The Hathaway is an 80 year old ship and Geordi has the right tools to work on it and except for a few grumbles has little problem working on it. However, in Relics, he doesn't want to work on the 75 year old Jenolen, tries to assign someone else to repair duty and he lacks a tool that he would need to repair it. Not necessarily a nit, but certainly an interesting contrast in Geordi's attitude.

If the Hathaway was to be used in a wargame simulation, then why was it left in such a bad state?

In the NextGen Guide, Phil commented on beaming a round, apparently volatile anti-matter container onto a flat tabletop, but how did Wesley beam it over? The floor of the transporter chamber is just as flat as the table. Did Wesley carefully balance it on the floor, then beam it over before it started rolling around?

Worf uses his Security codes to override the Enterprise's sensors, but no one, not even master strategist Kolrami thought that this was a possibility? Years later in Gambit, Riker tries this, but the security codes have been changed since he was kidnapped. So did someone just forget to change Worf's access code or was changing codes enacted after this episode?

Kolrami was against Riker, but during the simulation he expressed admiration for Riker.

The Ferengi seem to have changed their weapons since The Last Outpost. In this episode their weapons look more like other races photon torpedoes.

For a minute there I thought that this episode had done away with the magical number 1,014. Kolrami suggests leaving the Hathaway for the Ferengi and Picard says, "I have Forty crewmen on the Hathaway!" and Kolrami felt that they should be sacrificed to save 1,000. Then I wasn't certain if Picard had said forty or fourteen.

The dialogue states that the Hathaway will warp away milliseconds before the photon torpedoes explode, but it looks like the torpedoes explode before the ship warps away.

Not only is Quark (or Quark's dad) one of the Ferengi in this episode, but so is Squiggy from "Laverne and Shirley"!

I dunno about anyone else but if I had been making this episode I would have had the battle be between the Saucer Section and Stardrive section of the Enterprise. It would have allowed them to reuse valuable saucer seperation and reunification footage and make additional use of the expensive battle bridge set they built for Encounter at Farpoint and only used once more for Arsenal of Freedom!

I like this episode, but it'll never make sense to me for Starfleet to pit the Enterprise's crew against each other, rather than a fully-manned sister ship. The Hathaway has a mere 40 people on it, no power, and is 80 years old. How is this a fair fight? That would be like pitting a state-of-the-art present-day aircraft carrier against a cruiser built in 1920!!! Gee. Let me guess who would win that one...Hmmm. With a massive pre-Dominion War, pre-Wolf 359 Starfleet, the Big Shots couldn't find another big ship (another Galaxy-class or even an Ambassador-class) to take on the Enterprise-D? Otherwise, I have no problems with this one's story.

The point was to see how a starfleet captain/ship/crew would react and fight in a huge mismatch. It was so they could somehow prepare for the Borg.

I remember that the point was to fight a superior opponent, but it's still a confusing way to go about it, as the Enterprise-D wouldn't begin a fight with the Borg in the shape that the Hathaway was in, and they'd also have the benefit of a state-of-the-art warship, and not a decrepit bucket of bolts like the Hathaway. After all, when Kirk was forced to test the M-5, he had to face four Constitution-class starships, not four Captain Proton rocketships.

Just a few quick remarks about this episode.

"No, that's not the Hataway, that's just an intricate sensor echo ..."

Burke is lucky the Ferengi ship came along and made the Hathaway having warp drive essential. How else can he explain allowing Wesley to beam the anti-matter over? Wesley is supposed to be escorted and completely isolated from the ship "save his research". Yet, Wesley is somehow able to beam his pod onto the Hataway apparently without anyone checking what it was or where it was going.

Yes sir, the old code of '1' has been replaced with a new code of '2'."

Just how pathetically small are these security access codes? When the Ferengi ship appears on sensors, Picard assumes Worf tapped into the sensor systems again, mere seconds after instructing Data to change the code! Considering Data is creating and inputting a new code and he knows how vital it is (seeing the damage that came form the first intrusion), I would expect it to be elaborate and long (maybe even the type we will see him capable of in "Brothers"). Yet Picard figures Worf is just too good a decryptor for Data and ignores the sensor reading.

