History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E21PeakPerformance

* CryingWolf: Riker gets Worf to use the ''Enterprise''`s sensor codes to feed them a fake image of a decloaking Romulan ship, startling Picard into trying to cancel the exercise and letting the ''Hathaway'' get some shots in. Picard orders the codes changed, only for a ''Ferengi'' ship to appear. He wonders how Worf managed to circumvent the changed codes but resolves not to fall for it this time...and it turns out to be a ''real'' Ferengi ship that attacks them.

--->'''Riker:''' What's the Zakdornian word for "mismatch"?
--->'''Kolrami:''' Challenge! We do not whine about the inequities of life, and how you perform in a mismatch is precisely what is of interest to Starfleet. After all, when one is in the superior position, one is ''expected'' to win.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Actually more of a case of an outright {{Retcon}}, but even while everyone is insisting that Starfleet is not about fighting wars, according to [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E12TheWounded "The Wounded"]] two seasons later, the Federation was at war with the Cardassians ''during this episode''!
* EndlessGame: Data can keep Kolrami playing stratagema forever by continually playing for a stalemate instead of playing to win.

** Also, early in the episode Worf notes that everybody is so intimidated by the alleged strategic brilliance of Kolrami's people that nobody will risk attacking them, thus leaving their ''actual'' military competence untested. Sure enough, Kolrami is mostly useless when the Ferengi attack, and his people seem to play no role in Federation conflicts with the Borg, Cardassians or the Dominion.

--->'''Riker:''' You're outmanned, you're outgunned, you're out-equipped. What else have you got?
--->'''Worf:''' Guile!
--->'''Riker:''' Join me.
--->'''Worf:''' The honour is to serve.

* IdiotBall: ''Everyone'' when the Ferengi arrived. At no point did Picard ever attempt to explain to the Ferengi that they were conducting a military exercise. At no point did anyone even ''advise'' him to attempt to explain it to them. Would the Ferengi have believed him? Possibly not. Would the whole mess with the Ferengi have continued anyway? Possibly. But ''they didn't even TRY'' to explain the situation to the Ferengi.

* InformedAttribute: Kolrami's "arrogance", except Picard, Riker, and everyone else on the ''Enterprise'' comes off as being so pretentious, it's hard to notice that Kolrami is being arrogant. That said, Kolrami does not have much to offer in the way of useful strategic suggestions when the Ferengi attack. To be fair, Riker actually agrees with his advice of "KnowWhenToFoldEm" until they gain new information.

* PlanetOfHats: We are introduced to the Zakdorn race, whose hat is [[TheStrategist strategic thinking]]. Apparently they are so unbeatable that no other race has dared to challenge them for a very long time.
** Worf points out some FridgeLogic here; they have no actual combat experience so as a ProudWarriorRaceGuy he finds this reputation meaningless.
* PrideBeforeAFall: Kolrami's humiliation in this second game of Stratagema against Data which becomes an eternal stalemate. Kolrami is not pleased at being made a fool of.

* TakeAThirdOption: The plot does this - the arrival of the Ferengi seems to happen solely to avoid having to answer the question of who would win the war game exercise.
** Picard has the choice of fighting to protect the ''Hathaway'' and risk the destruction of the ''Enterprise'' or retreating and sacrificing the ''Hathaway'' to save the ''Enterprise''. He instead fakes the destruction of the ''Hathaway''.
* [[TheAllegedCar The Alleged Starship]]: The U.S.S. ''Hathaway'' is chosen as the ship to engage in combat simulations with the'' Enterprise''. The ''Hathaway'' is a decommissioned old broken-down rustbucket of a ship that barely works. Fortunately, Geordi and Wesley are there to give it a sorely needed tune-up...

