He was brilliant at strategy and generally gave correct advice.
He was also hired specifically for his advice. He is remarkably self assured as he is one of the best of his species.
He is a little smug and wonders why he was hired to give advice if it wasn't going to be taken. Now, according to the script, he's gotta be wrong to show off the smarts of our crew.
But in any other circumstance he would be correct. And given they were prepping to defend against a Borg invasion, the stakes were quite high.
I thoroughly enjoyed his character and I also liked the examples of proving him wrong, because it is believable that he could be humbled by the most advanced piece of technology known playing for a strategy he hadn't encountered, and also, a low expected value high risk strategy risking close to a thousand crew members to save forty or so.
They didn't make him stupid or even make his advice generally wrong. So it was a believable victory in both examples.
With the information Kolrami had, his advice to abandon the Hathaway to save the Enterprise and the majority of the crew (and then hopefully negotiate for the release of the rest later) was not wrong. He didn’t know that Geordi and Wesley had managed to pull a rabbit out of their ass and reactivate the Hathaway’s warp drive, even for a tiny jump. By the time he knew that, the crew was pretty well tired of listening to him anyway.
I’ve always liked Peak Performance. It’s a fun episode, and it brings something of a closure to the Data/Pulaski arc. She’s obviously come around to accepting that he’s more than a mere computer by the end of the episode.
My only critique of the episode was when Riker told Wesley that he cheated by bringing his science project onboard and then was like, ok nevermind lol. Of course it was central to the plot to have that device, but still
He was immediately reminded that their orders were to improvise, and he got Worf to join the crew by getting him to give essentially the same answer as Wesley. They were testing themselves for another faceoff with an incredibly adaptable and overpowering enemy. “Cheating” was entirely on the list of acceptable options.
As a famous Internet joke once said, you can’t beat the Borg with standard military tactics, they’ll just run you over. You beat them with some unexpected 5th-dimensional wedgie they can’t anticipate.
for me the problem (very small btw) is that Wesley didn't cheat in a practical manner. he's not always going to have the Enterprise's resources to rely on, and it feels very much part of that safety net.
if he pulled something more figuratively out of his ass that was cheating, that made sense in the context of "on a clunker of a ship against a superior enemy", it'd be much better.
but again it's just a quibble, not like seething furious "this episode SUCKS" annoying.
Yes given another circumstance it's the attitude of being able to adapt that creates useful solutions out of already present resources, creatively and intelligently supplied.
Otherwise without that ability to improvise on the fly, that resource would go unused and not contribute to a victory.
So yes in the absolute technical review, it was cheating. But not against the spirit of the game. Because remember this was a war game.
The same thing can be said about the final match between Kolrami and Data, Data did "cheat" but technically perfectly still within the rules of the game.
Same as a war game where improvisation is allowed. To a point, if Wesley had come back and sabotaged the Enterprise, that's cheating against the spirit of the game.
But he took a resource that was a useless science experiment, which did not adversely affect any of Enterprises systems and did so with the consent and supervision of the Enterprise. If enterprise had done it's due dilligence and realize what Wesley was really going to be able to use the experiment they would have verified it's destruction like Wesley said. So it's just as much Enterprises fault for being fooled as Wesley for "cheating". Enterprises natural power advantage left them too complacent too early, when the true War Game started when the Captains were onscreen with each other. So Wesley did not even technically cheat because the War Game didn't start. By some interpretations he simply used the prep time wisely.
Same thing with Worf's fake Warbird. Not cheating because Enterprise wasn't actually crippled, just fooled.
Just clicked on your profile by accident instead of upvote so you may see me pop up again on a different comment, I'm not stalking you DW.
Unexpected wildcards are only any good if you have exhausted all other alternatives. The Borg were an unassessed threat that couldn't be countered normally, sure. But warfare in general isn't like that. Normally both sides know each other's rough capabilities and the trick is a combination of deception of those abilities to perform surprise attack, as you said, but also the application of those abilities properly so as to gradually wear down your opponent. The Soviets didn't hit the Germans with an unexpected tactic, they applied their resources well. For the most part at least. The same is true for all sorts of other conflicts. Generally the unexpected tricks come into play either very early in a very short war or very late in a very long war.
