) [TV series episode]. In G. Roddenberry (Executive Producer), Star trek: The next generation. Paramount Television.
Original post created 10 July 2021
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