"Umm yes, we're in your Federation Space .. umm on our way to your Academy. They asked us to teach Merchandising 101."

Why exactly would wargames be taking place in a sector close to Ferengi space? Or if the reasonable assumption is made that the wargames would be deep inside Federation territory, how would a Ferengi ship get deep enough into Federation space undetected? At least some notice should have made it out about a renegade Ferengi ship in Federation space. And as we see, the Hathaway can be towed, with little difficulty, to a safer location if she happened to be stranded a little too close to Ferengi space.

"Yet Picard figures Worf is just too good a decryptor for Data and ignores the sensor reading."

-- I think it's more a matter of Picard thinking Worf managed to get around the ship's security systems. I mean, that WAS his job. If I was chief security officer no a starship I'd probably know a back door or two.

I can't recall anymore exactly what system Worf gained access to, but he pretty much was able to manipulate the Enterprise sensor grid, right? I would hope that the advanced computers put on the flagship of Starfleet would not have any kind of back doors to such a vital system. Wouldn't that mean that all an emeny needed to do was learn of these back doors and suddenly they have the Enterprise sensors at their mercy? I guess it's possible, but I'd sure be scared if I were on the flagship, going into battle, with a sensor grid full of back doors. Even if they were difficult / nearly impossible to get to, it's still a bad bad weakness to have.

Worf refers to it as the "security override." Apparently in certain situations, the security chief may need to force access to key systems if they are somehow not available.

This could be one of the counterintelligence measures the Technical Manual refers to that "may be brought into play to negate possible sabotage or terrorist penetrations on board the Enterprise" (p. 39).

The manual also says the bridge security officer can control long- and short-range sensors, probes, message buoys, etc.

The override codes would presumably be known only by the security chief (Worf), the chief of operations (Data), and possibly the auxiliary officer for Tactical (in this case Ens. Burke). This "backdoor" would therefore be a problem only if one of these turned against the crew--whether in a real or simulated scenario.

Haven't I seen here before?

The lieutenant standing with Worf and Riker when they discuss Worf's diversion looked familiar to me. It's Leslie Neale, and yep, I saw her in Gremlins 2 and that wonderfully hilarious, patriotic horror movie, Uncle Sam.

How is what Worf does here different from what Kirk&Spock did with the "Prefix Code" in STII?

"How is what Worf does here different from what Kirk&Spock did with the "Prefix Code" in STII?"

-- Simple. Here the code was changed and the Enterprise was still under the impression that they were being fooled. It was the wrong impression, but it was still an impression.

FUNNY THOUGHT:
With the other ship called "Hathaway" and with ships being called "SHE" that would make Riker's ship the USS Mrs. Hathaway.
Here's how that ship's distress signal would sound:
CHIEF! THE CLAMPETTS ARE THROWING MONEY OUT THE WINDOW!

Why would a bright, articulate man like Picard use a silly-ass cliche like "crisis situation" when he's talking about a "crisis?" He seems to do this sort of thing a lot.

He's trying to tick off George Carlin?

As I watched this episode last time it was on (this evening), I realized that the exercise doesn't make a lot of sense. It seems far too slipshod. They had it in an area where the Ferengi could attack the unprepared ships. They split up the staff of the Enterprise, who should be learning how to work as a team. They are training for a one-on-one battle, which seems unlikely unless Starfleet plans to fight the Borg like in a Kung-Fu movie, one at a time. They are training their people for an unlikely situation. They put Riker on the short end of the stick instead of Picard (the captain). As a preparation to fight a superior opponent, this is bad. As a test for an up-and-comer, it seems to make sense. I think this exercise got Riker the offer of the Mebourne. Also, shouldn't military exercises involve a large number of ships? It does help for StarFleet to act like a fleet and learn how to engage an enemy as a team, whether it's the Borg or the Ferengi.

This episode could have involved Picard and his crew taking on a Starfleet Opposing Force. They get transferred for the duration of an exercise to one or more small vessels (refurbished derelicts, modified non-combat vessels, training vessels),and a new crew able to run a Galaxy-class ship gets to fight them on the Enterprise. This would have made a nice introduction for Captain Jellico (had this been like Babylon 5) as a tough, experienced, slightly arrogant OpFor officer. Kolrami could be a strategist who writes up exercises, and the subplot with Data could be retained.

