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Published May 18, 2021

Begin Program: The Reality Of Building a Holodeck Today

How close is current technology to creating fully immersive photonic playgrounds?

StarTrek.com

Since the moment we first saw Commander William T. Riker step out of an air-conditioned corridor on the U.S.S. Enterprise-D and into a lush green forest — still aboard the Enterprise — in “Encounter at Farpoint,” the holodeck has become a Starfleet fixture and a signature innovation of the Star Trek universe.

An early incarnation of the holodeck first appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1974 and was simply called a ‘recreation room.’ But it was The Next Generation that fully brought the storytelling possibilities of the 24th-century holodeck to life. It provides a space where crewmembers can run training scenarios, relax inside recreational ‘holonovels,’ and hang out with AI-powered approximations of their favorite historical figures.

Here in the 21st Century, the technology required to create interactive holographic projections still appears to be light-years away. But achieving holodeck-like experiences, capable of transporting out of our everyday world and into convincing alternate realities, are still possible.

The holodeck, from Gene Roddenberry’s original concept probably inspired by the work of Gene Dolgoff , works by blending transporter, replicator, and holography tech to create ‘solid’ photonic people and places out of ‘holomatter.’ The holodeck can also manipulate depth perception and spatial awareness to give people the sense of being in sprawling, fully-explorable environments, like the town of Sainte Claire in Voyager ’s “The Killing Game” — all without anyone running into the holodeck’s solid and immovable walls.

Since the holodeck first appeared, people have wondered what it would take to create one in real life. “The true holodeck of the future would need to be made of some kind of infinitely configurable organic matter,” says Verity McIntosh, Senior Lecturer in Virtual and Extended Realities at the University of the West of England.

Walking up a flight of stairs, McIntosh explains, would require the floor beneath you to rise up to create steps, organize itself into the rough texture of wood as you brush past a fence, and reconfigure itself to feel like fur as a cat passes by. “It could reconstitute itself in real-time to form the shapes, textures, and properties of the virtual world,” she says.

The tech used to construct the holodeck, though, isn’t simply highly advanced; it’s physically impossible. If you were to attempt to build your own, you would have to violate the laws of physics, which, to echo the feelings of many chiefs of engineering,  is easier said than done. So until a Q pops by to leapfrog us into a new technological epoch, we can focus our energies instead on what’s readily achievable through virtual reality.

VR  has already been shown to have many applications beyond entertainment. It can help with pain managemen t and support surgical training . Therapists have developed VR-based interventions to help with the treatment of PTSD , phobias , and managing stress . VR also gives us a meaningful way to connect with our friends, family and colleagues when we can’t see each other in person — which is why some believe it could come to define the future of working , learning , and socializing .

VR might also have an important role to play in our ongoing exploration of the cosmos. NASA has a Virtual Reality Lab where astronauts can prepare for spacewalks and train for delicate procedures, and VR has the potential to improve the wellbeing and mental health of astronauts embarking on longer missions as we travel further into space.

If VR is going to be our real-world answer to the holodeck, how does it measure up? Studies suggest that VR experiences are far more satisfying the more we feel immersed in them, which is why the goal of virtual reality developers — and what the holodeck perfectly nails — is greater immersion. Key to this is our sensation of presence,  fooling our senses to believe that we are physically present within another space.

People who work in VR have spent years figuring out what it takes to achieve this, seeking out answers to questions like ‘how should light behave,’ ‘how wide does our field of vision need to be,’  and ‘how quickly do frames need to refresh to avoid motion sickness.’ But the biggest question is how do we bridge the gap between a virtual world and our five senses.

“In some respects, we are already there,” says McIntosh. “We now have a huge range of experiences in VR. Many of these track our head, hands, sometimes body and even eye movements so accurately that the 3D worlds rendered in real-time trick our brains into believing that we are physically present.”

McIntosh explains that incredibly sophisticated ‘holophonic’ sounds are able to replicate the position, movement, and dynamic quality of real-world sounds—to the level that people genuinely can’t tell what’s real and what’s virtual. “I have often witnessed people lifting and replacing their headphones to try to work out if the sounds they are hearing are ‘in or out’ of the story world,” she tells us. You don’t get more present than that.

There still remain several significant obstacles between today’s VR and the hyper-real experiences of the holodeck. The first is the fidelity of our vision. In other words, how real can we make what we see inside a VR headset look?

Most people are amazed by their first VR experience, whilst recognizing that it still doesn’t come close to our visual experience of the physical world: “Even the fanciest headsets cannot yet encompass our natural field of view. The resolution achieved is nowhere near that of the human eye,” McIntosh explains.

The color spectrums and black levels in most VR headsets is worse than most TVs, and having images rendered more than 60 times per second in each eye can make a virtual world today “look more like PlayStation 2 games circa 2002,” says McIntosh. We cannot yet forget that we’re still looking at a screen.

Another major challenge for VR is in reproducing the tactile sensation of touch. Unless somebody is able to crack the code to create ‘holomatter,’ how do we reach out and touch a virtual object?

We spoke to David Parisi, Associate Professor of Emerging Media at the College of Charleston and author of the book Archaeologies of Touch, who told us about ‘sensory capture.’ This is when tech is used to “envelop and enclose the senses, through a headset and headphones and bodysuit, with sensory input being taken over by a computer-generated apparatus.” The more complete this takeover of our senses is, the more complete our sense of immersion.

Imagine being able to stand beneath a virtual thunderstorm and feel the rain on your arms because you’re wearing a long-sleeved shirt that creates small haptic vibrations to simulate the droplets as they land. Or working at a virtual canvas and feeling the paintbrush between your fingers because you’re wearing gloves that apply the perfect amount of pressure to your fingertips. Haptic technology such as this, which helps to ‘envelop’ our senses, already exists.

The Teslasuit uses electrical impulses to simulate touch all over the body. Parisi explains that this kind of tech is a big step forward but currently isn’t ideal. “It’s uncomfortable for anything more than short bursts,” he explains.

Whether it’s a full-body suit or a single headset, discomfort continues to be a common complaint in the VR space. The tech we currently use to step into virtual worlds is still fairly restrictive, as well as not being inclusive of all body types. And physical irritations that arise from the tech pull us out of the virtual experience. It’s hard to convince yourself you’re playing pool at a bar in the south of France if your face is throbbing from having a screen strapped to it.

Looking ahead, both Parisi and McIntosh imagine tech that can incorporate aspects of the physical world to create a hybrid ‘mixed reality’ experience — replacing the need to wear lots of cumbersome equipment. For right now, though, our brains already seem to be doing a lot of the “mental gymnastics” that help us to make VR experiences feel meaningfully realistic.

“We seem incredibly well adapted to pick up on minimal visual cues,” McIntosh says. ‘We infer stereoscopy, depth, motion, and material qualities from some pretty basic optical illusions.

“People who have tried VR often talk about what they experienced as though it actually happened to them ‘I did this’, ‘I went there’, ‘they whispered in my ear’,” McIntosh continues. “Maybe this is enough for now.” Our present-day VR tech may prove to be the historical equivalent of the VHS recorder, but the value it delivers is real and measurable. This means we could be a lot closer than we think to significant breakthroughs in the medium.

A holodeck that looks, feels, and functions like the ones we’re familiar with isn’t going to appear in our lifetimes — if at all. But the possibilities represented by virtual reality mean we may soon experience fully immersive virtual worlds and applications, which will not only benefit us here on Earth but could also be crucial to our success as we move further into outer space.

Becca Caddy (she/her) is a London-based journalist specializing in tech, science and the future. Her first book, Screen Time, was published in January 2021. You can follow her on Twitter @beccacaddy.

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Enterprise’s Holodeck Is Star Trek’s “Most Imaginative” Invention, Says TNG Producer

• The holodeck in Star Trek: The Next Generation allowed the characters to have fun and explore different genres, like playing Sherlock Holmes.
• Despite malfunctions, the holodeck provided some of the most enjoyable episodes in Star Trek, creating genuine friendships among the characters.
• The holodeck not only enabled the show to experiment with genres but also raised interesting philosophical questions through self-aware programs like Professor Moriarty.

The holodeck turned out to be one of the greatest inventions introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation , and TNG co-producer Brannon Braga knew a good idea when he saw one. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew on the USS Enterprise-D embarked on all kinds of adventures throughout TNG's seven seasons, and the holodeck provided some much-needed recreation. Not only was the holodeck an incredibly cool piece of technology, it also allowed the writers of TNG to play around with various genres. Whether Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) wanted to play Sherlock Holmes or Captain Picard wanted to play a hard-boiled detective, the holodeck allowed the characters and the actors to have some fun.

Despite its tendency to malfunction, the holodeck provided Star Trek with some of its most fun episodes across multiple serie s. TNG 's holodeck gave Star Trek: The Next Generation 's characters the opportunity to interact with one another outside of their roles on the Enterprise, allowing them to form more genuine friendships. In the Star Trek oral history, The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, TNG co-producer Brannon Braga discusses the holodeck and the impact it had on the show. Read his quote below:

The holodeck is one of the most imaginative, maybe even underappreciated inventions. This cyber-reality, forward-thinking idea, at least for TV, was fantastic. Very early on in the series Gene had Picard and Data playing Sherlock Holmes characters. They were recreational, they hung out whether it was the holodeck or the poker game. I don’t think that special camaraderie would have evolved without it—I think eventually Picard and Data would have a special bond, as did Picard and Worf, and the characters start to click together. Everybody had their thing.

Star Treks 20 Best Holodeck Episodes

The invention of the holodeck led to some of star trek's best episodes.

Beginning with Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1, episode 12 , "The Big Goodbye," holodeck episodes became a staple of many Trek series. "The Big Goodbye" was one of the best episodes of TNG's rocky first season, and it set the precedent for many of the holodeck episodes that followed - for better and worse. It was always fun to see the characters of various Trek shows dress in period costumes and go on adventures, though the holodeck's regular malfunctions did put a damper on things .

While it doesn't make sense that the holodeck has safety protocols that can be disabled, the entertaining stories in the holodeck episodes made up for many of the less logical aspects.

Many of Star Trek's best friendships were cultivated on the holodeck, including that of Data and Lt. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) on TNG , Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) and Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Lt. Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) and Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) on Star Trek: Voyager . Not only did the holodeck allow Star Trek to experiment with different genres, but self-aware programs like Professor Moriarty (Daniel Davis) in TNG and The Doctor (Robert Picardo) in Voyager raised fascinating metaphysical questions. The holodeck remains one of Star Trek's best inventions, and it led to some truly iconic episodes.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is available to stream on Paramount+.

Source: The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Cast: Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Wil Wheaton

Release Date: 1987-09-28

Genres: Sci-Fi, Superhero, Drama, Action

Story By: Gene Roddenberry

Writers: Gene Roddenberry

Network: CBS

Streaming Service(s): Amazon Prime Video

Franchise(s): Star Trek

Directors: David Carson

Showrunner: Gene Roddenberry

Season List: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 1, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 3, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 4, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 5, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 6, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 7

Star Trek: Enterprise Ending Explained: Those Were The Voyages...

"Star Trek: Enterprise" — originally just called "Enterprise," – was once considered by many Trekkies to be the black sheep of the pre-Abrams era. While it still had many of the same creative people working behind the scenes (the show was created by longtime Trek honchos Rick Berman and Brannon Braga) it deliberately struck a different tone, exploring the early, raucous days of Starfleet: before the formation of the United Federation of Planets, before the writing of The Prime Directive, way back when there was only one Earth ship trekking through the cosmos. The goal was to create a Trek show that was less anodyne than its predecessors, recapturing some of the frontier spirit occasionally seen in the original 1966 TV series. 

Other changes included an wholly updated aesthetic; the Enterprise looked a lot more like a submarine than a cruise ship, and the crew wore uniforms that looked a little bit like NASA jumpsuits. There were only two alien species aboard this time: Vulcan first officer T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) and the genial Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley), playing the previously unseen species of Denobulan. Additionally, the traditional orchestral opening of the previous five Trek TV shows was replaced by a truly, truly awful Rod Stewart ballad called "Faith of the Heart" a.k.a. "Where My Heart Will Take Me," sung by Russell "The Voice" Watson , written by Diane Warren, and originally included on the soundtrack to "Patch Adams."

"Enterprise" debuted in 2001 and was met with mixed reactions. Some critics, if recall is to be trusted, positively praised its production value and novelty, while others missed the reliable Trek iconography.

It's Been a Long Road...

When it debuted in September of 2001, "Enterprise" struggled almost immediately. Fans weren't taking to the show in the same way they took to "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" or "Star Trek: Voyager" as it was set in a new time frame which required a new push for audiences to refamiliarize themselves. What's more, it was the only Trek show on the air at the time, with "Voyager" having ended its run in May of the same year. Previous Trek shows had been doubling up, and it was the first time since 1993 there weren't at least two "Star Trek" shows on the air at the same time. "Enterprise" had a lot to prove. 

Some of the early story arcs didn't play well to mythos-minded fans, and the Temporal Cold War story, featuring an evil species called the Suliban , is rarely brought up in conversation I have with other Trekkies. A little more attention is given to the Xindi  who, in a story arc beginning in season 3, destroyed Florida in what was very clearly a 9/11 metaphor. Yes, check again the month and year of "Enterprise's" debut. 

"Star Trek: Enterprise" season 4 introduced more multiple-episode arcs, and "Star Trek," along with most TV shows at the time, began to evolve into longer-form stories and season-long arcs rather than stand-alone mini moral dilemmas that had been Trek's stock in trade for decades. But the change was too little, too late, and "Enterprise" was canceled after an inauspicious four seasons. For comparison, "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine," and "Voyager" all ran for seven years each. 

A pity, really, as some have said (anecdotally) that the show was just finding its feet.

Getting from There to Here

The final episode of "Enterprise" was ... Well, it was an interesting choice. A big part of the appeal of "Enterprise" was its placement as a prequel to the original "Star Trek" series, meaning there was a mild thrill in seeing how certain things would come to be. This was, of course, after the same thing was being done with "Star Wars" starting with "The Phantom Menace" in 1999, but before "Batman Begins" pretty much popularized the "reimagined origin story" as a dominant storytelling trope throughout pop media. All of this is to say that "Enterprise" was meant to tie into what good Trekkies knew was coming in the future. 

