# Why no seat belts on Star Trek? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 15, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265 "2005-02-15T21:59:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/61 "2014-03-02T02:18:14Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Sorry for the hijack, but here’s what I don’t understand about Star Trek: why do they always send the most valuable people down to a planet? > > If the planet is hostile – which is usually the case – you don’t want to send down the captain and the first officer _first_. Send a security squad down first! The security people always got killed anyway. Then you’d have to send another group down to find out what happened, and then send another group after THEY were killed. Might as well send the important people down in the first group. It saves a lot of time. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/62 "2014-03-02T02:18:41Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Have you ever seen a ship (I mean a sea-going ship) with seatbelts - for either the passengers or the crew? > > They don’t have seatbelts, because they’re based on sea-ships, which don’t have seatbelts. Or even seats, half the time. Yes I have. Some Coast Guard cutters have seat belts and shoulder harnesses. This because incredible weather they go out in. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/63 "2014-03-02T03:34:05Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Humph. For once I come up with a really good cross-reference, and no one even notices it. > > At least I thought it was good. I got it. I figured most everyone else did too. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/64 "2014-03-02T04:32:00Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Yeah, why didn’t the OP notice that…oh, wait. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/65 "2014-03-02T06:19:48Z")
There’s zombies on the starboard bow, Starboard bow, There’s zombies on the starboard bow Starboard bow, Jim ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/66 "2014-03-02T17:01:53Z")
> [@Ephemera](#): > > Another factor to consider is that in the heat of battle, people need to be able to move around freely. If someone at a critical post is injured and can’t perform his duties, it’d be pretty bad for someone to have to fight with a seatbelt and lose precious seconds or even minutes depending on how badly the belt’s jammed or how nervous they are. I’m not the ST heavy-hitter that the majority of you are, but wouldn’t it make sense to have each console be accessed, at the push of a “button,” from a different console? E.G., Data presses a button and his console goes from “navigation” to “tactical” (when Worf is in the can, say). If nothing else, it would make for efficient drills. And you’d think if they can harness anti-matter, they could make a couch that would cushion you on all sides, offset the G forces, keep you from flying, dramatically, over the railing at inopportune times, ad nauseum. 😉 Just rambling. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/67 "2014-03-02T17:16:10Z")
There’s an episode of DS9 when the crew of the Defiant is shown finding a Jem’Hadar ship where the crew was killed apparently by the failure of their ship’s internal dampeners. The supposition was that the failure of the unit acted like there not being seat belts on a ship which had no chairs… ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/68 "2014-03-02T17:18:45Z")
Yeah, they probably could. But how would the TV audience know that’s happening? Extra dialogue or a special effect? Easier to just have them switch places. Responding to burpo ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/69 "2014-03-02T17:23:45Z")
Real life makes for boring TV, huh? 😃 Responding to AncientHumanoid (nice handle 🆒) ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/70 "2014-03-02T17:54:50Z")
Well, given the speeds and energies involved, if the inertial dampeners fail, you’re nothing but a fine mist of high energy particles anyway, as is most of the ship. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/71 "2014-03-02T18:59:46Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > Gravity plating is a near constant. It’s virtually failsafe. As far as I can recall, TUD was the only ep or movie to explore what happens when GP fails… It also briefly happened in a VGR episode. > [@Ephemera](#): > > [Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) - Alternate versions - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0253754/alternateversions) > > The First Officer – the guy who looks vaguely like Riker – is [Martin Madden](http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Martin_Madden) and played by [Steven Culp](http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Steven_Culp), whose scenes were all cut from the movie. > > He’s not even listed at IMDb as being in it. Linkies no workie. Try these: > **[Martin Madden](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Martin_Madden)** > > In a deleted scene from Star Trek Nemesis, Martin Madden was a Starfleet commander who would have replaced William T. Riker as first officer of the starship USS Enterprise-E in 2379. The character was named after Marty Madden, longtime companion of... > **[Steven Culp](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Steven_Culp)** > > Steven Culp (born 3 December 1955; age 69) is the actor who portrayed J. Hayes in five Star Trek: Enterprise third season episodes. He had previously played Martin Madden in Star Trek Nemesis, but his scenes were deleted from the final film. Culp was... ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/72 "2014-03-02T22:48:03Z")
