Peak Performance (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Two, Episode 21) Riker and his misfit pals challenge Picard to the whackiest wargames ever!

Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break.

As part of Starfleet’s response to the Borg threat, Riker refits an 8o-year-old derelict to face the Enterprise in a wargame. Overseeing the simulation is Kolrami, a waddling oddity who takes a disliking to Riker and crushes him in a social game.

Pulaski goads Data into challenging Kolrami to a rematch, Wesley heists some antimatter from a school project, and consequences play out as one would expect from the “arrogant preppies vs streetwise misfits at summer camp” subgenre.

Some scenes touch on Riker’s development as a leader, the human desire to compete, and Picard’s diplomatic brinksmanship, but this episode knows we’re here to see whose pants end up on the flagpole.

Enjoyable, but nothing special.

One thought on “Peak Performance (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Two, Episode 21) Riker and his misfit pals challenge Picard to the whackiest wargames ever!

  1. Pingback: Star Trek: The Next Generation Rewatch | Jerz's Literacy Weblog (est. 1999)

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