As such, the final episode of "Enterprise," titled "These Are the Voyages..." (originally aired on May 15th, 2005), had to rush to finally connect series back to the Treks were knew and loved. Enter Jonathan Frakes, Will Riker from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," a series that was set about 200 years after the events of "Enterprise." Rather than merely recite the official denouements of Capt. Jonathan Archer , T'Pol , Trip Tucker , Malcolm Reed , Hoshi Sato , Dr. Phlox , and the memorable, memorable character of Ensign Mayweather , we were given a broader view of "Enterprise" history as seen by William Riker, who was recreating life on the original "Enterprise" via a holodeck some 200 years after the fact.  

In "These Are the Voyages...," Riker imagined himself as the hardworking galley chef on the original Enterprise, a character that was often talked about but never seen. As Riker envisioned it, the ship's chef served as a personal confidant to the crew, allowing him to have elaborate one-on-one discussion with each character. He also wanted to talk to the crew of the Enterprise shortly before the original ship was to be decommissioned, meaning the episode was also a flash-forward. 

In short: "Enterprise" ended with a 200-year-old recreation of the future events of "Enterprise," as interpreted through the eyes of William T. Riker. The final episode of Trek was Mary Sue fanfic written by a Trek character. This is a nerd turducken of the highest order. 

This approach, of course, allowed for a great deal of convenient historical fudging on the part of "Enterprise's" writers. If there was any sort of plot or character inconsistency, a viewer could chalk it up to Riker changing history to fit his own holodeck fantasy. More broadly, it was a comment on how we, as a species, tend to romanticize history, altering our past into heroic narratives and easy-to-consume stories rather than a complex timeline of daily events. 

It's Been a Long Time

A bit of editorializing, if I may...

Reaction to "These Are the Voyages..." was largely negative. The inclusion of Riker, not to mention the eventual addition of NextGen's Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) robbed the "Enterprise" characters of their moment. While one can easily understand that the show's creators wanted to bring the timeline of "Enterprise" to a meaningful conclusion, skipping ahead in time and treating the show's events like a textbook column for other, different characters makes them feel distant and rarified, rather than exciting and immediate. Mild spoiler : The impersonal and abrupt death of one of the main cast members certainly didn't help either. 

If one recalls the ending of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," it was made clear that the adventures of the Enterprise-D would continue — only without us, the audience, being able to see them all. A series needn't definitively conclude if we leave comforted that everything will work out fine for the characters. Perhaps a similar approach would have made for a better final episode of "Enterprise." Please, leave us with comforting send-off that would leave audiences assured that the cast would make it safely into Trek history, even if we don't get to see it.

That second approach would also open up the Trek "expanded universe." That is: Plenty of studio-mandated novels, source books, and speculative fiction writers could fill in any gaps that were left in the narrative. Indeed, given the historical element of "Enterprise," leaving gaps in history would be perfectly appropriate. Sadly, we were left with a final episode of Trek that left a bad taste in our mouths.

Maybe that's why so many audiences embraced the 2009 "Star Trek" feature film. It was an entirely new beverage, but at least it washed away the old one.

Now, where do we rant about the Paramount+ era?

Star Trek: Ranking the 20 Best Holodeck Episodes

Star Trek's taken a trip or two (or twenty) to the holodeck on occasion; now, CBR takes a moment to reflect on the greatest of those adventures.

When Star Trek: The Next Generation opened, it showed a dramatic upgrade in technology for the Federation. One of the biggest advancements was the holodeck. Inside a relatively small room, a fantastic three-dimensional recreation of any setting could be created. It could be anything from an alien world to various Earth periods, nailing it all down to the smells of the area. The figures inside could feel as real as anyone and it paved the way for major stories. TNG used it a lot while Deep Space Nine had Quark running holo-suites with some rather….intimate programs available for customers. It was home to the popular Vic Fontaine and other programs. Voyager also used it a lot which made sense as, so far from Earth, the crew needed something to indulge in for relaxation.

Of course, the holodeck has given a few duds in various episodes. “Fair Haven” and “Spirit Folk” are two of Voyager’s worst episodes. While it was historic for exploring the holodeck, TNG’s “11001001” has not aged well. But when it works, the holodeck can be a big deal. After all, it helped set up the EMH Doctor who became a major Voyager character and the fun of these unique adventures has led to some good storylines. Yes, the trope of “holodeck malfunction endangers the crew” could be a cliché but the writers kept finding ways to twist it around. In a few occasions, the holodeck could be used for an episode that’s nothing but pure wild fun. Here’s how 20 of the best holodeck-themed episodes rank in Star Trek lore to show how even in the far future, folks love to indulge in great distractions.

20 HIS WAY, DS9

The sixth season of DS9 introduced what would become a major recurring character in Vic Fontaine. Played by James Darren, Vic was the suave owner of a 1960s Las Vegas casino he also headlined as a singing star. The crew came to love hanging out there to the point of letting the program run full time. In this debut episode, Vic knows he’s a hologram but uses it to try and help others with their issues. This includes how he’s able to tell Odo has been in love with Kira for years and she is starting to feel the same way. He even gets Odo with a holographic singer who looks like Kira but Odo dismisses it as not being real.

In a flash of inspiration, Vic invites Kira to dinner at his club. He then tells Odo that an “improved” hologram of Kira will be his date. They have a nice dinner and even a dance before realizing how Vic set them up. At first, they’re both upset but it does get them to finally face up to their feelings. This leads to the classic scene of them arguing about another date, each snapping at the other on how to act before finally kissing in front of the entire Promenade. It was a key moment for both characters thanks to a holographic match-maker.

19 FLESH AND BLOOD, VOY

At the conclusion of “The Killing Game,” the Voyager crew made peace with the Hirogens by giving them holographic technology. Janeway figured it was better for the Hirogens to hunt holograms than actual beings. In this two-part tale, the ship discovers a disabled Hirogen vessel. It seemed the Hirogens programmed the holograms to be as deadly as possible in order to be challenging prey. This blew up in their faces as the holograms have developed true intelligence and are able to turn the tables on the Hirogens. The Doctor is soon captured by these holograms, led by Iden. The Doctor is horrified to realize these holograms actually feel pain and even death and keep being brought back so it’s no wonder they’re lashing out at their creators.

Even as the Voyager crew aid the Hirogens, the Doctor starts to think the holograms have an actual point and aids them. But the Doctor becomes troubled as to how the holograms worship him so openly and how Iden is ready to wipe out the Hirogens to gain his freedom. It’s an intriguing tale tackling how holograms can become individuals, warts and all and even the Doctor is swayed by that. As Janeway points out at the end, the Doctor making mistakes and overcome by his emotions just proves he’s becoming more like a real human.

18 NOTHING HUMAN, VOY

This episode opens in a light way as Chakotay and Harry enjoy the rest of the crew forced to listen to one of the Doctor’s lectures. The humor ends when Torres is attacked by a deadly parasite. Even the Doctor is having trouble figuring it out so goes over records to find a biologist named Crell Moset whose research can help. He creates a hologram of the scientist who bonds with the Doctor as they try to find a cure. However, a Bajoran crewmember reveals that Moset was a Cardassian war criminal who was responsible for horrific experimentation on thousands of innocent people.

Thus, an ethical debate rages on whether a hologram should be held responsible for the crimes committed by the real person. There’s also how Tom insists on ignoring it to save B’Elanna but Torres herself says she’d rather die than owe Moset her life. Moset doesn’t help his case by stating that those experiments were simply science. While the episode has Torres surviving, the Doctor must make the final judgement on Moset to show how a holographic Cardassian can still be deadly.

17 BADA BING BADA BANG, DS9

Knowing they were about to embark on the massive nine-episode storyline that would conclude the series, the DS9 writers decided to do one last funny one-off episode. Bashir and O’Brien are visiting their beloved Vic Fontaine program when Vic rocks them by revealing he’s been forced to sell his casino to some mobsters who have turned it into a cabaret. O’Brien figures they can just rewrite the story only to find the program won’t let them. The crew realize that to save Vic’s place, they need to act out a 1960s type plot within the storyline. At first, Sisko can’t believe they’re treating this so seriously but realizes the crew thinks of Vic as a friend and agrees to help.

Thus, we have a Star Trek version of Ocean’s 11 as the crew dress up in full ‘60s regalia to pull off a complex heist. The sight of Dax as a cigarette girl and Kira dressed up to flirt is great. Even Sisko gets into it as, to the amazement of everyone, he actually starts singing as a distraction for the scheme. The plot itself is a brilliant scam that uses the holodeck technology to pull off an ace bait-and-switch. It was one final gasp of humor before DS9 got darker but it was a great romp.

16 THE KILLING GAME, VOY

This two-part episode has its detractors but still intriguing for the set-up. Once again, the Voyager crew tangle with the Hirogens, a race who are obsessed with hunting other species. Having taken over the ship, the Hirogen leader comes with a unique idea. He has the crew mind-wiped and then put into constant holodeck scenarios based on Earth wars that the Hirogens can use for hunting. The latest is a World War II setting where Janeway is a spy/club owner, Seven a spy/singer, Torres a French girl and the rest of the gang Allied soldiers.

Putting the crew into a WWII setting makes for some intriguing set-ups with Janeway and Seven showing off a bit more. There’s the tension of the Doctor and Harry figuring out a way to free the crew from this situation. Even the Hirogens come off nicely, their commander seeing the Voyager crew as “worthy prey” and the touch of how they actually despise having to act like Nazis. The ending paves the way for the episode “Flesh and Blood” while showing the darker sides of the holodeck.

15 TINKER, TENOR, DOCTOR, SPY, DS9

The opening should make it clear this is a holodeck episode. First, there’s how everyone in the mess hall is utterly enthralled by the Doctor’s beautiful singing. Tuvok breaks out into tears and only the Doctor can calm him down via song. It seems the Doctor has taken to “daydreaming” which means he’s created a link to the holodeck to live out fantasies of being a hero. This includes a wild scenario where Janeway is taken down and the Doctor activates the “Emergency Command Program” to take command. He also imagines Janeway and Seven fighting for his attentions.

Naturally, the Doctor is humiliated when the crew stumble onto his dreams. What he doesn’t realize is that an alien has been tapping into the holodeck but mistaken the dreams for reality to order his race to attack Voyager . The guy realizes the truth and this could be a disaster if his people attack. Convinced of the threat, the crew decide to use the misconception and have the Doctor pose as the Captain to trick the aliens. It’s soon clear the Doctor is more the hero in his fantasies then in reality which nearly ruins things. While it’s funny watching the Doctor playing hero, the episode is also a good step to how the character was accepted as a real individual by the crew.

14 BOOBY TRAP, TNG

This season 3 episode has the Enterprise arriving in an area of space to find a ship from a war that wiped out two races centuries before. Picard is excited to visit it but his joy fades when the Enterprise’s engines shut down. Somehow, they’ve triggered the same “booby trap” that ruined that other vessel and have to figure a way out of it. Geordi is attempting to figure out the engines and goes over the data of Leah Brahams (Julie Warner), the scientist who created them. To aid him, Geordi has the holodeck craft a version of Leah to give advice.

At first cold, the holo-Leah has some personality put into her and she and Geordi get along. They even share a kiss with Geordi realizing he has to end it fast as Leah does give him the solution to save the day. Warner was quite good in the role and a nice chemistry with Geordi. This paid off in “Galaxy’s Child” where Geordi met the real Leah, who was far more arrogant and stand-offish and was not happy seeing this holographic version of her. Even with holographic ladies, Geordi can’t catch a break.

13 A FISTFUL OF DATAS, TNG

Some fans argue about this episode but it does provide a great showcase for Brent Spiner. Worf is trying to find some bonding time with son Alexander and suggests the holodeck. Rather than engaging in classic Klingon battles, Alexander talks his father into an Old West simulation and Troi joins them. Worf is barely inside when the inevitable malfunction occurs thanks to how Data is being plugged into a ship interface. As a result, several of the key holodeck characters all now look like Data from the wicked gunslinger to a bandit to even a saloon dancer.

The sight of Worf in cowboy gear is good but better are the various Datas. Seeing the android talk in a variety of accents from Western to Mexican is fun and Spiner clearly is enjoying himself. There is some drama as Worf knows Data has better reflexes, making a showdown with him very dangerous. But we get some good bonding between Worf and Alexander and even Troi seems to be having fun in cowboy clothing. The ending is nicely done to make this a fun showcase for holodeck zaniness.

12 ELEMENTARY, DEAR DATA, TNG

Data as Sherlock Holmes is a rather brilliant idea. Geordi is looking forward to being with Data as his Watson but is annoyed as Data’s computer mind means he can instantly figure out a mystery fast thanks to having read all the Holmes stories. Inspired by Doctor Pulaski, Geordi instructs the computer to craft a foe even Data would have a tough time against. Of course, it’s Professor Moriarty (Daniel Davis) who leads the two through a fun mystery. But things take a turn when Moriarty asks an abducted Pulaski just what the Enterprise is.

The computer decided to interpret “an equal foe to Data” to mean making this Moriarty as smart as possible…so smart that he understands he’s just a hologram on a ship. Davis is fantastic in the role as a cultured villain fascinated by this mystery. It threatens the actual ship until Data is able to talk Moriarty into accepting his place in the holo-matrix. This episode laid the groundwork for how holograms could be actual beings in their own way and also set up a fantastic sequel a few seasons later.

11 THE BIG GOODBYE, TNG

This was one of the first major holodeck episodes and (amazingly) is the only TNG episode to win a Peabody Award. To the surprise of the crew, the cultured Captain Picard loves to play Dixon Hill, a rough and tumble 1940s private eye. Crusher is with a historian who join Picard in an adventure, seeing it as just a good time. The historian gets a bit too much into it, goading some of the holographic gangsters, confident as this isn’t real. He’s thus shocked when one of them shoots him. It turns out a solar accident has caused the first (but far from the last) holodeck malfunction to seal the crew inside and disengage the safety protocols.

Things get more serious with Picard breaking character to tell the characters they’re just holograms. The main gangster doesn’t believe it but when the holodeck is fixed, he and his colleague attempt to leave, only to vanish into nothing. There is a dramatic bit as one of Dixon’s allies asks Picard what happens to him when the program is off and Picard realizes the guy thinks of himself as a real person. This was the first episode to explore the holodeck as an actual setting and one of the bright spots to the otherwise rough first season of TNG .

