I'm 37 and I try not to get into arguments on the Internet about pointless stuff anymore, but there are SO MANY people in the comments here saying "Why doesn't the Enterprise just keep firing all their phasers and torpedoes instead of only firing a couple times?" Well, there are two answers to that: 1. Some of it is left to the imagination. To make good drama, you don't have to--and shouldn't--show every detail. You have to know what to include and what to leave out. We're supposed to trust that Captain Picard knew what he was doing. The Enterprise fired its weapons exactly as much as it should have. Was all of it depicted onscreen? That's up to your imagination. This is a problem with a lot of action movies nowadays: They think that big fiery explosions everywhere all the time makes a battle more "epic." It doesn't. Tight pacing and a strong narrative make a battle more epic. Just look at The Wrath of Khan: The Enterprise fires its phasers only three times in the climactic battle in the Mutara Nebula (and its torpedoes twice). Most of the battle is the tense pacing, and the storytelling of a game of cat and mouse. 2. Phasers aren't magic. I mean, okay, they're fictional, but in real life most applications requiring large bursts of power have a recharge time. It's quite a science to know when to release that energy for maximal effect. The distance and aspect of the Klingon ships would have been very important. Given these considerations, it makes sense to hold your fire until it can do the most good. Otherwise you're wasting energy you can't replace, and likely contributing to system overheating. The torpedoes are similar: They too would have a reloading time, and presumably there would be an optimal firing range, neither too close nor too far away, for their guidance systems to have the highest accuracy while affording minimal evasion time to the enemy.
Not to engage in an argument here, but here is my counter argument :D 1. Drama is nice, but not at the expense of any credibility. I mean imagine making a movie where there is a war scene and a squad is getting battered and shot to bits while they discuss their options calmly in the middle of the battle field. Then the sergeant occasionally and very dramatically tells one of them to fire. I also think that of all the shows (though all Trek fell into this trap) TNG was the worst in this respect. Even in TOS people had more of a tendency to just do their job. 2. I think they outlined official specifications for these ships. I remember we used them in Star Trek roleplaying games many moons ago. And you could fucking fire A LOT, and you could fire phasers and photons simultaneously or nearly simultaneously. So while this sounds nice, I do not think it is based in the "reality" of this world. I think they did it out of an exaggerated sense of drama. I love TNG, but not this part.
3. They had enough money and time to do exactly what they had on screen, and this was even with extra money added to the budget. Principal photography took place in mid-December 1989 and it aired 19th February 1990. With that amount of time it's amazing this episode is any good at all let alone it's a classic.
@Ben Finny She didnt have to move away at all. She had the energy capacity to either buff her shields a ton, or to dish out *alot* more phaser & torp power. Why distract the Klingons when you can outright *destroy them?* Which, let's not kid ourselves, the E-D was more than capable of doing.
@@somebuddyX That's a good point. Budget limitations definitely force more to be left to the imagination. I think I saw in a TNG documentary that filming each individual shot of that glorious 6-foot Enterprise D model cost about $10,000. They filmed a bunch in this episode, and tried to get their money's worth by reusing a bunch of those shots (especially those Klingon ship shots) for the rest of the series. But it must have been an especially expensive episode to make, especially when considering the uniform changes, set redesign, and extra extras.
I love how Patrick very subtly changed Picard's temperament and expressions for this episode. The rest of the characters play about the same as any other episode, but Picard is clearly more battle-hardened and war-weary. The slight snarl on his face after "and we must succeed" is perfect.
Riker's different too. He's much more aggressive and it's clear he and Picard (who never calls him Number 1) don't get along all that well. I agree about everyone else though.
Andy H The tension between Riker and Picard over certain decisions is palpable. You get the sense that the war has forced them to butt heads constantly and for Riker to question Picard's authority. I feel like Picard made some kind of decision similar to this one earlier, a "needs of the many" type thing and Riker hasn't gotten over it since.
That's because Stewart has real acting talent. The rest of the cast was mediocre at best as is evidenced by their subsequent careers. I watched "First Contact" a few months ago and cringed as James Cromwell acted circles around everyone else.
Yeah. For comparison, go to the Mother of All Battles with the Borg. Very much out of place in a battle. Whereas here, he said fire the torpedoes Sierra pattern as if he was ordering takeout.
If this timeline were to continue, history would surely remember. But it would be a history written in Klingon, and it would be about that time they blew it to smithereens. Kind of like the way we remember the Bismarck or the Yamato.
I’m surprised you didn’t leave a response to my comment about Levar Burton’s acting. I whole heartedly agree. That whole scene was just intense. The dramatic music, Geordi’s slight panic, it made for a great scene. IMO the best battle in TNG.
@@nigelmurphy6761- Do you know of what you speak? The Titanic was really the Olympic and it was sank by its captain Edward Smith to kill 3 crime family heads. John Jacob Astor, Isador Strauss and Jonathan Guggenheim. They reportedly were against the installment of the Federal Reserve. April 1912 the Titanic goes down, Dec 1913 the Fed Reserve rises which then led to their 100 year plan to destroy the USA via 3 WARS. WW1+2, The Cold War and the never ending "War on terror". You should research the meeting on Jekyll Island in 1910. There is a video and book called "The Monster from Jekyll Island" where the demonic 13 family heads met to discuss this
@@markfox1545You're using alternate as a verb while the post you responded to used alternate as an adjective to refer to a reality that isn't the normal reality, i e. an alternate reality. I used to work as a proofreader and typesetter, not to mention do volunteer work as an editor and ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. Go back to seventh grade English -- you don't know half as much about English grammar as you think you do! 😵
Having the adversarial undertone between Picard and Riker was genius and both actors nailed it. I often wonder if an unspoken backstory was that Picard was indirectly responsible for Deanna's death and Riker, while understanding that Picard really didn't have any other option at the time, still can't forgive him.
Craig Given torpedo shotguns before weakening shields with phasers rarely work. It’s probably why the games keep saying phaser down the shields then torpedo the remains.
@@HowIamDriving According to the Trek data, a photon torpedo is alleged to have the power of 10 KT (a hiroshima class warhead of WW2). But according to the plot of what we are seeing, its like throwing spitballs at the enemy.
I love it when DATA says that the sheilds are buckling and is probably about to say that if they take another hit that they will fail..they take another hit and he stops mid sentence.
I love the part where after Riker gets killed, Picard doesnt dwell on it but leaps over the railing to take over at tactical, and the shot of him keeping phaser fire on the klingons right to the end, even as flames envelop the bridge. He knew those precious few seconds at the end made the difference.
@@stuntmonkey00honestly, that’s a bit of Star Trek cheesiness that I love. I think the explanation is that it’s supposed to be bits of the consoles being completely slagged, but the real reason is likely that making the set in such a way that the consoles could be “exploded” and reassembled for future use would be too time and money inefficient, so generic debris would be used to save time and money. Just the realities of filming television where you have to use the same set repeatedly.
Riker “They shouldn’t be so confident, after the pasting we gave them on Archer IV.” I know this was made way before ‘Enterprise’ was thought of, but you could imagine Archer IV was named after Jonathan Archer now!
I might be wrong, but I think Archer IV is the name that was given to the planet the NX01 crew discovered in the third episode "Strange New World". A nice callback to TNG on the part of the Enterprise writing team
But as we all know, Kill Bots have a pre-set kill limit. You simply send wave after wave of your own men at them until they reach their limits and shut down.
I love this scene. When I watch the way Picard handles this battle, I imagine this is how he took command of the bridge of the Stargazer many years earlier.
What I liked about this timeline - the different red alert sound the Enterprise has, and the fact that it's a continuous cycle. The red alert normally gives 3 or 4 blasts and then goes silent, with just the red lights flashing - here, the cycle is continuous. It just adds to the moment in my opinion :)
Picard: Put us between the Ent C. Fire shots to distract, we can win this by the skin of our teeth! Sisko: Full Impulse speed, singe them! Fire everything at less than 500 meters! Janeway: FIRE EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE! BLOW UP THE WHOLE DAMN SECTOR!
But seriously, what would Kirk say? Were there ever any major space battles in TOS? I don’t remember any (this being pre-Star Wars), so I can’t imagine how he would engage. Older movie-era Kirk (Shatner) definitely had more than his fair share of fire fights.
Haven't we learned by now? You make things go boom to get funding and syndication or Gene Siskel (before his latter years when he got wise) will say your movie or series is a geek show. Or Babylon 5 that was almost entirely plot and their special effects were waving stock Hollywood spotlights in the dining area.
I've thought that same thing for absolutely years. I suppose it might be arguable that Worf wouldn't have survived the attack on his planet, but still...yeah.
I remember when the last episode of TNG first aired, there was a day-long event on one of the nationwide TV stations that ran a marathon with Encounter at Farpoint and the top 5 best episodes, as voted by fans. This episode ranked number 3 or 4. Well deserved.
@@juliok1923 Yep. And with the except of Best of Both Worlds, it was my first time seeing those other three. All great episodes. I was already a big fan of Tasha - one of the stronger elements of season 1 to me. Yesterday's Enterprise made me like her even more.
Interestingly enough and I'm surprised no one has noticed this, the timeline was always going to be changed when the C went back. Think about it, its pretty clear that the battle was over when she came forward in time, all systems down most of the bridge crew dead, she was finished, it was over. When she was sent back she presumably arrived at the exact same moment but with weapons, Shields, and engines back online. They were probably able to destroy another warbird because of that.
Yeah, the timeline was going to change somewhat. But the battle was still hopeless and the Enterprise C was still going to be lost. You are right in that it was likely that more Romulans would die in the attack, but it's unknown how many or if that would change the timeline significantly.
