The Holodeck is a fictional device from the television franchise Star Trek which uses "holograms" (projected light and electromagnetic energy which create the illusion of solid objects) to create a realistic 3D simulation of a real or imaginary setting in which participants can freely interact with the environment as well as objects and characters, and sometimes a predefined narrative. In several series, holodecks are an amenity available to the crew of starships. In the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a similar device is referred to as a holosuite, operated by the owner of the space station's bar, Quark, who rents them out to customers. From a storytelling point of view, the holodeck permits the introduction of a wide variety of locations and characters, such as events and persons in the Earth's past, or imaginary places or beings, that would otherwise require the use of plot mechanisms such as time-travel or dream sequences. Writers often use it as a way to pose philosophical questions.
Origins
Prior to Star Trek, science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury wrote about a technology-powered "nursery", a virtual reality room able to reproduce any place one imagines, in his 1950 story "The Veldt". The word holograph comes from the Greek words ὅλος (holos; "whole") and γραφή (graphē; "writing" or "drawing"). Hungarian-British physicist Dennis Gabor received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971 "for his invention and development of the holographic method", work done in the late 1940s. The discovery was an unexpected result of research into improving electron microscopes; the original technique is still used and is known as electron holography. Optical holography was made possible by the development of the laser in 1960. The first practical optical holograms recording 3D objects were made in 1962 by Yuri Denisyuk in the Soviet Union and by Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks at the University of Michigan in the United States. The Star Trek holodeck was inspired by inventor Gene Dolgoff, who owned a holography laboratory in New York City. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry met Dolgoff in 1973. The concept and portmanteau HOLO(graphy) and DECK (of a ship) may also have originated at MIT aboard the sailing vessel Starship through the laboratories of holographer Stephen Benton, inventor of the "Rainbow Hologram" in 1968 and physicist Philip Morrison, a Manhattan project scientist, both of whom entertained Boston-born Leonard Nimoy during his visits to MIT prior to 1987.
History The first appearance of a holodeck-type technology in Star Trek came in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "The Practical Joker", where it was called the "recreation room". In the episode's story, Dr. McCoy, Sulu and Uhura are trapped inside it by the ship's computer. The chronologically first in-universe appearance of a holodeck was in Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Unexpected". The first appearance of a holodeck on a Starfleet ship was in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode "A Space Adventure Hour", in which the Enterprise is given directive to test the new technology. In the episode's story, Lieutenant La'An evaluates the holodeck's parameters by attempting to solve a murder mystery in a 1960s Hollywood setting. However, this early holodeck malfunctions and draws too much power from the Enterprise, putting both La'An inside the simulation and the crew of the ship at risk; La'An subsequently advises that the holodeck should not be used until the technology has improved which Montgomery Scott has several suggestions for. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the holodeck was a part of the series ftom its first episode (being where Ricker meets Data), and was a frequently used plot mechanism beginning with the 1988 episode "The Big Goodbye", in which the holodeck played a central part of the plot. It also often played a role in Star Trek: Voyager with several programs being devised by Tom Paris. Before The Doctor received a futuristic mobile emitter, he was confined to sickbay and the holodeck.
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