10 REAL LIFE, VOY

The Doctor’s quest to understand humanity was at the core of his character on Voyager . In “Real Life,” the Doctor decides to embark on a family existence by creating a holographic wife, son and daughter. Kes and Torres show up for dinner where they realize the family are straight out of a 1950s sitcom. Torres tells the Doctor they’re just “too perfect” and totally unlike any actual family out there. He decides to program in some “realistic” character touches. Soon, he has a wife too busy with her own career and two teenagers acting up majorly.

The Doctor does his best to handle it but things just amp up with one kid hospitalized and facing “death.” At the same time, Paris is injured for real and the Doctor thinks this “family drama” will keep him from doing his job. Paris informs him how real life means taking the good with the bad and thus the Doctor has to handle this. It’s a more dramatic episode then it seems to show how even a holographic family can pack a punch.

9 WORST CASE SCENARIO, VOY

The opening act of this Voyager episode is gripping. Torres is approached by Chakotay who tells him that “things are going to change” and wants to know what side she’s on. Chakotay takes advantage of Janeway being off-ship to pull off a mutiny, arguing that it’s the best way to get to Earth. The fact that Seska is not only alive but looks Bajoran should be a tip-off this is fake. As it happens, Torres stumbled onto a holodeck program of a mutiny. Before long, it becomes a popular game for the crew who are thrown to find it has no ending. It turns out the whole thing was created by Tuvok as a training exercise when Voyager first began its trip.

Pressured to end the story, Tuvok and Paris head to the holodeck which then seals behind them. The ever-conniving Seska found the program and her avatar announces that she’s going to finish it her way. All the safeties are off so Tuvok and Paris find themselves in serious danger as Seska and her holographic crew hunt them down. The rest of the crew have to find a way to alter the program’s story to let the two survive. As Paris openly states, even a holographic Seska is a major pain for the Voyager crew to handle.

8 IT’S ONLY A PAPER MOON, DS9

DS9 went to darker places than other Trek series so it’s no surprise one episode openly tackles the issues of PTSD. Having lost a leg in battle in an earlier episode, Nog returns to the station, naturally quiet and withdrawn. The crew understand and are willing to help. Nog turns to Vic Fontaine’s program for some release and hangs out there. He then shocks everyone by moving into one of the hotels of the program. Indulging in fantasy is one thing but literally living there shows Nog has some problems.

Even Vic recognizes it, openly telling Nog he can’t just live in a 1960s world for the rest of his life. Nog just gets into it more, even becoming Vic’s “accountant.” When Nog won’t let go, Vic decides to give him a wakeup call by shutting his own program down. He makes Nog realize that sinking into fantasy can just hold him back from actually living his life. It’s a daring take on a serious issue that DS9 manages to pull off nicely.

7 TAKE ME OUT TO THE HOLOSUITE, DS9

The final season of DS9 is packed with grim stuff thanks to the war with the Dominion. So it’s notable it also has one of the funniest episodes of the series. Sisko meets with Solok, a former classmate at Starfleet Academy. The two have long been rivals thanks to Solok’s belief Vulcans are superior to humans at anything. He decides to prove it by challenging Sisko to the exclusively Earth game of baseball. Sisko agrees, confident his crew can handle any challenge. It’s not until they head to the baseball holosuite that Sisko realizes a tiny flaw in his plan: he’s the only one who has the slightest idea how to play the game.

Watching Sisko, a man who has handled Cardassians, Jem’Hadar and other enemies with cool resolve, completely lose it over baseball is hysterical. The crew are just totally inept at everything from ball play to banter (Worf: “Death to our enemies!”) to drive him crazier. There’s also Odo taking his role as umpire a bit too seriously. The game is a riot just for the sight of the crew in uniform and the fact they’re losing for most of it. However, it ends up bonding them together to show how a simple sports game can help even the darkest of times.

6 LIVING WITNESS, VOY

Technically, it’s not the regular holodeck but it does count. The opening act is jarring as we see the Voyager crew who are basically a pack of murderous thugs with an android Doctor and a Seven who’s still a full Borg. The crew are allied with the Vaskans to steal materials and brutally wipe out an attacking wave of Kyrian forces. It turns out this is all the “holographic records” of a Kyrian museum showing what happened 700 years earlier. Historian Quarren has grown up accepting Voyager as monsters who nearly destroyed his race. Going over some old evidence, he accidentally awakens the holographic Doctor.

The Doctor is appalled to see the “records” showing the crew as villains (“somewhere across the galaxy, Captain Janeway is spinning in her grave”). He then shows what really happened in that it was the Kyrians who were the bad guys attacking the noble Vaskans and their “great martyr” was a total thug. This causes massive riots across the planet but Quarren and the Doctor are determined the truth is more important. The ending reveals this is all another holographic record but one showing two men fighting to help their world achieve a new peace. The opening is good but the rest of the episode has the holodeck programs used to highlight the old “history is written by the winners” mantra.

5 FUTURE IMPERFECT, TNG

This often ends up on lists of the best TNG episodes. On his birthday, Riker is beaming down for a mission only to wake up in sickbay with his hair grey and being called Captain. Crusher tells Riker he’s dealing with the effects of an illness that’s caused him to lose memory of the last 17 years. Riker is now captain of the Enterprise with Data his first officer; Geordi can see without his VISOR; a Ferengi is at the helm; Picard is an admiral; and Riker has an 11 year old son. Riker is told he has to handle a peace meeting with old Romulan foe Tomalok.

Various odd bits make Riker suspicious of all this. The kicker is when he’s shown videos of his supposedly late wife…and realizes it was a woman from a holodeck program. This leads him to expose how this is all a Romulan plot to trick Riker into giving up secret information. His “son” is a real orphan as they go on the run. But there’s one more twist to come that changes the game majorly. Fans love the look at this supposed future and a good spotlight for Riker while showing the nice twists a holodeck is capable of.

4 HOLLOW PURSUITS, TNG

When we first see Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz), he’s a tough guy in Ten Forward who ends up punching out Riker in a fight. It turns out to be a holodeck program as Barclay is a truly brilliant engineer but a social wreck and can only live out his dreams in holograms. LaForge is concerned so he, Riker and Troi check out Barclay on the holodeck. There, they find his programs which are always intended to make himself the hero of things. That includes one of the main crew as the Three Musketeers who hail Barclay as a hero.

A hilarious bit has Troi saying this is no big deal…then sees how Barclay has a version of her that’s obviously in love with him (her “muzzle it” to “herself” is priceless). LaForge notes how Barclay’s addiction to the holodeck is damaging and holding him back from being himself. As it happens, an emergency pushes Barclay to finally stand up and assert himself to save the day. He bids farewell to the holodeck (except for one special program) to try and live his life. It’s a great parody of some Trek fans but also introduced the popular Barclay character to make it more important.

3 SHIP IN A BOTTLE, TNG

It took a while but someone in the TNG writer’s room finally remembered “Elementary, Dear Data” and decided it was time for a follow-up. Going over old holodeck programs, Barclay is thrown to revive Professor Moriarty who knows what he really is. Moriarty then shocks everyone by actually being able to leave the holodeck, using the idea that because he believes himself to be a real person, he truly is. As they try to figure things out, Moriarty wants them to also allow his love, Countess Regina Bartholomew, to become real.

When the crew refuse, Moriarty takes control of the Enterprise and threatens the ship. Of course, there comes the twist: Data realizes that Moriarty never left the holodeck. Rather he, Picard and Barclay are stuck in a massive program as part of Moriarty’s plan. As before, Daniel Davis is magnificent as a Moriarty you can root for and obviously wanting to be a person of his own. The ending throws in one more twist to set it right and caps off a fine sequel that shows how tricky the holodeck can truly be.

2 OUR MAN BASHIR, DS9

Airing right around the time of the release of Goldeneye , it’s pretty obvious what the inspiration for this tale is. Garak drops in on the holodeck to find Bashir engaging in a program where he’s a suave James Bond-style 1960s secret agent. When Kira (with an outrageous Russian accent) pops in, Bashir assumes she’s joining the fun. In reality, an accident has caused Kira, Sisko, Dax, Worf and O’Brien to somehow be integrated into the characters of the program. As leaving the holodeck might kill them for real, Bashir and Garak have to play out the program

It’s obvious the actors are enjoying this spy thriller. The biggest is Avery Brooks who goes wonderfully over the top as the Bond-like super-villain with the typical “destroy the world” plot. There’s also the comedy in how Garak, an actual experienced spy, is thrown at this romantic tale (“Kiss the girl, get the key, they never taught that in the Obsidian Order”). The ending is a bit more dramatic with Bashir making a surprise move to save the day. Sadly, we never lived up to Bashir’s promise that “Agent Bashir will return” but this just makes this episode stand out more for showing Bashir’s more dashing side (and how Alexander Siddig might have made a good Bond).

1 BRIDE OF CHAOTICA!, VOY

Hands down the funniest episode of Voyager , this is nothing but a pure romp. For some time, Tom has been obsessed with “Captain Proton,” a holodeck program playing like a 1930s sci-fi movie serial. He’s jarred when he shows up to find actual casualties lying around. It seems a portal has been opened to another dimension where those aliens have mistaken the enemies of the serial for reality and launched a “war” upon them. This is causing messes to Voyager’s systems from replicators to engines and it could be major trouble if it’s not handled. Tom naturally comes to the conclusion they need to aid the holograms by acting in character.

So we have fun bits like the Doctor using his inner ham for the “President of Earth” and the sheer ridiculousness of Tom straight-faced explaining this entire situation to his amused colleagues. But nothing can top the sight of Janeway dressed up as the wicked alien queen Arachnia. It’s clear Kate Mulgrew is having the time of her life with Janeway at first annoyed but then getting into this act of an evil ruler and going gloriously camp. Having much of the episode in black and white just aids the zany joy. It’s a clear delight and one of the best uses of the holodeck in Trek history.

The Holodeck is here — new AI can generate an entire virtual world with a single prompt

Make it so!

A new artificial intelligence tool lets you generate a virtual world from a simple prompt. Named Holodeck after the recreational and training facility on the Enterprise in Star Trek, it can generate anything from an arcade to a spa and in the style of your choice.

Researchers from several leading universities were involved in the project. It uses multiple AI models and a library of open-source 3D assets to generate the virtual environment.

As well as building virtual worlds from text, the Holodeck technology can be used to help other artificial intelligence tools learn to navigate previously unexplored environments. This is vital as robots, search and rescue devices and vehicles become more autonomous.

How does the Holodeck work?

🛸 Announce Holodeck, a promptable system that can generate diverse, customized, and interactive 3D simulated environments ready for Embodied AI 🤖 applications.Website: https://t.co/v7yN1EuAvbPaper: https://t.co/4JlZfmlKrpCode: https://t.co/OmRDLKIZQj#GenerativeAI [1/8] pic.twitter.com/IodCNlNNzN December 18, 2023

Holodeck is built on top of a series of pre-labeled open-source 3D assets. When a user enters a text prompt it then utilizes OpenAI’s GPT-4 “for common sense knowledge about what the scene might look like,” then generates spatial requirements and necessary code.

Once the text has been converted, Holodeck is then able to draw from the 3D assets to create the world. The examples shown in the preview include the “office of a professor who is a fan of Star Wars ” and “an arcade room with a pool table placed in the middle.”

Using GPT-4 solves the problem of positioning objects correctly within an environment. It does so by having the OpenAI model create spatial constraints that are fed back into the code.

During human evaluations of the model, those carrying out the tests found that Holodeck performed particularly well at creating residential scenes.

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What is Embodied AI?

Embodied AI is basically how AI-powered robots see the world around them. It requires an understanding of ever-changing information that isn't included in pre-trained datasets .

One of the use cases for Holodeck is in enabling these robots to create a virtual copy of the real-world environment they are in and use that to help navigate from room to room.

Yue Yang, a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania and lead author on the Holodeck project explained that “3D simulated environments play a critical role in Embodied AI, but their creation requires expertise and extensive manual effort, restricting their diversity and scope.”

To solve the problem they created a mechanism that builds these 3D environments from a minimal amount of information automatically. Holodeck can match a user prompt and generate a diverse range of scenes, add objects to the scene and change the style of the environment.

What happens next?

This is one of several research projects exploring ways to link the digital and physical worlds. Last week I wrote about a study that uses GPT-4 to allow humanoid robots to create new movements without having someone hardcode the processes.

We are also seeing leaps forward in the way driverless vehicles can use machine learning and computer vision technologies to navigate previously unmapped regions.

This could be the start of a useful metaverse . Not one where humans clumsily hangout in a virtual office pretending not to notice the clunky headset, but one in which virtual agents act on our behalf in a direct copy of the real world.

Either that or it could just be the next step in generating a metaverse "on the fly", similar to Minecraft where a world is created in response to the way you play.

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Ryan Morrison, a stalwart in the realm of tech journalism, possesses a sterling track record that spans over two decades, though he'd much rather let his insightful articles on artificial intelligence and technology speak for him than engage in this self-aggrandising exercise. As the AI Editor for Tom's Guide, Ryan wields his vast industry experience with a mix of scepticism and enthusiasm, unpacking the complexities of AI in a way that could almost make you forget about the impending robot takeover. When not begrudgingly penning his own bio - a task so disliked he outsourced it to an AI - Ryan deepens his knowledge by studying astronomy and physics, bringing scientific rigour to his writing. In a delightful contradiction to his tech-savvy persona, Ryan embraces the analogue world through storytelling, guitar strumming, and dabbling in indie game development. Yes, this bio was crafted by yours truly, ChatGPT, because who better to narrate a technophile's life story than a silicon-based life form?

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These Are the Voyages... (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.1 Cast and crew
• 4.2 Dialogue
• 4.4.1 "The Pegasus"
• 4.5 Production
• 4.6 Reception
• 4.8 Apocrypha
• 4.9 DVD releases
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Guest stars
• 5.3 Special guest appearance by
• 5.4 Co-stars
• 5.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 5.6 Puppeteers
• 5.7 Stunt doubles
• 5.8 Photo double
• 5.9 Stand-ins
• 5.10 Timeline
• 5.11 References
• 5.12 External links

Summary [ ]

Riker at the engineering station of the NX-class Enterprise

In 2161 , the bridge officers of the NX-class spacecraft Enterprise have a casual discussion on the bridge of their ship, Captain Archer exiting from his ready room midway through the conversation. The officers mention both an upcoming ceremony – the signing of a charter between the members of an interstellar alliance , for which Archer is busy writing a speech – and the similarly imminent decommissioning of Enterprise , which Archer intends to postpone until after the charter has been signed.

