Star Trek: What Is The Picard Maneuver?
Plenty of Star Trek captains perform brave or cunning battle operations to cement themselves in Starfleet Academy. Captain Kirk (William Shatner) beat the Kobayashi Maru, and in another timeline, his own father, George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) gave his own life to save those fleeing the USS Kelvin. When it comes to the timeline of the enigmatic Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" though, a clever tactic came back to haunt him in ways he never imagined when he was forced to revisit his own maneuver during Season 1, Episode 9 — "The Battle." The Picard maneuver sees Jean-Luc play a game of warp-speed chicken of sorts, when the USS Stargazer (his vessel at the time) goes into high warp speed directly in front of an enemy ship, screwing with the opponent's sensors.
As a result, the Ferengi ship detected what appeared to be two of the same vessel on their scanners, when it was actually Picard and his crew appearing faster than the enemy could recognize. The Ferengi incorrectly fired upon the wrong signal, allowing the Stargazer to outsmart and overpower their attackers. The brave captain even created a variation of this years later on "Picard." This seemingly revered battle strategy wasn't perfect though, and it was only when Jean-Luc fell victim to some good old fashioned mind control that one of his own crew found a flaw in his legendary maneuver.
Data found Picard's maneuver was just hot air
During "The Battle," it is discovered that Picard is being manipulated by a thought maker, a tool used by DaiMon Bok. Jean-Luc believes himself to be captain of the Stargazer once more, and that his brand new ship, the Enterprise, is another ship set to attack. When Jonathan Frakes' Riker (famous for a maneuver of his own) anticipates his captain's old strategy, he appoints Data (Brent Spiner) to figure a way out of this textbook trick that could doom the Enterprise.
Thankfully, Data does the job by looking at the compression of gas in space around the real spacecraft, allowing the Enterprise to snag the Stargazer in a tractor beam and avoid Jean-Luc's methods. While his android Lt. Commander Data might have found a hole in Picard's plan, it didn't stop Starfleet Academy from recognizing the achievement and rewarding Jean-Luc for his achievement. On "PIcard" Season 1, Episode 1 — "Remembrance," it's revealed that the now-retired admiral was awarded the Grankite Order of Tactics, Class of Excellence. It's one the many intensely sharp demonstrations of capability in space warfare that Picard was able to display so brilliantly. Kirk can have the likes of the Kobayashi Maru and even the Corbomite Maneuver, but he's one of the few explorers who can put his own name to such a space-saving strategy.