I loved that, but he really should have said have invited all of them to the warp core breach like Kirk did in Star Trek III or Janeway to the Vidians.
Star Fleet Attack Pattern Alpha: 1. Do a lot of fancy maneuvering. 2. Take at least 6 hits from enemy vessels. 3. Fire ONCE 4. Ask for a Status Report. 5. Repeat
You forgot to add the last name of the person sitting in the Captain's chair. In fact, I think "Attack Pattern Riker Alpha" is simply the ship moving to the right dodging incoming fire from a Borg ship.
I'd say THE best. There've been some other really good ones. But, the concept, the writing, and the ramifications were all excellent. I can't think of an episode I liked better.
A minor detail that I quite like is how Riker's attitude changes over the course. He goes from confident to terrified in short order as he quickly learns that this isn't a battle that they can "win"
@@Blundabus1337 I tend to agree. There were many missed opportunities in this battle. I think the Enterprise, with moderate to substantial damage sustained, should have been able to take on 3 K'vort birds-of-prey and emerge victorious.
The best unspoken part of this battle, is that while by their nature it would never have meant showing mercy, in this timeline those klingons were certainly impressed by what even they would see as the remarkable fighting spirit of the Enterprise D. In a continuation of that timeline I'm sure they'd have gone home to insist that songs were sung of the courage their prey demonstrated, which was much more than they'd expected of a ship belonging to the Federation.
It is the policy of Klingons to not take prisoners. This means either: 1) They had drastically changed their war mentality, possibly due to war fatigue on their side as well. 2) They wanted the crew or ship, and thought humans might be enough cowards to take such an ultimatum. But yes, the fact that Picard did not surrender against hopeless odds was likely viewed as honorable by the Klingons, and it is a wonderful analogue for the ultimate fate of the Enterprise C.
The Enterprise-D had no problem holding shields against the Klingon cruisers until they started going after the Enterprise-C. When Picard gave his order 'continual fire, all phasers', it destroyed a Klingon cruiser but also drained the power reserves for their shields (given they started taking heavy damage immediately after). In other words, the Enterprise-D could have tanked significantly more hits if it hadn't needed to draw fire from the Enterprise-C. However, it also could never have defeated all three Klingon warships, given how rapidly going on the offense is seen to drain its power reserves.
This is something I had not ever thought of. I didn't understand why Picard didn't just have Riker spam all weapons but your right it would have drained power that would otherwise go to reinforce the shields.
i mean, what a battle ship is that either can defend itself or attack… after decades of war… especially that this is the flagship… and all it needs is 3 bird of prey… i’d argue that 3 of these should be a moderately difficult battle but winnable. i think it would be more ‘realistic’ for a flagship to take on 7 or 8 BoP eliminating at least 3 of them, crippling 2 but THEN failing against the last 2 and even then bringing one the BoP down with them (like ramming into one) that is a battleship, that is what you expect from the Enterprise and its crew and not 1 out of 3 … i mean it was able to take on the Borg cube and it was still a science vessel and not a battleship this thing should be flying around, dogding fire, spreading fire, use its advantages and use its power to protect the C rather than just sitting there like a duck… and after two hits getting a core meltdown… and that 5 torpedo … and thats it… anyway :) i guess cost reduction was important… but i would have loved the fight going on for a minute and even ALMOST winning the battle
@@mityaboy4639 Although the Klingon ships are technically Bird of Prey variants, they are noted to be Kvort-class *cruisers*. Larger and far more powerful than the scout-size Birds of Prey you're likely thinking of.
Temporal mechanics can be confusing. It obviously DID happen. Not only did we see it, but the Enterprise C's Captain died and Yar's kid went on to become an evil Romulan. Just because those events were erased by the original timeline, they still happened. Evidence still exists. If the battle had never existed as a result of the ship flying back through the anomoly, the Captain would have reappeared and Yar would have faded from existence. We know that didn't happen.
@@bradleyj.fortner2203 That was the joke, but I was actually thinking how when the anamoly happened it causes max time disruption but as the Enterprise C crew and Yar died the timeline had less disruption. Then all that was left was Sela. When she was gone eventually the timeline is repaired.
Always love two small bits. First when Picard corrects himself mid sentence and when ruler starts telling him something when Picard overrides him and acknowledges someone else Exactly the kind of stuff you’d see in battle
One of the greatest Next Generation's battle scene. It was so well put together that at the last scene, of the alternate Enterprise D, you could see the shield actually coming down, when still being attacked by the Klingons. Well done!