@@darthimperious1594 well it does significantly change. According to Sela, the C was taken not destroyed utterly and Tasha made the deal to become the Romulan Commander's war wife to save much of the crew. Making it very likely that the C left some Warbird wreckage around. Now whatever happened to them afterwards is kind of unclear. Another reason Sela needed to be in Nemesis, growls.
@@davidlewis5312 I don't recall Sela ever saying the Enterprise-C was captured, only that some of the crew survived. Had Enterprise-C been taken and not destroyed, there would have been no evidence of her defense of Narendra III, the Klingons would have never known about the Enterprise's sacrifice, so the alliance between the Klingons and the Federation wouldn't have happened. Enterprise-C was destined to be destroyed in this battle, otherwise the events in this episode would have been the prime timeline
“Let’s make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise!!!” For that line alone this episode is greatness. More than makes up for all the crap everyone is bitching about!!!
I like how Picard's facial expression and the delivery of the line have the subtle, "Yea, this is a suicide mission. We're gonna die. Take as many Klingons with us as we can."
The Galaxy class is a pretty solidly designed Battleship. It took on 3 K'Vort Battlecruisers (Reused Bird of Prey Models LOL), destroyed one and damaged another. It only went down because they held position the whole time protecting the Enterprise-C rather than maneuvering away from the Disruptor Blasts.
@@develynseether4426 I assume the K'Vort is far more powerful than a Bre'l. They are likely on the scale of an Excelsior class Starship (I can see 3 Excelsiors being able to take on a Galaxy class).
Just watch this episode for the first time. Dam this is a good show. To think I was completely obsessed with star wars at the time I barely gave star trek a go. Glad I finally came around!
I know that it was done for the sake of this story, but if there was a war going on for a long while, there is no way this same crew should have been together. Riker would have had his own command.
Actually, the war would have been over long before this. The Klingons were in serious trouble and in no position to war with the federation. They would have gotten their asses kicked.
If they take out one, they can take out the rest, and as for distance, if Kingons can take out Enterprise they are at a distance for Enterprise to take them out
It's all an energy arms race. Power used to fire the phasers is power you don't have in the shields. They can't effectively fight all three Cruisers without leaving Enterprise C undefended. But with that kind of firepower from the phasers, the Klingons can't really afford to ignore them, either. So they dump most of their power into their shields, take a few shots to keep the Klingons busy, and run out the clock until the Enterprise C is through.
The Enterprise D was a fortress. The Klingons were no match for them, or the federation. The Enterprise could have outgunned all three of those ships without moving, while the enemy literally had to point its weapons at a target. Also, in canon the Klingons were in no position to wage a war with the federation and would have been soundly defeated long before this episode ever happened. Assuming the events of star trek 6 still happened, which we can assume it did, the Klingons were damn near on their knees at that point and suicide attacks were apparently being considered as pointless even by the Klingons. The federation and its vast resources and far superior armaments made a Klingon victory laughable.
@@danielhausser8038 As a viewer one is left with the impression that Picard was crappy battle captain or just plain shitty writing. The moment those cruisers came into range, Picard should have been like "Data, win this battle as quickly as possible" and let Data ravage all three vessels. Instead Picard is calling out movements and not firing...FAIL!
I always get chills at the end of this scene with the Klingons closing in for the kill and the other Enterprise all beaten up going through the rift to their certain deaths. One of the best episodes hands down for me! Thanks for posting it!
That scene where the Enterprise D turns to face the camera, turning to protect the Enterprise C behind her, while you hear the engines slowly spinning up with the voice over of Picard saying that 3 Klingon Battlecruisers are on an intercept course is my favourite ship shot of the entire show. Back in season 3 they were still relying on a lot of stock shots. I even think that shot is a modification of a stock shot itself but it is done so well and for a change it perfectly shows you what the ship is supposed to be doing in that moment. It is also followed by a fantastic speech by Picard and an amazing shot of Picard at the tactical desk still trying to fight even with the bridge collapsing around him and everything catching fire. It is a shame that the battle is so poorly fought. I counted and the Klingons manage to get off 16 shots before The Enterprise even returns fire. Literally the one time that Picard says continual fire all phasers a Klingon ship explodes. So do that again twice more.
Warf- "sir, reccomend we enter the battle firing everything we have" Pickard- "belay that. just shoot 1 phaser burst every minute or so, maybe throw a couple low yield photons at them. were not here to win"
Well, they literally weren't there to win - they were trying to ensure the Enterprise-C escaped. Outgunned and outnumbered, the idea was basically to play for time. They had to keep themselves between the Klingons and the Enterprise-C as much as possible, and draw fire.
@@FingerinUrDaughter Guess again. "They're not even bothering to cloak themselves." "They shouldn't be so confident after the pasting we gave them at Archer-4." Plus, of course, the Klingons actually did destroy the Enterprise-D.
Fantastic episode, just wish the Ent-D was more aggressive, would have been cool if they took out the first three Klingon ships and then maybe succumbed to another wave....I'm thinking budget had a lot to do with why that didn't happen!
Nah, let's not have the Klingons job that hard. The fact that the Ent-D was able to take out one ship when being jumped by 3 ships WHILE successfully protecting another is an amazing feat in and of itself.
MightyVoice Picard was forced to position the ship in direct line of fire in order to keep the Klingons off of the Enterprise-C. The ship was getting hammered by a focused barrage from 3 battle cruisers. They couldn’t maneuver or evade because doing so would leave the Ent-C exposed. The goal was to soak up as much fire for as long as possible and delay the Klingons. Getting aggressive means less power to shields and defensive systems and quickly getting torn to shreds by fierce disruptor fire. What was written makes sense.
@@Gunnar001 that is all correct. the Enterprise-D itself could have swerved and dodged and pounded them to death. the D got pounded making sure the C got through unscathed.
(Data) "Power couplings severed at forward phaser banks. Attempting to bypass. Controls not responding." (Riker just stands there looking useless until something explodes and he dies violently) (Picard glances at Riker's corpse, snarls, and leaps to Riker's station - he operates the nonresponsive controls - pewpewpew - the broken phasers fire)
He didn't say the phasers couldn't fire, just that the power couplings were severed. Phasers have their own batteries which get charged off the engines. Without the couplings the phasers couldn't recharge, but they still had whatever power was still left in the batteries.
They were trying to transfer power from the phasers to booster the defense. So it makes sense actually why Picard was able to fire the phasers at the end.
In this timeline, it was already called the Battleship Enterprise. You'd imagine it would be fitted with all the latest war tech it has to offer since the war started.
@@Cain-x the federation was also nearly defeated at this point. Its hard to say if this ship had the same technology breakthroughs as the original timeline. Warship or not. The enterprise certainly took a few hits regardless
One of the best episodes of TNG along with "Best of Both Worlds". But my personal favourite is "In the Pale Moonlight" - DS9. The writing and acting of that episode eclipse most of our current TV shows...
Sisko would order full impulse, concentrating firepower on 1 Kvort within 500 meters (to singe them), then use the saucer as a battering Ram on a second K'vort at full impulse. Then saucer Sep to dump the dead weight (critically damaged saucer) and Dog Fight the 3rd K'vort with the Star Drive section for an ultimately decisive win. Enterprise C returns without being hit once. Sisko tows the saucer back for repairs 3 dead Klingon K'vorts. Sisko's goatee grows 1 inch longer.
The Defiant has roughly the overall firepower of a Galaxy, but has the advantage of cloak and far, far more maneuverable. That being said, I'm not sure that a smaller ship would have accomplished what they needed to here---which was protect the damaged Ent-C from being disabled before she could enter the rift.
