This publish comprises 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 doubt powered a thousand works of fan fiction and dozens of spec scripts, however till this week, it isn’t truly one thing “Star Trek” followers might reply. In any case, the holodeck — a kind of multipurpose digital actuality house fueled by creativeness and highly effective programming — did not exist in Gene Roddenberry’s unique Nineteen Sixties “Star Trek” TV collection.
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 Sequence” scallywag Trelane, the pure subsequent step is to someway make a holodeck episode occur … a century earlier than holodecks have been a factor. As such, “Unusual New Worlds” has employed a singular loophole to proceed on with the grand custom of holodeck episodes, one which largely sidesteps any potential continuity points. Reasonably 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 ultimately purposely misplaced to historical past.
The Enterprise street examined the holodeck, and it did not go nicely
The enjoyable begins when Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Una/Quantity One (Rebecca Romijn) job 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 street check the brand new program, guaranteeing 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 an alternative juggling a semi-entertaining Hollywood homicide storyline with a corny “The Authentic Sequence” parody and a uninteresting subplot involving Spock (Ethan Peck) and La’an’s love life. The episode does, nevertheless, showcase 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 faux thriller (whereas posing as fictional lady detective Amelia Moon), the Enterprise begins to lose crucial features, and the shortly evolving program learns to harm actual folks. In actual fact, issues go so incorrect with the mission that La’an and Scotty (Martin Quinn) in the end advocate the holodeck know-how not be deployed lest it endanger the lives of different Starfleet officers. Pike concurs, joking that he’ll advocate the tech be “locked in a field deep underground someplace.” Due to this disastrous first try, “Unusual New Worlds” wryly implies, holodecks shall be absent for the following a number of a long time of Starfleet exploration.
This is how Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds suits into holodeck historical past
Because it enters the latter part of its five-year mission, “Unusual New Worlds” has made some decisions that appear to be at odds with the canon of “The Authentic Sequence.” The present’s model of Spock, for instance, has inexplicably burned by way of 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 truly appears to be the case with the holodeck; although it was popularized as a starship function starting with “Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology,” the earliest reference to the idea got here by way of a 1974 episode of “Star Trek: The Animated Sequence.” 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 referred to as the “recreation room.”
“Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” pays homage to that deep minimize in “A Area Journey Hour,” when Pike initially calls the holodeck a “recreation room” earlier than Una corrects him. That episode of “The Animated Sequence” takes place in 2270, just some years after “Unusual New Worlds.” The primary earlier use of the time period “holodeck,” in the meantime, appeared round 2364, when the collection premiere of “Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology” correctly launched the hyper-realistic dreamscape. Quickly, “The Subsequent Technology” would make holodecks the centerpiece for escapist adventures and harmful encounters alike.
La’an’s expertise can be removed from the final time a holodeck practically killed somebody. The know-how, like every AI, has by no means been made actually secure or reliable. It has, nevertheless, made for some wonderful episodes of “Star Trek.” With the appearance of “Deep Area 9,” holodecks reached their cynical last type, refashioned as unique, costly rooms the place capitalists like Quark (Armin Shimerman) might 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 regardless 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 collection’ writers: Wild West Pike.
New episodes of “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” premiere Thursdays on Paramount+.