Imagine if Enterprise D went into the temporal rift, helping to defend both the Klingon outpost and Enterprise C? The result is Enterprise D being destroyed by the antimatter containment blast. The retconned would be Captain Rachel Garrett would be alive and the crew(including Tasha Yar) would not be captured by The Romulans.
If we notice the BoP facing camera actually ceases fire once Enterprise shields come down. I always figured that is when Klingon boarding parties began transporting 😢
Something I always thought was such an underrated part of this, is when Geordi heads back into the warp core after that final coolant leak. It is the last we see of him in the dark timeline. And even then, knowing his engineers will not survive, he does everything he can do to keep them alive just a little bit longer.
One more addition would have put this already classic episode even more over the top. When the Klingons show up, the lead cruiser should have hailed the Enterprise, and it would be Worf in command, who in this version would just be a proud senior Klingon commander. Seeing a beloved cast-member appear as a villain would be wonderfully terrifying.
That would not be possible. This episode deals with the Romulan attack on the Klingon Colony on Khitomer. That's the place where Mogh, the father of Worf lived - together with his son. The Enterprise-C was probably able to hold off the Romulans long enough for some survivors to get to safety and hide somewhere, with others being captured. Mogh died here. The USS Intrepid answered the distress call of the colony and rescued Worf and others. Considering the change in history here, I would assume that Worf was either captured or killed during the attack. Even had he survived, he would've grown up on Earth, similar to the original timeline.
@@danielk5780 The Enterprise-C was lost in the Battle of Narendra III. A battle over Khitomer was portrayed in Star Trek 6. The sneak attack by the Romulans on the planet was mentioned in dialog in a couple other episodes of TNG.
The enterprise was pretty metal. I mean, it took a full volley of about 19 hits from the opening battle. All data could say was “shields holding” with no damage
In the alternative timeline, they have stronger shields due to having non-essential programs operating at minimal power levels, allowing them to use that extra power for the shields.
@@jdb2002 Also the ship was designed as a battleship built for combat in this timeline, so the ship would be tougher in general regardless of power levels.
This is one of Star Trek's best battle scenes. The others are the two between Enterprise and Reliant in The Wrath of Khan and the battle between Enterprise A and the cloaked Kilngon Bird of Prey over Khitomer in The Undiscovered Country.
0:42 What makes this scene interesting is we all remember the quote as something being positive and uplifting. Picard is most likey saying this under a time of war as a way to remind those around them who the super power is.
Idk if they used to take into account when making the prequels but Star Trek has so many references that work so well in retrospective man. At this point in time no one was even thinking of Star Trek Enterprise but when I see this episode i immediately go " Oh Archer IV, that must be named after Captain Archer" well done if that thought out
@@compmanio36 No it doesn't because there was never any intention to make a prequel series back when this was written. And there was Valerie Archer in Voyager it could be named for her going by your illgoic, but it isn't.
Archer IV has been retconned to be the planet from the ENT episode "Strange New World" which means the Klingons are attacking major planets within 50 odd ly of Earth. The war isn't just going badly. The UFP is beaten and hasn't surrendered, yet, or the guys who decided to make that Archer IV are idiots who didn't think what that bit of lore changed about "Yesterday's Enterprise."
@@ValiantWrestling I agree. This is probably where the Archer name started in some writer's mind, but within the story there is no connection. It's the same where they got the "Janeway" namesake. There's a TNG episode mentioning an Ensign Janeway, but there's no real connection within the story of Janeway.
Still one of thee most beautiful shots in the entire Trek universe comes from 0:00-0:16.. seeing the Enterprise D swing 180 degrees and take up a defensive position to cover E-C with the subtle sounds of the shields/weapons powering up to full intensity is on a level all of its own.. I’ve rewatched this clips first 15sec what seems like 240-thousand times in the past few years, without shame 😅
And then you see the weapons at full intensity unleashed, as the last few seconds are re-used at 2:30 when the D fires four phaser blasts and destroys a Klingon ship.
I always loved that little bit that somehow made the final cut... Riker: "Heavy casualty in the secondary hull..." Me, a few times after watching in syndication and catching the singular: "How heavy was he?"
