Did a backup/emergency system EVER work?

[diankra]

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...

The only sensible explanation is that if the back-up does its job, there's no need to report it to a busy captain in the middle of a crisis. You only report the times it fails and he needs to know RIGHT NOW.
Not exactly watertight, but...

 

[kitsune]

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 always thought this would've made more sense, too.

 

[cultcross]

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...

It would make more sense for the turboshafts to be null-gravity - after all, what the heck is the point of building a lift system in space and forcing it to work against gravity all the time for no conceivable reason?

 

[PhoenixIreland]

One that annoyed me most was Trois bidge officers test were the computer says not only has an ejection system failed but "cannot be restored"...cannot be restored? here you are in the middle of a crises and the computers being a cynic...

 

[Bisz]

...or the lights. In fact how often have we seen a ship lose its lights and go completely dark?

Lights are no big deal, we have those systems now if schools and factories and such, so thats not hard to believe.