Maybe Star Trek episodes are used as Space OSHA videos of what not to do?
The instructor would pause the video at this point and ask the class what they were doing wrong.
When the captain picks his away team, pause video, who should have been picked instead? What should they be wearing?
And of course TOS would be used for the sexual harassment / space STD training as well.
Warp core has shield around it (multiple, I think), while I disagree with testing it in main engineering, it’s still probably fine.
The humans being out in the open though?
Warp core can have shielding around it but typically doesn’t. There have been threats in the past from people firing at the warp core. A containment field can be raised (and iirc there was one raised in this scene) but it’s not always on. Would no need to be in an area as critical as main engineering. Only people with access to the area are people who wouldn’t typically fuck with it. Having a continuous forcefield would be a drain on ship energy systems and might even impact crew morale to an extent.
Morale??? You bet my ass is feeling safer if there is a extra safety net around a miniature SUN next to my head!!! 🤣🤣
Yeah but you’re not a trained engineer after years at Starfleet Academy and years of postings who is currently on the Flagship. If they had the shields up constantly around it, it might imply that they don’t trust their crew. Starfleet is all about trust and working together. If they shield the core constantly they’re not trusting the engineers they trained to work on it and fix it. Imagine you spend years at the Academy studying the best in warp mechanics and what have you. You finally get to serve and after years and years you find that no one is trusted. That despite all your training on how to deal with it, you’d need to apply for permission to gain access to the thing your department is dedicated to. Those feelings of being untrusted or babied can really get to you after a while.
Also, wasn’t Geordi brainwashed by the Romulans at the time?
It’s the same room they tested the completely unknown device from DS9, which did malfunction and happened to shoot out a beam of energy out of one end. Instead of going into the core it shot out the other side and gave a crewmate the ability to dream. Which they proceeded to do the same thing again but for longer.
If tech happens, they can try to tech the tech to the tech. Or eject the warp core.
