'Hey, Star Trek!', our favorite blog (if we haven't mentioned that already), has a brand new post available for you, the gentile reader.  This time Jerad explores the holodeck with a primer for the new fan and takes on holodeck criticisms for the not-so new fan.

When the creators of Star Trek: The Next Generation were in their early brainstorm sessions, several ideas were tossed around and some were dismissed. A Counselor Troi character with three breasts instead of two was killed by Ms. D.C. Fontana. David Gerrold’s idea for giving the first officer planetside responsibilities (and not the captain) remained.

A lot of energy in these brainstorming sessions went into distancing this new show from Captain Kirk’s show. The discussions gravitated toward what the future of Star Trek (an already imagined future) might be. One of these mindblowing ideas was to introduce something known as the Holodeck.

An artificial environment where the characters might stretch their legs or, in some extreme cases, stretch the very fabric of good storytelling. Whatever one’s opinions on the Holodeck might be, it cannot be ignored that the Holodeck and in some cases, Holograms, became a very huge factor on TNG and each of its spinoffs.

The room can be anything one might care to imagine. Forest. Ice Glacier. Elaborate mansion. And one can “act” whatever role he or she would like. One could choose to play any historical figure or even someone from fiction. Even those parameters can be ignored if the user so chooses. Anything is possible. (source Trekcast.com)

Read the full article here.