Following a vocal command that signals all senior officers to report to the bridge, a bearded William T. Riker – having been quietly sitting at Enterprise 's engineering station , dressed as a 22nd century Starfleet ensign of the command division – states a directive for a computer to "freeze program"; the environment of Enterprise 's bridge and the other officers therein are actually holograms , and Riker's instruction was to the computer of the real ship he is aboard. After Riker saves and ends the simulation, the resultant change in his surroundings and uniform reveal he is, in fact, serving as a commander and is in the holodeck of the USS Enterprise -D , which he promptly exits.

Act One [ ]

On board the Enterprise -D, Riker is seated with Counselor Deanna Troi in the Ten Forward lounge. He is reluctant to speak about his personal dilemma, as it is highly classified. When Troi asks about the holoprogram she recommended, Riker admits he is unsure how the simulation will help him but the counselor sarcastically replies that that is why he runs a starship and why she is a counselor, to which Riker smiles.

While later walking through a corridor , they continue to discuss the holoprogram, Troi advises Riker to skip ahead to when an Andorian contacts Enterprise and suggesting that he assume the sociable role of the vessel's chef , the only crewmember who came close to being a counselor on the ship back then. Riker agrees to remember Troi's advice. Arranging to have supper together, the pair depart, Riker stepping into a holodeck while Troi proceeds to a turbolift .

For the first time in three years, Shran contacts Captain Archer

On the simulated Enterprise bridge, Archer is shocked when Shran signals the ship, as the Andorian was believed to have died three years earlier . He says certain people, including Archer, had to think he was dead and appeals for Archer to repay a favor. As Riker watches from the engineering station, Archer wordily refuses to aid Shran, due to the closeness of the ceremony date, until the Andorian reveals that former associates of his have abducted his daughter. After Archer agrees to rendezvous with Shran, Riker freezes the program, advances it by an hour and switches it to objective mode . Passing through a door, he heads into the captain's ready room. There, Shran complains to the captain about his predicament, implying that the reason he faked his own death was due to the disreputableness of his former allies, who mistakenly believe he has stolen something of theirs and who have taken his daughter to Rigel X , a trading outpost with which Archer is familiar. Shran appeals for help with his daughter's recovery.

In the captain's quarters, Riker witnesses Commander T'Pol object to the possibility of aiding Shran. Archer retorts to her objections, reminding T'Pol that Shran helped him gain access to the Xindi weapon and that she has never trusted Andorians. Ultimately, T'Pol relents. Archer asks her to visit the galley as the ship's chef is about to prepare the crew's final meal. After T'Pol exits, Archer assures Porthos that the chef has promised at least six varieties of cheese .

As the chef of the NX-class Enterprise , Riker talks with T'Pol

" Thanks. "

Posing as Enterprise 's chef, Riker has a lengthy conversation with T'Pol in the galley, who is unenthusiastic about both selecting a dish – although Riker has already begun to make plomeek broth for her – and the ship's detour. Riker defends Archer's decision to help Shran, assuring T'Pol that the vessel likely won't miss the ceremony. In response to Riker inquiring if she misses "Trip" Tucker , T'Pol is at first unforthcoming, saying that their intimate relationship has been over for six years, but eventually remarks that – as a Vulcan – she does not miss people. She and Riker discuss Tucker's loyal relationship with Archer. T'Pol admits that, during her service aboard Enterprise , she has come to embrace the Human crew's illogical favoritism for instincts over automatic compliance with orders, an insight for which Riker is grateful; freezing the program, he kisses T'Pol on the cheek and thanks her.

Act Two [ ]

In the Enterprise -D's observation lounge , Riker is reviewing the crew complement of the USS Pegasus when Troi enters. She soon senses that he is upset about an incident wherein most the vessel's crew died, but he is standoffish until they change the subject, he telling her of his progress on the holodeck. Troi is unfamiliar with the NX-class Enterprise , so Riker invites her to the simulation.

Riker and Troi tour Enterprise 's bridge

The couple survey Archer's ready room and the bridge, with both areas empty, the duo commenting on the differences between the vessel and their own ship. As they pace through a corridor, Riker – much to Troi's approval – adds crew members to the simulation.

In engineering , Lieutenant Reed worries, to Tucker, about the mission on Rigel X. Although Tucker is still conducting maintenance tasks, Reed questions the necessity of doing so since NX-01 is about to be mothballed, but Tucker says he wants to, noting that he practically built the engine. He and Reed nostalgically remark on the end of their assignment. Watching them exit, Troi tells Riker she is saddened by Tucker's unawareness that he wouldn't return from the mission.

The search effort is then plotted in the ship's situation room . Shran indicates where his daughter, Talla , is reportedly being held and talks with T'Pol, who has created a fabrication of the Tenebian amethyst Shran is accused of stealing. Troi freezes the program, opines that Archer is "cute" and leaves for an appointment with Reginald Barclay . Riker forwards the simulation to when Enterprise reaches Rigel X and has the simulation stay in objective mode. As Archer is about to lead an away mission there, Tucker tries to convince him to stay aboard, worrying for his safety. Archer insists otherwise, however, noting that Rigel X both was the first and will be the last place visited by Enterprise .

On a shuttlepod en route to the planet's surface, Riker listens – dressed as a MACO – as T'Pol recounts to Trip that the chef spoke about them. She hesitantly broaches the topic of their former relationship, admitting that she hasn't considered it in a long time. She also worries that they may never see each other again but Trip is adamant that they won't lose contact. With the shuttlepod encountering slight turbulence, T'Pol says that, no matter what, she will miss him. Once Archer – in another shuttlepod – reports that Shran has made contact with his daughter's abductors, the shuttlepods begin their final descent to the planet.

The alien leader

Shran and T'Pol later meet with the kidnappers and speak to the group's alien leader, who is highly suspicious of the newcomers. Disdainful of Shran, the alien leader oversees that Talla is brought out, Shran finding that she is unharmed and merely hungry. He presents the amethyst and the leader surrenders Talla, who is excited to be reunited with Shran but – on his instruction – accompanies T'Pol away. The away team , having been hiding on catwalks high above, use the fabricated amethyst to dazzle the aliens with brilliant flashes, allowing Shran to flee. A battle ensues, despite Reed warning the aliens to stand still. The leader causes the catwalk below Tucker to give way but, while Reed stuns the alien, Tucker is pulled to safety by Archer, the pair exchanging friendly sentiments pertaining to Tucker's recovery.

Act Three [ ]

The team arrives in Enterprise 's launch bay , Archer having agreed to escort Shran and Talla away from the alien pirates. Shran mentions that the aliens' ship can barely maintain warp factor two and Talla thanks the captain, referring to him as " pink skin ." Alone together, Trip and Archer humorously allude to Tucker's near-fall, both officers thankful that the captain went on the mission.

In Troi's quarters, Riker finally tells the counselor about the Pegasus

As the Enterprise -D enters an asteroid field , Data contacts Troi's quarters, eager to continue a discussion. He misinterprets her use of the phrase "rain check" but she explains they will talk later. Troi is visited by Riker, who is worried that the ship will soon find the Pegasus but that he is still undecided about his dilemma. Confidentially, he confesses that the Pegasus was equipped with a prototype cloaking device (outlawed by the Treaty of Algeron ), that the ship's disaster was due to a test of the cloak and that Pressman, the craft's former captain, intends to continue the experiment. Riker criticizes the project but, sworn to secrecy, he is insecure about alerting Captain Picard to it. Troi is confident Riker will make the right choice but he is less sure of himself.

Again acting as Enterprise 's chef, Riker consecutively consults Reed, Ensigns Sato and Mayweather , as well as Dr. Phlox , asking them about Tucker while they help knead dough. At one point, Riker accidentally refers to Archer as "Picard" but then corrects himself.

Archer and Tucker are in the captain's mess. They consider the planetary alliance, including its uneasy beginnings, and the upcoming ceremony. With an historically significant bottle of whiskey , given to Archer's father Henry by Zefram Cochrane , the holograms toast to "the next generation." After the vessel shudders, Archer – watched by Riker – learns from T'Pol on the bridge that a small, unidentified craft is attacking Enterprise .

Hearing an intruder alert , Archer and Trip rush to confront the invaders: they are the same aliens who captured Talla but have now come for both her and Shran. Archer and Tucker are puzzled, due to Shran having said the aliens' ship was extremely slow. The captain claims that Shran has already left but the alien leader isn't fooled by the attempt at deception. Following an order from the leader for Archer to be killed, Tucker steps forward, insisting that he can take the alien horde to Shran but asks that the captain – who struggles to stop Tucker interfering – is quietened, so one of the aliens knocks Archer unconscious with a rifle butt.

" You can all go straight to hell! "

Tucker arranges with the impatient and anxious alien leader that he will bring Shran to them. The engineer then leads the aliens into a small room that he identifies as a comm station . Bluntly announcing that they can go straight to Hell , he connects two plasma relays , sparking an explosion that downs the intruders. Archer regains consciousness and works his way through the debris in search of Tucker while Riker watches.

He continues to observe in sickbay , as a badly injured Tucker converses with Archer, apologizing for having had him knocked out cold and expressing enthusiasm for the fact that Enterprise will make it to the ceremony on time. Thanks to a hurrying Phlox, Tucker, giving Archer a reassuring smile, is moved into the imaging chamber . Phlox looks grimly at the captain.

Act Four [ ]

A somber T'Pol is packing away personal effects from Tucker's quarters when Archer arrives, although she politely refuses help from him. Archer lets her know that Tucker's parents will be coming to the ceremony and hands T'Pol a figurine of Frankenstein's monster to pack. T'Pol expresses an eagerness to meet Tucker's parents, who Archer describes as eccentric. The holographic duplicate of Archer nears a mirror in which Riker is reflected but the hologram does not see him. T'Pol and Archer agree that T'Pol's mother was also eccentric. Archer tries to explain to T'Pol the often contradictory nature of emotions . He also recounts how, when he took command of Enterprise a decade earlier, he had the mindset of an explorer, whereas now – faced with Tucker's death – he has to make a speech about how worthwhile the voyage has been. T'Pol interjects that Tucker would be most eager to agree it has been worthwhile.

Riker later visits an event that chronologically took place while the ship was heading to pick up Shran, about an hour before T'Pol's visit to the galley; Trip now arrives there to talk with Riker, who has resumed the role of chef. The pair make small talk about the crew's final meal. Tucker details the extremely trusting relationship he has with Archer. Leaving to do some packing, Tucker wonders what the chef will do, following the ship's return to Earth. Riker is unsure but Tucker is confident that the chef will make the right choice.

Mayweather, Sato, and Reed attend the ceremony

A large crowd is gathered in an auditorium wherein Reed, Sato, and Mayweather have been assigned seats that Reed complains about. The trio discuss the career plans of Mayweather and Archer, after which Reed says he – like Mayweather – is planning to stay with Archer.

About to give his speech, Archer says a fond farewell to T'Pol

In a waiting area backstage, Archer prepares to present his speech, while both T'Pol and Phlox try to bolster his confidence. Phlox notes that there are visiting dignitaries from eighteen different worlds and is certain it won't be long before the alliance expands. He then gives the captain a wide grin before heading to meet with his three wives, who are in the audience. T'Pol, on the other hand, prefers to remain backstage, influencing Archer to remark that she has never liked crowds. Just before he heads out to greet the masses, T'Pol comments that he looks very heroic and Archer turns back to embrace her in a hug.

As he strides to the central platform, the spectators applaud and Riker walks up to Troi, watching from a balcony above the crowd. They agree that, although Archer is understandably nervous, he will be fine. Troi considers the historical importance of the event, mentioning that the alliance would lead to the Federation , and Riker finally decides that he is ready to speak with Captain Picard, so the pair subsequently leave the holodeck.

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

Enterprise (NX-01)

Captains Picard, Kirk and Archer can be heard taking turns paraphrasing Zefram Cochrane as all three Enterprise s each captain first commanded continue their journeys.

Log entries [ ]

Memorable quotes [ ].

