No stairs, but why no Railings?

[Apogeal Alpha01]

Looking at a photo of a corridor from the upcoming Star Trek XI movie, a question came to mind. Okay, I can understand why there are no stairs, but why are there no railings? Gravity plating isn't perfect. During sub light maneuvers, or during battle, the ships are frequently rocked by blasts of one kind or another. Logically, though we haven't seen this onscreen, during a power systems failure, gravity plating may be off line intermittently, as is life support, weapons, shields, etc., leaving the crew bouncing around like pinballs. Or would grav plating have its own, failure proof power system? Why shouldn’t there be something to hold onto?

Or, being realistic, inertial forces would be so great during even an intermittent failure, that the crewmen would be squashed like bugs, making the point moot? Best not to bring it up? Would gravity plating have to be failure proof?

 

[USS KG5]

"I said forget the dental plan, forget sick leave, all I want is a railing..."

Bt seriously - we have seen railings on the bridge, I guess in a battle you would be at a battle station with a console to hang onto not running through corridors.

 

[cultcross]

Apogeal Alpha01 said:
Would gravity plating have to be failure proof?

Gravity plating would certainly have to be programmed to deactivate in a time of fault rather than, as you say, crush the crew against the deck plating.

 

[Apogeal Alpha01]

I was thinking more along the lines of a grav plate failure that allowed the crew to be smashed against a ceiling or wall at the end of a corridor, much the way Malcolm and Trip were, aboard the Romulan vessel in United. Which, BTW, I thought should have killed either of them instantly while maneuvering about at thousands of miles per hour.

 

[Timo]

I don't see how railings on the corridors would help with these issues. Even a relatively gentle failure of the 1G pull either way (disappearance or 100% increase) would yank the human body harder than a handhold could resist. OTOH, maneuvering along a corridor in zero gee shouldn't really require handholds - surfaces to push from would be enough.

As for the usual shaking, the corridors appear narrow enough not to require additional handholds. Although there was an interesting railing in the middle of a particularly broad section of corridor in ST:FC, presumably for the real-world purpose of forcing Stewart and Woodard closer together for the shot.

But yeah, I think gravity is one of those life support technologies that either works basically as planned, or then instantly kills everybody and destroys the entire ship. So we never see a partial but lethal failure aboard a hero vessel. Some "1G up or down" variation might happen, and look very dramatic, but still remain nonlethal.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Harry Palmer]

Why no seat belts?

 

[Timo]

Because our heroes are too laid back to buckle up?

I mean, they spend months or years in those chairs. Comfort matters far more than safety, some 95% of the time. It's Starfleet's fault for not coming up with a more comfortable safety restraint.

Timo Saloniemi