It was rather bad, poor, script writers going for action over reality. The enemy had no chance if Enterprise had just carried on firing, and the enemy was well in range as the enemy was hitting Enterprise
Picard doesn't even redress Riker for being over-confident, that's his job more than ever in the face of horrid all-out war to be the one rattling the saber during a vital holding action. Do I ever miss Star Trek. *Stares out at the night sky
It always annoyed me that the Enterprise spends so much battle time just sitting like a dumbshit, not returning fire. Here's how I'd picture this fight: (I know ECM has never been a part of ST lore, but ST lore has never been very consistent anyway. Looking at you Deep Space 9) The Klingons are famously good at stealth techniques. Their Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) has always been better than the Federation. As such, Klingon warships can acquire optimal target locks faster than Federation starships. Starfleet Naval Doctrine dictates starting a battle with evasive or aggressive maneuvers, to either negate the Klingon First Strike advantage, or close distance for an optimal target lock faster. However the Enterprise-D’s mission is not to out-maneuver or defeat the Klingons in battle. The mission is to delay the enemy advance long enough for the Enterprise-C to escape into the temporal rift. Unfortunately, that leaves little room to maneuver. The Enterprise-D activates their own ECM, diverts all available power to forward shields, and prepares to take a pounding. The 3 Klingon K’Vort cruisers do not disappoint, and open fire simultaneously. Several shots miss. Most hits are only glancing, but the Enterprise takes multiple direct hits. Minor damage to forward hull, moderate losses to shields. The Enterprise does not yet have an optimal lock, so Picard orders a hold-fire. He diverts warp power to shields, restoring most of their strength. Minor heat warning in power transfer couplings. The Klingons continue to close distance. Their disruptors are recharging, so they opt to fire their own photon torpedoes. This time the Enterprise responds in kind. Having acquired an optimal lock on the lead ship, they open up with a burst of phasors and photon torpedoes. Only half the shots land, and most of those are glancing. Still enough for moderate enemy shield loss. The Enterprise again takes moderate forward shield losses, more minor hull damage. Damage control teams are dispatched. Again Picard diverts divert warp power, but is only able to restore partial shields. Power couplings are overheating. Both sides hold fire, while their weapons recharge. The Klingons are trying to outflank the Enterprise. One Bird breaks formation, and makes a run for the limping Enterprise-C. Picard orders resetting the shields to 360-degree coverage, weakening them overall. Enterprise comes about to intercept. Warp power to phasers, and they fire with photon torpedoes. At near point-blank range, the Bird takes heavy damage. They suffer main power failure, and are disabled. But now the Enterprise has put her back to the 2 remaining Birds. They close to near point-blank range, where ECM is useless. They target the engines, and fire. Enterprise returns fire with her rear photon launcher, doing moderate damage to one of the birds. But Enterprise takes the worst of it. Heavy losses to rear shields, moderate hull damage. Impulse engines down, moderate casualties reported. Enterprise has no chance of out-maneuvering the Klingons on just thrusters. However the Enterprise isn’t out of this fight. She has numerous system redundancies, and 360-degree phasor firing arcs. Mr. Data does some clever power re-routing from the warp engines to weapons. With another burst of rear-facing phasors and torpedoes, the lead Bird is utterly destroyed. But the last Bird maneuvers out of torpedo range, and opens fire on the warp engines. Enterprise takes critical damage. Explosions rock the ship, causing heavy casualties. Riker is killed. Shields offline. Rear photon launchers offline. Warp engines are down, reactor containment fields lose power. Life support systems fail across multiple decks. Geordi has no choice but to shut down main power, and switch to auxiliary. The Klingons hail the Enterprise, demanding unconditional surrender. Picard is having none of it. He orders all available remaining power be diverted to weapons - including life support. Across the ship, the surviving crew scramble for emergency shelters. The air rapidly becomes toxic. Picard jumps to tactical, and manages a few anemic phasor blasts. The Klingon Bird is lightly damaged. They lock photon torpedoes. One single hit will be enough to destroy the Enterprise. The other disabled Bird has restored power, and is moving into firing range. Picard glares at the enemy ships defiantly, as fire rapidly engulfs his bridge. And then the Enterprise-C finally enters the temporal rift. The timeline is repaired.
One of y favorite TNG episodes even though I wasn't really a fan of the series. But I kind of find this battle kind of prophetic, because this is exactly how the Enterprise-D met her end in Generations.
1:49 I like how he says "200 kilometers" to mean really close; the ships are presumably enlarged for effect but we can still picture that the battle is taking place at incredible range.
@@scottgurstein The "D" would not have that giant saucer section and any ability to separate since it would have been built purely for battle and not exploration with a means to defend itself.
@@scottgurstein It looked like the normal "D" Enterprise when, in this war timeline, it would never have the saucer section attributed to a galaxy class ship as that is where families etc live and operate.
@@kukuc96 Possibly but unlikely. With the TNG series, the USS Galaxy is the first Galaxy class ship but is allegedly still in testing while the Enterprise - D is the first to be set off on its mission to seek out new life and new civilization...etc. The Galaxy class was likely on the drawing board only a few years prior to that. In 'Yesterday's Enterprise', the war with the Klingons has been going on for quite a bit longer. This is why I believe there would be no saucer section of that size. It would be drawn up as a battle ship and not a ship of exploration...pretty significant difference. I would also draw your attention to Worf's comments to the renegade Klingons in the first season how the Enterpise becomes a formidable weapon when relieved of its excess bulk (or something along those lines).
@@HookerUNLEASHEDfilms Khan was a good action movie, but that's it. i mean really think about Trek and what it was in its conception. Roddenberry himself got a job in the industry because he was sick of all the benile horrible writing and star trek itself was meant to embody free thinking and intellectualism. the original pilot of trek had been originally shot down by CBS for being "too intellectual" so in reality when i judge any piece of trek. i judge it by how sound it's out of the box thinking and proposed ideas are. in that regard i hold Undiscovered country to be a better Trek Film than Kahn because Kahn is just a fantasy revenge story being told in the star trek universe.... which is fine i guess but that's not what TREK IS ABOUT! Undiscovered country not only proposes the idea of peace between the federation and the klingons but it asks the question of peace in a very uncomfortable way. and not only shows that all our characters are uncomfortable with the idea but it also then shows that some people are so opposed to that idea that it brings them together in ways they wouldn't expect. Klingons and Starfleet officers working together to prevent peace between them. vulcans violating their own logic and it does all of this without just talking at the audience for anything the writers might've been worried would go over the audiences head (i'm looking at you Star trek the motion picture!) it also expands the universe by showing off New worlds and new LifeForms (the klingon prison world and the shapeshifter) which is the most trek of all. it's not just a story being told in the trek universe it IS trek. and it is taking Kirk where he has never been before. oh and speaking of kirk star trek 6 also offers him the most character development out of all the movies by forcing him to out grow his own prejudices.
I love how they pitched up the sound of the phasers in this episode, to show that the federation was focusing heavily on weapons tech due to the war and thus had more powerful phasers than in the normal timeline.
I love this episode. I Imagine an entirely different series of episodes in this timeline. Love the slight variation on the collar of the uniforms, the seriousness of enterprise D as a war ship. Completely different expectation of the crew and mission.
Maybe the reason Starfleet moved from the Galaxy class was because every time they went into a battle, after a couple of hits they seemed to have the danger of a warp core breach? 🤣 Always makes me laugh when Geordi looks straight at the camera when telling the bridge about the 2 min breach. I keep thinking “Who is he looking at?” 🤣
@Jim Barrows Hurt the show immensely with her PC bent and nauseating pertness. But then again TNG was all about political correctness. ~~~~As for me, I like my Star Trek with a heavy dose of toxic masculinity… th-cam.com/video/CPq3Hz7kAqE/w-d-xo.html
My favourite scene, from my favourite episode, of my favourite Trek series. This episode is a perfect encapsulation of everything that made older Star Trek series so inspirational and amazing, and this scene is one of only a few moments in Star Trek history where they truly acknowledge that the ship itself is an important character with a life of its own, just as important as any member of the crew, if not more so. The only other times we see that respect given are in Star Trek 3, TNG's "Encounter at Farpoint" and "Thine Own Self", the ending of Generations, and in the Voyager episode "The Year of Hell". The themes in this episode, and in most of TNG for that matter, of taking the high and noble road at any cost, of defending personal freedom and the right to self determination, and of resorting to violence only when all other options have run out, are totally beyond the comprehension of Abrams and his band of idiots, and their loss has helped to make "Discovery" and "Picard" the utter failures that they are. Sadly, we need those themes and that kind of inspiration now more than ever. Thankfully Seth MacFarlane and the Orville team still get it..... but Gene, you are sorely missed.
Agreed. If their task was to run cover and keep fire off of Enterprise C then they should have been firing everything without pause. They have to succeed which means conserving torpedoes is not a priority. I'm old enough to have seen this episode when it originally aired and then its first rerun. It was great back then but today I can see that the script was as it was because of the limited production budget. The effects department was working with models and limited time and money. Everything had to match the script for run-time so this is what we got. It works but there's a lot to be desired. Still, it was one of my favorite shows as a teen and I wouldn't trade my memories of it for anything.
Blaze Rocker Nope. Picard was literally maneuvering the ship into a focused barrage of enemy fire. Dumping all power into weapons and constantly firing everything means a massive drain of energy that would be taken away from shields and other vital defense systems keeping them alive. Picard’s only goal was to hold the line between the Klingons and the Enterprise-C and soak up all the fire long enough for them to escape. Balance of systems was crucial. Plus, we don’t know the condition of the war-torn Enterprise. It was stated that they just took part in a battle before this one. They could have already been dangerously low on torpedoes and suffered earlier damage.
billyboyjennings Enterprise blew up one of the Klingon ships with just a few phaser hits. If they had taken out or disabled one more they wouldn’t have had to rely on shields so much, moreso when they had to get into position to take shots for the C.
@@Gunnar001 You have a good argument but that's three klingon BOPs in three dimensional space against two Federation ships, one of which has reduced shielding. In this case the best defense is a mad offense. I also don't recall any mention of the Enterprise D's torpedo supply being critically low or their launching system being offline late in the battle. If they had torpedoes then they needed to use them. If you still disagree then we'll just have to disagree. You are entitled to your opinion.
Pay attention. The Enterprise-D was never going to win the fight. That wasn't the goal. They were outnumbered and outgunned and had little chance. It was more important to keep the ship up and running in order to draw Klingon fire for as long as possible. The longer the Klingons are busy trying to destroy them, the less fire the Enteprise-C takes as they try to escape.
@@Gunnar001 yes, but a better delaying tactic is to fight, not sit there and get destroyed. During a battle, Captains keep their ships firing weapons, not sit there and listen to damage control reports.
@@frankbalistreri6822 An even better delaying tactic is not getting your ship immediately blown up because you're draining too much power away from the vital shields and defensive systems that are keeping you alive. Again, the goal was to draw all fire away from the Enterprise-C long enough for them to escape. Not to win the fight. Constantly firing wasn't going to make a difference at that point and would've just led to the ship being destroyed even faster.
@@Gunnar001 since the task was to draw the Klingon's fire, the Enterprise needed to give the Klingons a reason to draw in all 3. If they were going almost strictly defensive, the Klingons could afford to let one of their ships lose to attack the other ship. Picard needed to give the Klingons a reason to need all 3 of their ships to attack them.
