TNG: Peak Performance

[CharlesPhipps]

I dunno, I think the episode is aware.

Worf basically says, "This guy's people have a lot of unearned respect for being really good at RISK."

Also, as much as people love Chess, plenty of RL veterans have stated it's not actually that good of a device because real war isn't about two sides with perfectly equal pieces as well as equipment.

[Rocketboy1313]

I dunno, I think the episode is aware.

Worf basically says, "This guy's people have a lot of unearned respect for being really good at RISK."

Also, as much as people love Chess, plenty of RL veterans have stated it's not actually that good of a device because real war isn't about two sides with perfectly equal pieces as well as equipment.

Agreed.

As previously mentioned, this is a bad example of a wargame, this is not a useful gage of anything, and the fact that this society is never mentioned again even tho the Federation went to war... Like, what even is the point?

I have to imagine these guys would absolutely wreck the Ferengi in some kind of economic war. I can imagine them developing good THEORY, something akin to the overlapping fields of fire used for artillery support in Viet Nam or the island hopping strategy of WWII Pacific. But these kinds of detail oriented exercises strike me as a failure of understanding what these guys would be good at or for.

[TGLS]

If they were going to bring this one episode race back, it'd be kind of interesting to have them like RAND during the Vietnam War.

Zakdorn General: The combat metrics show we're winning this war handily.
Captain: Your combat metrics count enemy dead bodies and your field commanders inflating their counts with dead civilians!

[CharlesPhipps]

Honestly, I could imagine the Zakdorn fantastically useful in war.

I'd just put them in logistics departments.

I will say that the attitude of the Enterprise is a good sign why war games are necessary. Everyone is really dismissive of the idea of combat training and readiness. As we know with the Borg, Dominion War, and Cardassians--the galaxy is no more peaceful than during Kirk's time.

[Rocketboy1313]

Honestly, I could imagine the Zakdorn fantastically useful in war.

I'd just put them in logistics departments.

Again, agreed.

I find that logistics is one of those topics people pretend in boring, but when they get something like "The Martian" or "Hatchet" to explore ins and outs of how things in a desperate situation could work they are engaged by them. My fan-fiction-ish idea for Voyager was them really exploring their limitations with resources and how to deal with it.

I will say that the attitude of the Enterprise is a good sign why war games are necessary. Everyone is really dismissive of the idea of combat training and readiness. As we know with the Borg, Dominion War, and Cardassians--the galaxy is no more peaceful than during Kirk's time.

This would have made an excellent thru line in TNG.
The idea that the Federation has experienced so much peace and have such strong ties to their biggest rival, Klingons that they their ability to effectively wage war has left them vulnerable. Kind of like the British after the final defeat of Napoleon, they stopped trying to maintain the balance of power in Europe and instead started doing a lot of colonization and arctic research.
You can definitely see elements of it in later seasons with "Pegasus" and around the middle of the series with "The Wounded" and "Drumhead".

Picard wants to be a diplomat and explorer, but he understands the need for a functioning military. He is the balance, and if the series had been about space politics (like DS9) by the end of it Picard would have had to find the balance between the two methods.

Honestly, I find Riker (hot shot ace pilot) saying that "war is a minor part of being a ships captain" to be maddeningly out of character. Why not give those lines to Data, Geordi, and Pulaski? You know, the ones who wanted to save the planet in "Pen Pals". To show a clearer ideological split in the crew between the peaceful explorer/science types and the warrior types.

[Rocketboy1313]

If they were going to bring this one episode race back, it'd be kind of interesting to have them like RAND during the Vietnam War.

Zakdorn General: The combat metrics show we're winning this war handily.
Captain: Your combat metrics count enemy dead bodies and your field commanders inflating their counts with dead civilians!

Is it weird how I can easily picture Picard, Riker, or Sisko yelling that?
It is a good idea, and would be an excellent way of illustrating again how these guys win by gaming the system rather than by "winning" in a meaningful way.

[CharlesPhipps]

Also, to prove my nerd cred, I am reminded of Data vs. this guy and Spock playing the computer.

"If neither of us make any mistakes, the only possible outcome is a draw."

