On Basic Engineering Design...

So, occasionally, while at work, I'll do a bit where I watch a movie alongside whatever is compiling or transferring or whatever, because it's infinitely more amusing than plain and simple progress bars.

In the 1800s, George Cayley gave us the seatbelt - a harness designed to protect a rider inside a moving vehicle, should the frame come to an abrupt stop, or undertake any motion that may cause harm to the occupant.

In 1903, Ford Motor Company gave us the first widely-available motorized vehicle. Accidents were commonplace, and people were hurt. In a car accident, three collisions occur: frame-to-frame, occupant-to-frame, and occupant-to-occupant (by that, I mean your guts go 'skweeesh!' inside of you - never a good thing). Seatbelts are implemented here - maybe not in 1903, but eventually - to help placate the damage done in the event of a sudden impact. As of the late 1960s, seatbelts are not only standard equipment in all motor vehicles, but are also compulsory for all occupants in most sane places. (For the record, I have never had to unbuckle a corpse from a seatbelt - plenty of living, angry people - never a dead one.)

According to memory-alpha.org, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) is constructed in 2372. Under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, she took part in a duel with the Reman warbird Scimitar at the Battle in the Bassen Rift. At one point in the engagement, the Enterprise and the Scimitar make a head-long run at each other, wherein a void is cut in the forward bulkhead of the bridge. The unfortunate helmsman - a Lieutenant Branson was blown out into space through the very same maw.

And then it hit me.

Why the fuck wasn't he wearing a goddamn seatbelt? Simple piece of ballistic nylon. Across the lap. You could even have a stately little Federation Insignia as the clasp if you so desired. Make it magnetic, for fucks sake. Now, Captain Kirk, of the original (yes, the ORIGINAL) USS Enterprise had a claspy-lock thing that went across his lap during faster-than-light travel. Expanded upon, so did Captain Styles (Commanding Officer, USS Excelsior, 2285), as he trumpted his 'new incredible machine' into the graces of transwarp. So the COs got big metal and steal seatbelts that could probably cut your pecker off if you happen to have a hard on for superluminal speeds.

With regard to the aforementioned winky: "He's dead, Jim.". Obligatory. My apologies.

We've seen Kirk, and Picard, and Sisko, and Janeway, and every other captain in the history of Starfleet - and their entire crews - bounced around the corridors and decks of these gigantic, amazing vessels, which are equipped with replicators, and tractor beams, and matter-decompiling-transporters - BUT NO FRAKKING SEATBELTS? COME ON, PEOPLE. You can go faster than light, but you don't see the value in strapping the poor bastard into his chair? Let's ask Lieutenant Branson what he thinks.

Tea. Earl grey. Hot.