Qpid by: Ira Steven Behr from a story by: Randee Russell and Ira Steven Behr and directed by: Cliff Bole

 

“Qpid” is written by: Ira Steven Behr, from a story by: Randee Russell and Ira Steven Behr, and is directed by: Cliff Bole.  It was produced under production code 194, was the 20^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, the 94^th episode overall, and was broadcast on April 22, 1991.

 

Unable to outshine the premises of “Q Who” and “Deja Q”, “Qpid” is an episode that decides what Star Trek: The Next Generation really needs is a love triangle between Captain Picard, Q, and Vash from “Captain’s Holiday”.  Randee Russell is credited with contributing the story to the episode with Ira Steven Behr, and apparently his only contribution is the love triangle at the center of the episode.  The plot and final script is credited to Ira Steven Behr, a writer responsible for “Captain’s Holiday” and some of the ideas behind “Yesterday’s Enterprise”.  “Qpid” is actually his last contribution to Star Trek: The Next Generation, he had left the writer’s room at the end of the previous season due to feeling creatively unfulfilled.  Michael Piller asked him to come back to write “Qpid” as Piller believed that Behr’s touch would work for this season’s appearance of Q, played by: John de Lancie, and the thought to bring back Vash, played by: Jennifer Hetrick, when this was proposed for the third season as an episode set in Camelot.  The love triangle would have put Picard, Vash, and Q in the roles of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot respectively as an examination of courtly love and to test Picard’s feelings towards the treasure hunter.  In developing the episode, however, the setting of the fantasy changed to Sherwood Forest and the tales of Robin Hood and accommodating this a lot of the genre of the episode changed.  It does allow the rest of the Enterprise crew to become Merry Men, even if Worf declares that is something he is not, and it becomes a test for Picard to go on an adventure so his Robin saves Marion.  Joining the cast on the adventure is stage actor Clive Revill hamming it up as a delightfully evil Sir Guy of Gisbourne.  Of course by the end of the trial Picard passes the test from Q, the rest of the Enterprise crew contribute to the final rescue of their captain and his love, and Vash makes the not so surprising decision to choose Q over Picard (he can offer her far more adventure and treasure, though Picard uses his debt from Q to promise her safety in a touching ending).

 

The actual parody of Robin Hood only takes up the last third of the episode and yet the way Ira Steven Behr scripts the sequences work as well as they do because they don’t overstay their welcome.  They are particularly tight, within the space of five minutes giving each of the Enterprise crew a moment to shine in the comedic shenanigans, the aforementioned Worf declaration being a highlight but Data also gets quite a good one of just being a complete fish out of water in this genre of story.  Cliff Bole directs the episode and it’s clear he is having a lot of fun taking advantage of the location filming allocated to the episode and in parodying classic adventure films.  Michael Curtiz and William Keighley’s The Adventures of Robin Hood is visually the clear inspiration as to how the action is filmed and the sets that are used, as are the specific colors used on the Robin Hood costumes in this sequence.  Because it’s only the final act of the episode, this is also a sequence that does not overstay its welcome.  While the original series of Star Trek would do similar parodies, were Star Trek: The Next Generation to do so in the same way it would not work nearly as well.  The subversion of the typical Robin Hood story is that it is Picard in the role of Robin and Vash’s own sense of self-preservation means that both characters are going to act against type.  This is what provides the tension for the sequence, they are both to be executed at noon because Picard did not just let his crew into his confidence.  Picard does not really know how to reconcile his relationship with Vash, her nature as a treasure hunter, and his position as captain of the Enterprise.

 

What elevates “Qpid” is how the first two acts play out as a standard romantic comedy as close to the letter as possible.  The episode opens with Picard incredibly nervous about having to give a speech to a group of archeologists, the end of the pre-credits scene being Vash’s entrance which is played as a lover coming back into Picard’s life.  Both Hetrick and Patrick Stewart play it incredibly well, with loving looks in each other’s eyes and nothing but happiness.  Dramatically this is creating the twist that the danger of the episode is not some big, planet destroying threat of aliens, but Picard having to be emotionally vulnerable enough to fall in love.  The conflict comes from the fact that Picard did not actually tell anybody about his relationship with Vash, Gates McFadden as Crusher getting the best reaction of this mix of subtle jealousy but immense pride that the stiff captain is in fact a human being.  The only thing that undercuts this, and the weakest aspect of the episode, is that the scene of a character reacting to the fact Picard had a romantic interest does repeat perhaps one too many times without actually developing it a little more.  Jonathan Frakes plays Riker’s scene as equally romantic and Data is fortunately not given one.  It’s after this sequence that Behr then twists the expectations by introducing Q, sitting in Picard’s chair in his ready room.  This is framed and performed as the same as the appearance of Vash.  While on the surface and with the conclusion, the love triangle implies Q and Picard are vying for Vash’s affections, Q’s reintroduction heavily implies that it is actually Vash and Q vying for the affections of Picard.  John de Lancie has always played Q as queer coded and while executive producer Rick Berman was quite adamant at keeping LGBTQ characters off Star Trek, a decision that will always remain a black mark on the franchise and a reminder how its progressivism has always been inconsistent, Behr’s script and de Lancie’s performance makes it clear that Q feels a passionate attraction and fascination with Picard.  Q is written as outside of the human concept of love, but de Lancie makes him an ignored lover, elevating the episode to the same level as the last two appearances of the character.  Even the title of Qpid indicates that Q’s role here is that of a god of love and passion.

 

Overall, “Qpid” somehow manages to slip an actual love triangle onto Star Trek: The Next Generation and becomes a near perfect example of how to do a fun episode while still saying a lot about the characters.  Ira Steven Behr is a writer who understands how to layer the subtext of the episode to make the fun Robin Hood pastiche a damning indictment on Picard’s need to let himself go, find love, and accept fluidity in his role and identity.  9/10.