What's Your Holodeck Fantasy?

[Makarov]

Could people who have the compulsion to be serial killers prevent themselves from murdering real people by doing it to holographic people?

In Voyager we saw Tuvok doing this to surpress a violent urge but I don't think it worked out too well, he still lost control.

Honestly though with all the incidents of holodeck characters becoming self aware, or becoming more human (the doctor on Voyager), I don't think people would use them for violence like they do on the show. I don't think people would play Call of Duty or GTA if sometimes the NPCs became full fledged people, I certainly wouldn't.

I think the truth is you could do an entire TV series just based on the holodeck and no space exploration at all. In fact I think that might be a pretty cool Star Trek show. Then if they really wanted to do a space based episode it can be a program on the holodeck.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It would be interesting to see an entire show about the cultural ramifications of holodeck technology becoming wildly available.

I get the impression that holograms becoming sentient is an extremely rare exception, not something that happens every other day. I totally see first person shooters being really popular holodeck programs, far more popular than the genre fantasies we usually we them used for.

 

[Hypaspist]

I think Quantum Leap kind of qualifies. It shows recurring characters involved in all sorts of events that are standalone stories.

If Star Trek is supposed to be all things for all people, you have individual series that take those ideas further. DS9 does for interstellar politics and war. Dr Who does for time travel and really insane aliens. Stargate does for really using the scientific knowledge they have to their advantage. Regular Trek (like TNG) is kind of a mix of all these things.