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Old 07-12-2019, 09:47 PM
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Nate the Great Nate the Great is offline
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KOLRAMI: Having studied William Riker's file prior to this assignment, I have found him wanting.
PICARD: In what regard?
KOLRAMI: His work record is exemplary, but, as you well know, a starship captain is not manufactured. He, or she, is born from inside. From the character of the individual. My interviews have revealed a man who displays circumstantially inappropriate joviality, belying the seriousness of his station.

Ugh. As we will see in "The Best of Both Worlds", Riker can act like a captain when the time comes to act like a captain. It's not his job to be as serious as a captain when he's not a captain.

RIKER: You went back to the Enterprise for that? Wes, you cheated.

I'm going to assume that the accusation of "cheating" wasn't in reference to Wes' lie, it's referring to the given scenario: only use what's on the Hathaway. And that is cheating.

Here's the real question: Why is the Hathaway here? It was stripped of important equipment and just left in a random star system? Why? I'd almost prefer it if the Enterprise got it from that Zakdorn depot from "Unification" and towed it to the star system next door for these war games.

LAFORGE: Ever driven a Grenthemen Water Hopper?
RIKER: Yes.
LAFORGE: Ever popped the clutch?
RIKER: You're saying we're going to stall the Hathaway?

This the only mention of a Grenthemen Water Hopper in all of Trek. Of course, I don't think "stalling" is the appropriate metaphor here. I see two major problems with this whole setup: the crystals and streams aren't aligned properly and the antimatter or plasma hits something it shouldn't, or the calculations are wrong and there still isn't enough energy to engage the warp coils. Either we're dead or the inside of the engine gets messed up and we don't move. Not a "stall."

PICARD: I am less than an hour away from a battle simulation, and I have to hand-hold an android.
PULASKI: The burdens of command.

As smug as Pulaski can be sometimes, I like this line. It goes a long way to explaining why she never became a bridge officer.

PICARD: It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.

How often have we run into the reality of this truth?

DATA: I have several examples of Commander Riker's battle technique. At the Academy, he calculated a sensory blind spot on a Tholian vessel and hid within it during a battle simulation.

I hope it's a vessel that's not designed to make a Tholian Web, you don't want any blind spots on those ships!

(Kolrami laughs as the Hathaway lands multiple hits on the Enterprise)
PICARD: Warp three, evasive. Stand by. Disengage weapons and shields. Re-engage modified beam.
KOLRAMI: He's quite good.
PICARD: He's the best.

Aw, Kolrami has a sense of humor after all. I do like him better than most of the Insane Guest Star Officials of the Week.

PICARD: Where are my weapons?
BURKE: Unavailable, sir! We cannot disengage the modified beams. The connections have been fused.

So...they actually disconnected the phaser arrays from the source of the usual reticulated phased energy and connected them to fancy flashlights? I'd think foregoing the phaser arrays entirely and networking the computers of the two ships to "pretend" to fire would be enough.

KOLRAMI: As the Starfleet observer I am ordering you to withdraw!

We never got the implication that Kolrami was in Starfleet or had special dispensation to order Picard around. At least in TOS they had good reasons why the Insane Guest Star of the Week couldn't be told to shut up.

BRACTOR [on viewscreen]: I am Bractor, leader of the Ferengi attack vessel Kreechta. I shall have the secret of the other Federation ship. Surrender it to me, and I will allow your Enterprise to leave unharmed. You have ten of your minutes.

Hi Armin! I'm also reminded of the time on Stargate when Mitchell used "our Earth minutes". Daniel asks, "'Earth minutes'?" Mitchell replies, "Yeah, I always wanted to say that."

DATA: Premise. The Ferengi wish to capture the Hathaway believing it to be value. Therefore we must remove the ship from their field of interest.
KOLRAMI: And they will soon relocate it after a two second warp.
PICARD: There is a way.

Okay, here's the thing: ship's sensors have to keep track of everything within range whether they're told to look or not, or else something serious could happen. Two seconds at Warp One is six hundred thousand kilometers, fifteen times transporter range. The warp jump was meant to surprise, not escape. The Ferengi would find them almost immediately.

DATA: If the warp engines fail to function, the result could be unfortunate.

Understatement of the year, Data.

WORF: That only deceive them for a few minutes. Their sensors will soon locate us.

Ferengi sensors are so far behind Federation ones that they're that inefficient? They don't operate at the speed of light? Even if they operate at impulse speeds, it would only take ten seconds to find the Hathaway?

DATA: I simply altered my premise for playing the game.
RIKER: Explain.
DATA: Working under the assumption that Kolrami was attempting to win, it is reasonable to assume that he expected me to play for the same goal.
WESLEY: You didn't.
DATA: No. I was playing only for a standoff, a draw. While Kolrami was dedicated to winning, I was able to pass up obvious avenues of advancement and settle for a balance. Theoretically, I should be able to challenge him indefinitely.
PULASKI: Then you have beaten him.
DATA: It is a matter of perspective, Doctor. In the strictest sense, I did not win.
TROI + PULASKI: Data!
DATA: I busted him up.
ALL: Yes!

Great scene.

Nitpicker's Guide

* How can Worf hack the Ferengi's viewscreen? He doesn't know how they work! The second edition says that a reader replied that Starfleet's spies in the Romulan empire got the specs, I still don't buy it.
* Couldn't our crew have used holodecks for this scenario?
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