> [@Odinoneeye](#): > > …As for fire extinguishers, in Next Generation, the computer controlled them. There’s an episode where they pick up some colonists living a pastoral life because something bad is happening to their homeworld. They try to light a fire in the cargo bay to cook dinner and the computer puts it out… IIRC the computer project a force field around the fire to deprive it of oxygen. In the same episode it was mentioned that the ship “cleans itself”, but what exactly that meant was never shown or elaborated on again. > [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > Gravity plating is a near constant. It’s virtually failsafe. As far as I can recall, TUD was the only ep or movie to explore what happens when GP fails. Again, one of the non canon books had a neat side story on its developement. And that Mirror Universe episode of Enterprise was the only time it ever occurred to anyone that they could stop an intruding simply by turning the gravity up (an effect that would be a lot cheaper to show than a zero-gravity scene). ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/73 "2014-03-03T02:50:00Z")
(Got lazy reading through the thread, so this may have already been discussed). Why put the bridge on the top of the ship where it can be easily shot at, instead of deep inside the ship? ---
**Author:** ![Alba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Alba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alba)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/74 "2014-03-04T08:53:02Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > (Got lazy reading through the thread, so this may have already been discussed). > > Why put the bridge on the top of the ship where it can be easily shot at, instead of deep inside the ship? The bridge can be detached from the ship to act as an emergency/separate vessel. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/75 "2014-03-04T13:29:39Z")
> [@Alba](#): > > The bridge can be detached from the ship to act as an emergency/separate vessel. Cite? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/76 "2014-03-04T13:34:57Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Why put the bridge on the top of the ship where it can be easily shot at, instead of deep inside the ship? I always wondered about that myself, though with the primary hull being a saucer, it wouldn’t have made much difference where it was sited. One of the few really good moments in _ **TNG** _ was when they mentioned the ship’s Combat Information Center, presumably deep in the bowels of the _Enterprise_, in the alternate timeline episode. That was the same episode where Picard expressed shock over the stupidity of having children on board. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/77 "2014-03-04T13:42:03Z")
I think he meant saucer separation. In The Cage, it looked like the bridge had a clear dome roof. Transparent aluminum? ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/78 "2014-03-04T14:01:52Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Cite? :dubious: I recall it being mentioned in one of the “Star Trek Technical Manual” books I had as a (dorky) teenager. Or at least during shakedown the bridge module was swapped out for an “ejector bridge” in case something catastrophic happened. Still a pretty weaksauce reason for having the bridge so exposed (and at the centre of a conspicuous bulls-eye for any attacker). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/79 "2014-03-04T14:25:34Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > I recall it being mentioned in one of the “Star Trek Technical Manual” books I had as a (dorky) teenager. Or at least during shakedown the bridge module was swapped out for an “ejector bridge” in case something catastrophic happened. Never heard or read that. Saucer separation, yes; bridge ejection, no. Wouldn’t do them much good if they could eject. What could they do other than drift through space, hoping that someone will come and rescue them before life support gives out? Saucer separation, BTW, never seemed a viable option to me either, since the primary hull had only impulse power (and, if I recall the _ **TNG** _ blueprints correctly, the fuel tank was in the spine of the secondary hull). Impulse power isn’t going to help you get anywhere in interstellar space, and you certainly can’t outrun any hostile vessel (except maybe a primitive Romulan ship). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265/80 "2014-03-04T14:32:55Z")
Years ago, one of the non-canon ST technical manuals mentioned that the top of the primary hull - where the Bridge is - is actually one of the best-protected parts of the ship, given how the deflector shields surround the ship. The Okudas’ _ST Encyclopedia_ stated that Bridge modules can be relatively easily swapped out (to explain why they sometimes appear different, even for two ships of the same class) for repairs and upgrades. I’ve never read that any Bridge module could be ejected just by itself as a sort of escape pod. > [@terentii](#): > > …One of the few really good moments in _ **TNG** _ was when they mentioned the ship’s Combat Information Center, presumably deep in the bowels of the _Enterprise_, in the alternate timeline episode. That was the same episode where Picard expressed shock over the stupidity of having children on board. There’s also an Auxiliary Control Center on Kirk’s _Enterprise_, and a Battle Bridge on Picard’s: [Battle bridge | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Battle_bridge) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-seat-belts-on-star-trek/290265.md?page=5)