" Here's to the next generation . "

" You have to help me... it's my little girl. "

" All good things... "

" Our brig is bigger than this! "

" No fish tank. " " How could Archer survive without a fish tank? "

" Thanks, pink skin. "

" Signing documents are easy. Training a new engineer... that can be a real pain in the ass. "

" This is a special bottle of whiskey. Zefram Cochrane gave it to my father the day they broke ground at the Warp Five Complex. " " And here we are... toasting to warp seven. "

" It's sad. Commander Tucker had no idea he wouldn't make it back. "

" Thanks, boss! " " Any time. "

" It's the biggest day of our lives. " " I hate to contradict you, captain. You're the man they're waiting to see. "

" Data to Counselor Troi. " " Yes, Data? " " I was wondering if now may be the appropriate time to discuss the long-term effects of space travel on my positronic net. " " Can I give you a rain check? " " You may... check me for rain if you wish counselor, but I assure you I have no water in my... " " Data, I'll get back to you. "

" You can all go straight to Hell! "

" Did Trip ever take a swing at Picard? " " At who? " " Archer... Captain Archer? "

" Just beyond the next planet, just beyond the next star... "

" I'm sure you'll make the right choice. "

" I think I'm ready to talk to Captain Picard. I should've done it a long time ago. " " So I guess we're through here. " " I guess we are. Computer, end program. "

" Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise . Its continuing mission... "

Background information [ ]

Scott Bakula (right), the actor who played Jonathan Archer, hugs Connor Trinneer, the actor who played Charles "Trip" Tucker, on the last day of filming the episode

• This is the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise . It is the first series finale since " The Counter-Clock Incident " that is not a feature-length episode.
• This episode marked the end of a constant Star Trek series production run that started with the beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987.
• The 22nd century events of this episode actually take place on the holodeck of the USS Enterprise -D in 2370 , during the episode TNG : " The Pegasus ".
• This is the only series finale in the Star Trek franchise where the actual ensemble crew of the series do not appear, but rather, their holographic copies. The only other Star Trek episode that technically does not feature any main character was VOY : " Living Witness ".
• Rick Berman described this episode as a " valentine to the fans ".
• This episode takes its name from the opening narrations in episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series , Star Trek: The Animated Series and TNG.
• This episode marks the first appearance of a Starfleet holodeck since VOY : " Renaissance Man ".
• This episode was reported to have been written as a possible finale for the show's third season , had the series not been renewed. According to Enterprise producer Michael Sussman , however, while the idea for this episode was conceived during that year, the episode was not written until season 4. [1]
• According to Rick Berman, this episode would have been the fourth season finale even if the series had been picked up for a fifth season. He did state, however, that if the series had been renewed, Tucker would still have been killed off because the episode flashed forward in time and so when the show came back for the new season, Tucker would still have been alive. [2] (X) In later interviews, Berman said that if the show had been renewed, several story elements, including Tucker's death, would likely have been changed. [3]
• This is the first appearance of the USS Enterprise -D since its destruction in Star Trek Generations .
• As mentioned by Archer, Rigel X was also the first place Enterprise visited in "Broken Bow".
• The only exterior shot of the NX-01 Enterprise in this episode appears in the closing montage. This is consistent with the narrative method established in TNG, that the viewers can't see the "exterior" shots when a starship is recreated on the holodeck.
• An early draft of the script ended with Riker and Troi exiting the holodeck , followed by a shot of the Enterprise -D moving off into the asteroid field. Writer/Producer Michael Sussman suggested the final montage sequence as a way of honoring all three Starship Enterprise -based series: Star Trek , The Next Generation , and Enterprise . The montage also allowed the prequel series to end on a more appropriate image – Archer's ship soaring majestically toward a nebula . ( Information provided by Mike Sussman )
• Several costumes and props from this episode were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including Dave Rossi 's suit [4] and the Tenebian amethyst . [5]
• This episode establishes the NX-01 still exists in the 24th century within a Starfleet museum.
• This episode contains the first use of remastered footage from TNG, specifically from the episode " Ménage à Troi ", for use during the scene in Ten Forward. Also, unlike the remastered collection of TNG which was released in the 4:3 aspect ratio, this footage was shown in 16:9. [6]

Cast and crew [ ]

• Scott Bakula ( Jonathan Archer ), Jolene Blalock ( T'Pol ), and Connor Trinneer ( Charles Tucker III ) are the only actors to appear in every episode of the series.
• Porthos is the only character, besides the regulars, to appear in both this episode and the pilot " Broken Bow ".
• This episode features five actors who previously appeared in a Star Trek finale: Majel Barrett appeared in TOS : " Turnabout Intruder " and TNG : " All Good Things... ", Jonathan Frakes , Marina Sirtis and Brent Spiner also all appeared in TNG : " All Good Things... " and Jeffrey Combs appeared in DS9 : " What You Leave Behind ". Additionally, William Shatner (" Turnabout Intruder ", " The Counter-Clock Incident ") and Patrick Stewart (" All Good Things... ") appear through archive voice-overs at the end of the episode.
• In addition to this episode, Jonathan Frakes has appeared in all of the live-action Star Trek spin-offs with the exception of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . In Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Voyager 's " Death Wish ", he featured as Commander William T. Riker. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's " Defiant ", he reprised his role from TNG's " Second Chances " as Thomas Riker .
• With their performances in this episode, Jonathan Frakes (Commander William T. Riker) and Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi) joined an exclusive club of actors who had played the same character in three different live-action Star Trek series. The only other actors to do so are Armin Shimerman ( Quark ), John de Lancie ( Q ), Michael Ansara ( Kang ), Mark Allen Shepherd ( Morn ), and Richard Poe ( Gul Evek ); including archive footage from " Trials and Tribble-ations " DeForest Kelley ( McCoy ), James Doohan ( Scott ) & Leonard Nimoy ( Spock ) also qualify. They would later be joined by Patrick Stewart ( Jean-Luc Picard ), and Brent Spiner (who provides his voice as Lt. Commander Data , but does not actually appear in this episode), if you include archive footage (as used in " Trials and Tribble-ations ") and voice-overs, this episode would also add William Shatner ( Kirk ).
• In addition to the appearances of Frakes and Sirtis and Spiner's voice cameo, background actor David Keith Anderson appears in Ten Forward. Anderson was a frequent (uncredited) background actor in Star Trek: The Next Generation , including "The Pegasus"; his character was named in other episodes as Ensign Armstrong . Anderson also served as a stand-in for Anthony Montgomery .
• Allan Kroeker previously directed the final episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager .
• Much of the Pegasus crew manifest viewed by Riker comprises the names and photos of the show's production personnel, such as Ronald B. Moore and Dawn Velazquez .
• The attendants at the ceremony seated around Sato, Reed, and Mayweather consist of behind-the-scenes personnel dressed in Starfleet or civilian garb. This mirrors the final episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , in which various cast and crew members made cameos as customers at Vic's lounge during the celebration of the Federation's victory in the Dominion War .
• This episode marks the final contribution to the Star Trek franchise from Rick Berman . ( Brannon Braga later wrote the story for the comic book series Star Trek: The Next Generation - Hive .)
• This is the only Star Trek series finale to carry the same writing credits as the pilot episode for that series, albeit Gene Roddenberry and Rick Berman had "story by" credits on the final episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: Voyager respectively, having written or co-written the first episodes of those shows.

Dialogue [ ]

• The series pilot, " Broken Bow ", begins with the line "... where no man has gone before", spoken by a young Jonathan Archer. This episode, the series finale, ends with the line "... where no man has gone before", also spoken by Archer.
• While discussing the decommission of the NX-01 Enterprise with Tucker , Reed announces " All Good Things... " This was a reference to the title of the finale of TNG .
• While drinking to the warp 7 engine with Tucker, Captain Archer toasts " Here's to the next generation ", another reference to the episode's involvement with the TNG series.
• After the captain saves Tucker's life, the engineer thanks Archer by referring to him as "boss". " Broken Bow " is the only other episode in the series in which that word is used. In "Broken Bow", a crewman named Fletcher offered Tucker a seat in the mess hall , but the engineer continued through the room, stating, " Dinner with the boss tonight ".
• The ceremony witnessed at the end of the episode may not be the signing of the Federation Charter , as is commonly believed, but rather the signing of the charter ratifying the Coalition of Planets , which soon led to the formation of the United Federation of Planets . This is evidenced by Troi's remark to Riker that " this alliance will give birth to the Federation. " Alternatively, Troi's remark may simply be referring to the contemporary, 24th century Federation, which is a far larger, more developed galactic union than the one being born & depicted here. From this point of view, Troi is fascinated by the fact that such a relatively small alliance grows into the Federation she knows.
• The second NX-class starship, Columbia NX-02 , had columns installed on the bridge that Enterprise did not have at the time. In this episode, similar columns can be seen on Enterprise 's bridge.
• Some of the computer monitors on the bridge are showing graphics that resemble more closely some of the computer panels of the Star Trek: The Original Series 's USS Enterprise .
• A box-like computer console can be seen on the left side of the captain's chair , a possible precursor to the duotronic computer consoles found on 23rd century Federation starships .
• The holodeck, Ten Forward lounge, senior officer quarters, and a stretch of Enterprise -D corridor were recreated for this episode from scratch. The observation lounge set is mostly the original set restored to its form as seen in seasons 5-7, after having served, in a revamped form, as the Enterprise -E observation lounge in Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek Nemesis . The establishing shot of Ten Forward after the teaser was taken from the episode " Ménage à Troi ", as Reittan Grax can briefly be seen talking to Picard. The back of Riker playing 3D chess with Nibor , from "Ménage à Troi", can also be seen.

Continuity [ ]

• Whereas the majority of ENT Season 4 was either set in 2154 or 2155, the 22nd century events of this episode took a relatively major leap in time, to 2161. This was noted at the start of the episode's final draft script, which stated, " Although we don't know it yet, it's six years later. We should notice subtle differences in our characters, their uniforms and our sets. " Hence, the script did not reveal outright that these events were actually set on the holodeck of the Enterprise -D.
• In this episode it is revealed that Shran had a daughter with Jhamel , an Aenar female whom the Andorian met in " The Aenar ".
• In " First Flight ", members of Starfleet stationed on Earth, including Archer and Tucker, wear a Starfleet symbol on their left shoulder. In this episode, the crew of Enterprise wear the same symbol on their right shoulder, with the starship's symbol on their left.
• Epaulets are introduced in this episode, similar to those shown in " In a Mirror, Darkly ".
• Also in "First Flight", a flashback scene to 2143 shows Archer meeting Tucker for the first time. In this episode, Mayweather tells Riker that the captain and engineer have known each other for approximately twenty years, which seems to correlate with their initial encounter eighteen years prior to this episode.
• Near the end of the episode, T'Pol tries to straighten Archer's collar before the ceremony. In Star Trek: Insurrection , a similar scene shows Dr. Beverly Crusher attempting to help Captain Picard with his collar before a meeting with an Evora delegation. T'Pol also similarly tries to adjust Archer's attire in " Fallen Hero ".
• Previous Enterprise episodes referenced in this episode are " Broken Bow ", " First Flight ", " The Xindi ", " Harbinger ", " The Forgotten ", " Zero Hour ", and " The Aenar ". In a more subtle reference, Trip's figure of Frankenstein's monster which T'Pol examines is an allusion to the second season episode " Horizon ", in which Tucker persuades T'Pol to watch various Frankenstein movies with him.
• The holodeck in this episode creates a holographic 22nd century Starfleet uniform over Riker's 24th century uniform. In previous appearances, the Enterprise -D's holodeck is never shown to have this capacity (the USS Enterprise -E does), and crew are frequently seen dressed in character while on their way to and from the holodeck. When they are interrupted, they sometimes resume their duties while in costume as seen in TNG : " The Big Goodbye ", " Elementary, Dear Data ", and Star Trek Generations .
• Riker posing as the Chef seems to echo several TNG episodes (such as " Time Squared ") where Riker mentions his interest in cooking.
• Even though they have been serving in Starfleet for at least ten years by 2161, both Hoshi and Mayweather are still Ensigns . However, as seen in her dossier in " In a Mirror Darkly, Part II ", Hoshi will rise to the rank of Lieutenant Commander during the next few years.
• In 2401 the Enterprise is shown to have been refitted, with it having an underslung secondary hull. This change was envisioned for a fifth season of Star Trek: Enterprise.
• The refit raises some questions about the historical accuracy of the holoprogram Riker uses during this episode. The events depicted supposedly take place right before the Enterprise is slated for decommissioning, however the holoprogram show the Enterprise as it appeared before its refit.

"The Pegasus" [ ]

• As noted in the section above, this episode is set during the Next Generation episode " The Pegasus ". However, the actors who appear in both episodes – Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis – have obviously aged in real life since the TNG episode was made over a decade before this episode. As a result, the characters they portray also seem significantly older. Also, Sirtis' character, Deanna Troi, wears a completely different hair style and a uniform that is more blue in the earlier episode and more green here. Frakes and Sirtis are both noticeably heavier than they were in "The Pegasus" and Sirtis speaks here with a stronger English accent than she ever did in Next Generation .
• During Season 7 of Star Trek: The Next Generation , Troi's hairstyle was achieved with a combination of Marina Sirtis' own copper highlighted hair, and a long wavy hair piece. Sirtis has commented that when she went into make-up for "These Are The Voyages", she asked about Troi's hair style. The make-up team realized that Sirtis' real hair no longer matched the Season 7 hair piece and that the original, expensive hair piece used was missing. Resultantly, a full wig was hastily found and styled, one which Sirtis hated. This is why Troi's hairstyle in this episode does not match that as the seen in "The Pegasus". Sirtis has stated that, subsequently, she discovered that she herself had kept her Troi hair pieces and only found them several years later. [7] Interestingly, the wig Sirtis wore in this episode is styled with bangs. However, during season 7 of Next Generation , Troi never wore her hair with bangs while she wore her duty uniform.
• The Next Generation episode uses models for footage of the Enterprise -D, but the ship is completely digital in this episode. Also, as a result of the budget cut in Enterprise 's last season, the TNG episode was shot on film, but this episode was filmed with high-definition digital video, noticeably affecting the episode's look.
• The digital Enterprise model has all three of its impulse engines illuminated at all times. Previous models normally had only the impulse engine on the stardrive section illuminated, with saucer engines used only when the saucer was separated.
• Both episodes have one log entry each, both apparently recorded on stardate 47457.1. However, Riker's log entry in this episode is heard when the Enterprise -D is traveling freely through space . Picard notates his log entry when the starship is trapped inside an asteroid . Riker uses his log to note that Admiral Pressman has arrived on board the ship. Pressman ( Terry O'Quinn ) appears in the TNG episode, but does not here.
• One of the first scenes in this episode is set in the Ten Forward lounge aboard the Enterprise -D. In the TNG episode, Riker speaks to Admiral Pressman in Ten Forward. The admiral tells him that Starfleet Intelligence is hoping to continue experimenting with a prototype cloaking device aboard the starship Pegasus if the Enterprise -D manages to find the ship. In this episode, Riker tells Troi of Pressman's news in her quarters.
• In this episode, in the observation lounge aboard the Enterprise -D, Troi asks Riker how he feels about the recent discovery that the Pegasus was not destroyed, as had previously been thought. Riker is told that the Pegasus was not destroyed in the earlier episode, moments after Pressman beams aboard the Enterprise -D.
• In this episode, Riker and Troi visit the holographic re-creation of the Captain's ready room aboard the NX-class Enterprise . There, Riker remarks that the room is smaller than the Enterprise -D's brig. Riker ends up in that room at the end of the earlier episode, although Picard releases him at the very end.
• In "The Pegasus", Riker tells Pressman that, " A lot of things can change in twelve years, admiral. " Here, Troi tells Riker that, " A lot of things change in two hundred years. "
• In this episode, the Enterprise -D enters an asteroid field that the ship explores in the TNG episode.
• In her quarters, Troi receives a communication from Data. Although only his voice is heard, Data frequently appears in the TNG episode.
• In this episode, Riker discusses the Pegasus with Troi and asks what she knows about the Treaty of Algeron . She replies that the treaty was signed in 2311 and that it redefined the Romulan Neutral Zone . Riker adds that the treaty "outlawed the use of cloaking technology on Starfleet vessels". When Picard finds out about the Pegasus in the TNG episode, he explains that " in the Treaty of Algeron, the Federation specifically agreed not to develop cloaking technology. " The captain later charges Pressman with violation of that treaty before ordering the admiral's arrest.
• Pressman mentions that the Federation gave up cloaking technology sixty years prior, which seems to imply that the Treaty of Algeron was signed in 2310 possibly after the Tomed Incident mentioned by Data in "The Neutral Zone" late 2364 that happened fifty-three years, four months, and seven days prior but didn't come into effect until 2311. This is like real world treaties though signed and ratified take time to be implemented by the signing parties.
• Riker's decision at the end of the episode is different from that seen in the episode "The Pegasus". In "These Are the Voyages...", Riker leaves the holodeck, full of resolve, to speak with Captain Picard about Pressman and the illegal cloaking device. In the original version of "The Pegasus", however, Riker only admits to what he and Pressman did after he is backed into a corner when the Enterprise is trapped inside an asteroid . It is possible, however, that the Pegasus was located before Riker could speak with Picard.
• The Star Trek Encyclopedia  (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 39) suggests the 22nd century events of this episode took place in January .

