Star Trek The Next Generation
S3E15
· Yesterday's Enterprise

Triage on a Dying Bridge

On the battered Enterprise‑C bridge the crew conducts rapid technical triage while grief and duty collide. Riker calls out failing impulse systems as La Forge reports engine control processors offline and possible accelerator coil damage. Shields are low, phaser banks and torpedoes partially depleted. Amid the diagnostics Tasha remains clinically focused while Castillo reels from the personal cost of twenty‑two lost years. The scene functions as an immediate crisis beat that raises tactical stakes, humanizes the cost of whatever choice Picard will make, and buys time for the larger moral dilemma.

Plot Beats

The narrative micro-steps within this event

1

Riker and Geordi coordinate repairs on the Enterprise-C's failing impulse engines and engine control processors.

urgency to tension

Who Was There

Characters present in this moment

2
William Riker
Commander
 primary

Controlled urgency — command calm masking the pressure of a failing ship and the moral decisions that will follow.

Riker stands at a forward ops console, issuing concise commands and diagnostics. He escalates the propulsion problem to engineering and acknowledges shield warnings, holding the bridge's operational focus under duress.

Goals in this moment
  • • Establish the status of impulse propulsion and secure a solution or work-around.
  • • Maintain bridge function and keep the crew coordinated under cascading system failures.
Active beliefs
  • • Operational clarity and quick, prioritized information will preserve lives.
  • • Command decisions must be made with imperfect data in order to keep the ship viable.
Character traits
decisive authoritative task-oriented urgent
Follow William Riker's journey
Geordi La Forge
Chief Engineer
 primary

Concerned and focused

Geordi reports via comm that engine control processors are offline and that accelerator coils are likely damaged; he signs off with technical caveats and stands by for further orders or repair directives.

Character traits
technically precise calm under pressure diagnostic prepared to improvise
Follow Geordi La …'s journey

Narrative Connections

How this event relates to others in the story

What this causes 3
Character Continuity medium

"Castillo and Tasha's early connection on the Enterprise-C bridge develops into their romantic moment in the transporter room."

Last Kiss on the Pad
S3E15 · Yesterday's Enterprise
Emotional Echo medium

"Castillo's processing of lost time and connection with Tasha mirrors their later intimate moment in Ten-Forward."

Tenderness Interrupted by Duty
S3E15 · Yesterday's Enterprise
Emotional Echo medium

"Castillo's processing of lost time and connection with Tasha mirrors their later intimate moment in Ten-Forward."

Guinan's Quiet Aversion — Intimacy Interrupted
S3E15 · Yesterday's Enterprise

Key Dialogue

"RIKER: I'm not getting any kind of ready condition on the impulse engines, La Forge..."
"GEORDI'S COM VOICE: Acknowledged, Commander... some of the engine control processors went off-line. And there's probably damage to the accelerator coils... stand by..."
"TASHA: You may not like the future. It's been a long war. The Federation's lost more than half of Starfleet to the Klingons."