| The Next Generation | |
| 105 | |
| Disaster | |
| 45156.1 | |
Having successfully completed a mission, the Enterprise and its crew are having a respite. Bev is trying to convince Geordi to sing, and Picard has the delightful job of giving the winners of a primary school science fair a tour around the ship. Their activities are cut short when the Enterprise is rocked by a series of explosions! Is it terrorism? Romulans? Something exciting? Nope - a couple of wandering quantum filaments rubbed themselves up against the Enterprise.
It was quite a rubbing too - the computer is down, life-support is failing, and communications within the ship has been disabled. This has conveniently distributed the bridge crew all around the ship.
On the bridge we have O'Brien, Troi and Ensign Ro who mysteriously appeared from the disabled turbo-lift. Ro says that all the lifts are in containment mode as there has been a hull breach, and as a result they are all inoperable. Since the bridge has only one exit - they're stuck. Obviously fire safety officers have been outlawed by the 24th century! The new captain of the ship is Lt. Cmdr. Troi! She doesn't seem happy with the position, but after a little settling in, finds that the captain's chair is quite comfortable. We'll all puke if she says "Make it so".
Picard is stuck in a disabled turbo-lift with the primary school kids. Just so he can appear tough, he has broken an ankle. He tries to rally their spirits, which just causes them all to cry "We're all going to die!". Picard is certain that they won't, because he doesn't want to die wearing a velour jump suit! He field promotes the children to officer positions. Why not - they couldn't do much worse than the ones who have come through the academy.
Riker, Data and Worf were spending some time in 10-Forward with Keiko O'Brien. Keiko is noticeably pregnant, and after they all have a good feel, they decide that action is necessary! Riker assumes that the entire bridge crew is dead, and so wants to restore command. He feels that the best way to do it is from engineering, since the bridge is inaccessible. This is called leading from the rear. He tells Worf to look after the sick, while he takes Data on a moonlight tour of the Jeffrey's tubes.
Geordi's singing audition is cut short by the explosions and he and Dr Bev are stuck in a cargo bay. The script writers are conspiring against them as the door has a plasma fire in it and the bay is filled with explosives. Their most obvious solution is to depressurise the bay - putting out the fire and tossing the explosives into space! Maybe neither of them figured it out, but if they don't have oxygen, it won't matter if they get killed by the fire. In a triumph of safety precautions, the repressurisation switch is on the opposite side of the bay from the depressurisation switch. Unfortunately Bev makes it.
Things don't look good for the bridge crew. Just for something to do, Ro reroutes power from the phaser banks into the engineering console. Surprisingly it doesn't explode. It may not matter much, since the entire ship is going to explode as the antimatter containment field is failing, again. They really should prop it up more, as it seems to fall down regularly! Ro wants to separate the saucer section - at least that way she will live. She has seen what happens to walk-on TNG bit actors and doesn't want to be dead at the second appearance. Troi won't to it, and instead diverts power to engineering, just in case someone is there.
Picard decides to go down with his ship, and orders his new "crew" to escape through the access panel in the top of the turbo-lift. They promptly ignore him. Doesn't anyone obey his orders? They manage to escape up a ladder as the lift plunges down the shaft. Rats.
Riker and Data are not making much progress towards engineering, as they are stuck between a coolant leak and an electrical discharge. Data's brilliant plan is to use himself as a fuse. "Why not?" says Riker. Data assures laughing-boy that he will survive and that his head can be removed. He steps into the field and promptly blows up. Riker takes his head off and continues down the tube. Why didn't he remove the head before Data played at being a lightning conductor?
Worf's problems are just beginning as Keiko goes into labour. "This is not a good time" says Worf. "Sod you, you lump-headed git" says Keiko. His only experience with delivering a baby was a computer simulation! He talks Keiko through with all the bedside manner of a teller-machine. After assuring her that she is fully dilated, he says "You may now give birth". Nice to know that she has his permission. The baby is delivered, and he is about to cut the umbilical cord... when Keiko quickly stops him from using his teeth!
Riker manages to reprogram Data's head to stabilise the containment field and the ship is saved.
One advertisement later the ship magically has warp capability and is heading back for repairs. Talk about a quick wrap-up!