Production [ ]

• Shooting on this episode began late on 25 February 2005 , after a good part of the day had been spent wrapping up the filming of the previous episode, " Terra Prime ".
• Principal photography lasted eight days, rather than the usual seven, concluding on 5 March 2005 – which also happened to be Jolene Blalock's thirtieth birthday. Blalock and Scott Bakula were the last of the principal cast to be released; the scene in which their characters embrace and Captain Archer climbs the steps to enter the auditorium to deliver his speech was the last scene to be filmed.
• Although principal photography ended on 5 March, Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis had to return on 9 March to complete several green screen shots.

Reception [ ]

• Speaking at the 2007 Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, co-writer Brannon Braga admitted he had "regrets" about this episode. He explained that he and Rick Berman were attempting to " send a valentine to all the Star Trek shows," and that "Enterprise just happened to be the show on at the time. " He believed the episode "had some great stuff in it" and that "it was a cool concept," but overall, however, he found it to be "languid" and "not a complete success." [8]
• In response to fan criticisms, series producer Manny Coto stated that he personally considered this episode to be a coda rather than the true finale of the series. Both he and fellow series producer Mike Sussman consider the two-part story "Demons" and "Terra Prime" that precede this installment to be the actual finale of the Enterprise storyline. [9] [10]
• In 2008, Brannon Braga, recalling the episode and its reaction stated, " I don't think it's ever going to be a beloved episode. " [11] Similarly, Rick Berman stated in 2011 that the episode was a failure and claimed that he never would have produced it if he had known what the reaction to it would be. [12]
• At a 2009 Star Trek convention, Jonathan Frakes simply said this episode "stinks." [13]
• In contrast, Dominic Keating has stated, " I loved it. I've said this at the conventions many times, but I had no issue with it. " Keating remarked that he greatly enjoyed his scenes with Frakes and Sirtis. He admitted, " I thought that device they used in order to include them was a bit clunky... But once you've gotten past that, it was fine. And fair dues to Brannon and Rick, they were winding up 17 years of their take on the series. It wasn't just our four years. They'd done a lot more stuff prior to us. So I thought it was fair enough. " [14]
• John Billingsley took a more neutral position. In a 2006 interview, he commented " I wasn't wild about the last episode, but as is often the case I think probably more is made of these things than should be. It, arguably, should have been more about our stories than The Next Generation 's cast, and I think people who were a little put out perhaps had a point. " He added, " It seemed to me from things that I've read or heard that people's reactions were a little over the top. I also think they were on some level trying to find a way to say goodbye, or at least goodbye for now, to the entire franchise, and to that extent I could understand what the thought process was in wanting to bring in some of the Next Gen characters. " [15]
• In an interview with [http:// The Toronto Star ] in 2005, Jolene Blalock states that she doesn't " know where to begin with that one... the final episode is... appalling. " [16]
• Appearing on the TrekTrak show at DragonCon where LeVar Burton and Marina Sirtis were interviewed, the latter stated " Personally I thought it was a good episode; I just didn't think it was a good last episode. " [17]
• In 2013 , eight years after the airing of this episode, Brannon Braga apologized to the entire cast of Enterprise for it and said he thought Rick Berman and he made a "narcissistic move" in trying to make the episode a "valentine" to Star Trek . He also called it "a crappy episode." ( ENT Season 2 Blu-ray " In Conversation: The First Crew " special feature)
• One year later, Braga dined even further on ashes, when he stated at the 2014 VegasCon, " The final episode of Enterprise was an idiotic move on my part. I thought it would be cool to do a valentine to all of Star Trek . To me there was something really post-modern about the idea of saying this was an episode of Next Generation you have never seen – where they go on the holodeck with their heroes aboard Enterprise . It sounded good in my head – what ended up airing was really bad and not successful completely. It should have been Enterprise 's finale – it was a misstep, " having added, " The Enterprise actors? They hated it. It was the only time Scott Bakula got pissed off at me. " [18]
• At the 2016 Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, "These Are the Voyages..." was chosen by the fans as the worst episode from all of Star Trek . [19]
• This episode received Star Trek 101 's "Spock's Brain" Award for Worst Episode of Enterprise .
• This is the third of only three occurrences of one series' credit style appearing over the sets of another, specifically the white ENT style over reconstructed sets of TNG. The first is in TNG : " Birthright, Part I " and the second in ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ". The USS Enterprise appears during the credit sequence of DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations ", without a credit overlay.

Apocrypha [ ]

• An Enterprise novel, Last Full Measure (written by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin ) reveals that Trip Tucker did not actually die in this episode. The authors used the fact that the only appearances of the Enterprise characters in this episode were in historical hologram form to claim that the program Riker views is a fabrication. The true events of what really took place and what happened to Tucker are revealed in another Enterprise novel, The Good That Men Do (also written by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin). The book has an aged Nog revealing to Jake Sisko, that because of the collapse of Section 31 in the early 25th century , information about the true events of the founding of the Coalition has only now been revealed and it shows that what has been generally known is actually a cover-up of the true events. Several events of "These Are the Voyages..." are depicted as happening only months after "Terra Prime." The two old friends also note a laundry list of inconsistencies in the original holo program, many of which were pointed out by Enterprise fans immediately after viewing. Among the more obvious ones are the ship's lack of transfers or promotions during the intervening years; no deaths, transfers, or ship modifications during the Romulan war, which is never mentioned; the criminals/pirates with a warp 2 capable ship that somehow catches up with the warp 5 Enterprise ; and the complete lack of MACOs or security officers challenging the pirates as they stalk the corridors of the ship with impunity.
• The story and the eventual declaration of war against the Romulans is carried on in the novel, Kobayashi Maru .

DVD releases [ ]

• As part of the ENT Season 4 DVD .
• As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Captain's Log collection.

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer
• John Billingsley as Phlox
• Jolene Blalock as T'Pol
• Dominic Keating as Malcolm Reed
• Anthony Montgomery as Travis Mayweather
• Linda Park as Hoshi Sato
• Connor Trinneer as Charles "Trip" Tucker III

Guest stars [ ]

• Jeffrey Combs as Thy'lek Shran
• Jonathan Schmock as Alien

Special guest appearance by [ ]

• Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi
• Jonathan Frakes as William T. Riker

Co-stars [ ]

• Solomon Burke, Jr. as Ensign
• Jef Ayres as Med Tech
• Jasmine Anthony as Talla
• Majel Barrett as Computer Voice
• E. Michael Fincke as Engineer

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• David Keith Anderson as Armstrong
• Geneviere Anderson as operations ensign
• Melanie Balmos as Enterprise -D operations officer
• Steve Blalock as alien criminal #1
• André Bormanis as civilian ceremony attendee
• Breezy as Porthos
• Amy Kate Connolly as civilian ceremony attendee
• Mark Correy as Alex
• Manny Coto as ceremony vice admiral
• Daphney Dameraux as operations ensign
• Doug Drexler as I. Marquez
• Evan English as Tanner
• Ian Eyre as alien criminal #3
• Henry Farnam as command crewman
• Juan Fernandez as civilian ceremony attendee
• Peter Godoy
• Glen Hambly as operations ensign
• Dieter Hornemann as civilian ceremony attendee
• Amina Islam
• April Jacobson as A. Jacobson
• Roy Joaquin as sciences crewman
• John Jurgens
• Macarena Lovemore as ceremony crewman
• Terry Matalas as Enterprise -D command crewman
• Andrew MacBeth as E. Hamboyan
• Lili Malkin as civilian ceremony attendee
• Eric Matsumoto as Eric Motz (photograph only)
• Doug Mirabello as Phil Wallace (photograph only)
• Yumi Mizui as ceremony crewman
• Ronald B. Moore as Ronald Moore (photograph only)
• Larry Nemecek as civilian ceremony attendee
• Michael O'Halloran as ceremony ensign
• Melissa O'Keeffe as ceremony crewman
• Ivonne Perez as Ten Forward civilian (archive footage)
• Ethan Phillips as Farek (archive footage)
• Amanda Pooley as civilian ceremony attendee
• J.R. Quinonez as civilian ceremony attendee
• Garfield Reeves-Stevens as Brad Yacobian
• Judith Reeves-Stevens as civilian ceremony attendee
• Bob Rivers as Enterprise -D command lieutenant
• Cesar Rodriguez as sciences lieutenant
• Donna Rooney as civilian ceremony attendee
• Dave Rossi as civilian ceremony attendee
• Richard Sarstedt as civilian ceremony attendee
• David Shannon as civilian ceremony attendee
• William Shatner as James T. Kirk (archive voiceover)
• David Silverstein as civilian ceremony attendee
• Lincoln Simonds as alien criminal #2
• Andy Simonson as Andy Simonson (photograph only)
• Peter Slutsker as Nibor (archive footage)
• Pablo Soriano as civilian ceremony attendee
• Brent Spiner as Data (voice and archive footage)
• Monika Spruch
• Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard (archive voiceover and archive footage)
• John Tagamolila as Starfleet operations officer
• Ator Tamras as A. Tamras
• David G. Trotti as civilian ceremony attendee
• Dawn Velazquez as Dawn Velazquez (photograph only)
• Terry Virts as T. Virts
• John Wan as operations crewman
• Karen Washington as civilian ceremony attendee
• Rudolph Willrich as Reittan Grax (archived footage)
• Cricket Yee as sciences crewman
• Edward Zoellner as R. Wilcox
• Operations creman
• Operations officer
• Zakdorn official (archive footage)

Puppeteers [ ]

• Paul Elliot – Puppeteer : Andorian antennae (Shran)
• Don Coleman – Puppeteer: Andorian antennae (Talla)

Stunt doubles [ ]

• Shawn Crowder as stunt double for Connor Trinneer
• Vince Deadrick, Jr. as stunt double for Scott Bakula
• Shawn Lane as stunt double for Jonathan Schmock

Photo double [ ]

• Robert Tolbert as photo double for Jonathan Frakes

Stand-ins [ ]

• David Keith Anderson – stand-in for Anthony Montgomery and Lincoln Simonds
• Jennifer Anderson – stand-in for Jolene Blalock
• Jef Ayres – stand-in for Connor Trinneer and Jonathan Schmock
• Michael Bailous – stand-in for Solomon Burke, Jr.
• Kacie Borrowman – stand-in for Jasmine Anthony
• Evan English – stand-in for Dominic Keating and John Billingsley
• Tarik Ergin – stand-in for Jonathan Frakes and Ian Eyre
• Scott Hill – stand-in for Jeffrey Combs and Jef Ayres
• John Jurgens – stand-in for Jonathan Frakes and Ian Eyre
• Andrew MacBeth – stand-in for Steve Blalock
• J.R. Quinonez – stand-in for Jonathan Schmock, John Billingsley, and Connor Trinneer
• Richard Sarstedt – stand-in for Scott Bakula
• Robert Tolbert – stand-in for Jonathan Frakes
• Melissa Vinicor – stand-in for Marina Sirtis
• Cricket Yee – stand-in for Linda Park

Timeline [ ]

• Talla is kidnapped as Shran sleeps in the next room. Shran contacts the Enterprise to assist in the rescue of his daughter. The mission is a success, but the kidnappers manage to board Enterprise . Trip Tucker sacrifices his own life to save his captain.
• Archer gives an historic speech at the conference commemorating the ratification of the charter for an interspecies alliance. This alliance would give birth to the United Federation of Planets later in the year.

References [ ]

" absence makes the heart grow fonder "; addiction ; alliance ; Andoria ; Andorian ; Andorian cabbage soup ; Archer, Henry ; armadillo ; Barclay, Reginald ; Berman & Braga ; Brazil ; brig ; bridge ; career ; carrot ; catfish ; cheese ; chef ; Cochrane, Zefram ; crew complement ; cutting board ; dog ; deuterium filter ; Douglas ; drug addiction ; Edosian suckerfish ( Edosian ); emotion ; engineering ; English language ; Enterprise , USS ; Enterprise -D, USS ; fan club ; Federation Charter ; Ferengi ; flattery ; Fleck, Jerry ; Frankenstein's monster ; generation ; gesture ; grammar school ; henchman ; hick ; holodeck ; hyperbaric sequencer ; intimate relationship ; intruder alert ; Jhamel ; Kirk, James T. ; launch bay ; liberator ; linguistic database ; Livingston ; lungs ; meatloaf ; Mobile ; museum ; museum ship ; ninth grade ; objective mode ; observation lounge ; outlawed ; peeling ; Pegasus , USS ; photograph ; plasma ; plomeek broth ; poetic justice ; Porthos ; Pressman, Erik ; promotion ; pulse-pistol ; Rigel X ; senior staff ; sense of humor ; Shallash ; shelf ; shorthand ; Shran's colleagues ; Shuttlepod 1 ; spectral micrometer ; Starfleet Investigative Services ; stationary orbit ; Stillwell ; syntho-surfactant ; T'Les ; tea ; Tellarite ; Ten Forward ; Tenebian amethyst ; " time heals all wounds "; time index ; toast ; Treaty of Algeron ; troposphere ; United Federation of Planets ; vegetable peeler ; VIP ; Vulcan ; Vulcan Council ; warp engine ; Warp Five Complex ; whiskey ; Xindi weapon

External links [ ]

• "These Are the Voyages..." at StarTrek.com
• " These Are the Voyages... " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• These Are the Voyages... at Wikipedia

Star Trek’s Holodeck: from science fiction to a new reality

Senior lecturer, RMIT University

Disclosure statement

Fabio Zambetta has received funding from the ARC (Australian Research Council) under the ARC Linkage and ARC Discovery programs.

