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Forums > Home› Ten Forward

Why doesn't anyone in Star Trek uses seatbelts?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited March 2014 in Ten Forward
Always bugged me, no-one ever uses a seatbelt or crash webbing at anytime. The amount of episodes where people get thrown around in are astronomical.

I can probably see why they don't have them on large starships, but they do not even have them on shuttles.
Crashing into a planet in a shuttle at a few hundred miles an hour would be pretty nasty (I believe Ensign Wildman received life threatening injuries in one episode from this)
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    In the latest STAR TREK literature they really have seatbelts! Maybe you know STAR-TREK TITAN?!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    Kirk kinda had a seat bealt in TMP. But thats about ht closest thing I can think of.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    I presume it's because inertial dampeners normally make this an irelevant safety feature and restricted movement could impede the operations of the vessel.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    They tried them once, but the ship broke. Seat restraints were the scapegoat and they were eliminated from all future vessels.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    Reasonably speaking if Trek was real I imagine that seat restraints would be mandated. You probably would have lap-belts on most duty-station chairs and that sort of thing as well as grab-bars (we start seeing those in Nemesis). As for Shuttles I wouldn't settle for anything short of a five-point harness. It makes sense, and it would certainly save lives.

    Want to really spare people? Supply each station with a device made for cutting those safety restraints in the event it gets stuck and you need to make a quick exit (they exist in real life, I got one under my driver seat). Also have a "quick release" mechanism in case you get boarded and need to defend yourself. Also with computers as advanced as they are make it so if someone is walking down a hallway and gets flung the ship reacts and makes a holographic crash-net and should the emitters fail deploy an airbag. Again this all seems like something we'd do now with our safety standards, but the Federation just seems to like not care.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    EcozidDax wrote: »
    In the latest STAR TREK literature they really have seatbelts! Maybe you know STAR-TREK TITAN?!

    Well at lesast that's something. Only took them hundreds of years to figure it out.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    because in the future computer consoles explode, even though for some reason no other electronic equipment ever explodes in our time let alone 400 years in the future.

    do you want to be strapped into a chair when your consoles decides to spark. no, you take the classic arms in the air, rotating clockwise whilst falling backwards move that is tried and tested to save your life unless your not one of the main cast
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    what the point if the dampners fail then your dead weather you got a belt on or not and if boarded then you aint going to put up much of a fight are u
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    Captain_Revo wrote:
    because in the future computer consoles explode, even though for some reason no other electronic equipment ever explodes in our time let alone 400 years in the future.

    do you want to be strapped into a chair when your consoles decides to spark. no, you take the classic arms in the air, rotating clockwise whilst falling backwards move that is tried and tested to save your life unless your not one of the main cast

    Actually, you never have seen electronic equipment explode, have you, Revo? Besides, the consoles of the future don't use electricity, they use something else...

    And another thing; to have a holo-emiiter safety net, holo-emitters would need to be fitted throughout the ship. Oh wait. They are.....:rolleyes:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    MGDawson wrote: »
    Actually, you never have seen electronic equipment explode, have you, Revo? Besides, the consoles of the future don't use electricity, they use something else...

    if a computer console gets a power surge there would be a little spark and puff of smoke, not enough to force me out of my chair and give me third degree burns like everyone seams to get in star trek

    it must be electrical, if not they seam to have devised a power source far more dangerous. plasma perhaps, why do you need plasma running through their consoles,. all the console does is activate the equipment.

    health and safety would have field day on the bridge of a starship
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    Captain_Revo wrote:
    if a computer console gets a power surge there would be a little spark and puff of smoke, not enough to force me out of my chair and give me third degree burns like everyone seams to get in star trek

    it must be electrical, if not they seam to have devised a power source far more dangerous. plasma perhaps, why do you need plasma running through their consoles,. all the console does is activate the equipment.

    health and safety would have field day on the bridge of a starship

    Plasma is indeed used, although i fear they are running far too much of it through their consoles.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    The consoles should be all optronic and so totally immune to surges.

    very little from scifi shows makes sence in this repect since it is all done to create drama
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    hikaizer wrote: »
    I presume it's because inertial dampeners normally make this an irelevant safety feature and restricted movement could impede the operations of the vessel.

    Exactly. And, by the way, you don't see seat belts on todays ships.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    Patarival wrote: »
    Exactly. And, by the way, you don't see seat belts on todays ships.

    Todays ships don't hurtle around at warp speed. If inertial dampeners are so effective, how come people are thrown around the bridge almost on a daily occurrence?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    It's a simple conspiracy. The ship engineers mark the seat belts as faulty so everyone on board collects hazard pay through out their tour of duty. I mean, why do you think Engineer Scott always got free drinks on the house? His personality....
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    At the speeds they travel, if the inertia dampeners fail, the seat belts would be useless in a crash. However, while the dampeners are in use, some sort of restraint may come in handy while seated during maneuvers. If someone needs to move around, he can just not use them.



    The only reasons I can think of as to why the crew gets thrown around are.

