Peak Performance TNG episode: Encyclopedia - Peak Performance TNG episode

Peak Performance (TNG episode)

"Peak Performance" is an episode from the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The USS Enterprise-D is ordered by Starfleet Command to take part in a combat practice simulation. A Zakdorn strategist named Sirma Kolrami is sent to the Enterprise-D to serve as tactical consulant and overseer of the simulation.

The simulation consists of a battle between the Enterprise-D and an 80-year-old Federation ship called the USS Hathaway, which is in orbit around a nearby planet in the Braslota system. The crew of the Enterprise-D is split: Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Lieutenant Commander Data, Doctor Katherine Pulaski and Counselor Deanna Troi stay on the Enterprise-D, while Commander William Riker, Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge, Lieutenant Worf and Ensign Wesley Crusher go aboard the Hathaway. Each ship will try its best to disable the other, although for the purpose of practice, they are using simulated phasers instead of real ones.

The Hathaway, clearly technologically obsolete, is completely out of dilithium, making warp drive impossible. However, Wesley Crusher pretends to have left an experiment running on the Enterprise-D, and temporarily beams back to shut it down. In the process, he beams a ball of dilithium to the Hathaway, allowing them Warp 1 for two seconds.

As the battle begins, Riker allows Worf to use a trick he designed. The Hathaway disrupts the Enterprise-D's sensors, causing them to see a fake image of a Romulan warship that is supposedly attacking them. While the Enterprise-D turns to face the fake Romulan ship, the Hathaway scores a direct hit on them.

However, the simulation is abruptly cut short by an attack by a real foreign enemy: the Ferengi warship Kreechta. The Ferengi had seen two Federation ships fighting each other, noticed that the fight was hopelessly mismatched as one ship was far superior to the other, and thus deduced that the smaller, older ship must contain something very valuable. Being Ferengi, they want to have this valuable thing for themselves, or else they threaten to destroy the Hathaway.

Of course, giving in to the Ferengi's demands isn't an option, because there is nothing valuable on board the Hathaway. So Picard and Riker agree to a cunning plan: The Enterprise-D fires photon torpedoes at the Hathaway, but an instant before they hit, the Hathaway goes to warp speed (thanks to Wesley Crusher's dilithium). This works, causing the Ferengi to think the Hathaway was destroyed. They then try to destroy the Enterprise-D too, but Worf uses his sensor trick again, causing the Kreechta to see a fake Federation starship. Thinking they're outnumbered, the Ferengi escape to save their lives.

Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes

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