What is it about Galaxy class starships, and their fragile warp cores? As deceased Captain Varley of the U.S.S. Yamato put it so directly "They should have run these Galaxy class ships across a few more drawing boards before building them." How true those words are my Captain, how true they are.
@@scoobydoo5439 I like where your mind's at, my man, because I've always wondered the same thing. I've always thought they're awfully weak for a class of vessels that includes Starfleet's flagship! Perhaps a Galaxy class isn't supposed to be a powerful combat vessel?
At the risk of getting flogged by the commentariot, I put Yesterday's Enterprise ahead of both of the Best of Both Worlds episodes. Definitely my favorite TNG episode.
I would agree on the grounds that it's hard to compare most of the series singular episodes against a two-parter but if any single episode does distinguish itself it should go ahead. Bringing the Enterprise-C in and a new class of ship was brilliant on its own as a temporal episode, the subtle nuances of this darker future put it way over the edge.
Everyone has their favorite, don't have to apologize. There are objectively better ones, in terms of filming, effects, pacing, script, but whatever one hits you in that spot, it's your opinion, so own it 👍💯
I heard that due to budget and time Data was going to be electrocuted while Wesley was going to be decapitated on screen in an extended battle because of this only Riker's death is shown .
Hands down, my favorite TNG episode of all time. This is one of the most legendary scenes in the whole run of this show. I will never forget this episode and scene.
This is to me the Platonic ideal of a *Star Trek* episode: great character work, a mind-bending time/travel story, spectacular space battles, and an uneasy moral question to debate afterward. Perfection
One thing that has always irked me is that all ships should’ve been firing far more than they did. I realize it was likely due to special-effects costs.
I like this because we can explore it both with the perspective of the production of the episode and within the episode itself. I agree that special-effects in the late 80s/early 90s was at a premium price. Can we chalk up to the arrogance of the Klingons, maybe they felt this would be an easy victory (which it did seem like it)? We don't know the status of the Klingon vessels before this scene, did they too just come from battle and only manage to muster three vessels? Was there a reason why they weren't approaching under cloak (was the cloak damaged or was engineering unable to provide power)? Plus while we're watching the crew on the Enterprise bridge, we still cannot accurately count how many blasts the Enterprise is enduring.
The Klingon ships fired plenty of times, it was the Enterprise that didn't. It only fired one volley of photon torpedoes and seven phaser blasts despite having ten phaser banks.
Scene would have also been much less dramatic; Enterprise popping the Klingon ships like balloons haha. Which is probably what should have happened if they were big on consistency (Galaxy Class ships shown as leviathans in the Dominion War, which logically they should be as one of the largest designs of all the combatants). Destroyers vs a super battleship.
One of my favorite sequences in the series. One thing I just noticed after all these years. "Keep us within 200kms of the enterprise c" That's 120 miles!!! They wouldn't even be able to be seen in the same shot at that distance!😂😂 I still love this.👍🏾
Consider that they are also using energy weapons that can sheer molecular bonds and projectiles that have yields that make nukes seem tame. So fighting at ranges like that would be believable
@@danielhaire6677 Good point about the weapon type, although I had the same thought as the OP. With 200km of space, there's no way the Enterprise D could possibly shield C. From a tactical perspective it's like giving no cover at all.
@@mainstreetsaint36 Yeah, have to agree, even though the Abrams movies aren't loved, there are some good battle scenes. Then there's first contact, everyone vs the Borg cube, even the millennium falcon was in that fight.
I just love the start of this scene, you get a build up with the music and the Enterprise-D turns and you can here her powering up. I love how that works together, the power up/warp drive sound is just brilliant. The reason this battle works is the proper deployment of tension and character moments to make up for the low budget of the show and the limited use of CGI for a time. Had this been now, the ships would have been spamming weapons fire like Discovery does and it would not be interesting. Less is more people! Budget constraints can really help uplift performances.
i miss these slow methodical space battles. it really gave the feeling of just how massive these ships were. now everything is too quick and nimble, it diminishes them and makes them seem small like fighter jets.
A detail I noticed, perhaps a weakness of the Galaxy class ship, a coolant leak crippled the Enterprise both in this alternate timeline and in the timeline with the Duras Sisters
A coolant leak/loss of antimatter containment is fatal to all Federation ships. What surprises me is how quickly they happen when the ships start taking damage.
