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things he worries about. While Picard and his crew amuse Q, this obviously is not a goal in itself or he would have stayed even after the mystery of Farpoint had been solved, coming up with a new challenge immediately.
    Several times, Q refers to the fact that he is not acting alone and has the support of the other Qs who exist in the Continuum. Unlike Trelane and many tricksters of myth, he’s not just a rogue indulging in a power fantasy until he’s discovered. This might actually be his job.
    In his next appearance ( TNG , “Hide and Q”), Q seems intent on forcing some of the Enterprise officers into a new game of life and death. This turns out to be a ruse; his real purpose is to give his abilities to Picard’s first officer, William T. Riker. Q’s reasons for this are not entirely clear. He says the Continuum needs a new member of their race to have a human perspective and passions and that they need new blood to keep from becoming stagnant. But he also seems to enjoy the challenge of testing whether or not Riker is willing to leave behind his humanity for the sake of near-ultimate power. Whatever his reasons, this is as much a test for Q, and when Riker gives back the power, our cosmic trickster is seemingly whisked away by his own people so that he can be punished.
    Q doesn’t appear again until the second season of Next Generation. In the episode “Q Who,” he once again proves to be someone who moves in mysterious and circuitous ways. Initially, he claims that he’s been kicked out of the Continuum for his earlier failure to recruit Riker. Now apparently homeless, he asks to join Picard’s crew, while at the same time mocking the limitations of the Federation starship and insisting that they desperately need a being of his power and experience: “You judge yourselves against the pitiful adversaries you’ve encountered so far. The Romulans, the Klingons. . . . They’re nothing compared to what’s waiting” ( TNG , “Q Who”).
    As would be expected, Picard doesn’t respond well to Q’s customary arrogance, so he tells him off, saying humans can take on any challenge. Q has a temper tantrum (or does he?) and responds to Picard’s remark by transporting the ship to a faraway region of space, directly in the path of a new enemy: the Borg.
    As the ship comes under attack from this previously unknown menace, Q appears quite cool and sinister as he explains, “[The Borg are] unlike anything your Federation has ever faced.” In this, Q is being completely honest. The Borg seem impervious to all Federation strategies and weapons and are deaf to any negotiation or discussion. At the end of the adventure, with several crewmembers already dead and the ship now facing inevitable destruction, Picard admits to Q that he needs help and can’t save the ship alone.
    Instantly, the Enterprise is returned to where it came from, but Q doesn’t boast or gloat. Instead, he takes on a very reserved manner, like a teacher who is proud of a student, commending Picard for putting aside personal feelings and asking for help from an enemy, admitting his limitations in the process. Perhaps he decided to test the Enterprise in this way so he could win back favor with the Continuum. Or perhaps he lied from the beginning and hadn’t been kicked out of the Continuum at all, but instead had been sent to test Picard’s pride:
    Picard: I understand what you’ve done here, Q, but I think the lesson could’ve been learned without the loss of eighteen members of my crew.
    Q: If you can’t take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It’s not safe out here. It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires, both subtle and gross. But it’s not for the timid.
    Either way, this episode was perhaps the strongest evidence of Q’s manipulative ways due to the debate that it inspired among