Stardate: 42761.3 Q, from the Q continuum, returns to the Enterprise to toy with Picard and the crew. Q asks to become a member of the crew, but when he is rebuffed, he sends Enterprise out of the Alpha quadrant and into an unknown part of space. Here, Q warns them about the dangers they will face as they "go where no one has gone before".

The danger turns out to come from a deadly aggressive machine like race made up of part human, part machine, cyborg-like people, known as the Borg. As the Borg approach Enterprise, Picard tries to make friendly overtures, but the Borg response is that the crew will be "assimilated". Enterprise's defenses prove no match for the Borg's Cube that is attempting to "assimilate" them.

Can Picard save the ship and crew from certain assimilation into this machine like race, and what personal sacrifice must he make in order to secure their escape?

MacGyver works hard to retrieve the anthrax bacillus stolen by a former Navy commando who once saved his life, and is now suffering the effects of an old head wound.

ALF prepares for the baby's arrival by re-enacting scenes from "The Dick Van Dyke Show".

Eldin meets Corky for the first time and becomes infatuated with her. Phil reflects on the first time he met Murphy, when she first came to Washington to audition against Linda Ellerbee & Frank Fontana for FYI.