It's the cumulative damage. They lost a power coupling to the starboard side and a containment generator. This then escalated to a total loss of the containment fields so the decision is made to shut down and/or eject the core which begins. The explosion (Geordi's cupboard) means that the coolant control system is disabled. So now there is no way to maintain coolant levels which will cause the core itself to fracture and explode due to the heat and pressure within the core. The coolant leak accelerates that further. Effectively all the control systems are now disabled or ineffective. In that sense not a weakness, just the laws of physics!
@@ajc-ff5cm It's actually something that happens around us in this day and age. If your car starts leaking coolant or you happen to see a coolant warning on your dashboard...you need to pull over right quick because it's a very short time till the heat catastrophically damages the engine.
This must have been an extremely expensive episode to make back then with all the new VFX shots and practical damage effects, and its not even a season finale. i remenber beeing glued to the screen when watching it the first time.
Awesome episode and quote from Picard. And the worst tactical commanding he does in the whole series. I imagine myself being an Ensign there and politely making a few suggestions: "Sir ... may I remind you about the >1000 photon torps we have aboard, how about firing more of t..." - "No, Ensign, but please show me a beautiful closeup image of that left Klingon cruiser!" "Sir ... may I suggest to reroute emergency energy to the shields and weapons to increase our defensive abil ..." - "No, Ensign, prepare for a pointless course change that will in no way reduce the damage of the ongoing fire that hits us and won't bring us in a better tactical position at all!" "Sir ... that order to switch phasers to massive rapid fire ... couldn't you have given it from the beginning on?" - "Shut up W ... what was your name again?"
@@DeltaAssaultGaming I think it is pretty clear that it wasn't all too great, but had some scenes made better than what we see here in the clip. That's all.
@@benlanderos4136 And yet, there he is DURING WARTIME. Did you miss the fact that he's in Starfleet uniform, manning the navigation console, and is wearing the insignia of an Ensign? It's not like he doesn't have a lot of screen time and dialogue in this sequence. It's proper for THIS timeline. Btw...it's "wouldn't HAVE," not "wouldn't of." Proper grammar is a thing.
This episode's backstory is greatly expanded upon in the novel "Vulcan's Heart," which reveals how the Enterprise "C" was drawn into the Narendra III battle with the Romulans and the ultimate fate of its survivors. It’s a great read.
@@raven4k998 To be fair they *were* being pummeled by two and at one point three Klingon cruisers *and* trying to protect a second ship. That couldn't have been terribly helpful for the health of their ship.
This clip has it all, well except for Georgie rolling under the engineer bay blast doors(missed opportunity guys!). Although one must ask, why they weren't firing at will the whole time.. They fired what 4-5 torpedoes and maybe 4-5 phaser bursts? That's it?
Weird if you think about it. 'Yesterday's Enterprise' and 'Generations'. An episode and a movie both of the Enterprise-D attacked by Klingon BoP's and both introducing a previous incarnation of the NCC 1701 chain.
Biggest problem I had with this battle is the Galaxy-class is able to hold her own easy against the K'vort-class and should have been able to take down three as easily as it took down the first one.
I think the point was that this version of the D was running on what she had left of her supplies. This was the Federation on the back foot, having been losing a war with the Klingons. So she probably was only at about 40% capability at that moment.
If the Enterprise had a second starship assisting the battle like another Galaxy class,Nebula or Defiant class ship then it would defeat those 3 Klingon ships I bet.
The goal was to protect the Enterprise C; not go out in a blaze of glory. They needed to be a tank and not a glass cannon, so they had diverted power to shielding. Usually, a good offense is the best defense, but not if you're outnumbered and, heh, playing for time.
It's no wonder Starfleet is losing if that's all the more they shoot. We saw the Enterprise's real firepower when they tangled with the Borg. It was always aggravating to see them not cut loose with that firepower.
Imagine if Enterprise D went into the temporal rift, helping to defend both the Klingon outpost and Enterprise C? The result is Enterprise D being destroyed by the antimatter containment blast. The retconned would be Captain Rachel Garrett would be alive and the crew(including Tasha Yar) would not be captured by The Romulans.
Imagine how the Enterprise-C crew felt watching the Enterprise-D take a beating and going down so they could escaped. They must have felt on one hand in awe and on the other hand exasperated they couldn’t help.
