Star Trek The Next Generation: Every Season One Episode Ranked From Worst To Best

This episode serves as the first big Holodeck episode and it is one of the most fun episodes that the first season had to offer. The basic idea came from Gene Roddenberry, who wanted to have a detective show set on the holodeck. Writer Tracy Tormé then reworked the idea, adding plenty of film noir elements.

The plot is inspired by The Maltese Falcon, down to the design of the office and setting. This episode falls roughly midway through the first year and would be a great example of the strengths of both the actors and writers. Where the Naked Now had stumbled by introducing silliness a little too early in the season, this had the right balance of built up character traits and camp to pull it off.

Maurice Hurley described the episode as a breath of fresh air, breaking away from some of the seriousness that had built up over the season. It won several awards and the Dixon Hill program was revisited again in Manhunt, Clues and of course Star Trek: First Contact.

The episode also features a new (or in this case old) take on how holograms interact with the real world. Although the characters realise that they are holograms here for the first time, they exist briefly in the real world after stepping through the doors. This aspect of holographic matter would be corrected in both Ship in a Bottle and the Voyager episode Projections.