Here's another problem with the exercise. Riker and his crew metagamed. The point was that they were not fighting another Federation ship. It was not to show off how well they can kick their own ship's butt in a fight. It's nice that Worf is so clever in messing with the Enterprise's sensors, and I'm sure the Borg would find his skills invaluable when they assimilate him because they didn't play the game right.

I'm suprised no one else has yet mentioned that there was no explanation for HOW Worf was able to fool the Ferengi's sensors. He knew the security override code for the Enterprise because he is its Chief of Security. How could he pull off the same trick on an alien vessel?

Well, it's a flimsy explanation, but he IS a Starfleet Security officer. Perhaps Starfleet Intelligence has actually been doing it's job, and Worf has access to the security override codes for certain threat vessels.

Or perhaps they were able to hack the security codes from the Ferengi ship. You know those cheap Ferengi they probably hadn't updated to Windows 2347 because of the cost issue.

What do you mean? They pirated it! Arrgh!

Glenn Morshower (Ensign Burke) was recently seen as Agent Aaron Pierce on "24." He has appeared in Voyager, the movie Generations, and Enterprise. "CSI" fans might know him in the somewhat recurring role of Sheriff Mobley.

This episode also had Armin Shimerman who played Quark on 7 seasons of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. But who on this Star Trek The Next Generation board would have ever heard of him or watched that show!

Another (long shot) possibility is that the Hathaway didn't "hack" into the Ferengi's sensors, they simply projected an altered sensor reading. Squiggy said he detected a Federation Starship, which is accurate enough; and it's been done in DS9 and Enterprise.

After the Ferengi made their ultimatum, Burke says he's reading a power surge from their vessil and that they've "locked on." Locked on with what? We don't see a tractor beam in the third-person view but what else could he be talking about?

Maybe a targeting/weapons lock?

Possibly, but their weapons were already online and they had fired several times. Perhaps they were practicing their "shooting from the hip" technique and locked on when the Enterprise was a sitting duck.

Burke is lucky the Ferengi ship came along and made the Hathaway having warp drive essential. How else can he explain allowing Wesley to beam the anti-matter over? Wesley is supposed to be escorted and completely isolated from the ship "save his research". Yet, Wesley is somehow able to beam his pod onto the Hataway apparently without anyone checking what it was or where it was going.

d31: Wesley said that the experiment was ruined and had to be disposed of immediately because it was 'volatile'. This would still fit within Kolrami's rule. Burke did not know that Wesley was beaming it to the Hathaway, and he was in such a hurry that he did not check.

At one point, we see Worf building a model wooden ship (or something). On Worf's table is a metalic Klingon Battle Cruiser model. After he breaks the wooden model, Riker enters. After a brief word from Riker, Worf sweeps away the wooden debris. During that exact moment, the metalic Klingon Battle Cruiser model vanishes from Worf's table. However, when Worf stands and announces his acceptance to join Riker, the metallic Klingon Cruiser model reappears on Worf's table.

so it cloaked... that's not a nit!

LOL! That's a good one.

Doing the whole strategic exercise with real ships was costly and pointless. They could have done this in simulators, like holodecks, at Starfleet Command and obtained just as valid results.

During Data's and Kolrami's final strategema match, Data was playing for a draw instead of a win, which allowed him to indefinitely deny Kolrami his victory. However, although the man is an insufferably arrogant git, he IS an excellent player AND an outstanding strategist. A necessary skill in a good strategist is the ability to identify the opponent's strategy. Kolrami should have quickly realized Data's shift in strategy and adapted his own game to it.

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quote:

By Allen McDonnell on Monday, January 08, 2001 - 4:23 pm:

I dunno about anyone else but if I had been making this episode I would have had the battle be between the Saucer Section and Stardrive section of the Enterprise. It would have allowed them to reuse valuable saucer seperation and reunification footage and make additional use of the expensive battle bridge set they built for Encounter at Farpoint and only used once more for Arsenal of Freedom!

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