It's funny how after Geordy announced warp core breach imminent, he's hustling everyone out of the engine room---like it's going to matter where they are when it explodes ;-)
1:19 VFX nerds will notice that the three klingon BoPs don't obscure the stars behind them, space in their path of movement in the frame is intentionally left blank. I guess the model was simply shot in front of a black screen in three takes and the stars superimposed outside the path of movement to make this shot easier and cheaper.
It really shows the design ideology of the mid 24th century starfleet. Starfleet seemed convinced that nothing could get through a high powered shield grid, and built a fragile, almost ornate ship within this bubble of safety.
That's true. Shield and warp power became so much more powerful compared to the 23rd century that they did begin to rely on it more than they should have.
@@Twister6424 The evidence would be the later development of better hulls and ablative armor on the Defiant and Sovereign classes. The hull of the Excelsior class and Galaxy class was basically the same. The only difference was the shields and structural integrity fields became much stronger. Don't forget the Galaxy class took a Torpedo to the secondary hull with no shields. It caused heavy damage and an eventual core breach, but it didn't instantly destroy the ship, thanks to the structural integrity field. The Sovereign took a lot more punishment in Nemesis and so did the Defiant during the Dominion and Klingon wars.
@@SiXiam You'll have to point out where and when Defiant and Sovereign had ablative armor...I don't recall having seen those. Nor have I seen an episode where Starfleet is "doing this because of that." Do you have a reference or episode that spelled it out or is this your belief?
@@Twister6424 I posted a RU-vid link the other day, but I don't see my comment. Look up the Defiant Lakota battle. Once the Captain of the Lakota contacts the Admiral she says Defiant has ablative armor. It was in other episodes also with them mentioning in failing or holding up in battle.
That's due to the shitty plot. They destroyed one warbird with a few phaser shots within 3 seconds, but 95% of the time they made sure not to fire anything as if saving ammunition for much more important battles (and here was a battle of life and death).
It's called tanking damage and purposely staying between the Klingons and the Ent-C. Plus Picard mentions they "could easily outrun the Klingons" which to me is an indicator they are outgunned. Their only hope here is told the Klingons off long enough.
You gotta love how they pretty much instantly vaporized that one Bird of Prey once they actually started firing everything they had. Too bad they didn't do that at the start.
I just watched Generations last night, and seeing this today? Geordi's report, and the damage that kills the ship are almost identical to what happened in Generations. It's way too similar to be coincidence.
22 years of war with the Klingon Imperial Empire and Starfleet Command still have its Capital Warships patrolling without Escorts Starships. The Star Trek prime universe timeline showed Klingon and Romulans Warships patrolling in packs or Two or Three. During the War with the Dominion years later Galaxy Wings would be developed and Miranda Escort Wings would see Combat Action.
Given how close the Federation was to surrender in this timeline, it is not a surprise to me that larger capital ships are unescorted. Presumably, they can hold their own.
Granted it’s a TV show with a limited budget for an episode like this, but 22 years of war with the Klingons NEVER would’ve led to the development of a capital ship like the Galaxy. Think of the resources that went into a Galaxy’s production and how many more smaller and agile actual warships or torpedo cruisers could’ve been produced during the wartime period. IMO we’d see a militaristic response similar to the Borg or Dominion invasions with the development of less capital exploration ships and more tactical vessels like the Miranda, Excelsior, Defiant, Sabre, Steamrunner, Norway and Centaur classes; or other unseen alternative timeline variants of that nature.
The Enterprise C / Ambassador class is my all-time favorite Trek design. I love its somewhat throwback look and semi-retro profile - like a massively beefed-up Constitution class on steroids.
I think you may be pleased with the Yamaguchi class starship. Note the nacelles have been lowered, which the Ambassador design defied the whole point of having nacelles that were recharged by hydrogen.
One of TNG's finest episodes, David Carson takes the director's chair and does a superb job with this. Everyone is on fine form here, but in particular Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg and Denise Crosby who gives us the best performance of Tasha Yar we ever saw.
This battle is very well shown but where is the battle damage at 4:30? At this point (since 3:12) ENT should be riddled with holes like a sieve or maybe even some larger piece torn off. ST II and III damage anyone?
Well since this was an existing model, they had to make due with what they had, and leaving that model alone to use for other shots was important, also, movie budgets are for one movie, so you're encouraged to spend it all, where as a budget for a season is X dollars for the whole season; so you can't really blow the budget on one episode. That's why certain elements of this battle were written but not shot (Wesley being decapitated and Data being electrocuted). If CGI was a thing back then you'd see much more battle damage.
