Peak Performance

The Enterprise reluctantly agrees to partake in a war games exercise, supervised by egotistical master strategist Sirna Kolrami. Riker's rag-tag team struggle to get their ill-prepared & outmatched vessel ready for the mock battle while on the Enterprise, Data faces a crisis of confidence after realising that he may, in fact, be fallible.

Another solid episode, examining the need for competition and the desire to win regardless of the cost. Brocksmith's guest appearance is enjoyable, as is Shimerman playing yet another Ferengi menace but the story is a touch predictable and Data's subplot felt a little superfluous for my liking. Are video games still a thing in the 24th century? Really?

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.

Having recently watched each of the 22 episodes of Season Two again, I decided to rate them in order of my personal preference.

The points awarded to each episode are only used in comparison with other episodes of this season. The Top 6 shows as listed below are the ones I would choose to put forward from season two and add to my list of Top TNG shows of the entire series.

Each of these S02 'Top 6' shows will be reviewed again once I have completed watching the entire series as part of my REVIEW 2022.

Q Who (10/10) A Matter Of Honor (10/10) Peak Performance (10/10) Samaritan Snare (10/10) Pen Pals (09/10) The Measure Of A Man (09/10)

Three other episodes could have been included in this list, but overall missed the cut simply because I didn't feel they were quite as strong as these six.

Contagion (08/10) Unnatural Selection (08/10) Where Silence Had Lease (08/10)

Bottom Four Shows Of Season Two Up The Long Ladder (03/10) Shades Of Gray (03/10) Manhunt (03/10) The Dauphin (03/10)

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...

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.