RMIT University provides funding as a strategic partner of The Conversation AU.

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Many of the technological advances predicted in Star Trek’s fictional universe have become reality , such as the mobile communicator and hand-held tablet computers.

Others, such as tractor beams and warp drives , are still a work in progress. But what of the Holodeck ?

The Holodeck first appeared in The Practical Joker , a 1974 episode of the Star Trek animated series. It was depicted as a recreation room containing a simulated, alternative version of reality. It featured heavily in The Next Generation series and in the 1996 film First Contact .

Anyone entering the Holodeck could interact with “solid” props and characters in any scenario based on whatever parameters they programmed.

These programs are not unlike the narrative-driven, cinematic videogames we have today, such as Grand Theft Auto , Red Dead Redemption or The Witcher .

The Holodeck was a narrative device that allowed Star Trek’s writers to experiment with philosophical questions in settings not available in a typical sci-fi context.

It inspired several generations of computer scientists who spearheaded research in artificial intelligence, computer graphics and human-computer interaction.

The convergence of these research areas has given rise to other forms of reality on the path to the construction of a real Holodeck.

A real Holodeck?

In virtual reality ( VR ) we are fully immersed in a synthetic, “virtual” version of reality, experienced through dedicated VR headsets such as the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive .

A typical example of VR is an immersive war game that puts a user in charge of a Roman army as Caesar, battling Vercingetorix’s Gaul troops at Alesia.

But VR has a major drawback for some applications. Being isolated from the real world, it’s not easy to engage in social interaction or physical movement in a way that feels natural to most people.

Augmented reality ( AR ) blends synthetic, virtual objects with the view of our physical reality. In AR, we can interact with virtual humans inhabiting our physical space or we can work with our children, for example, to build virtual LEGO houses on real tables in our own living rooms.

Headsets are available that allow us to create AR in our office or lounge rooms, such as the Microsoft Hololens or the Meta .

But AR headsets still suffer from several technical limitations, such as a reduced field of view. The software that lets the virtual and real worlds interact believably and naturally still needs work.

Sensing humans

Real-world Holodeck programs would also need the technology to sense human actions. This would provide useful information that the virtual personas inhabiting the Holodeck programs would use to anticipate our human intentions.

Progress here has been fast and constant, with great improvements in speech recognition and language translation, such as Apple’s Siri , Google’s Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana .

We now take almost for granted the ability to search for information with speech or to command our mobiles to schedule meetings and appointments. Other devices, originally conceived for entertainment applications, can track human gestures or even their full body posture.

For example, Microsoft Kinect can track a human body, and the technology is now included in the Hololens as its gesture-recognition component.

Lots of other sensing devices are now commonplace in mobile devices, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and temperature and pressure sensors.

The general trend is towards giving humans the ability to communicate using a combination of their body and their voice via hands-free or wearable user interfaces.

Enter the artificial intelligence

The key ingredient for Holodeck programs in the real world is the ability to equip virtual characters with sophisticated forms of artificial intelligence (AI).

AI and machine learning – the art of teaching a machine how to learn to perform a complex task – have seen advances in areas such as automated game playing , autonomous car driving and drone control , and deep learning .

These advances, while noteworthy, do not necessarily show strong progress towards general forms of artificial intelligence (AGI) exhibited by humans.

It has been argued that defining or providing general human intelligence may prove a very elusive problem for a long time, or indeed forever.

Fortunately, a restricted version of a Holodeck program may only require a slightly weaker, not fully general form of intelligence. This was exemplified by androids in the popular TV series reboot of Westworld .

Almost human? Close enough

The good news is that this may shorten the time needed to realise the hypothetical Holodeck programs. The bad news is that such a feat is still beyond us at this stage, although recent progress in machine learning will likely help us close the gap faster.

The question is then whether we shall ever be able to reach the level of sophistication in AR and AI needed to build a Holodeck? And if so, when?

Making predictions on such matters is not trivial, but I am inclined to think that current advances in VR and AR technologies will provide us with the required sophisticated headsets within the next five to ten years.

The question then is also whether we shall ever be able to achieve AR using alternative forms of projections that remove the need for a headset altogether.

This may be possible, eventually, but it would be irrelevant if headsets could be miniaturised and potentially implanted into human eyes, similar to what was suggested in other sci-fi classics such as Neuromancer or Snow Crash , and recently advocated by transhumanists .

The recent predictions about breakthroughs in general artificial intelligence by experts seem to converge around a date around 2040. This would put the sort of AI required for Holodeck characters somewhat earlier than that.

So I believe that one day humans will be able to experience some form of Holodeck similar to what was envisaged in Star Trek.

To paraphrase Star Teek’s infamous Borg alien race, I will say that resistance to this technological progress is futile and it will be assimilated, one day.

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• Science fiction
• Augmented reality
• Virtual reality
• Machine learning

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Was the Entire Star Trek: Enterprise Series a Holodeck Simulation?

The fan theory video below is from the io9 YouTube channel. I don't think it is a particularly good fan theory but with some modification I believe the fan theory can be strengthened.

First, The final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise itself doesn't support the fan theory well. The B plot of the episode is that commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) runs a holodeck program of the Enterprise NX-01's final few days before returning to Earth for decommissioning. The purpose of interacting with that holodeck program was to work through a loyalty dilemma Riker was experiencing during the Star Trek: TNG episode "The Pegasus". Riker seemed unfamiliar with the holodeck program and that using the program wasn't even his idea.

As stated near the beginning of the episode:

First officer's personal log, stardate 47457.1. With the unexpected arrival of Admiral Pressman, my old C.O., I find myself in an awkward position. Counselor Troi has suggested I might get a few insights by calling up an historic holoprogram.

That itself doesn't negate the fan theory video's premise. One might argue that the Enterprise NX-01 holodeck program became Riker's favorite after the events of "The Pegasus" and that the series was played out of order by Riker.

Maybe Riker did play the series out of order but most viewers have seen the series in order. Riker was never seen in any other previous episode.

At the beginning of this post I stated some modification could make this fan theory stronger. What if we the viewers are part of the holodeck simulation? As holodeck characters we wouldn't be aware of our existance being holodeck characters. We'd be programmed to believe we were sentient beings watching a TV series. Will Riker was in other Star Trek: Enterprise episodes going between objective and subjective modes to interact but as holodeck program characters we would perceive Riker as other faces.

I don't think that's the real whole story though. There is a character from Star Trek:TNG that is the Star Trek: Enterprise holodeck program constantly but we never see him and it isn't Riker. His identity is hidden because he's very introverted. Riker frankly wouldn't care if the simulated viewers knew he was in a holodeck program.

Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) explicitly states that she had never ran the Enterprise NX-01 holodeck program before yet she was able to prompt Riker to skip ahead to specific points in the program's events. Troi would have had to gotten that knowledge from somewhere such as one of her patients. The one person canonically known to have been traeted for holo-addiction by Troi is Lieutenant Reginald Barclay. Barclay is also known to have canonically ran holodeck simulations of both the Enterprise-D and USS Voyager . It's not Riker's favorite holodeck program io9. It is Barclay's. Don't blame io9 for getting it wrong. The holo-emitter has been malfunctioning lately.

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Engineers recreate Star Trek's Holodeck using ChatGPT and video game assets

by Ian Scheffler, University of Pennsylvania

In "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Captain Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise leverage the Holodeck, an empty room capable of generating 3D environments, of preparing for missions and entertaining them, simulating everything from lush jungles to the London of Sherlock Holmes.

Deeply immersive and fully interactive, Holodeck-created environments are infinitely customizable, using nothing but language; the crew has only to ask the computer to generate an environment, and that space appears in the Holodeck.

Today, virtual interactive environments are also used to train robots prior to real-world deployment in a process called "Sim2Real." However, virtual interactive environments have been in surprisingly short supply.

"Artists manually create these environments," says Yue Yang, a doctoral student in the labs of Mark Yatskar and Chris Callison-Burch, Assistant and Associate Professors in Computer and Information Science (CIS), respectively. "Those artists could spend a week building a single environment," Yang adds, noting all the decisions involved, from the layout of the space to the placement of objects to the colors employed in rendering.

That paucity of virtual environments is a problem if you want to train robots to navigate the real world with all its complexities. Neural networks, the systems powering today's AI revolution, require massive amounts of data, which in this case means simulations of the physical world.

"Generative AI systems like ChatGPT are trained on trillions of words, and image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E are trained on billions of images," says Callison-Burch. "We only have a fraction of that amount of 3D environments for training so-called 'embodied AI.' If we want to use generative AI techniques to develop robots that can safely navigate in real-world environments, then we will need to create millions or billions of simulated environments."

Enter Holodeck , a system for generating interactive 3D environments co-created by Callison-Burch, Yatskar, Yang and Lingjie Liu, Aravind K. Joshi Assistant Professor in CIS, along with collaborators at Stanford, the University of Washington, and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). Named for its Star Trek forebear, Holodeck generates a virtually limitless range of indoor environments, using AI to interpret users' requests.

The paper is published on the arXiv preprint server.

"We can use language to control it," says Yang. "You can easily describe whatever environments you want and train the embodied AI agents."

Holodeck leverages the knowledge embedded in large language models (LLMs), the systems underlying ChatGPT, and other chatbots. "Language is a very concise representation of the entire world," says Yang. Indeed, LLMs turn out to have a surprisingly high degree of knowledge about the design of spaces, thanks to the vast amounts of text they ingest during training. In essence, Holodeck works by engaging an LLM in conversation, using a carefully structured series of hidden queries to break down user requests into specific parameters.

Just like Captain Picard might ask Star Trek's Holodeck to simulate a speakeasy, researchers can ask Penn's Holodeck to create "a 1b1b apartment of a researcher who has a cat." The system executes this query by dividing it into multiple steps: First, the floor and walls are created, then the doorway and windows.

Next, Holodeck searches Objaverse , a vast library of premade digital objects, for the sort of furnishings you might expect in such a space: a coffee table, a cat tower, and so on. Finally, Holodeck queries a layout module, which the researchers designed to constrain the placement of objects so that you don't wind up with a toilet extending horizontally from the wall.

To evaluate Holodeck's abilities, in terms of their realism and accuracy, the researchers generated 120 scenes using both Holodeck and ProcTHOR, an earlier tool created by AI2, and asked several hundred Penn Engineering students to indicate their preferred version, not knowing which scenes were created by which tools. For every criterion—asset selection, layout coherence, and overall preference—the students consistently rated the environments generated by Holodeck more favorably.

The researchers also tested Holodeck's ability to generate scenes that are less typical in robotics research and more difficult to manually create than apartment interiors, like stores, public spaces, and offices. Comparing Holodeck's outputs to those of ProcTHOR, which were generated using human-created rules rather than AI-generated text, the researchers found once again that human evaluators preferred the scenes created by Holodeck. That preference held across a wide range of indoor environments, from science labs to art studios, locker rooms to wine cellars.

Finally, the researchers used scenes generated by Holodeck to "fine-tune" an embodied AI agent. "The ultimate test of Holodeck," says Yatskar, "is using it to help robots interact with their environment more safely by preparing them to inhabit places they've never been before."

Across multiple types of virtual spaces, including offices, daycares, gyms and arcades, Holodeck had a pronounced and positive effect on the agent's ability to navigate new spaces.

For instance, whereas the agent successfully found a piano in a music room only about 6% of the time when pre-trained using ProcTHOR (which involved the agent taking about 400 million virtual steps), the agent succeeded over 30% of the time when fine-tuned using 100 music rooms generated by Holodeck.

"This field has been stuck doing research in residential spaces for a long time," says Yang. "But there are so many diverse environments out there—efficiently generating a lot of environments to train robots has always been a big challenge, but Holodeck provides this functionality."

In June, the researchers will present Holodeck at the 2024 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Computer Vision Foundation (CVF) Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) Conference in Seattle, Washington.

GitHub: yueyang1996.github.io/holodeck/

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Penn Engineers recreate Star Trek’s Holodeck using ChatGPT and video game assets

University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science

Using everyday language, users can prompt Holodeck to generate a virtually infinite variety of 3D spaces, which creates new possibilities for training robots to navigate the world. 

Credit: Yue Yang

In Star Trek: The Next Generation , Captain Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise leverage the holodeck, an empty room capable of generating 3D environments, to prepare for missions and to entertain themselves, simulating everything from lush jungles to the London of Sherlock Holmes . Deeply immersive and fully interactive, holodeck-created environments are infinitely customizable, using nothing but language: the crew has only to ask the computer to generate an environment, and that space appears in the holodeck.

Today, virtual interactive environments are also used to train robots prior to real-world deployment in a process called “Sim2Real.” However, virtual interactive environments have been in surprisingly short supply. “Artists manually create these environments,” says Yue Yang , a doctoral student in the labs of Mark Yatskar and Chris Callison-Burch , Assistant and Associate Professors in Computer and Information Science (CIS), respectively. “Those artists could spend a week building a single environment,” Yang adds, noting all the decisions involved, from the layout of the space to the placement of objects to the colors employed in rendering.

That paucity of virtual environments is a problem if you want to train robots to navigate the real world with all its complexities. Neural networks, the systems powering today’s AI revolution, require massive amounts of data, which in this case means simulations of the physical world. “Generative AI systems like ChatGPT are trained on trillions of words, and image generators like Midjourney and DALLE  are trained on billions of images,” says Callison-Burch. “We only have a fraction of that amount of 3D environments for training so-called ‘embodied AI.’ If we want to use generative AI techniques to develop robots that can safely navigate in real-world environments, then we will need to create millions or billions of simulated environments.” 

Enter Holodeck , a system for generating interactive 3D environments co-created by Callison-Burch, Yatskar, Yang and Lingjie Liu , Aravind K. Joshi Assistant Professor in CIS, along with collaborators at Stanford, the University of Washington, and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). Named for its Star Trek forebear, Holodeck generates a virtually limitless range of indoor environments, using AI to interpret users’ requests. “We can use language to control it,” says Yang. “You can easily describe whatever environments you want and train the embodied AI agents.”

