Attention writers of the Ferengi episodes: *this* is how you establish a convincing, scary threat to the Federation.
It’s a bit hard to judge this episode in isolation from what it’s setting up, but I think that it’s fair to call this the single best episode of The Next Generation to date. The plot is unfolded carefully, Q manages to recover a bit of his mischievous malice from the previous appearance, and the sense of peril even manages to survive the inevitable knowledge that there will be an episode next week.
The only slightly off note was the strange comic note with the new ensign in engineering, but that’s only a minor quibble.
Great Star Trek moment: Well, duh: the first appearance of the Borg. The best Star Trek villain (until they ruin them a bit in Voyager).
148 down, 589 to go.