History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E5Disaster

** [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]: Despite her rank, she has no idea what she's doing. Neither does she seem to understand the basics of how the ship works. It really doesn't make sense that, as part of the Medical structure and not Command, she would take command of the bridge just by being ranked higher (just like Picard doesn't take command of counseling or sickbay despite outranking Troi and Crusher), but it makes for some good CharacterDevelopment (for example, the events of this episode is one of the main reasons she takes the bridge officer's exam in [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E15ThineOwnSelf "Thine Own Self"]].

** [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]: Despite her rank, she has no idea what she's doing. Neither does she seem to understand the basics of how the ship works. It really doesn't make sense that, as part of the Medical structure and not Command, she would take command of the bridge just by being ranked higher (just like Picard doesn't take command of counseling or sickbay despite outranking Troi and Crusher), but it makes for some good CharacterDevelopment.

* DramaPreservingHandicap: Troi's empathic abilities abruptly become functionally useless, preventing her from determining how many people are alive or dead, or where they are on the ship. The best excuse is that everyone is freaked out. But this neglects the fact that the ''Enterprise'' has been in deadly danger before and Troi's powers were never white-noised (except when dramatically necessary). The main purpose of this power outage is to preserve the tension over the question of whether or not to separate the saucer section, since if Troi were aware that Picard, Riker and LaForge were all still alive and working on various parts of the problem she would have just been able to tell Ro to shut up and let the rest of the command staff save the day.

The previous mission of the Enterprise crew was finished ahead of schedule, so everyone has some free time. The main characters are spread throughout the ship doing various activities, with only Picard and Troi on the bridge. Three elementary school kids have the won at the Enterprise science fair, and as a reward Picard takes them on a tour around the ship. Soon after Picard and the kids have entered the turbolift, the Enterprise starts to shake violently, all power on the ship is lost, and lift falls down. It turns out a [[TechnoBabble quantum filament]] has hit the Enterprise, resulting in a total power failure: even the communicators are down. The crew members are stuck in different departments of the ship, and they all have to figure out what to do without knowing what the others are up to. The episode is now split into five different subplots.

At the bridge, it turns out Troi is the most senior officer still alive. She has to decide how the bridge crew should react to a potential engine meltdown, which could destroy the whole ship. Meanwhile, Data and Riker are trying to reach the engineering section via the ship's maintenance shafts. In the damaged turbolift, Picard's ankle is broken, and he has to figure out how to get the panicked kids out of there safely. La Forge and Crusher are stuck in the cargo bay, where a plasma fire threatens to blow up some of hazardous chemicals. And in Ten-Forward, Chief O'Brien's pregnant wife Keiko goes into labor, with the hapless Worf forced to act as a midwife.

* FishOutOfWater: Nearly everyone is faced with a situation beyond their expertise and comfort zones: Troi must make life-or-death command decisions, Picard must comfort and guide three scared children, and Worf must...[[OneOfTheseThingsIsNotLikeTheOthers deliver a baby]]. At least [=LaForge=] is somewhat in his element, devising an outside-the-box engineering solution to his problem.

* NegativeSpaceWedgie: a "quantum filament," whatever the hell that is, upending and disabling the ''Enterprise'' like a rogue tidal wave.

* TookALevelInBadass: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Marissa grows enough of a spine to refuse to abandon Picard.

* NegativeSpaceWedgie: a "quantum filament," whatever the hell that is.

* FishOutOfWater: Nearly everyone is faced with a situation beyond their expertise and comfort zones: Troi must make life-or-death command decisions, Picard must comfort and guide three scared children, and Worf must...deliver a baby. At least [=LaForge=] is somewhat in his element, devising an outside-the-box engineering solution to his problem.

* NoAntagonist: The conflicts of the episode are caused by a technical catastrophe, not by any antagonistic character.

** [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]: Despite her rank, she has no idea what she's doing. Neither does she seem to understand the basics of how the ship works.

At the bridge, it turns out Troi is the most senior officer still alive. She has to decide how the bridge crew should react to a potential engine meltdown, which could destroy the whole ship. Meanwhile, Data and Riker are trying to reach the engineering section via the ship's maintenance shafts. In the damaged turbolift, Picard's leg is broken, and he has to figure out how to get the panicked kids out of there safely. La Forge and Crusher are stuck in the cargo bay, where a plasma fire threatens to blow up some of hazardous chemicals. And in Ten-Forward, Chief O'Brien's pregnant wife Keiko goes into labor, with the hapless Worf forced to act as a midwife.

At the bridge, it turns out Troi is the most senior officer still alive. She has to decide how the bridge crew should react to a potential engine meltdown, which could destroy the whole ship. Meanwhile, Data and Riker are trying to reach the engineering section via the ship's maintenance shafts. In the damaged turbolift, Picard's leg is broken, and he has to figure out how to get the panicked kids out of there safely. La Forge and Crusher are stuck in the cargo bay, where a plasma fire threatens to blow up some of hazardous chemicals. And in Ten-Forward, Chief O'Brien's pregnant wife Keiko goes into labor, with the hapless Word forced to act as a midwife.

* RecycledInSpace: This episode is pretty much a DisasterMovie in space, right down to being called "Disaster".

The previous mission of the Enterprise crew was finished ahead of schedule, so everyone has some free time. The main characters are spread throughout the ship doing various activities, with only Picard and Troi on the bridge. Three elementary school kids have the won at the Enterprise science fair, and as a reward Picard takes them on a tour around the ship. Soon after Picard and the kids entered the turbolift, the Enterprise starts to shake violently, all power on the ship is lost, and lift falls down. It turns out a [[TechnoBabble quantum filament]] has hit the ship, resulting in a total power failure: even the communicators are down. The crew members are stuck in different departments of the ship, and they all have to figure out what to do without knowing what the others are up to. The episode is now split into five different subplots.

At the bridge, it turns out Troi is the most senior officer still alive. She has to decide how they should react to the threat of engine meltdown, which could potentially destroy the whole ship. Meanwhile, Data and Riker are trying to reach the engineering section via the ship's maintenance shafts, In the damaged turbolift, Picard's leg is broken, and he has to figure out how to get the panicked kids out of there safely. La Forge and Crusher are stuck in the cargo bay, where a plasma fire threatens to blow up some of hazardous chemicals. And in Ten-Forward, chief O'Brien's pregnant wife Keiko goes into labor, with the hapless Word forced to act as a midwife.

* RecycledInSpace: This episode is pretty much a DisasterMovie in space, right down to being titled "Disaster".

* RecycledINSPACE: This episode is pretty much a DisasterMovie in space, right down to being titled "Disaster".

The previous mission of the Enterprise crew was finished ahead of schedule, so everyone has some free time. The main characters are spread throughout the ship doing various activities, with only Picard and Troi on the bridge. Three elementary school kids have the won at the Enterprise science fair, and as a reward Picard takes them on a tour around the ship. Soon after Picard and the kids entered the turbolift, the Enterprise starts to shake violently, all power on the ship is lost, and lift falls down. It turns out a [[TechnoBabble quantum filament]] has hit the ship, resulting in a total power failure: even the communicators are down. The crew members are stuck into different departments of the ship, and they all have to figure out what to do without knowing what the others are up to. The episode is now split into five different subplots.

At the bridge, it turns out Troi is the most senior officer still alive. She has to decide how they should react to the threat of engine explosion, which could potentially destroy the whole ship. In the damaged turbolift, Picard's leg is broken. and he has to figure out how to get the kids out of there safely.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: