Star Trek: 10 Things We NOW Know About The Holodeck

10. Mind That A.I.

Too much of a good thing is never positive, as La'An Noonien-Singh discovered in A Space Adventure Hour. The Recreation Room, or Holodeck (more on this in a moment), was proposed by Starfleet as a solution to the rigours of long-term space travel. The best laid plans...

This third-season episode of Strange New Worlds is set in 2261, several years before The Practical Joker, the episode that first introduced audiences to the Rec Room. While crafting the story, particular care had to be paid to this bit of wibbly wobbly time travel. How to invent the light bulb before electricity had found its way on board?

The answer was simple: invent it, then break it. That method had worked for holographic communication technology in Such Sweet Sorrow, so why not for holographic entertainment here? Amelia Moon could have been the last hard-boiled detective to walk those yellow and black tiles, save for a last-minute brainstorm from Montgomery Scott. To prevent the holodeck from draining power and resources from every other system, give it plenty of both, purely dedicated to its needs. 

In truth, A Space Adventure Hour walks the fine line of being a prequel, but wanting to play with the sequel's toys. It largely succeeds, retroactively using the writers' ideas from Voyager's Parallax, by suggesting it has its own reactors, to ensure that the next test would be more successful. The episode also cements one piece of holodeck lore, right from the very beginning: those safety protocols have never bloody worked!