Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 3 Viewing (Spoilers)

[MarkB]

Definitely a fun episode.

And in fact, the idea of a holodeck on the original Enterprise (even for just a very brief time) may not even be that far-fetched: I read somewhere that Gene Roddenberry had originally suggested it for at least one of the TOS episodes but it ended up never materializing for both technical and budgetary reasons. However, a version of it did appear in the TAS episode "The Practical Joker" (though it was called the "Recreation Room" there).

Yeah, they reference it near the start of the episode, saying that the holodeck would be a combination of the battle simulator and the recreation room. I think the "battle simulator" part is an attempt to address them having shown a holographic training simulation in the first season of Star Trek Discovery.

 

[James Gasik]

I always imagined the inspiration for the holodeck came later in the timeline, after TOS "Shore Leave", but I suppose it's not a particularly novel idea (I'm reminded of Niven's novel "Dream Park"). If the Federation had gone a different way with their technology, they'd probably have developed a brain interface where you could experience anything you cared to in a "Matrix"-esque simulated reality, like say, Picard's experience in "The Inner Light" (though that could be abused, like in DS9's "Hard Time").

 

[Ryujin]

Definitely a fun episode.

And in fact, the idea of a holodeck on the original Enterprise (even for just a very brief time) may not even be that far-fetched: I read somewhere that Gene Roddenberry had originally suggested it for at least one of the TOS episodes but it ended up never materializing for both technical and budgetary reasons. However, a version of it did appear in the TAS episode "The Practical Joker" (though it was called the "Recreation Room" there).

Also, this episode's holodeck character Sunny Lupino was no doubt an expy for Lucille Ball, whose Desilu Productions actually produced Star Trek from its beginning before being sold to Gulf+Western (who had purchased Paramount Studios just a few short years earlier) partway through the show's run with Desilu then being renamed to Paramount Television. However, her name was likely an homage to Ida Lupino, who was the only woman to have directed an episode of the original The Twilight Zone ("The Masks") and the only person on that show to have both directed an episode and starred on another ("The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine").


-G

They did a lot of semi-historical stuff in the episode. Mount's character (can't remember the name) was playing out a version of what really happened to Roddenberry. His control over the series was slowly being reeled back, over the course of its run.

I also loved the throwaway line, "No one will believe a female First Officer." One of the things that the producers demanded be changed, for the second pilot of TOS, was the removal of Majel Barret's Number One as the second in command, because no one would believe a female was in the position.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

They did a lot of semi-historical stuff in the episode. Mount's character (can't remember the name) was playing out a version of what really happened to Roddenberry. His control over the series was slowly being reeled back, over the course of its run.

I also loved the throwaway line, "No one will believe a female First Officer." One of the things that the producers demanded be changed, for the second pilot of TOS, was the removal of Majel Barret's Number One as the second in command, because no one would believe a female was in the position.

Or, as other sources say, they didn't want Gene as producer getting a reolatively unknown actress that happened to be his mistress such an important role - but it seems they also 'conveniently' solved that by requesting a male first officer.,

Basically, the entire episode explains that Holodeck problems aren't a new problem, and were never fully fixed, and why VOY's holodeck was running on a seperate power and computer system so it could be left running even though the ship needed to ration its power usage. (Which still sounds like naughty word for VOY - if you'd give Starfleet Engineers a power source, they are going to find a way to use it to solve their power shortage problems, and the Holodeck power generator should be a lot easier than some alien power source generator or a tiny bit of anti-matter used for one of Wes' science project.)

I enjoyed it. Their Last Frontier spoof show definitely had shorter skirts than Star Trek ever had, I guess for comedic effect and absolutely nothing else. Also,Paul Wesley's mastery of diction has been proven in the court of TV.

 

[Ryujin]

Or, as other sources say, they didn't want Gene as producer getting a reolatively unknown actress that happened to be his mistress such an important role - but it seems they also 'conveniently' solved that by requesting a male first officer.,

Yeah, I gave the sanitized version. Roddenberry was a well known womanizer.

 

[Stalker0]

The premise was a bit flimsy, but ultimately it was just an excuse to get everyone into costumes to play very different characters than they usually do.

Honestly its probably the most realistic holodeck episode, in terms of "we are literally alpha testing this software, so of course its going to malfunction and do crazy stuff".

The only part I didn't like was the "spock reveal". I know La'an is saying he seemed extra cold and stuff...I just felt like Spock was just having an extra Vulcan day... he certainly can be cold and logical at times. Was there any other big clues that he was the culprit. That part just felt so last minute.....its that guy its that girl its....well it must be Spock!

Beyond that I greatly enjoyed the episode.

Credit to Ethan Peck. I know Christina Chong has extensive dance training (and it shows, I've had some ballroom training and you can tell the little things that the real vets pull off, especially in the hands). But Ethan Peck I don't believe has had any formal dance training and he looked very convincing with that tango.

 

[J.Quondam]

"But you can't do any of that without a season 2!"

 

[James Gasik]

I guess that universe didn't have a Bjo Trimble.

 

[MarkB]

Honestly its probably the most realistic holodeck episode, in terms of "we are literally alpha testing this software, so of course its going to malfunction and do crazy stuff".

The only part I didn't like was the "spock reveal". I know La'an is saying he seemed extra cold and stuff...I just felt like Spock was just having an extra Vulcan day... he certainly can be cold and logical at times. Was there any other big clues that he was the culprit. That part just felt so last minute.....its that guy its that girl its....well it must be Spock!

Yeah, from the viewppint of knowing TOS, she realises that Spock is acting out of character because he's acting like the Spock we know.

 

[Ryujin]

Yeah, from the viewppint of knowing TOS, she realises that Spock is acting out of character because he's acting like the Spock we know.

It went even deeper than that. She knew what Spock felt like to hold, and said as much.