Trope-a-Day: Exploding Consoles

THIS NEVER HAPPENS.

Explosive Instrumentation: Oh, good grief, no.  All control panels, computer equipment, etc., is low power circuitry separated by multiple isolators, relays, and other such devices from anything high power, and amply supplied with surge suppressors, circuit breakers, hard fuses, and so forth.  Even if they’re the ones in the engineering section, rather than on The Bridge.

Equipment is expensive.  The people who use (or in the case of infomorphs, live in) the equipment are even more expensive.  Any engineer who forgets this and even begins to think of contemplating running high-power circuitry directly through the controls would be immediately fired, disbarred, sued, and quite possibly shot.