tlynch@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) (04/26/91)
WARNING: The following article contains spoiler information about this week's TNG episode, "Qpid". So if you don't want spoilers, don't read it until they're not spoilers anymore...:-) After working for hours on a keynote address to the Federation Archaeology Council symposium that he must deliver, Picard goes to his quarters to get some rest, but finds a surprise waiting for him--flowers, a card, a horgon, and Vash. Everything seems fine at first, but Vash soon discovers that Picard plans to keep his public dealings with her strictly platonic, and further finds that he has never mentioned her or their adventures together to any of the bridge crew. Eventually, at the pre-conference reception, she confronts him about this. When he tells her that he feels it would have been "inappropriate" to mention her, she nastily apologizes for causing him so much embarrassment, and stalks off. Picard, already in a lousy mood, goes to his ready room--where he finds Q sitting in his chair, and grinning from ear to ear. Q has returned, or so he says, to repay an old debt. Picard's attempt to rescue Q last time they met left him owing Picard something, and he wants to do something nice in return. Picard, however, will have none of it, and refuses his every offer. Q, annoyed, leaves. After another fight with Vash, Picard is not happy, and becomes even less so when Q arrives later that evening and taunts him about having been made so vulnerable by a woman. He says that his gift should be to remove this weakness, but Picard angrily refuses. When Picard says that yes, he would have Q stand idly by while Vash "led him to his destruction", Q smirks and vanishes. Q's plan becomes apparent, however, when during Picard's speech, the entire bridge crew vanishes, only to reappear in Sherwood Forest, appropriately garbed. Riker is cast as Little John, Data as Friar Tuck, Picard as Robin Hood...and as Q (as the Sheriff of Nottingham) gleefully comments, Vash, or Maid Marian, is to be put to death in Nottingham Castle at midday the next day. Picard is faced with a choice: risk his bridge crew or live with Vash's death. Although Vash, confused by her situation, tries to salvage it by agreeing to marry Sir Guy, Picard soon appears (having come alone by his own choice) to save her. When she hears he has come alone, however, she refuses to go with him, and their bickering continues until guards burst into "Marian"'s tower. Before Picard can begin to fight, Vash takes his sword and captures "Robin" herself, giving him as a wedding gift to Sir Guy. (She too, however, ends up under a death sentence when Q discovers and calls attention to her hurried note to Riker and the Merry Men asking them to come save Picard.) Riker and the others, not willing to stand idly by under any circumstances, show up in the nick of time to save Picard and Vash from the chopping block. "Robin" kills Sir Guy and rescues Maid Marian, and after Q observes that love brings out the worst in Picard (a statement Vash angrily protests), he sends everyone back except Vash. A short time later, though, Vash appears to say goodbye: she's taken on Q as a partner, and they'll explore the universe together. NEXT WEEK: Sabotage on the Enterprise, and Picard caught in the ensuing witch-hunt. Could be interesting... Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy B.A.; one of many Caltech grad students) BITNET: tlynch@citjuliet INTERNET: tlynch@juliet.caltech.edu UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.caltech.edu@hamlet.caltech.edu "He wants to do something nice for me." "I'll alert the crew." -- Copyright 1991, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...