Q’s back, looking for some baby sitting.
Q must be the most unreliable plot device in Trek. Some episodes are great (*All Good Things* in particular), some are quite bad (*Qpid*). This episode recapitulates that in microcosm – it veers from good (Q’s final test of his son) to dull (the extended training montage) and the bad (various bits of sulking). With a bit more space Q-Junior could have been an interesting character – but that would have taken multiple episodes, just not possible in this show.
But there isn’t enough Q. The real charm of these episodes is the scenery chewing antics vs Janeway (or Picard), and we spend too much time with Sulky-Q, not nearly enough with real Q. What we do see is just enough to make me wish for a different Q episode to this one.
(I agree with Q-junior: I would have failed Icheb too, but for not keeping to the time limit more than anything else. And I thought turning Engineering into a night club was genuinely pretty funny).
630 down, 107 to go.