@@frankbalistreri6822 The Klingons were going against the Galaxy Class warship Enterprise. It's already a much bigger threat than the heavily damaged aging Ambassador class limping away. And the Klingons did break one of their ships off to go after the Ent-C at 1:45. The Enterprise-D again moved in and put itself in the path of Klingon attack. The Enteprise was doing just enough to hold their attention without risking a weak defense.
"The war has gone very badly. Starfleet Command believes that within 3 months, surrender will be inevitable. One more ship now will not make a difference. But 27 years ago, one ship could have averted an entire war!"
Airdriver, I agree---I gave up somewhere in the middle of season two. A year later, I'm watching episodes from season three while flipping channels, and I was like, "Whoa! This is not the trite storylines I'd been watching the past 2 seasons..."
I think I only started watching around Season 3. When I eventually caught the reruns of Season 1 and 2, it was like... wtf is this? It's so bad. Looking back, it's like night and day. How did season 3 become so damn good? We not only had Yesterday's Enterprise, but Best of Both Worlds, Sins of the Father, The Defector.... it was like one hit after another.
"Lets make sure that history never forgets the name ENTERPRISE Picard out." In 2023 that came so true by reintroducing USS ENTERPRISE NCC-1701-D and it will never be forgotten.
@@joelaton1062 The ones from Enterprise are probably the most realistic in all honesty. Actually look like what a shipboard working uniform should. TOS movie uniforms (2-6) look too much like Dress uniforms to be actually practical. But they sure do look good in that capacity.
1) Klingons like toying with their prey or upping the handicap, 3v1 is probably more honourable not to use torpedoes rather than spamming them 2) They see Enterprise as a good fight but have some respect for them, w/ Archer III referenced 3) They decided to just unga bunga the Battleship Enterprise rather than go after the fleeing Enterprise C class vessel because fighting a fleeing crew is less honourable than getting stuck into fighting Picard whose death will be legend in the Empire, saying they killed him without torpedoes or boarded him and took it over is a big dick bragging move 4) They won the war or are in the process of winning it and everyone can see it, so they're being super relaxed about it with little concern about death (Klingons generally want to go out in a bang to get to the afterlife)
When he told Guinan "Not good enough dammit!!! Not good enough!!" We saw a Picard who is military to the core ,a hardened warrior, and as close to the Imperial Captain Picard as we would ever dare see. I could have seen Picard in a series where he is "exchanged" for the Captain of the Imperial Universe. I know, Discovery did this with Lorca, but Picard would have the better choice. A true warlord with a unique and charismatic style that puts Picard a cut above other "less worthy" captains.
I'm 37 and I try not to get into arguments on the Internet about pointless stuff anymore, but there are SO MANY people in the comments here saying "Why doesn't the Enterprise just keep firing all their phasers and torpedoes instead of only firing a couple times?" Well, there are two answers to that:
1. Some of it is left to the imagination. To make good drama, you don't have to--and shouldn't--show every detail. You have to know what to include and what to leave out. We're supposed to trust that Captain Picard knew what he was doing. The Enterprise fired its weapons exactly as much as it should have. Was all of it depicted onscreen? That's up to your imagination. This is a problem with a lot of action movies nowadays: They think that big fiery explosions everywhere all the time makes a battle more "epic." It doesn't. Tight pacing and a strong narrative make a battle more epic. Just look at The Wrath of Khan: The Enterprise fires its phasers only three times in the climactic battle in the Mutara Nebula (and its torpedoes twice). Most of the battle is the tense pacing, and the storytelling of a game of cat and mouse.
2. Phasers aren't magic. I mean, okay, they're fictional, but in real life most applications requiring large bursts of power have a recharge time. It's quite a science to know when to release that energy for maximal effect. The distance and aspect of the Klingon ships would have been very important. Given these considerations, it makes sense to hold your fire until it can do the most good. Otherwise you're wasting energy you can't replace, and likely contributing to system overheating. The torpedoes are similar: They too would have a reloading time, and presumably there would be an optimal firing range, neither too close nor too far away, for their guidance systems to have the highest accuracy while affording minimal evasion time to the enemy.
Not to engage in an argument here, but here is my counter argument :D
1. Drama is nice, but not at the expense of any credibility. I mean imagine making a movie where there is a war scene and a squad is getting battered and shot to bits while they discuss their options calmly in the middle of the battle field. Then the sergeant occasionally and very dramatically tells one of them to fire. I also think that of all the shows (though all Trek fell into this trap) TNG was the worst in this respect. Even in TOS people had more of a tendency to just do their job.
2. I think they outlined official specifications for these ships. I remember we used them in Star Trek roleplaying games many moons ago. And you could fucking fire A LOT, and you could fire phasers and photons simultaneously or nearly simultaneously. So while this sounds nice, I do not think it is based in the "reality" of this world.
I think they did it out of an exaggerated sense of drama. I love TNG, but not this part.
3. They had enough money and time to do exactly what they had on screen, and this was even with extra money added to the budget. Principal photography took place in mid-December 1989 and it aired 19th February 1990. With that amount of time it's amazing this episode is any good at all let alone it's a classic.
@@alanfrost75 well spoke, Alan.
@Ben Finny She didnt have to move away at all.
She had the energy capacity to either buff her shields a ton, or to dish out *alot* more phaser & torp power.
Why distract the Klingons when you can outright *destroy them?*
Which, let's not kid ourselves, the E-D was more than capable of doing.
@@somebuddyX That's a good point. Budget limitations definitely force more to be left to the imagination. I think I saw in a TNG documentary that filming each individual shot of that glorious 6-foot Enterprise D model cost about $10,000. They filmed a bunch in this episode, and tried to get their money's worth by reusing a bunch of those shots (especially those Klingon ship shots) for the rest of the series. But it must have been an especially expensive episode to make, especially when considering the uniform changes, set redesign, and extra extras.
When Picard personally fires the phasers they get a 2x damage multiplier.
nope it's 10X not 2x he's not tasha🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
LOL
and the klingons got "Battle Rage" afte rone of their ships died ^^
“Captain’s log supplemental: Never use photon torpedo dispersal pattern Sierra ever again.”
Star Trek Picard: _"Captain's blog... Supplements! ... Daily. Don't forget."_
I want to like this comment, but it’s at 47, and we’ll leave it at that huh?
Yeah Sierra sucks, to be certain.
It weakened the shields and helped destroy that target.
Janeway used Sierra in Basics, Part 1
If I were a crewman on the Enterprise, I would avoid Deck 14 at all costs during battles.
Not to mention exploding panels during a entire battle.
Deck 14 is composed of 2,545,656 explorable panels so I'm not surprised.
You said it.
I was there, its not a fun ride.
Deck 1 is usually never damaged.
On the previous Enterprise it was to avoid being one of the Away Parties, as they always got polished off
I love how Patrick very subtly changed Picard's temperament and expressions for this episode. The rest of the characters play about the same as any other episode, but Picard is clearly more battle-hardened and war-weary. The slight snarl on his face after "and we must succeed" is perfect.
Riker's different too. He's much more aggressive and it's clear he and Picard (who never calls him Number 1) don't get along all that well. I agree about everyone else though.
Andy H The tension between Riker and Picard over certain decisions is palpable. You get the sense that the war has forced them to butt heads constantly and for Riker to question Picard's authority. I feel like Picard made some kind of decision similar to this one earlier, a "needs of the many" type thing and Riker hasn't gotten over it since.
That's because Stewart has real acting talent. The rest of the cast was mediocre at best as is evidenced by their subsequent careers. I watched "First Contact" a few months ago and cringed as James Cromwell acted circles around everyone else.
Yeah. For comparison, go to the Mother of All Battles with the Borg. Very much out of place in a battle. Whereas here, he said fire the torpedoes Sierra pattern as if he was ordering takeout.
Wesley Crusher was fast tracked through StarFeet academy.
"We have to make sure that history never forgets the name......Enterprise."
One of the best lines of the series.
One of the best lines ever said that ultimately ended up never being said. :P
Yes & yes.
I LOVE THIS
If this timeline were to continue, history would surely remember.
But it would be a history written in Klingon, and it would be about that time they blew it to smithereens.
Kind of like the way we remember the Bismarck or the Yamato.
I smiled when i heard that line in Star Trek online.
When Riker is killed the panel near him that exploded was full of rocks. Which explains why it exploded I suppose.
Really old technology!
No. The rocks were just the shrapnel that were placed on top of the explodium.
🤣🤣🤣
Still laughing in 2020! 😂 it looks like coal. Steam turbine backup generator. Just go with it. 😂 *choo choo* 🚂💨💨💨😂😂
The rocks came out of Rikers head.
The engineering scene at 3:15 is underrated. LaForge knows it’s all over - tells his crew to just go. I’ll stay here til the end.
I’m surprised you didn’t leave a response to my comment about Levar Burton’s acting. I whole heartedly agree. That whole scene was just intense. The dramatic music, Geordi’s slight panic, it made for a great scene. IMO the best battle in TNG.
He's a true Chief Engineer!
Yep just like the engineers on the Titanic. Go down with the ship very nobly while standing your ground
@@nigelmurphy6761- Do you know of what you speak? The Titanic was really the Olympic and it was sank by its captain Edward Smith to kill 3 crime family heads. John Jacob Astor, Isador Strauss and Jonathan Guggenheim. They reportedly were against the installment of the Federal Reserve.
April 1912 the Titanic goes down, Dec 1913 the Fed Reserve rises which then led to their 100 year plan to destroy the USA via 3 WARS.
WW1+2, The Cold War and the never ending "War on terror". You should research the meeting on Jekyll Island in 1910. There is a video and book called "The Monster from Jekyll Island" where the demonic 13 family heads met to discuss this
I'm still bummed he didnt roll under the compartment door while it was closing
"Lets make sure history never forget the name: Enterprise." You think it can't get better or more badass.