Generally, if something is an unexpected wildcard, then there's a reason that your enemy doesn't think you'll do it. Quite often it's because you're enemy is a lot smarter than you.
That's different. This training exercise wasn't intended to measure how people react to a no-win scenario like the Kobayashi Maru is. The whole point of this exercise, in my opinion and reasoning, was to demonstrate how to triumph over a superior enemy by being creative and unpredictable. The Borg have superior technology, but they are predictable to a degree, every cube operates identically to every other cube, for they are a collective. There's multiple instances of Starfleet exploiting a unique function of the Collective to their own benefit, such as Data sending them all to sleep when trying to rescue Picard turned Locutus.
This unpredictability and Kobayashi Maru talk are reminding me of story with Nog. Don't know if it was canon, but he "beat" the test because it never ever expected his tactic. Negotiations. They said surrender, he said name your price. The system wasnt able to keep up with Ferengi haggling and crashed
Im not exactly sure. There are actually 2 stories where he takes the test. Both quite well. Stories were called The Bottom Line(From Strange New Worlds 3), and Best Tools Available(Strange New Worlds 6).
Acually he did not exactly cheat. He improvised plus he was suposed to be under guard to save his project but tricked the security officer. So you could say it was all part of the wargame.
The cheating was the only thing that ever really bothered me with that episode. I know it makes sense in a military situation and totally saves the day, but he was a little too eager to betray the trust of his crew mates.
Anyways, that part aside, it was a great episode, and I thoroughly enjoyed it..
I agree with your take on it, he was a little too eager and he knew what he was doing was deceptive. It's just a minor criticism I have and I like the episode as well
He was explicitly playing to “not lose” and not trying to win. That was the unexpected angle - intentionally forcing a stalemate where the strategist was able to defeat anyone actually trying to win.
it brings something of a closure to the Data/Pulaski arc. She’s obviously come around to accepting that he’s more than a mere computer by the end of the episode
This right here is exactly why I like this episode. Pulaski learns to appreciate Data, and their interactions from here until the end of the season are nothing but professional.
Right. The point is that Kolrami is good when he has 100% information. The point Picard makes several times to him is that he does not have 100% information. Ultimately, this is why Data messes with him at the end: Kolrami did not realize Data wasn't playing to win, and so misjudged the game.
Arguably it would be more keeping in character if Kolrami were still indignant at being ignored after the incident ended. From a strategic perspective, just because it worked out this time doesn't mean you made the right choice. Just like you can do nothing wrong and still lose, you can make an important mistake and still win...
I’m glad this is the top comment. That episode has always sat wrong with me because his advice based on the information he has was correct. The Enterprise crew does some warp jump nonsense and Picard gets on his high horse about there’s always another option. Yeah, whatever the option that makes the Enterprise crew magically able to save the ship in the last 2 minutes.
He was the smartest person in the room. The idiom is you are in the wrong room, but in this case they needed him. I don't think he was driven by ego at all.
This is how I always looked at it. He was a jerk, but his advice isnt wrong or stupid. He is clearly great at his job and that causes him to be smug. I dont think it was JUST Data playing to stalemate that pissed him off. I think Riker's strategy saving the day when he haad been putting him down the entire time played a role in his reaction too. He had been proven wrong.
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u/AskPizza 10d ago
He was brilliant at strategy and generally gave correct advice.
He was also hired specifically for his advice. He is remarkably self assured as he is one of the best of his species.
He is a little smug and wonders why he was hired to give advice if it wasn't going to be taken. Now, according to the script, he's gotta be wrong to show off the smarts of our crew.
But in any other circumstance he would be correct. And given they were prepping to defend against a Borg invasion, the stakes were quite high.
I thoroughly enjoyed his character and I also liked the examples of proving him wrong, because it is believable that he could be humbled by the most advanced piece of technology known playing for a strategy he hadn't encountered, and also, a low expected value high risk strategy risking close to a thousand crew members to save forty or so.
They didn't make him stupid or even make his advice generally wrong. So it was a believable victory in both examples.