Exploding Consoles

Numerous times through the series, consoles and other seemingly mundane devices aboard the Saratoga and other ships explode for no adequately explored reason. This page exists to correct that.

Not The Why

The "Exploding Console of Doom" is a fairly standard sci-fi trope, and I, the writer, would like to state for the record that I was not merely copying this trope. I always, from the inception of the series, had sound reasoning in mind. So, let's get to the why.

The Why

There are numerous explanations, which I will begin to list here:

Ordnance

Foundation ships are well-known for keeping hidden caches of weapons, ammunition, and other supplies all over the ship. This may seem like a bad idea, but it is entirely probable that Cindy has some C4 stashed in her console. Loaded guns, as well as other items, are hidden behind secret panels all over the ship.

Power Overload

Bare in mind that the Saratoga is a starship, not a building. When power surges, it has nowhere to go. It's not a matter of 'grounding'; the energy has to go somewhere. Keep in mind the ship is also made entirely of metal: a material generally known for being conductive.

Major ships' systems, such as engines, weapons, etc., require massive amounts of power. This means parts of the ship are drawing huge currents, sometimes in excess of hundreds of thousands of volts, to run the beam weapons or fire the ion engines.

There are huge levels of redundancy and numerous fail-safes to keep that current from running into, say, someone's packman game. Typically, the 'exploding console' is the result of a surge protector under it simply failing... kinda safely? You may notice no one is ever injured by a console explosion.

Foundation ships are designed to do two things: keep working, and not kill the crew. In that order. The general thought is, in a combat situation, it's better to let a power overload potential injure one person than cripple a mission-critical system. This is why, when a stray surge goes haywire, it tends to find its outlet in someone's console and not something more important.

Oil Detonations

This has been mentioned briefly in the series, but ships like the Saratoga have various levels of redundancy. This includes a mineral-oil supply for electrical generators (absurdly primitive, in a space-faring culture, but required anyway); and when a spark gets into one of these, it explodes. This, in combination with the need to preserve a respirable atmosphere (yes; that's a legitimate adjective, readers!), is the reason why no smoking is allowed on board.