Season 1 Episode 1
Episode: "Encounter at Farpoint"
Whilst on its voyage to planet Deneb IV, the Enterprise is obstructed by an immense grid. The encounter is swiftly followed by contact with a member of an omnimpotent alien race that goes by the name Q. The Q have judged humanity's expansion into the galaxy has proceeded at far too great a pace but insist on using examples from humanity's past to justify arguments supporting that the species has failed to reached anything like civilisation or enlightenment and that they should therefore retreat back to Earth. Captain Picard of course protests and offers a counterproposal, that the Q observe the behaviour of the Enterprise crew throughout their mission to Deneb IV as a means of seeing first hand just how far present-day humans have come.
Q sets up members of the bridge crew in a mid-21st century courtroom scenario so that they may answer for the charges of being a greviously savage race. If Q's court of 2079 is an accurate depiction of where justice is heading, where the judge has the authority to act as both judge, jury and prosecution, no lawyers, no defence and the presence of a public audience that delights in casual courtroom violence at the hands of the military, it looks like the human condition is hanging in rags by this point.