I want some books based in this timeline. I know it never happened after the events of this episode, but still it would interesting to explore the war and the politics of it more fully.
have to say that the war ship enterprise was able to take on 3 bird of pray firing constantly for a long time, no evasive maneuvers and even wen the shields were buckling could still take hits without blowing up. I do think its funny how data said power was severed in the forward phaser bank but picard was still able to fire on the ships. Granted we dont know what phasers were firing on them. Does make you wonder why they weren't firing everything they had, we saw what the enterprise could do as far as non stop firing against the borg.
Power couplings severed. I'm not an engineer or a writer but I think that was intended as in rerouting wasn't possible. Power is still going there but it can't be rerouted else where. As to the fight...yes why not just take them all out asap that'd have helped. I've long thought and all I can think is they didn't want the Klingons to look much at the C. So going too hard too fast may have got one to zoom after the C as they fled the D. Keep the enterprise between them and act as the juicy bigger carrot to destroy first ...but yeah it's a weak one..
The reason was probably the plot demanded it. The poor Enterprise D was always equipped with plot armour, when you contrast how it held up in the Best of Both Worlds…
@@TheWPhilosopher Power severed in forward phaser bank. Sounds like the main phaser array in the saucer was broke without power, and they had no way to route power back to it. They could of also separated the saucer and driver section , gave two targets instead of one like they did with the borg. Also one would think with all those troops on board they would of had some sort of "fighters" like they did in DS9. But yeah low budget one episode, I don think this was season finale or was it?
The enterprise has had multiple coolant leaks throughout the series u would think that he would design something that would prevent them from happening or some how redirect the coolant back into the core as to recycle it
@@jaredharris1970 : The coolant still needs time/distance from the warp core to cool off before being recirculated to sufficiently cool the core. The alternative would be an "open system", and would either contaminate the interior of the ship, or leave a "trail" of contaminated coolant behind "her".
Looking at this battle, a favorite of mine, i noticed the the Enterprise D was only using its forward firing arcs when the K'Vort banks starboard, it was a prime chance to drop torpedoes and fire phasers from the rear facing weapon systems. I realize Picard had reinforced his forward shields to withstand the 3-1 firing ratio but by regulatio s on a red alert all weapon systems begin to charge even if in a stand by mode, even a reaforing launcher would have a torpedo hot in the tube JIC. The 1st K'Vort upon taking moderate damage would have gone into a reserve firing role while the 2 K'Vorts left would have ignored the Enterprise C as it was not a serious threat against 3 even heavily damaged battle cruisers of the line, attack it was also an honorless move, something the klingons would have disdained immensely. The 3-1 Klingon advantage was wasted when the damaged (i think) K'Vort reengaged exposing its weakened frontal shields knowing the Enterprise D could destroy the ship and even a bloodraging captain would have used a maneuver to fire at an angle to swiftly turn away and present a stronger shield quarter. This is reciprocated by the Enterprise D not using its superior firing arcs (270°) turn present a stronger shield to the K'Vorts and keeping in the fight longer. I make note this fight IS pre CGI becoming reasonably priced for fights and these are models, but even back in these days the had the FASA star trek RPG system and even star fleet command for battle simulations during the era.
Imagine if Enterprise D went into the temporal rift, helping to defend both the Klingon outpost and Enterprise C? The result is Enterprise D being destroyed by the antimatter containment blast. The retconned would be Captain Rachel Garrett would be alive and the crew(including Tasha Yar) would not be captured by The Romulans.
2:33 that looks badass watching it frame by frame... you can see the point where the phaser breaks the shield, hits the hull and then blows up the ship.
I'm probably being pedantic, but would the Klingons really board the Enterprise when there's about to be a warp core breach, i mean how good are their sensors?
TO all just a reminder the temporal rift started to become unstable if the D went all out so picard was trying to avoid the enterprise C getting hit and causing more instability in the rift so the C goes back they did what they were suppose to do.
One of the best episodes to show a newbie. No wonder the Federation lost this war though. The Klingons were firing and the Enterprise was mostly maneuvering. Keep those phaser banks hot lol
Although i love it, i find it hard to believe the enterprise would lose a fight to 3 birds of prey, given how they took out that first one. Love it either way!!!