Too many Holodecks Episodes?

[MacLeod]

Was there too many episodes about the holodeck in 24th century episodes (even one of the earliest episodes of Enterprise had a holodeck)?

The holodeck is an okay plot device, but having so many episodes based around it, made it wear out its welcome. All of those episodes where the Holodeck flips out and tries to kill the crew makes me think its use would have become restricted over time.

Considering Voyager was stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no support and not many resources, the Holodeck should been used for official purposes only and then only very rarely. The story of Voyager having to survive in the middle of nowhere is undermined when the crew can go into their own personal fantasy world, whenever they felt like it.

But even today many of us like to escape from the every day task to some fantasy world, be it watching a TV/film or playing a video game. The same would be true for the crew of VOY escaping from where there are in to a world of fantasy.

Far too many, especially on Voyager. That ship should have been beaten up and falling to pieces by the end of that series, not looking like it had just rolled out of the showroom. I think non-essential systems like a holodeck would have been powered down to conserve power, or stripped for spare parts.

Why? The holodeck power system was incompatabile with the rest of the ship on the Intrepid Class vessel.

 

[The Wormhole]

Why? The holodeck power system was incompatabile with the rest of the ship on the Intrepid Class vessel.

Which was kind of an odd plot device, created mainly to explain why they don't just power down the ship to turn the holodeck off when it's malfunctioning and trying to kill the crew. Realistically, one would expect a recreational device to have the same power source as everything else on the ship, and should it be necessary, they would go without holodecks and use the energy to power the warp core or replicate food.

 

[The Overlord]

Was there too many episodes about the holodeck in 24th century episodes (even one of the earliest episodes of Enterprise had a holodeck)?

The holodeck is an okay plot device, but having so many episodes based around it, made it wear out its welcome. All of those episodes where the Holodeck flips out and tries to kill the crew makes me think its use would have become restricted over time.

Considering Voyager was stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no support and not many resources, the Holodeck should been used for official purposes only and then only very rarely. The story of Voyager having to survive in the middle of nowhere is undermined when the crew can go into their own personal fantasy world, whenever they felt like it.

But even today many of us like to escape from the every day task to some fantasy world, be it watching a TV/film or playing a video game. The same would be true for the crew of VOY escaping from where there are in to a world of fantasy.

If I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, such things would become unimportant compared to survival. If I was stuck on an island with of a bunch of other people, our first concern would not be getting the TV to work.

Why? The holodeck power system was incompatabile with the rest of the ship on the Intrepid Class vessel.

That makes no sense, why would they design a ship where the entertainment system has its own power source that is not compatible with the rest of the ship, that seems wasteful and counter productive.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

In most cases, for storytelling purposes, it's really six of one, half a dozen of the other whether the setting is the holodeck or down on a strange alien planet. If you want your characters in genuine peril, you just have to decide which you want broken this week, the holodeck safety protocols or the transporters.

 

[The Wormhole]

If I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, such things would become unimportant compared to survival. If I was stuck on an island with of a bunch of other people, our first concern would not be getting the TV to work.

Your priority wouldn't be the TV, but I can guarantee someone in the group is going to prioritize it, and they may eventually swing others to their side. After all, it's relatively easy to fix and it will help improve morale, so why isn't it being fixed?

 

[The Overlord]

If I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, such things would become unimportant compared to survival. If I was stuck on an island with of a bunch of other people, our first concern would not be getting the TV to work.

Your priority wouldn't be the TV, but I can guarantee someone in the group is going to prioritize it, and they may eventually swing others to their side. After all, it's relatively easy to fix and it will help improve morale, so why isn't it being fixed?

Except the Holodeck would be a drain resources that would be better used else where. Voyager has limited resources in the DQ and if its a choice between phasers,shields, life support, transporters or anything compared the holodeck, the holodeck should lose every time. Voyager should have been a tale of surivival and having deal with a harsh new reality, allowing the crew to keep every creature comfort they would have had in the AQ is both unrealistic and undermines any sort of drama that the story is supposed to have. Also I don't buy that Voyager would be unable to take power from the holodeck and give it other systems, that is a silly plot point used to justify the holodeck staying around in Voyager. So silly in fact, it has a trope named after it:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VoodooShark

 

[The Wormhole]

If I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, such things would become unimportant compared to survival. If I was stuck on an island with of a bunch of other people, our first concern would not be getting the TV to work.

Your priority wouldn't be the TV, but I can guarantee someone in the group is going to prioritize it, and they may eventually swing others to their side. After all, it's relatively easy to fix and it will help improve morale, so why isn't it being fixed?

