Never heard of a Surge Protector?

I am blessed with many friends who are willing to be subjected to test reading my works in progress.  I am currently agonizing over the first chapter of my Sci Fi Epic for which I not only want to nail down Chapter 1 but I'd like to spend some time working on character sketches and short stories related to it.  I very much would like to get a teaser up to show off the world I'm building as well as get some buzz going even though publication is, at the least, a year or two, or three away.

While reading through the first 10 pages he sent me back a message:

Grin, and I'll get over the exploding console trope.. that has always seemed like such a design flaw  why are there no surge protectors in space? 

And honestly that's a rather fair complaint.  Why is it that in all space fictions, we seem rather okay with star ships coming without basic 20th century safety technology?

How hard is it to drive a star ship?

At the heart of it my next writing project is going to be a Trek inspired novel.  Plain and simple, I fully intend to introduce to people an epic space fiction closer to Star Trek than Star Wars.  However, I also want to personalize as much of the story as I can, as well as the world in which it takes place.  I could, quite easily, steal the command structure that has become part of the common geek lexicon of Starfleet.  Operations, Security, Science, and Command divisions, each with their own department heads and so on.  And of course when you get to the top of the command chain, regardless of why or how you got in, you are considered a Command officer and put on the red shirt.