"That will be the day". OMG.
Picard's vault over tactical really shows how that alternate reality was different. Props to Sir Pat for pulling that off too.
04:15 for anyone looking for it.
Was actually quite graceful.
Oi!? See him climb that rope in 1996 First contact? He was old man ripped in that movie...
*alternative. Alternate means to switch repeatedly between two different things.
@@markfox1545You're using alternate as a verb while the post you responded to used alternate as an adjective to refer to a reality that isn't the normal reality, i e. an alternate reality. I used to work as a proofreader and typesetter, not to mention do volunteer work as an editor and ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. Go back to seventh grade English -- you don't know half as much about English grammar as you think you do! 😵
This scene actually reminds me of the description of Picard taking charge of the Stargazer after its captain and first officer were killed.
Having the adversarial undertone between Picard and Riker was genius and both actors nailed it. I often wonder if an unspoken backstory was that Picard was indirectly responsible for Deanna's death and Riker, while understanding that Picard really didn't have any other option at the time, still can't forgive him.
Dispersal pattern Sierra seemed rather ineffective
Pattern is good, but weapons too weak.
Craig Given torpedo shotguns before weakening shields with phasers rarely work.
It’s probably why the games keep saying phaser down the shields then torpedo the remains.
Agreed. Moderate damage to the Klingons shields, cmon.
@@HowIamDriving According to the Trek data, a photon torpedo is alleged to have the power of 10 KT (a hiroshima class warhead of WW2). But according to the plot of what we are seeing, its like throwing spitballs at the enemy.
Attack pattern suicide it is then.
*That will be the day*
That's my favorite fucking line in this entire show.
Same line spoken by John Wayne in The Searchers
Picard defiant until the end
That line and Picard’s badassery are exactly why this is my favorite episode of any Trek series.
He said ‘That’ll be they day!” M.R. Flugleman!.
"That'll be the day..." Brilliant.
I love it when DATA says that the sheilds are buckling and is probably about to say that if they take another hit that they will fail..they take another hit and he stops mid sentence.
Talented writing.
"If we take... Fuck it."
Or: "They will not.. .(shields fail)....never mind, sir."
They got the idea.
"i have good news and bad news. the good news is you can ignore my previous statement about the shields buckling..."
I love the part where after Riker gets killed, Picard doesnt dwell on it but leaps over the railing to take over at tactical, and the shot of him keeping phaser fire on the klingons right to the end, even as flames envelop the bridge. He knew those precious few seconds at the end made the difference.
Also: why is the com full of rocks lol.
@@stuntmonkey00honestly, that’s a bit of Star Trek cheesiness that I love. I think the explanation is that it’s supposed to be bits of the consoles being completely slagged, but the real reason is likely that making the set in such a way that the consoles could be “exploded” and reassembled for future use would be too time and money inefficient, so generic debris would be used to save time and money. Just the realities of filming television where you have to use the same set repeatedly.
Riker “They shouldn’t be so confident, after the pasting we gave them on Archer IV.” I know this was made way before ‘Enterprise’ was thought of, but you could imagine Archer IV was named after Jonathan Archer now!
I might be wrong, but I think Archer IV is the name that was given to the planet the NX01 crew discovered in the third episode "Strange New World".
A nice callback to TNG on the part of the Enterprise writing team
There is a throw away line in "A mirror darkly" from Enterprise's last season where it is made canon that Archer "even has a planet named after him".
You'd think that Data in this timeline would have been modified to be a kill bot.
And that he'd have been deemed property of Starfleet Command such that every ship had at least one.
But as we all know, Kill Bots have a pre-set kill limit. You simply send wave after wave of your own men at them until they reach their limits and shut down.
@@AD-kv9kj A yes. The Branigan maneuver.
Well Data was Constructed before the events of Narrendra 3. So he wouldnt be affected by the changes of this temporary anomaly.
@@TKDMaze92 Yeah but some post modifications and upgrades could go a long way.
I love this scene. When I watch the way Picard handles this battle, I imagine this is how he took command of the bridge of the Stargazer many years earlier.
What I liked about this timeline - the different red alert sound the Enterprise has, and the fact that it's a continuous cycle. The red alert normally gives 3 or 4 blasts and then goes silent, with just the red lights flashing - here, the cycle is continuous. It just adds to the moment in my opinion :)
Cool observation, I hadn’t noticed until now
Picard: "Let's make sure history never forgets the name...Enterprise!"
... *3 minutes later history is changed and nobody remembers the battle*
everyone remembers enterprise tho reguardless
Tasha Yar’s daughter did !!!
I remember...
Has no one thought that Picard is actually referring to Enterprise C who's going to stop klingon war due to it's sacrifice , and not D?
@@Roman-bg8zb He's not referring to any one ship. He's referring to the legacy. That's what makes it so poetic.
Picard: Put us between the Ent C. Fire shots to distract, we can win this by the skin of our teeth!
Sisko: Full Impulse speed, singe them! Fire everything at less than 500 meters!
Janeway: FIRE EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE! BLOW UP THE WHOLE DAMN SECTOR!
Enterprise c gone. Klingons win the war!!
Archer- take my dog... Take it!!
Lol
But seriously, what would Kirk say? Were there ever any major space battles in TOS? I don’t remember any (this being pre-Star Wars), so I can’t imagine how he would engage. Older movie-era Kirk (Shatner) definitely had more than his fair share of fire fights.
Come on Picard you got to Advantage you got a better Ship Attack
I can't help but think that Federation vessels would be much safer if they didn't build them entirely from exploding panels and foam rocks...
Blasphemy! They’re not foam rocks - they’re duratanium rocks.
Bunch of cowboy workmen
Sounds like China
They are too evolved for such primitive 19th century technology like circuit breakers. If you die, you die.
Haven't we learned by now? You make things go boom to get funding and syndication or Gene Siskel (before his latter years when he got wise) will say your movie or series is a geek show.
Or Babylon 5 that was almost entirely plot and their special effects were waving stock Hollywood spotlights in the dining area.
Missed move by the writers to not have the Klingon ordering their surrender be Worf
I've thought that same thing for absolutely years. I suppose it might be arguable that Worf wouldn't have survived the attack on his planet, but still...yeah.
@@Tigerhawk30 that is IF the attack happened
@DriftZ TwoSeven um yes there would..i doubt the Kitomer attack happens in this timeline.
Kitomer happened.. So stated earlier but the turn out was different.
@@Bear44mc no neandra three happened..Kitomer might have not happened.
Could the Enterprise C move any slower?
Haven't you played sto? It's slow lol
Iyce Phoenixx It’s a huge ship. How long does it take to maneuver a battleship today?
@@wellesradio Different physics and momentum at use here
@@wellesradio Sto is the game btw, I'm saying I have experience with how slow it is
Frank Morales The rift was already unstable. Maybe they determined that was the fastest they could move without risking further destabilization.
I remember when the last episode of TNG first aired, there was a day-long event on one of the nationwide TV stations that ran a marathon with Encounter at Farpoint and the top 5 best episodes, as voted by fans.
This episode ranked number 3 or 4. Well deserved.
For those interested, Google "Star Trek TNG Viewer's Choice marathon."
Ranked from 5 to 1
RELICS
INNER LIGHT
YESTERDAY'S ENTERPRISE
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS 1 AND 2
@@juliok1923 Yep. And with the except of Best of Both Worlds, it was my first time seeing those other three. All great episodes. I was already a big fan of Tasha - one of the stronger elements of season 1 to me. Yesterday's Enterprise made me like her even more.
@@juliok1923I think I agree with that list
Interestingly enough and I'm surprised no one has noticed this, the timeline was always going to be changed when the C went back. Think about it, its pretty clear that the battle was over when she came forward in time, all systems down most of the bridge crew dead, she was finished, it was over. When she was sent back she presumably arrived at the exact same moment but with weapons, Shields, and engines back online. They were probably able to destroy another warbird because of that.
Yeah, the timeline was going to change somewhat. But the battle was still hopeless and the Enterprise C was still going to be lost. You are right in that it was likely that more Romulans would die in the attack, but it's unknown how many or if that would change the timeline significantly.
@@darthimperious1594 well it does significantly change. According to Sela, the C was taken not destroyed utterly and Tasha made the deal to become the Romulan Commander's war wife to save much of the crew. Making it very likely that the C left some Warbird wreckage around. Now whatever happened to them afterwards is kind of unclear. Another reason Sela needed to be in Nemesis, growls.
William Costigan unless it was a predestined event
@@davidlewis5312 I don't recall Sela ever saying the Enterprise-C was captured, only that some of the crew survived. Had Enterprise-C been taken and not destroyed, there would have been no evidence of her defense of Narendra III, the Klingons would have never known about the Enterprise's sacrifice, so the alliance between the Klingons and the Federation wouldn't have happened. Enterprise-C was destined to be destroyed in this battle, otherwise the events in this episode would have been the prime timeline
@@davidlewis5312 but I completely agree with you, Sela should have been in Nemesis
“Let’s make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise!!!”
For that line alone this episode is greatness. More than makes up for all the crap everyone is bitching about!!!
I like how Picard's facial expression and the delivery of the line have the subtle, "Yea, this is a suicide mission. We're gonna die. Take as many Klingons with us as we can."
I remember having goosebumps hearing this line the first time.
“I once tried Riker’s “Pasting” line in a Halo 3 lobby…didn’t go over so well. 😂
Picard:. Set your phasers on "negotiate".
Lol😆
Maximum negotiate! Lol
Klingon ship explodes
Picard: My apologies...
