Enterprise is badly damaged with crew members trapped in various sections of the ship.
This is a very enjoyable episode with some nice irony and great character moments.
'Disaster' does what it says on the tin and pays homage to the disaster movie genre. Any fans of movies like 'The Poseidon Adventure' and 'Towering Inferno' should appreciate its story. The suspense does not work as well as it does in those movies because we know everything will work out for the show's characters and the production values in Star Trek are much lower.
Where it succeeds for me is in two areas. Firstly, I get a real sense of the size of the Enterprise. It depicts that getting from the bridge to engineering or Ten Forward is a huge undertaking without the help of technology. At the same time it portrays how much technology is relied upon and how insignificant people can feel when out of their depth in certain situations.
Secondly, the character situations are very entertaining. My favourite scenes involve Captain Picard in the turbolift, Counsellor Troi on the bridge, and most of all, for its comic value, Lieutenant Worf in Ten Forward. The irony of putting most characters in situations where they are highly uncomfortable works wonderfully.
Visually it is excellent, particularly in the scenes involving Riker and Data.
All cast members are excellent especially Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, Michelle Forbes and Marina Sirtis.
