Exploding Consoles Of Doom Explained At Last

[Hartzilla2007]

Dennis wrote:

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Thanks. It's cool to hear an explanation that makes sense from someone with an intimate knowledge of the analogous real technology.

Now if we can get some folks in here from the auto industry and maybe OSHA to address the lack of seat belts, we're set.

You want them to be strapped to the exploding console?

[blssdwlf]

Speaking of exploding consoles, when was the first time we saw one that caused injury and/or was fatal?

[Flashover]

Christopher wrote:

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Well, the whole point here is that even circuit breakers can be overwhelmed by a voltage differential large enough to jump the gap (at least in an atmosphere). There are limits to any form of protection.

That is exactly my point.

By the time we get to the situation where consoles are arcing and the warp core is steaming we've gone through several redundancy layers... and the situation is Getting Serious.

[SPCTRE]

Flashover wrote:

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NOOO! NOT ANOTHER INITIATION RITUAL! *runs*

Don't worry. The real initiation ritual will start as soon as you post your picture over in Misc

[Christopher]

blssdwlf wrote:

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Speaking of exploding consoles, when was the first time we saw one that caused injury and/or was fatal?

I'd have to say the earliest depiction of lethal exploding consoles was in TWOK, though it was only fake-lethal in the simulator.

I have an impression there was a TOS episode where somebody -- I want to say Uhura -- had their hands burned by an electrical surge from their console. But I'm not at all sure that happened.

I've gone through my old, old pencil-and-paper list of Enterprise personnel from TOS, which includes an X by the name of each killed crewperson, and the closest thing to "death by console" is poor Mr. Harper, who was disintegrated by the M5 computer's power beam in "The Ultimate Computer." But that's not very close at all, really.

[Nerys Ghemor]

Why is it not more frequent to discharge the energy back out onto, say, the shields, the way DS9 did in "Civil Defense"? Or into space, if the shields weren't up at the time? Might this not be preferable to exploding consoles?

[blssdwlf]

Christopher wrote:

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I'd have to say the earliest depiction of lethal exploding consoles was in TWOK, though it was only fake-lethal in the simulator.

I have an impression there was a TOS episode where somebody -- I want to say Uhura -- had their hands burned by an electrical surge from their console. But I'm not at all sure that happened.

Maybe it was Chekov who got burned when V'ger hit the Enterprise in TMP?

But that is interesting that the lethal exploding consoles seem to start after TWOK.

[dgguy2006]

I believe that Flashover is correct, in that a battle situation deals with inconceivable amounts of energy. However, I would envision a Borg-inspired diffusion net that could reroute some (if not all) of the released energy back into the shield capacitors or phaser arrays.

[Flashover]

Nerys Ghemor wrote:

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Why is it not more frequent to discharge the energy back out onto, say, the shields, the way DS9 did in "Civil Defense"? Or into space, if the shields weren't up at the time? Might this not be preferable to exploding consoles?

Timing. They knew they were going to get a massive power surge, and they had enough time to set up a bypass to dump all the power outside.

In a combat situation... beam hits ship --> surge travels through hull into power system --> surge protector fails --> isolator fails --> Ensign McOno gets a photonic facial. We're talking zero reaction time.

[Nerys Ghemor]

So why not a pre-existing way to discharge the energy outside, similar to the way that a lightning rod is there to ground a lightning bolt?

[Flashover]

And we're back to the product I manufacture.

What I'm getting at is these systems FAIL sometimes no matter how much engineering and thought you put into them.

[Christopher]

^Yes. Exactly. It's not that the ships don't have defenses against these things, it's that no defense is completely infallible. Every form of protection can be overwhelmed if its limitations are exceeded.

I think the problem, though, is that the modern Trek shows and movies have made exploding/sparking consoles into such a routine element of battle scenes that it gives the impression that there are no defenses.

[SicOne]

Christopher wrote:

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Yeah, I always figured it was something like that. I included a similar -- though nowhere near as detailed and precise -- explanation for it in a couple of my Trek novels.

Which book? Can't recall reading the explanation but would like to. I have most of yours.

[mickmike]

I wonder if starfleet have a special memorial to all those who copped a face full of sparks in the course of defending the Federation.

I can see it now... a bronzelithium (tm) statue of ensign redmond mcshirt getting blown backwards with his bronzelithium (tm) face melted for dramatic effect.

[Flashover]

I'm not too worried about the sparking and flames and stuff.

What baffles me is the fact that some consoles seem to be full of ROCKS.

WHAT THE HELL.

This is to be expected in the Geology Lab, but no on the bridge!