I watched this episode last night and enjoyed it more than I remembered.
I did too when I watched it on YouTube the other day.
Troi makes mention of taking a bridge shift in the very episode where she gets promoted, and becomes a command bridge officer, "Thine Own Self". She also mentions in that episode that her desire to be a command officer began after the event in "Disaster".
It's a great call back to this episode. Sirtis did a fine job of balancing Troi's uncomfortable feelings with suddenly being thrust into the position of command and being pretty much unprepared for it. You can see her self realization so clearly. And she makes the intelligent choice of drawing upon advice from Ro and O'Brien before making a decision, rather than giving up command to someone else (taking more of an impartial position, to balance the two opposing viewpoints). Even still, you can see how she struggles with their suggestions as they're both compelling and yet quite different. Troi is uncomfortable with this and almost ashamed at how despite being a lieutenant commander, her bridge training is sorely inadequate.
But I just love how she overcame that. And so did Troi, and that's why she wanted and did get her promotion to a full-fledged Commander in "Thine own Self"... now if only Troi's storyline dominated that episode instead of Data's.
It still bugs me because first of all, Data was already given his own whole episode to himself in "Masks" and Data's storyline was kind of boring in "Thine own Self" anyhow.
She gets very lucky, though. With the containment field nearing collapse, it would have made sense to separate the saucer section. Better for some people to survive than everybody perishing. She had no idea that Riker and Data were on it. Had Data not hooked up to the system and adjusted the containment controls in time, there would have been a warp core breach.
Given her Betazoid powers, I highly doubt that she was unaware of Data and Riker being were in the drive section of the ship.
What I'd have liked to see is that Troi realizes that containment control is not getting anywhere and that Ro's advice is the right choice. They try to initiate the saucer separation, but then O'Brien discovers that some of the circuitry involved with this is damaged. They can't separate. So, it was a losing proposition to begin with. But Data saves the day.
Yeah, Troi was too busy having that "Oh, I'm in charge and whatever I say goes whether you agree or not!" attitude. I don't blame Ro for her attitude in trying to tell Troi that but they both need their foots shoved up their rears! Ro's because she needs to learn how to respect authority, and Troi's because Ro was trying to tell her the best way out of the problem but just wouldn't listen!
I really like "Disaster". It's good because it manages to pull several characters out of their comfort zone, the bridge crew, Picard & the kids, Worf & Keiko. I think that's why the Riker/Data & Geordi/Beverly stories didn't engage as well, not enough challenge, comparatively
I liked the Beverly and Geordi storyline with the two of them being trapped in the cargobay. I wonder though...
Did either of them have phasers? If so, they could've blasted the door open!
If only there was a shuttlecraft. When the green fire was released, they could've taken cover in there if only there was one.
But c'mon how could you possibly have them all be equally engaging? It's amazing that they were even able to fashion an episode that featured the entire cast so evenly, and tied it all together so well
Some times, you just need the right writers...
It's one of their best ensemble episodes.
I second that.
My problem with Disaster was all the 'really' moments needed to make the plots they outlined work:
Well said. Same here!
- There's actually NO ONE in main engineering when the quantum fillament hit (and remember - there were two that hit and about two minutes before the second one that really messed stuff up - but in those two minutes, not ONE enginner was in or near main engineering, or heading back there? )
Uh huh! And had Main Engineering not been abandoned...
That probably would NEVER had happened or the situation would've been under control when the quantum fillament DID hit.
- The Bridge engineering station can access certain engineering and power systems - just not the warp core system - yet can send power to engineering monitors. Yes, maybe you can have damage that speific, but still, imo, it came across as somewhat contrived.
Ro was more concerned with *something* I forget what being overheaded. If it did overheat, the Enterprise would blow up so she transfered the power to the aft engineering station to give herself the ability to prevent that from occuring.
- No one on the Bridge is concened with trying to even determine the wearabouts of Captain Picard knoing he's probably still in a Turbolift car.
Perhaps you missed Troi, after the opener, trying to contact Picard (or was she trying to contact other crew?) and several others but to no avail for unknown reasons why the quantum... whatever would effect communications. Ro and O'brien knew it wasn't any use so they didn't bother.
- As to the Turbolift Car - wow - one of five clamps damaged and the car won't hold position. (And why is they maintain full artificial gravity in a turbolift shaft on a ship floating in space to begin with?
I think you just answered your own question. The turbolift car must be so fragile that if one clamp is broke, then it is at risk of falling. It is probable for some elevators in buildings to have the same problem.
- Lastly (and yes probably a budgetary consideration) but, after everything and all the damage said to have occurred across the ship (to the point where everyone on the Bridge believed everyone on the Stardrive section was dead, etc; the ship is heading back for repairs under it's own power? With what happened top their Warp Core, etc; you'd think they'd end up being towed in for repairs.
They were all probably lucky that the Warp Core was one of the only things operational during that... well, disaster!
Sure it has it's flaws, but I have always liked Disaster. As pointed out up thread, all of the stories come together nicely. It was on last night, and I enjoyed seeing it again.
Yeah, I tried to watch it when it was on last night. I stayed up until it came on. I could only keep the volume but so high for an obvious reason. I tried to watch it but I turned off the TV during the second commercial break because I wanted to go to bed and I had already seen it.
)
