Voyager’s Worst Holodeck Programs

Ever since its introduction in Encounter at Farpoint, the Star Trek writers have loved the holodeck. Within its confines, the crew could visit any time or place they liked – which pretty much meant a setting on 19^th or 20^th century Earth.

Although TNG had its fair share of bad holodeck programs, in this article we’re going to purely focus on Voyager. Despite being short on power to the point of having to ration replicator use, Voyager was magically able to run the holodeck as much as it wanted – apparently because it used a power source that was incompatible with the rest of the ship (except when it wasn’t). Thanks to that, we got a selection of holodeck programs and episodes that ranged from the barely tolerable to the downright cringeworthy. So, without further ado – and in no particular order – let’s explore the seven worst Voyager holodeck programs.

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Star Trek Continuity Issues Part IV: Voyager and miscellaneous

Parts one, two and three.

Voyager

First contact with the Borg

For years, it seemed as if humanity’s first contact with the Borg happened in 2365, when Q flung the Enterprise across the galaxy to give them a taste of the horrors that awaited. Even though it was implied that the Borg were the perpetrators behind the destruction of Federation and Romulan colonies way back in TNG season one, this was the first time the Federation found out anything at all about this new adversary.

Flash forward to Voyager season four, however, and we learn that Seven of Nine’s parents, the Hansens, had set out for the Delta Quadrant in search of the Borg as early as 2353. What gives?

Star Trek Continuity Issues Part III: DS9

Parts one and two.

DS9

The Trill: TNG vs DS9

TNG episode The Host introduces the Trill, a conjoined species of humanoid host and vermiform symbiont. In this single episode, a number of facts were established about the Trill:

– The host’s personality is completely subsumed by the symbiont.

– The transporter is deadly to symbionts.

– The average Starfleet officer and Federation member doesn’t know that the symbiont exists and is a sentient being living inside a humanoid host.

– Symbionts can survive for limited times inside humans.

When DS9 started, Jadzia Dax – a joined Trill – was introduced as a regular character. Not only was her physical appearance different to that of the TNG Trills, but various other aspects of her species had been altered.

Star Trek Continuity Issues Part II: TNG

Part one is here.

Charge it to my account

One of the key features of the enlightened 24^th century is that the Federation no longer uses money – this comes up as a key plot point on a few occasions in TNG and DS9. But in Encounter at Farpoint, we see Crusher purchasing some fabric from Farpoint Station, with instructions to the vendor to “charge it to my account”. This line was written before it was definitively established that Federation had no money, but can we make sense of it in-universe?

Star Trek Continuity Issues Part I: TOS and movies

I started writing this article last year but it soon spiralled out of control, so I had to take a break from it. Given how long it became, I’m releasing it in several parts. Also, I’m not covering Discovery here.

Star Trek is a massive, sprawling franchise that has been with us for over fifty years. In that time, numerous writers, directors and producers have worked on the show, so it’s no wonder that the franchise has accumulated a fair amount of continuity errors and inconsistencies – some accidental, some deliberate.

However, what’s also true is that science-fiction tends to attract the kind of people who spend a lot of time obsessing over details and wanting everything to fit together into a coherent and logical narrative. In fact, as part of my research for this post, I ended up reading a 68-page forum thread on continuity errors in Star Trek, which went down such rabbit holes as the relative merits of Voyager and Enterprise; whether Chekov was on board the NCC-1701 during the episode Space Seed, and even the definition of canon itself. Having emerged from that thread with some inspiration, and some ideas of my own, I now present to you a range of Star Trek continuity errors that we, as fans, have to come up with some really creative explanations just to rationalise them away.

Star Trek: The Mirror Universe

Parallel universes are a sci-fi mainstay, but ever since TOS, Star Trek has focused on one particular alternate reality – the so-called “mirror universe”. First seen in the original series episode Mirror, Mirror, the mirror universe later showed up in episodes of DS9, Enterprise and Discovery.

To give you an idea of how long some of these articles get queued up in my backlog, I have to admit that I’ve been meaning to write about the mirror universe since before the big reveal in Discovery season one. Yes, thanks to my Great Star Trek Rewatch, I was thinking about the mirror universe before it went mainstream.

Star Trek Discovery: Such Sweet Sorrow, Part II

Control’s fleet has caught up with Enterprise and Discovery, and the rogue AI is not about to let the sphere data go without a fight. Meanwhile, Burnham and the remaining Discovery crew race against time to build a new Red Angel suit and get the time crystal powered up so that they can escape to the future.