Q's moral/psychological trial of Captain Picard — an interpersonal power struggle in which an omnipotent trickster humiliates, isolates, and tests a captain to force a harsh lesson.

Picard wakes not in a familiar turbolift but cramped inside a shuttle, immediately humiliated and unmoored when the figure at the controls reveals himself as Q. The godlike antagonist mock-cleans …

In Ten-Forward a theatrical debate about trust and arrogance collapses into catastrophe. Q taunts Picard and reframes the conversation as a lesson in humanity's hubris; Guinan's pale warning and silence …

As the crippled Enterprise teeters under the Borg's assault, Picard swallows his pride and makes an explicit, humiliating plea to Q — "Right now — I need you." Q, momentarily …