Star Trek: 10 Things We NOW Know About The Holodeck
5. When Is An Abbreviation Not An Abbreviation?
Recreation Room has a nice ring to it, don't you agree? If you're stuck for time, why not shorten it down to the absolutely-makes-perfect-sense holodeck! An abbreviation, or a nickname - you decide. Here, however, we're discussing the Rec Room, introduced in The Practical Joker in 1973.
There is, however, a play within a play here - is it rEcrEation room, or reCreation room? It may be a question of pronunciation, though function comes into play as well. The room with too many names was first used with holograms in The Animated Series, but crew lounges and recreation facilities had been standard issue since at least the early-2260s.
Recreation rooms had been used for crew members to relax in episodes like Charlie X, The Conscience Of The King, and The Trouble With Tribbles. These variations were better suited to 3-D chess than 3-D imaging, perhaps as a result of the Amelia Moon debacle.
Budget cuts to Star Trek killed the idea of a holographic entertainment room by the show's third season, according to Inside Star Trek: The Real Story. This led to the question of credit mentioned in the introduction to this article.
Gene Roddenberry proposed the room for this season, but was shot down. D.C. Fontana, though crucial to the first season of The Animated Series, had left that show before The Practical Joker. When she worked on The Next Generation, she was adamant that the writing staff didn't remember that episode while creating the holodeck, as per Star Trek: The Magazine, Vol. 1.
Sometimes, lightning can strike twice, and sometimes a whisper of an idea can take root - either way, The Room has different names, different inauguration dates, and different uses.
And still breaks at every opportunity it can get.