- Picard in "Contagion" regarding a Warp Core Breech. In that episode Geordi says that the system detects a failure in anti-matter containment and automaticly vents the antimatter into space, to avoid an explosion. So, Generations, what's your excuse?!
I'd say that Geordi's "detection" system was vented into space by the Duras Sisters' lucky shot over Veridian III & unless you've jacked your Engineering Tricorder directly into an auxiliary station via the 24th Century's equivalent of a USB outlet, all you're going to know is that you're f---ed beyond ALL recognition when a nacelle pops off & goes whirling into the nearest atmousphere & the core goes bye bye right out from under you if someone can't hand crank open the ejection port & shove the core outside to a relatively safe distance by dressing up in an E.V.A./Jetpack Suit like the one Spock & Kirk wore in The Motion Picture.
Geordi said something was offline so the breach couldn't be stopped. I forget what was offline. I haven't seen Generations for a couple of years.
The thing about emergency systems in the real world is that they only work up to certain level of emergency. You won't be saved by safety belts or airbags if your car falls into a 100 m ravine, even if those devices mean the difference between life and death if you fall down a 10 m one. Picard in "Contagion" would not have had his ship pounded by enemy fire yet, and would be less likely to think in terms of safety systems failing. Riker in ST:GEN would be an idiot if he didn't accept his Chief Engineer's off-the-hip assessment that there'd be an inevitable giant kaboom in about five minutes. Timo Saloniemi
Yeah, I think that Picard meant that a warp core breach can't just simply happen by itself--that enough safeguards are in place to prevent that sort of thing from just randomly happening. While taking criticial damage during combat, however, that's a different story. I would imagine that artificial gravity and life support are also systems that are considered impossible to fail under normal circumstances.
No, Wait...HE DIDN'T TAP HIS COMM-BADGE that time!! I'm confused... Sometimes, just like in Japanese cartoons, you just have to accept that he's had a hidden ultra-powerful Pokemon power hidden up his ass the whole time, and let the plot take its course.
GEORDI (to com) La Forge to Bridge. I've got a problem down here. The magnetic interlocks have been ruptured. I need to get the -- The warp core starts to spew white-hot GAS. GEORDI (continuing) Coolant leak! Everybody out. The emergency isolation door comes DOWN and people start rushing out of Engineering. Geordi heads for the Corridor. GEORDI (on the move, to com) Bridge, we've got a new problem. We're about five minutes from a Warp core breach. There's nothing I can do.
Looking at that bit of dialog, I like that. I'd prefer that to a couple of minutes of dialog on how the control programs have been corrupted in one of the many power surges, preventing them from automatically shutting down the power feeds, and the hyperbaric radiation is too high already to send somebody down even if they had time to get into a rad suit, etc. etc. (which is actually more reasonable than most Treknobabble. ) He told the Watch Officer that something was wrong and can't be fixed, and the watch officer acted on it. It's simple. professional, and gets the point across.
Except that there's no reason to bring that into this. As several posters have already demonstrated, this is a logical "flaw" only if one adopts a posture of absolutist fanboy nitpicking devoid of any reference to how emergency systems actually operate and would be expected to operate by a person with reasonable knowledge and/or experience.
The recent TrekLit novel The Buried Age postulates a possible reason why the Galaxy-Class had so many flaws and was easily damaged or destroyed.
Yes, this concept of objects filled with volatile fuel exploding after being shot at repeatedly... clearly, it must be the result of poor writing.
If you watch "The Godfather" and then compare that with TWOK you see that TWOK is indeed poor writing. All things are relative. In regard to the science and engineering upon which the plots hinge, however, "Generations" is not inferior to TWOK - they are both full of nonsense and little else in that regard.