How many died in Disaster?

[Trekker4747]

The technichal manual suggests that each deck has its own gravity system (it's built into the floor) it does seem illogical to have the gravity be generated at the bottom of the turboshaft rather than the floor of the liftcar itself.

It's like many died during Disaster and the sudden "happy ending" neve sat well with me either, it's also possible due to the sudden loss of power ship-wide that the engineering-section crew have been instructed to in a catastrophic power failure to evacuate to the saucer section in case the ship needs to seperate.

[Timo]

...Which would be a bit difficult if all turbolifts behaved like Picard's, and if all doors were as cooperative as the one that locked LaForge and Crusher in with a plasma fire!

OTOH, we know that starships tend to have security bulkheads that fall in place to separate sections - and that there are quite a few of them aboard Kirk's ship, enough to isolate 400 people from 30 without killing anybody ("Day of the Dove"). If Picard's ship is anything like that at all, our conundrum disappears in a puff of smoke and mirrors. Kirk at least could communicate with his trapped crew; Picard's ship would have been in a worse state, with major systems down and internal communications impossible.

Timo Saloniemi

[Trekker4747]

Wel, we know for a fact that the Ent-D has emergency bulkheads. Ro says one closed under the bridge just as she finally gets out of the turboshaft.

[Marten]

I thought of something. When initiating a evacuation of Engineering, why doesn't everyone instead get beamed out instantly? Seems far safer.

[Trekker4747]

Ummm because transporters require power and the quantumn filament took out the power.

[Timo]

Indeed. The "do not use in case of fire" signs on elevators today are there for a reason...

I don't think the starship should "lock down" automatically in the event of total power loss. Not if everything goes as planned; it would be better to have some bulkheads fall in place, but have multiple evacuation paths (corridors, airlocks, shuttlebays) remain available. However, it's possible that the disaster in "Disaster" caused a lockdown that went against the designers' intent, in that even certain supposedly inviolable emergency power systems went down and caused the emergency systems to stop behaving as expected.

It's also possible that most of the ship was actually perfectly fine after the disaster. Only the regions where our heroes were trapped were in any true jeopardy - but the audience couldn't know that, since the heroes couldn't know that, and the camera followed the heroes. Too bad that the ship-endangering containment failure could only be handled from within one of the jeopardized areas... A thousand extras could have been banging on the bulkheads from outside, trying to rush to help our heroes since they themselves were in no direct danger, or even inconvenienced much.

Timo Saloniemi

[Alrik]

Tom Riley wrote:

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...but what about that HUGE reset button during that TNG episode there? That's what really bothers me, I hate the way that episode ends. I really like the episode up until that point. But that ending...

I'd have to say that the ending never really bugged me all that much or even felt like it was a 'reset'. I have always figured that the scene takes place several days, if not weeks, after the events of the 'Disaster'.

[Tom Riley]

Even if it was weeks later, the time jumped by with no explanation, not even a mention. It was a sudden and abrupt, "oh wait it's all cool! End." It flows so badly in the final minutes.

[Tom Riley]

Double post, ew.

[Alrik]

Tom Riley wrote:

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Even if it was weeks later, the time jumped by with no explanation, not even a mention. It was a sudden and abrupt, "oh wait it's all cool! End." It flows so badly in the final minutes.

I understand what you are saying. There wasn't a 'blunt' mention of time passage. But there are subtle things to suggest that time has passed. The children arrive from the same turbo shaft that the accident occurred in, and they have had enough time to make Picard a plaque. Also, the Bridge is pristine, and Picard does't show as much as a limp (a broken bone can be mended instantly, but will be sore for a few days: mentioned in a couple of eps).

[Tom Riley]

Right, but those were all exactly the reasons I didn't like the ending. Because everything was suddenly ok, and even if it was days or weeks later, it just suddenly jumped to that point. I'd have liked it much better if they showed that scene at a spacedock or something and it's obvious that repairs are being made, and Picard did have a limp or something. I think it would have flowed much better that way.

[Trekker4747]

I kind of like when Worf sets the man's leg while doing triage in Ten-Forward. He tells the man to brace for it, *snap* and the man lets out a stiff grunt/groan.

Worf, The Klingon, tells the human "Good, you bore that well."

Pain props from a Klingon, got to like that. A couple days later the guy was showing a Worf a thing or two in his own training programs.

[hernandez9039]

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[CaptainStoner]

I watched this one last night. It's a mixed bag. There are a lot of really good scenes - Picard and the children in the turbolift, and especially on the ladder. LaForge and Crusher opening the shuttle bay doors. Worf delivering the baby is hilarious.
But then we also have one the more epic failures of scenes in TNG - Geordi having that plasma conduit exploding in his face and not being able to see the heat. When you think of all the people that must have read and edited that script, and no one catching it, not the Director, not the actors...wow. This isn't some obscure Trekkie lore issue. They all knew Geordi could see heat, and...just forgot.
As to the question of how many died - they were uncertain if sensors were reading right, so they didn't know if the sections they scanned really had no lifeforms.
And since there is no mention of deaths other than the Lt. on the bridge which we saw, I'm thinking she was the only one.

[Joshua Howard]

I think most Trek episodes could be picked apart if somebody chose to. Personally, "Disaster" is one of my favorites because it presents a disaster scenario which is somewhat comparable to something that a 21st century human might encounter, unlike many other disasters which are very, alien to anything on earth (i.e. stuck time travelling, or fighting a wierd alien). Also, I really enjoyed the character development of Picard interacting with children, and seeing examples of how the crew of the Enterprise interacted with each other under duress. In most disaster situations the main emphasis is placed on an alien threat and on the bridge. In "Disaster" we got to see the psychological behaviors of some people beyond the bridge and engineering.