Of course the real-world reason is that it’s cheaper to shake the camera and set off a firecracker than to build a scale model just to paint a burn scar on the side.
But my thoughts were always that the in-universe reason had to do with the modular nature of federation starships.
In almost every episode, someone on a starship either suggests rerouting something, shunting power from one thing through another, bypassing something, compensating for one power source with another etc.
It seems that in space, being able to re-configure everything at a moment’s notice is important, and to be able to do that, you need easy, fast and direct, access to everything, therefore it needs to be immediately accessible, ergo high voltage power directly behind the controls.
The lack of seatbelts goes right along with it. If a console blows up in someone’s face, the next guy over needs to be able to quickly move down and take over. Don’t need to have to be fighting with seatbelts when nobody is steering the ship.
I don’t know why they don’t have safety glasses however…
Aritificial Gravity is probably part of the system that prevents everyone from going splat against the window Maneo style when they leave warp. Without inertial dampening you couldn’t move ships basically at all, so these systems are probably passive.
The inertial dampeners have issues all the time tho, but instead of everyone getting turned into red mist against a surface instantly it just causes them to sway a little and the camera to shake.
Survivor(star)ship bias: There are only episodes about minor issues with the inertial dampeners because major issues with the system would be very short and messy, and not make for good archival training footage for cadets or whatever the Watsonian reason for our Doyalist TV show may be.
Trek might not really go for gore often, but an episode where you see the aftermath wouldn’t go amiss
@JungleJim
There is this scene in the Expanse, when a ship suddenly slows down.
A very messy scene.
@Thorry84
I really have to watch this show, I keep hearing great things
@JungleJim
It’s not Star Trek, but in my opinion, the best SF series since DS9.
I don’t say “better”, because they are set in different subgenres, so at some point comparison fails.
Let’s put it like this: I am as much a fan of one as I am of the other.
Inertial Dampeners failing means the ship can no longer remain at warp. (Ship would be fine, the meat bags of mostly water would not) Trek is usually pretty consistent about that part.
You should really only need inertial dampeners when changing velocity. You only go splat when the ship’s velocity is significantly different from yours. If it slows down before you do, you splat on the forward bulkhead. If it speeds up faster than you, you splat on the aft bulkhead.