Series:Series/{{Star Trek The Next Generation}}\\

Title: Peak Performance\\
Previous: The Emissary\\
Next: Shades of Gray\\

The ''Enterprise'' has agreed to take part in a training exercise using the run-down ''USS Hathaway'' as its opponent. Joining the crew to oversee the exercise is a supposed strategic mastermind named Kolrami. Worf calls that reputation into question pretty fast, pointing out that because Kolrami’s race is seen as a race of brilliant strategists, no one ever dares fight them, which means they might be terrible at it for all anyone knows. Kolrami outlines the plan: Riker will take command of the Hathaway, and he will have forty-eight hours to prepare it before the exercise begins. Each ship’s weapons systems will be temporarily disconnected and replaced with harmless lasers, which the computers will read as damage and shut down systems that would be affected by a real attack. Picard and Riker both state that they have reservations about the exercise, since Starfleet is meant to explore, not fight, but they concede that with the Borg threat hanging over them it is wise to have options.

Picard gives Riker the freedom to choose anyone for his crew save for Lieutenant Commander Data, and he chooses, among others, Worf, Geordi, and Wesley. Kolrami says that he expected Picard to choose Riker’s team, because it’s always a fair fight when you get to choose your own opponents, right? Pulaski finds Kolrami’s smug, self-assured attitude intolerable (not that she’s one to talk) but Data replies that Kolrami can be as big an ass as he wants because he’s awesome at a game called Stratagema. Stratagema is a computer game played by waggling one’s fingers randomly, which somehow controls dots on the (for some reason, spinning) screen to move around and enclose areas for each player until one player captures the entire screen. Riker challenges Kolrami to a game, just for a challenge, and Kolrami predictably kicks his ass.

Riker and his team beam over to the ''Hathaway'' and begin fixing her up, but they don’t have much to work with. Geordi looks over the engines and deems the ship incapable of warp drive, since even if he got it running, he doesn’t have any antimatter to fuel it with. On the plus side, Worf has a little scheme cooked up. Because of his knowledge of the Enterprise’s computers (make note of that, because he says that specifically) he can fool the ''Enterprise''’s sensors into picking up an enemy ship that isn’t there. Wesley suddenly says he needs to return to the enterprise, because he left an experiment running and needs to shut it down. Picard allows it, on the condition that he be escorted and not allowed to do anything but shut down the experiment. And if the officer Picard tasked with watching him were in any way competent at his job, this would have worked and Wesley wouldn’t have gotten away with what he got away with, but of course this is Wesley Crusher we’re talking about; anyone around him magically becomes an idiot just so he can look good. And thus, with his escort paying absolutely no attention to him, he’s able to swipe some antimatter and beam it to the ''Hathaway''. With that, the ''Hathaway'' will have warp drive after all... for two seconds, at warp 1. It’s not much, but Riker thinks it may be useful as a surprise tactic.

Kolrami continues talking smack about Riker, until Picard pulls him aside and asks what his problem is. Kolrami says that Riker could never be a good leader because he doesn’t take things seriously. Picard then rightly calls Kolrami an idiot, and points out that Riker’s jovial attitude is a how he gains loyalty from his men. Again, you wouldn’t think a strategic mastermind would have to be told that, but there you go. Picard then confronts Data, and tells him that yes, he might make mistakes, and even if he doesn’t he might still lose, but this doesn’t mean he’s malfunctioning. It’s just a part of life. Data takes his words to heart, and returns to his post.

!!Tropes:

* InformedAttribute: Kolrami's "arrogance", except Picard, Riker, and everyone else on the ''Enterprise'' comes off as being so pretentious, it's hard to notice that Kolrami is being arrogant. That said, Kolrami does not have much to offer in the way of useful strategic suggestions when the Ferengi attack.

