Disaster is one of those episodes that has a good amount going on, but the only thing anyone remembers about it is Picard stuck in the turbolift with three kids. And yeah, that is clearly not the best part of the episode, but it is also far from the only part of the episode. My understanding was the writers goal here was to make a disaster movie in a Trek episode and as far as that is concerned Disaster works pretty well. Worf helping Keiko go through labor in Ten Forward was particularly good since I am trained in emergency child birth and I can understand what Worf was going through. Honestly the worst part of the episode was Ro trying to repeat the mistakes that had her court martialed by trying to kill off all the crew remaining in the drive section.
The episode opens with the O'Brien's discussing baby names with Riker, Worf and Data in Tne Forward. The chief has to leave for the bridge and we cut to Geordi and Beverly in a cargo bay doing an inventory and then to the bridge where the captain is preparing to lead a tour for three elementary school science fair winners. As soon as he gets into the turbolift with the children there is a violent shaking and the lights go out. On the bridge Miles discovers they have hit a quantum filament and before they can take evasive action they hit another and power is knocked out to most of the ship and emergency bulkheads seal all over. Picard is stuck in the turbolift with three kids and a broken ankle, Geordi and Beverley are stuck in a cargobay with a radioactive fire and fuel getting ready to explode, Troi is in command on the bridge and the ships antimatter containment is failing, and Keiko is starting to give birth in Ten Forward.
In the turbolift Picard manages to rally the children to help him get them out of there safely. In Ten Forward Worf is left in charge of the fatalities while Riker and Data try to make there way to engineering. Along the way they encounter a dangerous electrical discharge and the only solution is for Data to walk right into it and then have Riker remove his head and take it to engineering. Back on the bridge they can't do much other than watch as the antimatter containment field keeps getting weaker. Ensign Ro is determined that they have to separate the saucer section and leave all the people in the drive section to die. O'Brien however manages to send enough power to engineering to turn on the monitors so they can at least see what the problem is.
Back down in the cargobay things are getting bad and an explosion is imminent. The only solution is to open the cargo door and send all the fuel and oxygen out putting out the fire and stopping the risk of explosion. It works and luckily the ship is working well enough to close the door again and get some air back in keeping them alive. Worf succeeds at guiding Keiko through the delivery process. In engineering Data's head is connected to the computer and he manages to save the ship just in time. Kinda makes you wonder why they don't just always keep him hooked up to the ship, but whatever.
Review: Lots of small stories keep any one of them from dragging the rest down. If this had just been Picard and the kids in the turbolift like I remembered it might have been a pretty bad one. But overall this episode works and even has some really touching moments.
7 out of 10
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