Plot

The Enterprise brings aboard a Starfleet intern, Amanda Rogers, who plans to study biological sciences under Dr. Crusher

Beverly Crusher

Commander Beverly Crusher, M.D. , played by actress Gates McFadden, is a fictional character on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and its subsequent spinoff films...

. The crew soon finds Amanda has unusual abilities such as redirecting a falling cargo crate to avoid injury, and the ability to contain an explosion in the warp core. Q

Q (Star Trek)

Q is a fictional character who appears in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, as well as in related products. In all of these programs, he is played by John de Lancie....

 appears and admits that Amanda is actually a member of the Q Continuum

Q Continuum

In the fictional televised Star Trek universe, the Q Continuum is an extradimensional plane of existence inhabited by a race of extremely powerful, hyper-intelligent beings known as the Q...

having been conceived by two other Q when they opted to take on human forms and forfeited their Q-enabled abilities. Q has arrived to teach Amanda how to harness her powers, as well as to decide whether to return to the Q Continuum, or remain living a normal human life.

Captain Picard, suspicious of Q's motives, orders Lt. Commander Data to investigate Amanda's parents. They find that they died from a freak tornado in their Kansas home, something that would be nearly impossible with Earth's weather modification network. Picard asks Q about this, and Q reveals that the Continuum, having seen Amanda's parents as a threat, killed them while they were mortal. Picard forces Q to reveal his true intentions, which is to determine if Amanda is truly a Q, or if she is a Q-human hybrid, in which case, he has orders to destroy her. Picard argues with Q, and eventually Q agrees to give Amanda the choice of joining the Q or remaining human and voluntarily resist using her powers.

As Amanda contemplates her choice, the ship receives a distress call from a nearby planet where their ionic anti-pollution systems are failing rapidly, which would flood the atmosphere and block out the sun. The Enterprise crew races to help but cannot keep up with the failures. Q taunts Amanda that should she not join the Continuum, it will be difficult to resist using her powers in cases such as this. Amanda makes her choice and uses her abilities to restore the pollution systems to normal, saving the planet. Having made her choice, Q prepares to take Amanda to the Q Continuum, but she requests time to say goodbye to the crew fearing that she will not see them again, particularly Dr. Crusher, who reminds her that as a Q, she can do anything she wants.