This put up accommodates spoilers for “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” season 3, episode 4, “A Area Journey Hour.”
What would Spock do with a holodeck? That is the kind of pie-in-the-sky theoretical query that has little question powered a thousand works of fan fiction and dozens of spec scripts, however till this week, it isn’t really one thing “Star Trek” followers may reply. In any case, the holodeck — a kind of multipurpose digital actuality area fueled by creativeness and highly effective programming — did not exist in Gene Roddenberry’s unique Sixties “Star Trek” TV sequence.
That is by no means stopped “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” from getting inventive earlier than, although. In a season that is already added a brand new chapter to the historical past of the Gorn and confirmed a long-running idea about “The Authentic Collection” scallywag Trelane, the pure subsequent step is to in some way make a holodeck episode occur … a century earlier than holodecks had been a factor. As such, “Unusual New Worlds” has employed a novel loophole to proceed on with the grand custom of holodeck episodes, one which largely sidesteps any potential continuity points. Moderately than messing with pre-existing “Trek” lore, “A Area Journey Hour” imagines a kind of misplaced chapter: a holodeck expertise so wonky and harmful that it is finally purposely misplaced to historical past.
The Enterprise highway examined the holodeck, and it did not go effectively
The enjoyable begins when Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Una/Quantity One (Rebecca Romijn) activity La’an (Christina Chong) with testing out a brand new little bit of tech. Since she’s beat each battle simulator, she’s been chosen to highway take a look at the brand new program, making certain it is purposeful and would not suck up an excessive amount of energy. It is a playful premise for an episode that by no means fairly reaches its full potential, as a substitute juggling a semi-entertaining Hollywood homicide storyline with a corny “The Authentic Collection” parody and a boring subplot involving Spock (Ethan Peck) and La’an’s love life. The episode does, nonetheless, exhibit the ability of the holodeck, which quickly begins to outfox La’an and really practically kills everybody on board the Enterprise.
Like a cryptocurrency mine slurping up water, this rudimentary holodeck seems to be an enormous resource-sucker. As La’an investigates a pretend thriller (whereas posing as fictional woman detective Amelia Moon), the Enterprise begins to lose important capabilities, and the rapidly evolving program learns to harm actual folks. The truth is, issues go so flawed with the mission that La’an and Scotty (Martin Quinn) finally suggest the holodeck expertise not be deployed lest it endanger the lives of different Starfleet officers. Pike concurs, joking that he’ll suggest the tech be “locked in a field deep underground someplace.” Because of this disastrous first try, “Unusual New Worlds” wryly implies, holodecks will probably be absent for the following a number of many years of Starfleet exploration.
This is how Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds matches into holodeck historical past
Because it enters the latter part of its five-year mission, “Unusual New Worlds” has made some selections that appear to be at odds with the canon of “The Authentic Collection.” The present’s model of Spock, for instance, has inexplicably burned via three lovers in three seasons, together with one who’s the descendant of his future nemesis Khan Noonien Singh. Regardless of its extra loosey-goosey moments, although, “Unusual New Worlds” is able to nailing the sophisticated “Trek” timeline. This really appears to be the case with the holodeck; although it was popularized as a starship function starting with “Star Trek: The Subsequent Era,” the earliest reference to the idea got here by way of a 1974 episode of “Star Trek: The Animated Collection.” In season 2’s “The Sensible Joker,” an on-board supercomputer begins taking part in pranks on the Enterprise crew, and the malfunction threatens the Starfleet officers trapped in what was then known as the “recreation room.”
“Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” pays homage to that deep lower in “A Area Journey Hour,” when Pike initially calls the holodeck a “recreation room” earlier than Una corrects him. That episode of “The Animated Collection” takes place in 2270, only a few years after “Unusual New Worlds.” The primary earlier use of the time period “holodeck,” in the meantime, appeared round 2364, when the sequence premiere of “Star Trek: The Subsequent Era” correctly launched the hyper-realistic dreamscape. Quickly, “The Subsequent Era” would make holodecks the centerpiece for escapist adventures and harmful encounters alike.
La’an’s expertise can also be removed from the final time a holodeck practically killed somebody. The expertise, like all AI, has by no means been made actually protected or reliable. It has, nonetheless, made for some wonderful episodes of “Star Trek.” With the arrival of “Deep Area 9,” holodecks reached their cynical remaining kind, refashioned as unique, costly rooms the place capitalists like Quark (Armin Shimerman) may make a fast buck promoting imagined intercourse, demise, and luxurious. Nonetheless, the urge to geek out in a holodeck appears to be timeless, as loads of “Star Trek” characters have joyfully LARPed their spare time away irrespective of the century or context, making the tech one of many franchise’s best-loved options. Indicators point out there will not be one other holodeck episode of “Unusual New Worlds,” but when there may be, I’ve three phrases for the sequence’ writers: Wild West Pike.
New episodes of “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” premiere Thursdays on Paramount+.