Kirk would have blasted the Klingons. Picard sits there and takes a beating until his ship is completely wiped out.
@@dankuchar6821
👍
0:40 That grimace Picard pulls just after he says that they must succeed, knowing full well the probable price of that success.
Truly one of the most underrated actors of all time. Same with Brent.
The Galaxy class is a pretty solidly designed Battleship. It took on 3 K'Vort Battlecruisers (Reused Bird of Prey Models LOL), destroyed one and damaged another. It only went down because they held position the whole time protecting the Enterprise-C rather than maneuvering away from the Disruptor Blasts.
Exactly.
K'vort class ARE birds of prey, they are just larger versions of the B'rel class (ST3/4 & 6).
It went down because JLP refused to use its main weapons.
@@develynseether4426 I assume the K'Vort is far more powerful than a Bre'l. They are likely on the scale of an Excelsior class Starship (I can see 3 Excelsiors being able to take on a Galaxy class).
@@geonerd Idk... He fired Phaser Arrays and Photon Torpedoes. Just not to the extent we see in "Best of Both Worlds".
Just watch this episode for the first time. Dam this is a good show. To think I was completely obsessed with star wars at the time I barely gave star trek a go. Glad I finally came around!
Both are good but star trek is just such a good show to binge watch
I know that it was done for the sake of this story, but if there was a war going on for a long while, there is no way this same crew should have been together. Riker would have had his own command.
Geddo probably Data too.
@@durkin9664 I'm thinking they never found Data.
@@gedias1 that seemed like a likely outcome in a war torn federation, less exploration
Geddo I think Data was found before the Enterprise C went on it’s fateful mission.
Actually, the war would have been over long before this. The Klingons were in serious trouble and in no position to war with the federation. They would have gotten their asses kicked.
"Let's make sure, that history never forgets, the name Enterprise" 1 of my favourite lines from the entire series.
We need a new ship in space called Enterprise.
And mines as well.
Too bad that since this alternative timeline was erased, Jean-Luc Picard's quote was forgotten.
I always loved that one, along with _"That'll be the day!"_ when the Klingons order him to surrender.
@@RobertNielsen1970 😆 and a Lot more or laughs. 😆
Jesus..
What an epic episode...
Still gives me chills, decades later!!! 5 stars ⭐ all the way 😊
"Continue to fire all phasers"
* klingon explodes
Why didn't you do that to start with?
Because you NEVER start with your best attack or go super sayajn at the beginning of a battle :-D
Enemy ships were too far away or not damaged enough.
@@ericstaples7220 But close enough to damage the Enterprise?
If they take out one, they can take out the rest, and as for distance, if Kingons can take out Enterprise they are at a distance for Enterprise to take them out
It's all an energy arms race. Power used to fire the phasers is power you don't have in the shields. They can't effectively fight all three Cruisers without leaving Enterprise C undefended. But with that kind of firepower from the phasers, the Klingons can't really afford to ignore them, either. So they dump most of their power into their shields, take a few shots to keep the Klingons busy, and run out the clock until the Enterprise C is through.
Their lack of firing back was infuriating
The Enterprise D was a fortress. The Klingons were no match for them, or the federation. The Enterprise could have outgunned all three of those ships without moving, while the enemy literally had to point its weapons at a target. Also, in canon the Klingons were in no position to wage a war with the federation and would have been soundly defeated long before this episode ever happened. Assuming the events of star trek 6 still happened, which we can assume it did, the Klingons were damn near on their knees at that point and suicide attacks were apparently being considered as pointless even by the Klingons. The federation and its vast resources and far superior armaments made a Klingon victory laughable.
Well, we must have a damage report before maneuvering or returning fire dont we?
@@Anarchist86ed OK, the question remains, why firing back so little?
@@danielhausser8038 As a viewer one is left with the impression that Picard was crappy battle captain or just plain shitty writing. The moment those cruisers came into range, Picard should have been like "Data, win this battle as quickly as possible" and let Data ravage all three vessels. Instead Picard is calling out movements and not firing...FAIL!
chadlpnemt Yes. You do. If you fire from a damaged area you can blow up.
The dreaded inoperative navigational sensor array!!!
IKR!
@@kukuc96 omfg...
Klingon Captain: "Federation Ship Enterprise, surrender and prepare to be boarded."
Picard: "That will be the day."
Chills everytime.
Perfection.
I always get chills at the end of this scene with the Klingons closing in for the kill and the other Enterprise all beaten up going through the rift to their certain deaths. One of the best episodes hands down for me! Thanks for posting it!
That scene where the Enterprise D turns to face the camera, turning to protect the Enterprise C behind her, while you hear the engines slowly spinning up with the voice over of Picard saying that 3 Klingon Battlecruisers are on an intercept course is my favourite ship shot of the entire show. Back in season 3 they were still relying on a lot of stock shots. I even think that shot is a modification of a stock shot itself but it is done so well and for a change it perfectly shows you what the ship is supposed to be doing in that moment.
It is also followed by a fantastic speech by Picard and an amazing shot of Picard at the tactical desk still trying to fight even with the bridge collapsing around him and everything catching fire.
It is a shame that the battle is so poorly fought. I counted and the Klingons manage to get off 16 shots before The Enterprise even returns fire. Literally the one time that Picard says continual fire all phasers a Klingon ship explodes. So do that again twice more.
Easily one of the finest one-hour episodes in all of the Trek canon.
I would say, second only to Best of Both Worlds Part 1.
"We will sit here firing pot shots at the Klingons while they fire full weapons at us!"
The objective was not to win the battle, or even to survive, but to win time for the Enterprise C at all costs.
True. And in fact, you could see that in the tactics that were employed by Picard. No evasive maneuvering.
Learn 2 ship energy management
Disruptors are less powerful than photon torpedoes but fire more rapidly.
Warf- "sir, reccomend we enter the battle firing everything we have"
Pickard- "belay that. just shoot 1 phaser burst every minute or so, maybe throw a couple low yield photons at them. were not here to win"
Well, they literally weren't there to win - they were trying to ensure the Enterprise-C escaped. Outgunned and outnumbered, the idea was basically to play for time. They had to keep themselves between the Klingons and the Enterprise-C as much as possible, and draw fire.
@@DrOneOneOne they werent outgunned. pickards enterprise is capable of taking down borg cubes by itself. klingons are not a problem.
@@FingerinUrDaughter Guess again.
"They're not even bothering to cloak themselves."
"They shouldn't be so confident after the pasting we gave them at Archer-4."
Plus, of course, the Klingons actually did destroy the Enterprise-D.
You probably meant "Worf - 'Federation vessel, lower your shields and prepare to be boarded..."
@@DrOneOneOne they only did that by cheating and basically nullifying their shields. they also managed to destroy the duras sisters in the process.
"Enemy ship is charging pew pew."
"Raise anti pew pew and return pew pew."
your comment stinks, phew ! jk ;)
"Aye, Captain, returning pew pew."
"Initiate a Pew Research Center poll! We need to find out what they really think!"
@@Trump-a-Tron "Analysis complete--they think that disruptors are awesome, sir."
lol such an underrated comment
"Let's make sure that history never forgets the name Enterprise". just got to love that quote.
Fantastic episode, just wish the Ent-D was more aggressive, would have been cool if they took out the first three Klingon ships and then maybe succumbed to another wave....I'm thinking budget had a lot to do with why that didn't happen!
Quite a bit wrong with the battle scene...
Nah, let's not have the Klingons job that hard. The fact that the Ent-D was able to take out one ship when being jumped by 3 ships WHILE successfully protecting another is an amazing feat in and of itself.
MightyVoice Picard was forced to position the ship in direct line of fire in order to keep the Klingons off of the Enterprise-C. The ship was getting hammered by a focused barrage from 3 battle cruisers. They couldn’t maneuver or evade because doing so would leave the Ent-C exposed. The goal was to soak up as much fire for as long as possible and delay the Klingons. Getting aggressive means less power to shields and defensive systems and quickly getting torn to shreds by fierce disruptor fire.
What was written makes sense.
@@Gunnar001 that is all correct. the Enterprise-D itself could have swerved and dodged and pounded them to death. the D got pounded making sure the C got through unscathed.
exactly
(Data) "Power couplings severed at forward phaser banks. Attempting to bypass. Controls not responding."
(Riker just stands there looking useless until something explodes and he dies violently)
(Picard glances at Riker's corpse, snarls, and leaps to Riker's station - he operates the nonresponsive controls - pewpewpew - the broken phasers fire)
Lololol. I just realized that Picard operated the Phasers after Data said they were offline.
He didn't say the phasers couldn't fire, just that the power couplings were severed. Phasers have their own batteries which get charged off the engines. Without the couplings the phasers couldn't recharge, but they still had whatever power was still left in the batteries.
They were trying to transfer power from the phasers to booster the defense. So it makes sense actually why Picard was able to fire the phasers at the end.
Plus, there are more phaser arrays located the ship. It didn't show where the phaser blast came from
Why are the control panels always filled with rocks?
How else do we kill off random red shirts?!?!
Good point James. I think it has always been that way since the Lt. Saavik took the Kobayashi Maru in Star Trek II - the original one.
😂
Pahaha 😆
@Jared Harris Deck 14 must be the red shirt quarters.
Ahh the old physical models flying at 7mph in a straight line.
Gotta love practical effects
If only an uprated Dominion Era Galaxy Class was here...
In this timeline, it was already called the Battleship Enterprise. You'd imagine it would be fitted with all the latest war tech it has to offer since the war started.