[MightyDavidson]

So I always figured that Starfleet had a military arm and an exploration arm and while some ships could play both roles, like Kirk's Enterprise, Picard's Enterprise always struck me as belonging to the latter arm. I mean it's canon that the Enterprise D has civilians on it, skilled civilians granted but civilians none the less, as well as their families. That seems to suggest that this Enterprise is meant for deep space exploration rather then duking it out with the Federation's enemies.

Ergo if I was writing this episode, I'd have that be the reason they were pissy with the Zeltran guy. This ship has civilians on it, it's essentially a mobile colony, it'd be highly inappropriate to take this ship full of families into a combat situation.

[CharlesPhipps]

Ergo if I was writing this episode, I'd have that be the reason they were pissy with the Zeltran guy. This ship has civilians on it, it's essentially a mobile colony, it'd be highly inappropriate to take this ship full of families into a combat situation.

And yet it has happened hundreds of times because space is big and sometimes the closest vessel is the Enterprise.

Plus, as shown repeatedly, space is inherently dangerous.

So more like a mobile military base.

Mind you, I think that it is DS9 but not RIDICULOUS to think the Federation thought it was a peaceful time only to suddenly be disabused of it. Also, the saucer parting was SUPPOSED to protect the civilians but the problem is that dangers happen far too rapidly to do so.

[MaxWylde]

I can think of one great reason to use full ships over a holodeck. Space. Every crewmember can be at their own duty station in the ship and perform their duties. The holodeck does not have infinite space or is bigger on the inside. It pretends to be bigger.

As to the methodology of the wargame. I feel there are other ways to test asymmetrical combat. One example is the comedy movie Down Periscope. Could an on paper weaker vessel evade our vessels and do harm. Part of the exercise is testing new ships and training to handle the unexpected. So modifying the Hathaway to do strange things like a pirate might would be encouraged.
The other is related to the first. Show weaknesses of defense of a given area. I read on a security officer showing how he could get infiltrators to get into a New York area nuclear power station and cause significant damage. Then they removed him and set up the idiot games where the whole thing was totally scripted and security always won. (And yes they did these same scenarios on my base when I was in. Aggressor will approach X road at 1130. Security team will 'intercept' them at that time. Break for lunch.)

Also I personally think Riker's tactics were weaker than the tactics Lursa a Betor used on him in Generations.

Well, yes, that's another way, but I was trying to keep to the supposed intent of the scenario portrayed in this episode in light of the Borg. If Picard is actually interested in giving his officers and crew an asymmetrical situation where the Borg have arrived somewhere, and the weaker ship has to manage this situation, then the objective would be to try to gather whatever information that is feasibly and safely possible and escape to notify Starfleet. Escape is the more important thing here. In order, though, to allow the Hathaway to escape, they must first detect the Enterprise. They can't just up and leave before the Enterprise shows up beyond sensor range even to detect them because that's cheating.

So, if I were Kolrami, what I would do is have a weaker vessel, maybe the Hathaway but I'd go for a warp-capable vessel instead of disabling it, just lurk around a star-system, doing it's thing, maybe doing some surveys, and I'd have the Enterprise enter the system from anywhere Picard likes. If he wants, he can emerge close to a planet or something. The Enterprise, in order to win, must detect, and then neutralize the Hathaway. The Hathaway merely has to know that the Enterprise is there and escape to a predetermined location, maybe another system. There you go. I'd have a third ship monitor the whole thing, and I'd have numerous officers/NCOs on hand to be Observer/Controllers to make sure there's no cheating going on.

All the while, they're watching the crew and how they both perform. In both cases, I might even decide to have on O/C take an officer out, maybe not the commanding officer in the first engagement (I'd do about three or four), but someone like the chief engineer, the chief medical officer, or someone who's in charge down there in phaser or photon control, to see how quickly the crews adjust to the new command situation for their particular area. On each subsequent engagement, do the same thing with different officers. On the last one, go ahead and remove the COs. This tests how strong the chain of command structure is in the unit.

You can also test how well each section performs depending on damage, and how well Security repels boarders if you want.