Has this ever been addressed on any of the modern Trek shows?

I'm talking from TNG onwards.
TNG introduced us to the holodeck and we learn that it has its own power supply that seems independent of the ship's main power supply but has it ever been mentioned if they can't use that power supply in times of emergency?

 

VOYAGER said in "PARALLAX", if memory serves, that the holodeck grid power was incompatible with the rest of the ship. Which never made a lick of sense, honestly.

 

Think of all the weird adventures where alien children take the ships children hostage on the holo deck, or the holodeck monsters come to life and start eating the junior officers.

Turning off the holodeck, or making sure the holodeck stays on needs to be independent of ships main power in the middle of a battle, whether it's because ships main power cutting out fracks with the holodeck or if the holodeck is working at %900 efficiency, it drains the shields half way through a fire fight.

 

I thought the animated series introduced the holodeck?

 

It's probably like trying to reconfigure your entire house so it can run off a few smartphone batteries. You can try it and maybe even get an initial spark or something, but it doesn't mean it will work well or long enough to be actually useful, IMO.

 

A terrible excuse just to keep the holodeck. I so wished they'd had the courage to say no holodeck on VOY.

Except that it means that someone decided that an Intrepid class ship should utilize two, completely incompatible power systems. And that one of them is constructed so specifically that there's just no way to use the power for any other use. Apple would be proud.

Besides which, my biggest problem with it is that they continued to have replicator rations and scrounge for food when they could go on to the holodeck and eat replicated food from the supposedly independent power source.

 

Or it could just be a case that holodecks were never meant to run an entire starship. The incapability is unlikely to be the actual type of power used, since holodecks appear to run off the same EPS as other systems on the ship, but it could be with distribution, stability, and even regulation. You can send power to the holodeck from the warp core, but getting the holodeck to power the warp core could be asking for it.

I doubt it's that easy, otherwise it would be standard practice. And trying to feed 150 or so people three times a day might be considered an unnecessary drain on the ship's power grid when rationing and scrounging are other alternatives that can allow the ship to go longer without searching to refuel the main tank.

 

Then it makes no sense that they just use it willy-nilly. The holodeck used all the time when they're short on food?

It's not that anyway, the episode makes it clear...

Janeway "What about alternative energy sources? Ensign Kim, have you had any luck getting power from the holodeck reactors?"
Kim "Not yet. We tried hooking them to the power grid and we ended up blowing out half the relays. The holodeck's energy matrix, it just isn't compatible with the other power systems."

For better or worse, the Voyager writers just decided, "Fuck it, we want holodeck stories. A fifteen second scene is all we need to justify it."

 

So the holodecks on all Fed ships have their own reactors too. That's just odd

 

We can't be sure of that.

It could be a design flaw in the Intrepid that was ironed out.

In the DS9 where the crew's souls got transmitted into Julian's 1960's spy program, but there was a problem that if power to the holodeck blipped, then every one would die.

 

It wasn't used all the time. Despite the number of holodeck episodes in VOY, its usage was probably regulated more than on other ships for that reason. Outside of special circumstances and unauthorized access, crewmembers probably had to get permission (off-screen, of course) rather than use it whenever they wanted.

That's actually my point. It just doesn't work that way. Wasn't meant to apparently, although they tried to see if it could.

Like how a car has both an engine for a motor and a battery for other systems.

 

But you can't start a car without a battery.

 

Missing the point. Still two different power sources for different systems.

 

Holodeck stories basically served the same necessity in the 90s shows that the parallel Earths did in TOS, it was a convenient way to do an affordable episode where you could utilize sets and costumes from another production, thus saving money on having to create new "futuristic" or "alien" sets and costumes or whatever. Enterprise and the modern shows got around this by just having the civilian clothes be contemporary outfits anyway.

 

I'd assume any EPS power flow can be re-directed.

 

Too bad they couldn't do that with torpedoes, too.

 

Wouldn't the same be true for transporters? Suppose you're in mid-transport when the main ship power systems fail, you'd need independent backup power to ensure transport can be completed, even if 'normal' backup power facilities have gone offline, too.

 

Didn't they only decide that the holodeck runs on a different, somehow incompatible, power supply in Voyager so they'd be able to throw holodeck episodes at us without having to explain how this ship that supposedly has to conserve energy to the point that they have to ration replicated food and must submit themselves to Neelix' horror food can still have the holodecks running.

 

Maybe this should be moved the the tech forum?

Imagine a ship that was currently running solely on power diverted from the holodecks, and the conflict arises when the holocharacters discover that the crew is only running them in the background because they need the power. So a crewmember with love interest holocharacter of the week is romancing said character to keep the lights on.