The Enterprise is hosting an archeology conference at which Picard is to be the keynote speaker. Among the archeology specialists attending the conference is Vash, the woman whom Picard built a relationship with while vacationing on Risa (Season 3, "Captain's Holiday.") Picard is initially delighted to have Vash on board but soon Independent Picard and Relationship Picard begin colliding as Vash takes more and more of an interest with Picard's friends and crew.
It seems Picard didn't tell much, if anything, to the crew about his time with Vash while on Risa so everyone is quite surprised to see how close they are as they all take a keen interest in her visit. Making Picard increasingly uncomfortable which only seems to annoy Vash.
On a visit to Vash's quarters to discuss things with her Picard discovers archeology equipment in the room and deduces that she intends to explore the closed-to-outsiders ruins on the planet below and suspects Vash's visit wasn't entirely about reuniting with him.
Meanwhile, Q has returned to the ship intending to repay the "debt" he owes Picard after the events in last season's "Deja Q" where Picard had saved Q in a show of humanity, rather than let Q die at the ethereal hands of an energy being.
Between Vash and Q repaying his debt it seems this episodes is about wrapping up dangling plot threads from the previous season.
Q notices Picard's changed demeanor with Vash on the ship and sees the love Picard holds as a weakness. He elects to show Picard how strong this weakness is in order to repay the debt. To do so he teleports Picard, Vash and the rest of the bridge crew into a fantastical recreation of Sherwood Forest in the stories of Robin Hood.
Picard, naturally, is cast as Robin Hood (while sporting an awesome Van Dyke beard/mustache combo), Riker as John Little, Data as Friar Tuck, Worf as Will Scarlett and Geordi as Allen-a-Dale. Troi and Crusher are two of the "Merry Men."
Q casts himself as the Sheriff of Nottingham and informs Picard he's given the fantasy a "life of its own" and he has no control over what's going to happen, doesn't know what's going to happen, cannot stop it and any consequences of Picard's action, or inaction, will be lasting and irreversible. Picard is content to stay in the forest and sit-out the fantasy until the end of it on noon the following day until he learns Vash has been cast as Maid Marian and is set to be be-headed at that time for treason. So he can either do nothing and save himself and crew at the cost of Vash's life or he can risk himself and/or his crew to try and save Vash.
Meanwhile in Nottingham Castle Vash is trying to adapt to the situation but soon figures out that if she agrees to marry Sir Guy of Gisborne she can save her life. This act intrigues Q and he begins to take a keener interest in Vash, realizing what Picard may see in her.
Picard opts to try and save Vash on his own, ordering the crew to stay behind, but during his rescue Vash pulls Picard's own sword on him, having deemed his escape plan too risky, this allows Picard to be arrested by Sir Guy. Piquing Q's interest even more until he catches Vash trying to use one of her servants to get a message to the Merry Men/the crew.
Picard and Vash are set to be beheaded, before the order is given Q gloats that Picard has proven what the weakness of love has done to him. But the rest of the crew are shown to be hiding in the crowd in the castle courtyard and fight breaks out between the guardsmen and the crew. Picard manages to kill Sir Guy and rescue Vash without any loss of life. Q admits the defeat but still points out that things just as easily could have gone poorly. Picard's love is a weakness in him that put the lives of others at risk. Vash counters that the love Picard has brought out his bravery and who he truly is once he realized to be more open about his love for her. Q considers his debt repaid.
The crew is returned to the ship and in parting Picard learns that Vash and Q have built something of a partnership over their shared duplicitous and untrustworthy personalities and Q intends to show Vash some great archaeological wonders of the universe. As an addendum to the repaid debt Picard makes Q promise to keep Vash safe. Vash and Picard share a kiss before Vash is whisked off to Deep Space Nine in a couple years.
This isn't altogether a terrible episode. Other than it being cheap (if not out right free due to Public Domain rules) I'm not sure why Robin Hood was chosen to be the fantasy to send everyone into. I guess it works as it easily has a cast of characters to try and mold everyone into but other than Picard as Robin Hood, Q as The Sheriff and Vash as Maid Marian the episode doesn't do much with the premise. It would have been maybe a bit more fun if more of the episode was spent showing the crew cast in these other roles/characters rather than just the "idea" of Geordi being a lute player and Data being a friar.
Sure, the episode had to set-up where it was going and the premise is hardly worthy of a 2-parter but I really think the episode would have been much improved with more time spent in the Robin Hood fantasy.
I guess we're lucky Q didn't choose Twilight as a "love story" to put Picard and Vash into. (And yes, yes, Twilight didn't exist when the episode was made but it, theoretically, exists in the literary history of the 24c humanity.)
The costuming and makeup effects (particularly Stewart's Van Dyke) were pretty good as were, to some degree, the sets and location shoots. Stewart, Jennifer Hetrick and DeLancie all do a good job playing these roles. They may be playing "themselves" (their actual character) but they manage to find the right balance between their TNG character and the Robin Hood character. It somehow works. I'd be interesting in seeing a full Robin Hood adventure with this cast playing the TNG characters playing the Robin Hood characters. Which is why I'm disappointed more time wasn't spent in the Robin Hood fantasy.
There's a couple of oddities during the final battle, while it makes sense Picard would be somewhat skillful at sword fighting given his interest in fencing, and Worf being adept at sword fighting given his heritage and, hell, even Riker if we want to think about the goofy American Gladiators game he fought against his father in but I'm not sure how Geordi could be a skillful swordsman without getting his ass handed to him. And this is one of those episodes that gives an "odd" moment to the female characters. Where Troi and Crusher, Starfleet Officers who must be trained in *some* kind of self-defense or combat techniques decide to take out two of the sentries by smashing pots on their heads. Even Lucy and Ethel shake their heads at that.
The episode does have some nice moments in seeing this other side of Picard we didn't get to see very often in the series and it's also nice seeing how it conflicts with him trying to maintain that image of the stolid commander. Seeing his "world's collide" when Vash is on the ship, particularly when she meets Crusher and when Riker tries to pick Vash up in Ten Forward, is also pretty fun and interesting.
This episode also has some of the best Worf lines/moments per capita in the entire series.
"Nice legs... For a human." -Worf on checking out Vash as she walks by in Ten-Forward.
"Sir, I protest. I am not a merry man!" - Worf soon after assessing their situation upon arriving in the Robin Hood fantasy.
"Sorry." - Worf to Geordi (Allen-a-Dale) after smashing the lute.
All and all, not *to* terrible of an episode as I may have suggested last week, seeing Vash again is great and Q is always fun. But the episode isn't one I'd put in my top-10, not the bottom-10 either, however. It's a filler episode, mostly.
Heads up because we're about to head into a string of pretty darn good episodes.
My least favorite Q episode is probably the first season one with the "vicious animal things" and giving Riker Q-powers. Second would be the 6th? Season one with the Q chick doing an internship on the ship.