@@Cain-x the federation was also nearly defeated at this point. Its hard to say if this ship had the same technology breakthroughs as the original timeline. Warship or not. The enterprise certainly took a few hits regardless
One of the best episodes of TNG along with "Best of Both Worlds". But my personal favourite is "In the Pale Moonlight" - DS9. The writing and acting of that episode eclipse most of our current TV shows...
The sound of the Enterprise-D's engines spooling up in the start as she goes into red alert gives me chills every time.
I loved Levar Burton's acting toward the end of the engineering scene as the music slowly started to crescendo.
If Captain Sisko was in command this battle would have been over and in 10 minutes
Sisko would order full impulse, concentrating firepower on 1 Kvort within 500 meters (to singe them), then use the saucer as a battering Ram on a second K'vort at full impulse. Then saucer Sep to dump the dead weight (critically damaged saucer) and Dog Fight the 3rd K'vort with the Star Drive section for an ultimately decisive win.
Enterprise C returns without being hit once.
Sisko tows the saucer back for repairs
3 dead Klingon K'vorts.
Sisko's goatee grows 1 inch longer.
@Mater Chief: I like the way you think 😂
Whoopee. Captains Kirk and Picard have always been the best.😊💒
Sure, and he'd be in an escape pod watching as his ship blew up while the Klingons went to town on the Ent-C
The Defiant has roughly the overall firepower of a Galaxy, but has the advantage of cloak and far, far more maneuverable.
That being said, I'm not sure that a smaller ship would have accomplished what they needed to here---which was protect the damaged Ent-C from being disabled before she could enter the rift.
2019, This scene still makes me sit on the edge of my chair.
USS ENTERPRISE
Now THIS should have been the basis for Star Trek: Generations.
Agreed. It would have been a great starting point
Same director. A few scenes where similar in generations. Like when they found Sorin.
With a battle strategy like this it's a wonder Starfleet didn't lose the war a long time ago
It was rather bad, poor, script writers going for action over reality. The enemy had no chance if Enterprise had just carried on firing, and the enemy was well in range as the enemy was hitting Enterprise
Best Picard line ever "That will be the day!"
“Let’s make sure that history never forget the name ENTERPRISE”........it never has 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
"Open a hailing channel to the Enterprise C, ask if there's any way they could move slower!"
Picard doesn't even redress Riker for being over-confident, that's his job more than ever in the face of horrid all-out war to be the one rattling the saber during a vital holding action.
Do I ever miss Star Trek. *Stares out at the night sky
This was always one of my favorite episodes of TNG
It always annoyed me that the Enterprise spends so much battle time just sitting like a dumbshit, not returning fire.
Here's how I'd picture this fight:
(I know ECM has never been a part of ST lore, but ST lore has never been very consistent anyway. Looking at you Deep Space 9)
The Klingons are famously good at stealth techniques. Their Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) has always been better than the Federation. As such, Klingon warships can acquire optimal target locks faster than Federation starships. Starfleet Naval Doctrine dictates starting a battle with evasive or aggressive maneuvers, to either negate the Klingon First Strike advantage, or close distance for an optimal target lock faster.
However the Enterprise-D’s mission is not to out-maneuver or defeat the Klingons in battle. The mission is to delay the enemy advance long enough for the Enterprise-C to escape into the temporal rift. Unfortunately, that leaves little room to maneuver. The Enterprise-D activates their own ECM, diverts all available power to forward shields, and prepares to take a pounding.
The 3 Klingon K’Vort cruisers do not disappoint, and open fire simultaneously. Several shots miss. Most hits are only glancing, but the Enterprise takes multiple direct hits. Minor damage to forward hull, moderate losses to shields. The Enterprise does not yet have an optimal lock, so Picard orders a hold-fire. He diverts warp power to shields, restoring most of their strength. Minor heat warning in power transfer couplings.
The Klingons continue to close distance. Their disruptors are recharging, so they opt to fire their own photon torpedoes. This time the Enterprise responds in kind. Having acquired an optimal lock on the lead ship, they open up with a burst of phasors and photon torpedoes. Only half the shots land, and most of those are glancing. Still enough for moderate enemy shield loss. The Enterprise again takes moderate forward shield losses, more minor hull damage. Damage control teams are dispatched. Again Picard diverts divert warp power, but is only able to restore partial shields. Power couplings are overheating.
Both sides hold fire, while their weapons recharge. The Klingons are trying to outflank the Enterprise. One Bird breaks formation, and makes a run for the limping Enterprise-C. Picard orders resetting the shields to 360-degree coverage, weakening them overall. Enterprise comes about to intercept. Warp power to phasers, and they fire with photon torpedoes. At near point-blank range, the Bird takes heavy damage. They suffer main power failure, and are disabled.
But now the Enterprise has put her back to the 2 remaining Birds. They close to near point-blank range, where ECM is useless. They target the engines, and fire. Enterprise returns fire with her rear photon launcher, doing moderate damage to one of the birds. But Enterprise takes the worst of it. Heavy losses to rear shields, moderate hull damage. Impulse engines down, moderate casualties reported. Enterprise has no chance of out-maneuvering the Klingons on just thrusters.
However the Enterprise isn’t out of this fight. She has numerous system redundancies, and 360-degree phasor firing arcs. Mr. Data does some clever power re-routing from the warp engines to weapons. With another burst of rear-facing phasors and torpedoes, the lead Bird is utterly destroyed. But the last Bird maneuvers out of torpedo range, and opens fire on the warp engines.
Enterprise takes critical damage. Explosions rock the ship, causing heavy casualties. Riker is killed. Shields offline. Rear photon launchers offline. Warp engines are down, reactor containment fields lose power. Life support systems fail across multiple decks. Geordi has no choice but to shut down main power, and switch to auxiliary. The Klingons hail the Enterprise, demanding unconditional surrender.
Picard is having none of it. He orders all available remaining power be diverted to weapons - including life support. Across the ship, the surviving crew scramble for emergency shelters. The air rapidly becomes toxic. Picard jumps to tactical, and manages a few anemic phasor blasts. The Klingon Bird is lightly damaged. They lock photon torpedoes. One single hit will be enough to destroy the Enterprise. The other disabled Bird has restored power, and is moving into firing range. Picard glares at the enemy ships defiantly, as fire rapidly engulfs his bridge.
And then the Enterprise-C finally enters the temporal rift. The timeline is repaired.
One of y favorite TNG episodes even though I wasn't really a fan of the series. But I kind of find this battle kind of prophetic, because this is exactly how the Enterprise-D met her end in Generations.
1:49 I like how he says "200 kilometers" to mean really close; the ships are presumably enlarged for effect but we can still picture that the battle is taking place at incredible range.
A very good observation.
This bridge was much superior to the living-room bridge that they otherwise always used.
Battle bridge shown in that scene, that's why.
@@scottgurstein The "D" would not have that giant saucer section and any ability to separate since it would have been built purely for battle and not exploration with a means to defend itself.
Didn't notice any difference in the saucer section size as it was represented visually in the episode.
@@scottgurstein It looked like the normal "D" Enterprise when, in this war timeline, it would never have the saucer section attributed to a galaxy class ship as that is where families etc live and operate.
@@kukuc96 Possibly but unlikely. With the TNG series, the USS Galaxy is the first Galaxy class ship but is allegedly still in testing while the Enterprise - D is the first to be set off on its mission to seek out new life and new civilization...etc. The Galaxy class was likely on the drawing board only a few years prior to that. In 'Yesterday's Enterprise', the war with the Klingons has been going on for quite a bit longer. This is why I believe there would be no saucer section of that size. It would be drawn up as a battle ship and not a ship of exploration...pretty significant difference. I would also draw your attention to Worf's comments to the renegade Klingons in the first season how the Enterpise becomes a formidable weapon when relieved of its excess bulk (or something along those lines).
They still haven't made a Star Trek movie nearly as good as 'Yesterday's Enterprise' since it aired in `89.
i still say the undiscovered country is the best Trek Movie.
@@ianciti Kahn, then Undiscovered! :)
@@HookerUNLEASHEDfilms Khan was a good action movie, but that's it. i mean really think about Trek and what it was in its conception. Roddenberry himself got a job in the industry because he was sick of all the benile horrible writing and star trek itself was meant to embody free thinking and intellectualism. the original pilot of trek had been originally shot down by CBS for being "too intellectual" so in reality when i judge any piece of trek. i judge it by how sound it's out of the box thinking and proposed ideas are. in that regard i hold Undiscovered country to be a better Trek Film than Kahn because Kahn is just a fantasy revenge story being told in the star trek universe.... which is fine i guess but that's not what TREK IS ABOUT! Undiscovered country not only proposes the idea of peace between the federation and the klingons but it asks the question of peace in a very uncomfortable way. and not only shows that all our characters are uncomfortable with the idea but it also then shows that some people are so opposed to that idea that it brings them together in ways they wouldn't expect. Klingons and Starfleet officers working together to prevent peace between them. vulcans violating their own logic and it does all of this without just talking at the audience for anything the writers might've been worried would go over the audiences head (i'm looking at you Star trek the motion picture!) it also expands the universe by showing off New worlds and new LifeForms (the klingon prison world and the shapeshifter) which is the most trek of all. it's not just a story being told in the trek universe it IS trek. and it is taking Kirk where he has never been before. oh and speaking of kirk star trek 6 also offers him the most character development out of all the movies by forcing him to out grow his own prejudices.
The only Star Trek movie I don’t like is generations. Don’t really count the abrams movies as Star Trek movies
@@johnochiltree1170 oh fuck that man generations is awesome. only trek movie i dislike is insurrection
“Let’s make sure that history never forgets the name...Enterprise.” I don’t care what timeline it is... The best Star Trek line ever spoken!