Except the Holodeck would be a drain resources that would be better used else where. Voyager has limited resources in the DQ and if its a choice between phasers,shields, life support, transporters or anything compared the holodeck, the holodeck should lose every time. Voyager should have been a tale of surivival and having deal with a harsh new reality, allowing the crew to keep every creature comfort they would have had in the AQ is both unrealistic and undermines any sort of drama that the story is supposed to have. Also I don't buy that Voyager would be unable to take power from the holodeck and give it other systems, that is a silly plot point used to justify the holodeck staying around in Voyager. So silly in fact, it has a trope named after it:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VoodooShark

We can sit around all day and debate Voyager's flaws, and indeed, it's been done. In the end, UPN was to blame since they wanted a TNG-esque show without any long-term story arcs with consequences and Voyager's writers had to work within those confines.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't think there's a problem with the holodeck existing and being used for recreation. But I think it's better the way DS9 used it (Before the addition of Vic Fontaine). There was only one 'Trapped in the holosuite' episode. It wasn't constantly the source of drama and threat, it was used for fun. Kayaking, defending the Alamo, sexual fantasies, Klingon rituals, therapy for feral teenagers. It becomes a crutch when they use it like Voyager used it, making it constantly the focus of the episode and the source of threat.

 

[The Wormhole]

Holy shit, reading the previous post reminded me I forgot about the Vic Fontaine episodes while doing my tally of holodeck episodes. Still, that only adds another two more. So 26 out of 716, about 3.6%.

 

[Captain Rob]

Anyone know how big Quark's holosuites were meant to be?
The episode where the DS9 crew played baseball against a visiting ship's team. They had to cram both teams in along with any real guests. How many people can you cram into a holosuite before it starts having problems?

 

[Commishsleer]

I got no objections to the Holodeck stuff in VOY. I thought the simulations were a good idea - if a cheat.
I have more of a problem with the TNG and TAS ones. There were too many (three?) where the crew were endangered by it. If I were Starfleet I would have seriously considered trashing/modifying it based on these.

 

[T'Girl]

Why? The holodeck power system was incompatabile with the rest of the ship on the Intrepid Class vessel.

Don't you get the feeling that a way would have been found to use that power elsewhere, if Scotty or LaForge were the ship's engineer?

Instead of BeLanna.

 

[eyeresist]

Anyone know how big Quark's holosuites were meant to be?
The episode where the DS9 crew played baseball against a visiting ship's team. They had to cram both teams in along with any real guests. How many people can you cram into a holosuite before it starts having problems?

Good point. When we see the holosuites in other eps they look pretty small, but it's possible there is a large one for group parties. Or possibly they can link multiple holosuites into the one simulation.

 

[Anwar]

The Holodeck stories were no worse than how TOS did stuff like "Western World" or "Nazi World" or "Gangster World".

It's just that since TOS only had 3 seasons, those stories didn't happen as much as TNG+'s did cause they were on much longer.

As for Voyager, the real reason they used Holodeck stories was because they had a lot of period piece props and sets leftover from TNG and it saved money to do them. If they'd waited til after DS9 they'd be able to reuse those Dominion/Cardassian props/sets for more alien world stories.

 

[uniderth]

I watched the Voyager episode(s) "The Killing Game" last night. I noticed Ensign Kim said that he had routed as much ships power to the holodecks as he could. So it seems the the ship can't draw power from the holodecks because it is not compatible. But ship's power can be routed into the holodeck.

 

[Maurice]

YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. HELL YES.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The bit about the holodeck using a different power source on Voyager always seemed like a way-too-convenient excuse to have their cake and eat it too. Not only had it not been the case on the Enterprise, but they later contradicted it on VGR when they had Janeway give a command that involved rattling off a number of systems from which they could divert power...think it was in "Year of Hell".

 

[uniderth]

What's the point of having cake if you don't get to eat it?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Given the criticisms of the use of holodecks on VOY, which I largely agree with, I think it's ironic that one of the best holodeck episodes, if not the best, is from VOY, namely "Real Life". Heck, it is my favorite VOY episode, period.

Why one of the best and favorite? Because it's very self-aware and because it inverts the usual tropes, especially including the one that everything should remain safe (to the degree possible for one-off hologram characters, although in the context of the episode the holodeck is a metaphor for what the television show itself should ideally be).

 

[MikeS]

I would add Hollow Pursuits to the list of good TNG holodeck episodes.