Peak Performance

Just like in season 1's 'The Battle', the Enterprise faces off against an antiquated Constellation-class ship. And just like in that episode, Riker and Picard are in command of either ships.

It's a fun idea to have wargames in Star Trek, though it doesn't really make sense that they do it somewhere anyone can just show up and interrupt them. Generally speaking there's a few too many instances where something conveniently happens to allow the story to play out. Having the "person sent by Starfleet" by a stupid caricature once again doesn't help.

One thing I could not figure out is what value StarFleet saw in Roy Brocksmith? His particular alien race was deemed a master at strategic planning so StarFleet inflicts him on the Enterprise and Captain Picard as an observer as the ship is ordered to a war game exercise.

Only it's not a game when the Ferengis deal themselves in. Brocksmith proves himself a fine armchair admiral. It's Patrick Stewart who employs a correct strategy to rescue forty of his crew on another vessel which includes Riker, Worf, Geordi, and Wesley Crusher.

As always even in the Star Trek future, war is really no game at all.

Agent Aaron Pierce (television series, "24", actor, Glenn Morshower) appears, interestingly enough, as an interim security officer/chief.

I recognized him almost instantly, even if his red hair was a bit of a giveaway. But also, his character's demeanor is very similar to his role on 24. It doesn't hurt that I watched this episode on a Tuesday, after just seeing an episode of 24 the night before.

Also interesting is that he, at the time 30 years old, plays an impatient young ensign (though some trivia will note he is mistakenly addressed "Lieutenant" by Capt. Picard at one point), while on the series 24, he plays a wise, intuitive, and (apparently) experienced Secret Service agent at the ripe old age of 40.

IMDb lists him appearing in another episode of ST:TNG, so I'll look forward to spotting him in that...

The Federation interrupts the work of the Enterprise to involve it in a type of war games which tests the ingenuity of the crew as they face off. Everything is done in simulation and no harm is to come. Part of the episode has to do with each ship and its "captain" getting the upper hand. Each plots in an interesting way to outdo the other. The bad thing is that both ships have had their weapons systems eliminated for the duration of the game, leaving the possibility open for an attack. Who should show up but the Ferengi. They throw a monkey wrench into things but, in the process, challenge the two captains to face a real threat without any weapons.

There is a subplot as well, as Data loses some of his confidence due to his performance against an arrogant overseer of the games. He feels he should be unbeatable and his lack of "confidence" leads him to withdraw and try to figure out what went wrong. This is an interesting twist until Picard intervenes. This is certainly an imaginative episode.

Well Star Trek has a lot of filler episodes of course, but at least a lot of them are good.

This is nothing but boring an 100% pointless. Nothing of importance happens in this snoozefest of an episode.