Did a backup/emergency system EVER work?

[PhoenixIreland]

I head O'Brian tell a Cardassian proudly that Starfleet requires a primary and secondary backup "in case the first one fails"..yet every time theres an emergency..."backup powers offline"...."ejection systems offline"...."fire suppression system offline"...

I'm trying to think of a time a backup system actually did it's job and I can't...

 

[USS Triumphant]

"Up The Long Ladder", TNG episode 2x18. The fire suppression system put out a campfire the Bringloidi started in the cargo bay.

 

[Vanyel]

"Up The Long Ladder", TNG episode 2x18. The fire suppression system put out a campfire the Bringloidi started in the cargo bay.

I'm pretty sure that fire suppression would be a primary system. Voyager was able to eject it's warp core, implying that either its primary and or secondary warp core ejection systems were working.

 

[Jono]

No matter how much damage a starship takes or if its losing or lost power artificial gravity almost never goes offline. Even when the Defiant when hit with an enemy dissapating weapon didn't lose artificial gravity...or the lights. In fact how often have we seen a ship lose its lights and go completely dark?

 

[PhoenixIreland]

"Up The Long Ladder", TNG episode 2x18. The fire suppression system put out a campfire the Bringloidi started in the cargo bay.

Oh great, they worked in the racist episode

No matter how much damage a starship takes or if its losing or lost power artificial gravity almost never goes offline. Even when the Defiant when hit with an enemy dissapating weapon didn't lose artificial gravity...or the lights. In fact how often have we seen a ship lose its lights and go completely dark?

Voyager lost it's gravity once.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Emergency bulkheads and atmospheric containment fields that automatically engage whenever the ship's hull is breached. Good thing those things work when called upon...

I tend to think that a Federation ship's environmental systems (and I would throw life-support and artificial gravity in that category too) have the most backup systems of any aboard a vessel--even more than the warp core--and would truly be the last systems to go offline in the event of 100% power failure. And even then, they'd probably run off emergency batteries for awhile afterwards, IMO. Fortunately, our heroes usually restore power long before that happens.

Probably can't say that about Klingon ships though...

 

[The Wormhole]

In Insurrection, they acutally did manage to eject the Enterprise E's warp core. So yes, it can be done. Provided the plot allows for it.

 

[wade8069]

It's so ridiculous. I am always wondering why almost of us don't have a good luck .

 

[Jamee999]

ENT's gravity went off once, iirc.

 

[kitsune]

ENT's gravity went off once, iirc.

Are you thinking of the scene in the pilot episode with Reed and Mayweather?

 

[kitsune]

No matter how much damage a starship takes or if its losing or lost power artificial gravity almost never goes offline. Even when the Defiant when hit with an enemy dissapating weapon didn't lose artificial gravity...or the lights. In fact how often have we seen a ship lose its lights and go completely dark?

In TNG: Disaster, Picard and his young crew go climbing in a turbolift. Even if the ship's artifical gravity is still working, shouldn't the turbolift tube itself be null-gravity at all times? It's not like there's a gravity plate beneath the climbers...

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I believe the manual override on the shuttle bay doors worked every single time.

 

[Maurice]

"Up The Long Ladder", TNG episode 2x18. The fire suppression system put out a campfire the Bringloidi started in the cargo bay.

Oh great, they worked in the racist episode

Hoo boy...here goes the "are the Irish a race?" argument again. <packs bags>

 

[RoJoHen]

It's so ridiculous. I am always wondering why almost of us don't have a good luck .

Was that a sentence?

I never understood when the warp core ejector would go offline. I mean, what happened? Did the door jam?

 

[kitsune]

I never understood when the warp core ejector would go offline. I mean, what happened? Did the door jam?

Obviously a fundamental design flaw of the Galaxy class. Such a severe flaw could only be deliberately introduced. Maybe there's a Romulan spy at the ASDB...

 

[bluedana]

ENT's gravity went off once, iirc.

Are you thinking of the scene in the pilot episode with Reed and Mayweather?

ENT:Unexpected, where the poor captain was in the shower and the gravity failed on his deck. And then came back on suddenly. One of the funniest teasers ever.

 

[Crewman47]

I just thought of one emergency system that always seemed to work despite all things failing - the Emergency Medical Hologram. Without it we'd never have the Doctor.

 

[JiNX-01]

ENT's Singularity: The "Reed alert" kicked in when Archer and T'Pol were weaving their way through the asteroid field ... turned on the weapons so they could bust up the bigger rocks that would have crushed the ship ...

 

[Plecostomus]

It's so ridiculous. I am always wondering why almost of us don't have a good luck .

Was that a sentence?

I never understood when the warp core ejector would go offline. I mean, what happened? Did the door jam?

You have a large pressurized cylinder full of OMG FUCKING HOT PLASMA and antimatter that is not feeling well. Mind you it takes enormous amounts of power to keep this thing happy as well as a circulating cooling system of some sort.

Now it's not feeling well so you cut power to the ailing containment system, open the door on the bottom of the ship and accelerate it at 100g or so to make it clear the ship.

...ejection never made sense to me, ever.

They should be trying to shut it down and depressurize it first. It's an antimatter/fusion reaction so it should burn itself out of fuel almost as soon as they cut off the fuel feed.

I guess "eject the core" sounds cooler to the masses than "trip the reactor."

 

[TheGodBen]

The one that always pissed me off was whenever the auto-destruct system would go offline, such as in Nemesis. How does the auto-destruct system break down?