----

* RetroactiveRecognition:
** The officer assigned to watch Wesley "[[BlatantLies deactivate his experiment]]" is played by a young Glenn Morshower, whom you might know as Special Agent Aaron Pierce on ''Series/TwentyFour''.
** The Ferengi captain is played by Deep Space Nine's Quark.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: Many people thought Riker's insistence that "combat is a minor province in the field of a starship captain" was silly and anvilicious - but when the Borg do eventually invade, straightforward combat indeed proved useless and the Borg were defeated by guile. The other side of this is that the Enterprise had already had to resort to violence several times by this episode, and canonically the Cardassian war had just ended.
** Kolrami also seems to be one when he says the ''Enterprise'' has to cut its losses and flee, abandoning the ''Hathaway'' because of TheNeedsOfTheMany, but Riker actually ''agrees'' with him until he finds out new information that lets him come up with a new tactic.
** WebSite/SFDebris pointed out another fairly major flaw in Riker's argument: the use of guile over brute strength in combat has a name, and that name is ''tactics''. So he is complaining about a tactical simulation... in favor of the use of tactics.

** SFDebris pointed out another fairly major flaw in Riker's argument: the use of guile over brute strength in combat has a name, and that name is ''tactics''. So he is complaining about a tactical simulation... in favor of the use of tactics.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The purpose of the exercise is to plan for an attack by the Borg by acknowledging how outmatched Starfleet would be. It sets up the idea of Riker in command being forced to come up with innovative tactics against an overwhelmingly powerful enemy, which he indeed goes on to do when the Borg actually do invade.

* InformedAttribute: Kolrami's "arrogance", except Picard, Riker, and everyone else on the ''Enterprise'' comes off as being so pretentious, it's hard to notice that Kolrami is being arrogant.

* AchillesInHisTent: Dr. Pulaski references this trope by name when she tries to talk Data out of his HeroicBSOD.

* FunnnyBackgroundEvent: Kolrami is constantly doing odd things in the background. At one point he seems to be flirting with a random Gold Shirt on the bridge, or at least engaging in some inappropriate touching.

* RetroactiveRecognition: The officer assigned to watch Wesley "[[BlatantLies deactivate his experiment]]" is played by a young Glenn Morshower, whom you might know as Special Agent Aaron Pierce on ''Series/TwentyFour''.

* [[TheAllegedCar The Alleged Starship]]: The U.S.S. ''Hathaway'' is chosen as the ship to engage in combat simulations with the'' Enterprise''. The ''Hathaway'' is a decommissioned olf broken-down rustbucket of a ship that barely works. Fortunately, Geordi and Wesley are there to give it a sorely needed tune-up...

* FictionalSport: Strategema provides an example of TNG's typically incomprehensible games.

Picard gives Riker the freedom to choose anyone for his crew save for Lieutenant Data, and he chooses, among others, Worf, Geordi, and Wesley. Kolrami says that he expected Picard to choose Riker’s team, because it’s always a fair fight when you get to choose your own opponents, right? Pulaski finds Kolrami’s smug, self-assured attitude intolerable (not that she’s one to talk) but Data replies that Kolrami can be as big an ass as he wants because he’s awesome at a game called Stratagema. Stratagema is a computer game played by waggling one’s fingers randomly, which somehow controls dots on the (for some reason, spinning) screen to move around and enclose areas for each player until one player captures the entire screen. Riker challenges Kolrami to a game, just for a challenge, and Kolrami predictably kicks his ass.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Many people thought Riker's insistence that "combat is a minor province in the field of a starship captain" was silly and anvilicious - but when the Borg do eventually invade, straightforward combat indeed proved useless and the Borg were defeated by guile.

* DavidVersusGoliath: The Hathaway vs the Enterprise. {{Discussed}} by Riker and Kolrami.

* [[TheAllegedCar The Alleged Starship]]: The U.S.S. Hathaway is chosen as the ship to engage in combat simulations with the Enterprise. The Hathaway is a decommissioned olf broken-down rustbucket of a ship that barely works. Fortunately, Geordi and Wesley are there to give it a sorely needed tune-up...

* MildlyMilitary: Picard deescribes Starfleet as a non-military organization whose primary mission is exploration, but still wants to engage in the tactical simulation for the sake of preparedness against the Borg.

* PlanetOfHats: We are introduced to the Zakdorn race, whose hat is strategic thinking. Apparently they are so unbeatable that no other race has dared to challenge them for a very long time.