Absolutely my favorite line of Picard's. "Let's make sure history never forgets the name, Enterprise."
I love yesterday’s Enterprise’s bridge! Wish we had more screen shots of it!
I love how they pitched up the sound of the phasers in this episode, to show that the federation was focusing heavily on weapons tech due to the war and thus had more powerful phasers than in the normal timeline.
4:13 Picard SHOULD have said, "From Hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."
I like how even though the Enterprise D was designed and built during a Klingon war in this timeline the bridge still has that nice wood wrap around.
This is one of my favorite episodes and yet the speed of that battle is so infuriating
Klingon Attack Pattern "Fly in single line and pew pew!", Wesley: "Should we evade, sir?", Picard: "Shut up, Wesley."
I love this episode. I Imagine an entirely different series of episodes in this timeline.
Love the slight variation on the collar of the uniforms, the seriousness of enterprise D as a war ship. Completely different expectation of the crew and mission.
Never gets old! CLASSIC timeline episode from ST: TNG we got to see the illustrious Enterprise C. This scene omg.
Maybe the reason Starfleet moved from the Galaxy class was because every time they went into a battle, after a couple of hits they seemed to have the danger of a warp core breach? 🤣
Always makes me laugh when Geordi looks straight at the camera when telling the bridge about the 2 min breach. I keep thinking “Who is he looking at?” 🤣
Only episode where Wesley crusher wasn’t annoying. Prove me wrong 🤣
Season 7 Episode 21
Any episode that didn't involve wesley crusher.
Jim Barrows
But her ass made up for it...
@Jim Barrows Hurt the show immensely with her PC bent and nauseating pertness. But then again TNG was all about political correctness.
~~~~As for me, I like my Star Trek with a heavy dose of toxic masculinity… th-cam.com/video/CPq3Hz7kAqE/w-d-xo.html
Best Of Both Worlds
My favourite scene, from my favourite episode, of my favourite Trek series. This episode is a perfect encapsulation of everything that made older Star Trek series so inspirational and amazing, and this scene is one of only a few moments in Star Trek history where they truly acknowledge that the ship itself is an important character with a life of its own, just as important as any member of the crew, if not more so.
The only other times we see that respect given are in Star Trek 3, TNG's "Encounter at Farpoint" and "Thine Own Self", the ending of Generations, and in the Voyager episode "The Year of Hell". The themes in this episode, and in most of TNG for that matter, of taking the high and noble road at any cost, of defending personal freedom and the right to self determination, and of resorting to violence only when all other options have run out, are totally beyond the comprehension of Abrams and his band of idiots, and their loss has helped to make "Discovery" and "Picard" the utter failures that they are. Sadly, we need those themes and that kind of inspiration now more than ever. Thankfully Seth MacFarlane and the Orville team still get it..... but Gene, you are sorely missed.
One of my favorite episodes from Star Trek TNG.
In the time it takes picard to plot a course they could of fired 100000 photon torpedoes
Agreed. If their task was to run cover and keep fire off of Enterprise C then they should have been firing everything without pause. They have to succeed which means conserving torpedoes is not a priority.
I'm old enough to have seen this episode when it originally aired and then its first rerun. It was great back then but today I can see that the script was as it was because of the limited production budget. The effects department was working with models and limited time and money. Everything had to match the script for run-time so this is what we got. It works but there's a lot to be desired. Still, it was one of my favorite shows as a teen and I wouldn't trade my memories of it for anything.
Blaze Rocker Nope. Picard was literally maneuvering the ship into a focused barrage of enemy fire. Dumping all power into weapons and constantly firing everything means a massive drain of energy that would be taken away from shields and other vital defense systems keeping them alive.
Picard’s only goal was to hold the line between the Klingons and the Enterprise-C and soak up all the fire long enough for them to escape. Balance of systems was crucial.
Plus, we don’t know the condition of the war-torn Enterprise. It was stated that they just took part in a battle before this one. They could have already been dangerously low on torpedoes and suffered earlier damage.
billyboyjennings Enterprise blew up one of the Klingon ships with just a few phaser hits. If they had taken out or disabled one more they wouldn’t have had to rely on shields so much, moreso when they had to get into position to take shots for the C.
@@harruar7214 And for some reason they refuse to use cloaking devices, whilst the others have no such restraints.
@@Gunnar001 You have a good argument but that's three klingon BOPs in three dimensional space against two Federation ships, one of which has reduced shielding. In this case the best defense is a mad offense. I also don't recall any mention of the Enterprise D's torpedo supply being critically low or their launching system being offline late in the battle. If they had torpedoes then they needed to use them.
If you still disagree then we'll just have to disagree. You are entitled to your opinion.
That was a great episode!
Got an idea...rather than concentrating on damage control...KEEP FIRING WEAPONS!!!
Pay attention. The Enterprise-D was never going to win the fight. That wasn't the goal. They were outnumbered and outgunned and had little chance. It was more important to keep the ship up and running in order to draw Klingon fire for as long as possible. The longer the Klingons are busy trying to destroy them, the less fire the Enteprise-C takes as they try to escape.
@@Gunnar001 yes, but a better delaying tactic is to fight, not sit there and get destroyed. During a battle, Captains keep their ships firing weapons, not sit there and listen to damage control reports.
@@frankbalistreri6822 An even better delaying tactic is not getting your ship immediately blown up because you're draining too much power away from the vital shields and defensive systems that are keeping you alive. Again, the goal was to draw all fire away from the Enterprise-C long enough for them to escape. Not to win the fight. Constantly firing wasn't going to make a difference at that point and would've just led to the ship being destroyed even faster.
@@Gunnar001 since the task was to draw the Klingon's fire, the Enterprise needed to give the Klingons a reason to draw in all 3. If they were going almost strictly defensive, the Klingons could afford to let one of their ships lose to attack the other ship. Picard needed to give the Klingons a reason to need all 3 of their ships to attack them.
@@frankbalistreri6822 The Klingons were going against the Galaxy Class warship Enterprise. It's already a much bigger threat than the heavily damaged aging Ambassador class limping away. And the Klingons did break one of their ships off to go after the Ent-C at 1:45. The Enterprise-D again moved in and put itself in the path of Klingon attack. The Enteprise was doing just enough to hold their attention without risking a weak defense.
One of my favorite episodes
Best STTNG episode ever bar none. Still try and catch it every time it is on.
“Let’s not actually attack, let’s let the Klingons pummel us while we throw potshots back at them.”
Klingons probably considered it an honorable way for the Enterprise to go out.
watch the full episode
Picard’s thinking, just a little closer, and when the warp core goes boom, Klingon vessels will go boom too😎.
Picard gave some of the greatest speeches and I totally loved this one the most
This was the episode that convinced me that there was hope for TNG. After the first season I had given up. The concept of this story was brilliant.
"The war has gone very badly. Starfleet Command believes that within 3 months, surrender will be inevitable. One more ship now will not make a difference. But 27 years ago, one ship could have averted an entire war!"
Airdriver, I agree---I gave up somewhere in the middle of season two. A year later, I'm watching episodes from season three while flipping channels, and I was like, "Whoa! This is not the trite storylines I'd been watching the past 2 seasons..."
I think I only started watching around Season 3. When I eventually caught the reruns of Season 1 and 2, it was like... wtf is this? It's so bad. Looking back, it's like night and day. How did season 3 become so damn good? We not only had Yesterday's Enterprise, but Best of Both Worlds, Sins of the Father, The Defector.... it was like one hit after another.
maybe they coulda worked on the Enterprise-C's impulse engines, replaced the one-legged hamsters on bicycles that were powering them?
"Lets make sure that history never forgets the name ENTERPRISE Picard out." In 2023 that came so true by reintroducing USS ENTERPRISE NCC-1701-D and it will never be forgotten.
One of the best episodes.
I wish the uniforms in this timeline had been more militaristic.
They had belts.
And a closed collar.
I wished that about TNG in general. Horrible uniforms. I love the ones from Khan the best.
@@joelaton1062 I love the TNG later uniforms; very proper but they look great. Season 1/2 uniforms....nah.
@@joelaton1062 The ones from Enterprise are probably the most realistic in all honesty. Actually look like what a shipboard working uniform should. TOS movie uniforms (2-6) look too much like Dress uniforms to be actually practical. But they sure do look good in that capacity.
Anyone else find it glaring that the Klingon ships didn't fire a single one of those big torpedoes they are supposed to have?
1) Klingons like toying with their prey or upping the handicap, 3v1 is probably more honourable not to use torpedoes rather than spamming them
2) They see Enterprise as a good fight but have some respect for them, w/ Archer III referenced
3) They decided to just unga bunga the Battleship Enterprise rather than go after the fleeing Enterprise C class vessel because fighting a fleeing crew is less honourable than getting stuck into fighting Picard whose death will be legend in the Empire, saying they killed him without torpedoes or boarded him and took it over is a big dick bragging move
4) They won the war or are in the process of winning it and everyone can see it, so they're being super relaxed about it with little concern about death (Klingons generally want to go out in a bang to get to the afterlife)
When he told Guinan "Not good enough dammit!!! Not good enough!!" We saw a Picard who is military to the core ,a hardened warrior, and as close to the Imperial Captain Picard as we would ever dare see. I could have seen Picard in a series where he is "exchanged" for the Captain of the Imperial Universe. I know, Discovery did this with Lorca, but Picard would have the better choice. A true warlord with a unique and charismatic style that puts Picard a cut above other "less worthy" captains.
Incredible episode, Yesterday's Enterprise, top 5 TNG episodes ever