    1. They're inertia "dampeners" and not "eliminators". There is still some effect, it's just "dampened."
    2. Hollywood is clueless and just throws it in for dramatic effect.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    the seatbelts would only be needed for when the ship is attacked or going through some anomaly and the crew is being shaken around, they never need them for normal space travel because they are never shown to need them as the inertial dampeners do their job

    now i would imagine the inertial dampeners, if they can handle stationary to warp 9, should also be able to handle some light rocking effects when under attack but its less dramatic
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    Spaceships in Star Trek don't have any decent safety features anyways. I think if there were spaceships having battles for real then before a fight they would vent all the atmosphere out of it and get into space suits so that they don't get decompression and don't have to worry about being shot full of holes... No Scifi show ever does that for some reason.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    Rothnang wrote:
    Spaceships in Star Trek don't have any decent safety features anyways. I think if there were spaceships having battles for real then before a fight they would vent all the atmosphere out of it and get into space suits so that they don't get decompression and don't have to worry about being shot full of holes... No Scifi show ever does that for some reason.

    What would you do after the battle... now that you have no breathable atmosphere and only a few hours worth in your space suit?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    mayamyth wrote: »
    What would you do after the battle... now that you have no breathable atmosphere and only a few hours worth in your space suit?

    Repressurize the ship? You'd have extra air on board of course, just in a liquid state in pressure tanks somewhere. I mean a Scuba tank at 250 bar pressure holds somewhere around 3000 liters of air if it expands to atomspheric pressure, you can fit a LOT of air in a very small space.

    Also you could hook up the space suits to an internal air distribution system so they won't run out. At any rate, your chance of survival in a space based conflict would go up drastically if you were in a space suit while it happened.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    Actually, with Trek tech physical restraints are seriously out-dated. They can just use an application of artificial gravity technology to generate gravitic based non-material restraints. After all, we've seen force field based restraints and anti-grav hover sleds on screen.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    Because the chairs were not bolted to the floor. With seatbelts the crew would fall to the floor still strapped to the chair and it would be obvious how cheap the bridge set was.
  • avrilfangzavrilfangz Member Posts: 2 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    Scientifically - it could have something to do with the demonstration we saw in the movie 'Contact'. If you are strapped tightly to an object that shakes violently, then 'you' will shake violently. And on a scale where it is violently enough to move or shake a galaxy class starship, it probably wouldn't be pleasant. If your entire environment experiences a shift at a significant acceleration rate and you're STUCK to that environment, it'd probably feel like you were hit by a truck, once in that → direction and another time in the opposite ← direction.
  • daqheghdaqhegh Member Posts: 1,490 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    Archived Post wrote: »
    Always bugged me, no-one ever uses a seatbelt or crash webbing at anytime.

    Io would guess because it either wasn't law in the 60's, or the law wasn't enforced then. Hell, I remember when the whole Click-it-or-Ticket thing happened. And that was in my childhood. When I was a kid no one ever thought about it. So why would they when Star Trek was created? And of course, it would have carried over to the spinoffs. "Seatbelt? Me? I'm a Starfleet Captain!"
    My Old Blog about things that could and should have been added when I wrote it. Not sure what I want to do with it now. I'll just keep it available now that most of it is outdated.
  • stoutesstoutes Member Posts: 4,219 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    avrilfangz wrote: »
    Scientifically - it could have something to do with the demonstration we saw in the movie 'Contact'. If you are strapped tightly to an object that shakes violently, then 'you' will shake violently. And on a scale where it is violently enough to move or shake a galaxy class starship, it probably wouldn't be pleasant. If your entire environment experiences a shift at a significant acceleration rate and you're STUCK to that environment, it'd probably feel like you were hit by a truck, once in that → direction and another time in the opposite ← direction.
    Please look at the post date of the last reply. You've just necroed this thread. Any thread, inactive longer than 30 days are considered necros.
    maxvitor wrote: »
    Nerf is OP, plz nerf
    That's quite the paradox, how could you nerf nerf when the nerf is nerfed. But how would the nerf be nerfed when the nerf is nerfed? This allows the nerf not to be nerfed since the nerf is nerfed? But if the nerf isn't nerfed, it could still nerf nerfs. But as soon as the nerf is nerfed, the nerf power is lost. So paradoxally it the nerf nerf lost its nerf, while it's still nerfed, which cannot be because the nerf was unable to nerf.

    I call it, the Stoutes paradox.
  • tacofangstacofangs Member Posts: 2,951 Cryptic Developer
    edited March 2014
    Because the Inertial Dampeners never fail!
    Only YOU can prevent forum fires!
    19843299196_235e44bcf6_o.jpg
  • jmaster29jmaster29 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    tacofangs wrote: »
    Because the Inertial Dampeners never fail!

    Why is a Dev participating in a necro? HAX!
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • maxvitormaxvitor Member Posts: 2,213 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    It is ALIVE! KILL IT, KILL IT WITH FIRE!!
    If something is not broken, don't fix it, if it is broken, don't leave it broken.
    Oh Hell NO to ARC
  • snoggymack22snoggymack22 Member Posts: 7,084 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    Archived Post wrote: »
    Reasonably speaking if Trek was real I imagine that seat restraints would be mandated.

    Also things on the bridge wouldn't spark and catch fire so easily just because the hull on deck 14 took a disruptor blast.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • mightybobcncmightybobcnc Member Posts: 3,354 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    Trek has never realistically portrayed combat situations or safety, regardless of dampener technology; but it's more about the needs of the plot and what looks good on screen than realism.
    Joined January 2009
    Finger wrote:
    Nitpicking is a time-honored tradition of science fiction. Asking your readers not to worry about the "little things" is like asking a dog not to sniff at people's crotches. If there's something that appears to violate natural laws, then you can expect someone's going to point it out. That's just the way things are.
This discussion has been closed.