#holo-meta

Over the last seven or so months, I have watched through every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s the first time I’ve seen the entire series, there were quite a few episodes in the later seasons I’d never seen before. Quite an enjoyable experience on the whole.

But because I’m me, of course I didn’t just watch TNG. Instead, I took notes every single time the holodeck or any other piece of holo-technology played a part in the plot, were the setting for even the briefest of scenes, or so much as got mentioned. Essentially, I’m building towards a database of every little scrap of canonical information about holo-technology that I can get my hand on. And this was a start.

I haven’t had the time or energy to look through all of my notes in detail. There is a lot of information in there already. Of course, I’ll only be able to draw any real conclusions once I add in all the data from DS9, Voyager, and PIC, (since I’m interested in the state of technology at the time La Sirena is in operation, because of course that’s what this is about), but it’ll be quite a while before I get there.

So, in lieu of any detailed analysis, here are some quick impressions of my first foray into holo-episode-tracking!

[Image ID: a table showing the number of total holo-episodes for TNG is 58, and breaking that number down for each season. Season 1 has 10 episodes, season 2 has 8, season 3 has 6, season 4 has 9, season 5 and 6 both have 8, and season 7 has 9 episodes. /end ID]

My observation aren’t limited to the holodeck, but also to other instances of holo-technology. An example for an entry might be:

S03 E04 - Who Watches the Watchers

Archaeologists watch a pre-warp civilzation from an outpost that is hidden behind a holo-projection of a rock

The projection is powered by a 4.2 Gigahertz generator, which is failing.

When the projection is reinstated, it is solid to the touch and indistinguishable from the surrounding rock

In total, my notes about TNG (including episode titles) come out to 18.417 words, though my notes did get more elaborate the later the season. I still think I made a note of every time holo-tech was mentioned, even if it was just in passing. Though only a full rewatch would confirm that, of course, and I’m not there yet 😅

One interesting factoid I have pulled from the data so far is whether the holodeck/holo-tech is the main focal point or main setting for the episode, whether it’s importance is only secondary (only a short scene, inclusion has no bearing on the plot or characters, etc.) or whether it is merely mentioned but is not actually seen on screen.

[Image ID: a pie-chart titled “Role of Holo-Tech in the Episode”. Over have of the pie are episodes labeled “secondary”. The wedge labeled “Offscreen” is about a fifth of the pie. The wedge labeled “Main” is slightly larger than the “Offscreen” one, and comes to a quarter of the pie when you add the very small wedge labeled “Main (questionable)”. /End ID]

So this is what I’ve been working on - and why watching all of TNG has taken so long. I frequently got stuck when an episode hit a holo-moment and I didn’t feel like getting out the notes, or when I knew the next episode was one of the designated Holodeck Episodes 😅

But I’m still glad I’m doing this. Research!!!

I’ve been doing another SketchUp tutorial, and it predictably devolved into holo rambling. So now you all get subjected to that 😋

The software I’ve been using to model La Sirena’s furniture (and eventually general interior) is called SketchUp. They have tutorials that teach you how to use all the functions, and once they explain how to Do The Things, it’s actually really straightforward.

The examples they use to teach you things are often playground structures, because there is a lot of variety of shape in those, but also a decent amount of repetition, so you get to try a lot of things.

In the Fundamentals Practice course I did today, you follow along creating this structure (colour choice mine):

[ID: a screenshot of a 3D model of a playground structure. There are three platforms with roofs above them and railings around one of them. The platforms are connected by a bridge, and there are various steps, railings and climbing structures spread around the model. Slides curve gently down from two of the platforms. The model is coloured in very spacey blues, purples, greys, and turqouise. /end ID]

I sent an early stage of this model to @regionalpancake​, and she was confused for a moment, trying to figure out what part of La Sirena I was currently modelling. So, my brain being my brain, it immediately came up with the following:

This is obviously a model of a holodeck programme. Enoch, when he’s not on duty as ship’s navigator, has a whole lot of hobbies, from citizen science to knitting (which Ian is teaching him). One of the things he occasionally spends his time on is designing playground structures on the holodeck.

They’re obviously a lot spacier and more exciting than the one above, but Enoch believes in learning things “from scratch” rather than importing some design skill libraries, so even he started small and humble. (Though if your brain is literally a supercomputer, that gives you quite the leg up on the learning curve.)

The other holos may or may not know about this, but it’s just one of the ways they each have taken up to pass the time in the boring depths of space, so it’s not particularly noteworthy to any of them - except Emmet.

I’m now three seasons into my DS9 rewatch and still taking diligent notes on Holo technology. So far, a clear trend is emerging.

Here is what the breakdown of holo-tech in TNG looked like:

[ID: a pie-chart titled “Role of Holo-Tech in the Episode. Over half the diagram is taken up by a slice labeled “Secondary”. A rather small slice of the cake is labelled Main (questionable), while the rest is split between “Main” and “Offscreen”, each taking about a sixth of the pie. /END ID]

As you can see, the vast majority of episodes were classified as “secondary” holodeck-episodes, i.e. parts of the episode might take place on the holodeck, maybe it even had some bearing on the plot, but it wasn’t the main focus of the episode.

Now, in contrast, here is how the first three seasons of DS9 break down:

[ID: Another pie chart, also labelled “Role of Holo-tech in the Episode”. In this one, about two thirds of the pie are the slice labelled “offscreen”. The slice labelled “Secondary” is about a quarter of the pie, and the last little sliver is split evenly between “main” and “main (questionable)”. /END-ID]

Of course I’m only halfway through so far, but it looks very much like the holosuites on DS9 are much less prone to malfunction than the holodecks on the Enterprise-D were, and thus there aren’t nearly as many full-fledged holo-episodes.

In fact, the vast majority of screentime the holosuites get is when they’re being mentioned, without actually appearing. A good number fo these are actually Quark, trying to get himself out of one pickle or another by offering a disgruntled guest a free hour on the holosuite in compensation 😅

There’s still a lot of great holo-content coming up. I haven’t met Vic Fontaine yet, and “Our Man Bashir” is still half a season away. I’m very curious to see, how the comparison will shake out when I reach the end of DS9 season 7.