However, when Maurice Hurley wrote “Q Who,” he gave the titular villain a different purpose. When Picard rejects Q’s absurd request to join the Enterprise crew, the omnipotent being throws the ship into Borg space, marking Starfleet’s first official encounter with these bionic baddies. After realizing they are helplessly outmatched, Picard swallows his pride and begs Q to help, prompting the alien to immediately return the ship to safety.

As written by Maurice Hurley, Q sees himself as a particularly brutal teacher, one who isn’t afraid to hurt a few people in order to teach others a painful lesson. In this case, he taught Picard and the crew about their own limitations and about the existence of the Borg, but this knowledge came at the expense of 18 crew members’ lives.

Picard later muses Q might have done the right thing by introducing them to the Borg, an observation which is later proven right when Starfleet’s anti-Borg research (which they would never have had without Q) helps the Enterprise prevent the Borg’s first attempted invasion of Earth.