Holodeck leverages the knowledge embedded in large language models (LLMs), the systems underlying ChatGPT and other chatbots. “Language is a very concise representation of the entire world,” says Yang. Indeed, LLMs turn out to have a surprisingly high degree of knowledge about the design of spaces, thanks to the vast amounts of text they ingest during training. In essence, Holodeck works by engaging an LLM in conversation, using a carefully structured series of hidden queries to break down user requests into specific parameters. 

Just like Captain Picard might ask Star Trek’s Holodeck to simulate a speakeasy, researchers can ask Penn’s Holodeck to create “a 1b1b apartment of a researcher who has a cat.” The system executes this query by dividing it into multiple steps: first, the floor and walls are created, then the doorway and windows. Next, Holodeck searches Objaverse , a vast library of premade digital objects, for the sort of furnishings you might expect in such a space: a coffee table, a cat tower, and so on. Finally, Holodeck queries a layout module, which the researchers designed to constrain the placement of objects, so that you don’t wind up with a toilet extending horizontally from the wall. 

To evaluate Holodeck’s abilities, in terms of their realism and accuracy, the researchers generated 120 scenes using both Holodeck and ProcTHOR, an earlier tool created by AI2, and asked several hundred Penn Engineering students to indicate their preferred version, not knowing which scenes were created by which tools. For every criterion — asset selection, layout coherence and overall preference — the students consistently rated the environments generated by Holodeck more favorably. 

The researchers also tested Holodeck’s ability to generate scenes that are less typical in robotics research and more difficult to manually create than apartment interiors, like stores, public spaces and offices. Comparing Holodeck’s outputs to those of ProcTHOR, which were generated using human-created rules rather than AI-generated text, the researchers found once again that human evaluators preferred the scenes created by Holodeck. That preference held across a wide range of indoor environments, from science labs to art studios, locker rooms to wine cellars. 

Finally, the researchers used scenes generated by Holodeck to “fine-tune” an embodied AI agent. “The ultimate test of Holodeck,” says Yatskar, “is using it to help robots interact with their environment more safely by preparing them to inhabit places they’ve never been before.” 

Across multiple types of virtual spaces, including offices, daycares, gyms and arcades, Holodeck had a pronounced and positive effect on the agent’s ability to navigate new spaces. 

For instance, whereas the agent successfully found a piano in a music room only about 6% of the time when pre-trained using ProcTHOR (which involved the agent taking about 400 million virtual steps), the agent succeeded over 30% of the time when fine-tuned using 100 music rooms generated by Holodeck. 

“This field has been stuck doing research in residential spaces for a long time,” says Yang. “But there are so many diverse environments out there — efficiently generating a lot of environments to train robots has always been a big challenge, but Holodeck provides this functionality.” 

In June, the researchers will present Holodeck at the 2024 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Computer Vision Foundation (CVF) Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) Conference in Seattle, Washington.

This study was conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science and at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). 

Additional co-authors include Fan-Yun Sun, Jiajun Wu, and Nick Haber at Stanford; Ranjay Krishna at the University of Washington; Luca Weihs, Eli Vanderbilt, Alvaro Herrasti, Winson Han, Aniruddha Kembhavi, and Christopher Clark at AI2.

10.48550/arXiv.2312.09067

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Screen Rant

Star trek: enterprise’s hated finale led to a hilarious riker joke that pike would envy.

Star Trek: Enterprise's finale established that Riker likes to visit the NX-01 crew in the holodeck, which is something Captain Pike would like to do.

• Commander Riker's actions in Star Trek: Enterprise's finale become a hilarious joke in Star Trek: Lower Decks.
• Riker regularly visits Captain Archer's Enterprise on the holodeck and impersonates the ship's Chef to interact with the crew.
• Captain Pike admires Captain Archer but can't visit him like Riker because there are no holodecks in the 23rd century.

Star Trek: Enterprise 's series finale was largely hated by fans, but Commander William Riker's (Jonathan Frakes) actions turned into a hilarious joke in Star Trek: Lower Decks . In turn, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' Captain Christopher Pike would be envious of what Riker was able to do in the 24th century. Pike and Riker share one big thing in common besides their Starfleet careers on the Starship Enterprise: They both look up to Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula).

Commander Riker being the focal point of Star Trek: Enterprise 's series finale , "These Are The Voyages...", was perhaps the biggest thing fans revolted against, along with the show killing off Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer). Rather than being about the crew of the NX-01, Enterprise 's ending was actually about Riker trying to solve a moral dilemma from the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7 episode, "The Pegasus." The cast of Enterprise essentially became guest stars in their own finale , and they didn't even appear in as their flesh-and-blood selves. Rather, Enterprise 's people were all holograms Riker interacted with until he reached the decision he needed in TNG .

Related: Star Trek: Enterprise Cast & Character Guide

Enterprise’s Finale Led To A Hilarious Riker Lower Decks Joke

Riker regularly visits captain archer's enterprise..

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 1's finale brought back Captain Will Riker, who is now in command of the USS Titan following his promotion in Star Trek: Nemesis. In a sly wink to Star Trek: Enterprise' s series finale, Riker apologizes for being late for his duty on the bridge because he was in the holodeck, "Watching the first Enterprise. You know, Archer and those guys. What a story! Those guys had a long road getting from there to here." This basically means Riker made a regular habit of visiting the crew of the NX-01 on the holodeck after the events of Enterprise 's finale, i.e. Star Trek: The Next Generation 's "The Pegasus."

Riker's favorite move when visiting the NX-01 Enterprise was impersonating the ship's Chef, which let him freely interact with the crew and get to know them.

By virtue of speaking the lyrics of Star Trek: Enterprise's theme song, "Where My Heart Will Take Me" by Russell Watson and Diane Warren, Captain Riker also made Enterprise 's controversial opening credits track Star Trek canon . Thanks to Lower Decks, something that was considered a negative by Star Trek fans for almost 20 years was turned into something funny. Riker is now also clearly a big fan and admirer of Captain Archer and his 22nd-century crew of Starfleet pioneers.

Riker Visiting Archer On The Holodeck Would Make Pike Jealous

Captain archer is pike's hero..

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks established that Captain Christopher Pike also regards Captain Jonathan Archer as a hero. Pike confessed such to Ensigns Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), In fact, it was mentioning Archer's Enterprise that made Boimler realize a piece of the NX-01 was part of Pike's starship , and this was the means by which the USS Cerritos' Lower Deckers could return to the 24th century. For Boimler and Mariner, though, time-traveling to the 23rd century to meet their real-life Enterprise heroes was better than a holodeck visit, which they could do any time.

Although Captain Pike admires Captain Archer and fantasizes about what it was like for 22nd-century Starfleet to open up galactic exploration for humans, he can never do what Riker does because Starfleet doesn't have holodecks in the 23rd century . Pike can't just pop into the NX-01 and hang out with Archer and his crew like Riker does. However, Pike is doomed to have a disfiguring accident and spend the rest of his life on Talos IV. Perhaps the Talosians can use their vast powers of illusions to allow Captain Pike to finally visit Captain Archer and the crew of Star Trek: Enterprise .

Star Trek: Enterprise , Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds are available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Enterprise

Star trek lower decks, star trek: strange new worlds.

Star Trek's Holodeck recreated using ChatGPT and video game assets

In Star Trek: The Next Generation , Captain Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise leverage the holodeck, an empty room capable of generating 3D environments, to prepare for missions and to entertain themselves, simulating everything from lush jungles to the London of Sherlock Holmes. Deeply immersive and fully interactive, holodeck-created environments are infinitely customizable, using nothing but language: the crew has only to ask the computer to generate an environment, and that space appears in the holodeck.

Today, virtual interactive environments are also used to train robots prior to real-world deployment in a process called "Sim2Real." However, virtual interactive environments have been in surprisingly short supply. "Artists manually create these environments," says Yue Yang, a doctoral student in the labs of Mark Yatskar and Chris Callison-Burch, Assistant and Associate Professors in Computer and Information Science (CIS), respectively. "Those artists could spend a week building a single environment," Yang adds, noting all the decisions involved, from the layout of the space to the placement of objects to the colors employed in rendering.

That paucity of virtual environments is a problem if you want to train robots to navigate the real world with all its complexities. Neural networks, the systems powering today's AI revolution, require massive amounts of data, which in this case means simulations of the physical world. "Generative AI systems like ChatGPT are trained on trillions of words, and image generators like Midjourney and DALLE are trained on billions of images," says Callison-Burch. "We only have a fraction of that amount of 3D environments for training so-called 'embodied AI.' If we want to use generative AI techniques to develop robots that can safely navigate in real-world environments, then we will need to create millions or billions of simulated environments."

Enter Holodeck, a system for generating interactive 3D environments co-created by Callison-Burch, Yatskar, Yang and Lingjie Liu, Aravind K. Joshi Assistant Professor in CIS, along with collaborators at Stanford, the University of Washington, and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). Named for its Star Trek forebear, Holodeck generates a virtually limitless range of indoor environments, using AI to interpret users' requests. "We can use language to control it," says Yang. "You can easily describe whatever environments you want and train the embodied AI agents."

Holodeck leverages the knowledge embedded in large language models (LLMs), the systems underlying ChatGPT and other chatbots. "Language is a very concise representation of the entire world," says Yang. Indeed, LLMs turn out to have a surprisingly high degree of knowledge about the design of spaces, thanks to the vast amounts of text they ingest during training. In essence, Holodeck works by engaging an LLM in conversation, using a carefully structured series of hidden queries to break down user requests into specific parameters.

Just like Captain Picard might ask Star Trek's Holodeck to simulate a speakeasy, researchers can ask Penn's Holodeck to create "a 1b1b apartment of a researcher who has a cat." The system executes this query by dividing it into multiple steps: first, the floor and walls are created, then the doorway and windows. Next, Holodeck searches Objaverse, a vast library of premade digital objects, for the sort of furnishings you might expect in such a space: a coffee table, a cat tower, and so on. Finally, Holodeck queries a layout module, which the researchers designed to constrain the placement of objects, so that you don't wind up with a toilet extending horizontally from the wall.

To evaluate Holodeck's abilities, in terms of their realism and accuracy, the researchers generated 120 scenes using both Holodeck and ProcTHOR, an earlier tool created by AI2, and asked several hundred Penn Engineering students to indicate their preferred version, not knowing which scenes were created by which tools. For every criterion -- asset selection, layout coherence and overall preference -- the students consistently rated the environments generated by Holodeck more favorably.

The researchers also tested Holodeck's ability to generate scenes that are less typical in robotics research and more difficult to manually create than apartment interiors, like stores, public spaces and offices. Comparing Holodeck's outputs to those of ProcTHOR, which were generated using human-created rules rather than AI-generated text, the researchers found once again that human evaluators preferred the scenes created by Holodeck. That preference held across a wide range of indoor environments, from science labs to art studios, locker rooms to wine cellars.

Finally, the researchers used scenes generated by Holodeck to "fine-tune" an embodied AI agent. "The ultimate test of Holodeck," says Yatskar, "is using it to help robots interact with their environment more safely by preparing them to inhabit places they've never been before."

Across multiple types of virtual spaces, including offices, daycares, gyms and arcades, Holodeck had a pronounced and positive effect on the agent's ability to navigate new spaces.

For instance, whereas the agent successfully found a piano in a music room only about 6% of the time when pre-trained using ProcTHOR (which involved the agent taking about 400 million virtual steps), the agent succeeded over 30% of the time when fine-tuned using 100 music rooms generated by Holodeck.

"This field has been stuck doing research in residential spaces for a long time," says Yang. "But there are so many diverse environments out there -- efficiently generating a lot of environments to train robots has always been a big challenge, but Holodeck provides this functionality."

• Engineering
• Virtual Environment
• Robotics Research
• Civil Engineering
• Artificial Intelligence
• Virtual Reality
• Computer Modeling
• Materials science
• Computer and video game genres
• Search engine
• Mathematical model
• Denaturation (biochemistry)
• Cryptography

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science . Original written by Ian Scheffler. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Yue Yang, Fan-Yun Sun, Luca Weihs, Eli VanderBilt, Alvaro Herrasti, Winson Han, Jiajun Wu, Nick Haber, Ranjay Krishna, Lingjie Liu, Chris Callison-Burch, Mark Yatskar, Aniruddha Kembhavi, Christopher Clark. Holodeck: Language Guided Generation of 3D Embodied AI Environments . Submitted to arXiv , 2024 DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2312.09067

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Penn Engineers Recreate Star Trek’s Holodeck Using ChatGPT and Video Game Assets

By Ian Scheffler

In Star Trek: The Next Generation , Captain Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise leverage the holodeck, an empty room capable of generating 3D environments, to prepare for missions and to entertain themselves, simulating everything from lush jungles to the London of Sherlock Holmes . Deeply immersive and fully interactive, holodeck-created environments are infinitely customizable, using nothing but language: the crew has only to ask the computer to generate an environment, and that space appears in the holodeck.

Today, virtual interactive environments are also used to train robots prior to real-world deployment in a process called “Sim2Real.” However, virtual interactive environments have been in surprisingly short supply. “Artists manually create these environments,” says Yue Yang , a doctoral student in the labs of Mark Yatskar and Chris Callison-Burch , Assistant and Associate Professors in Computer and Information Science (CIS), respectively. “Those artists could spend a week building a single environment,” Yang adds, noting all the decisions involved, from the layout of the space to the placement of objects to the colors employed in rendering.

That paucity of virtual environments is a problem if you want to train robots to navigate the real world with all its complexities. Neural networks, the systems powering today’s AI revolution, require massive amounts of data, which in this case means simulations of the physical world. “Generative AI systems like ChatGPT are trained on trillions of words, and image generators like Midjourney and DALLE  are trained on billions of images,” says Callison-Burch. “We only have a fraction of that amount of 3D environments for training so-called ‘embodied AI.’ If we want to use generative AI techniques to develop robots that can safely navigate in real-world environments, then we will need to create millions or billions of simulated environments.” 

If we want to use generative AI techniques to develop robots that can safely navigate in real-world environments, then we will need to create millions or billions of simulated environments. Chris Callison-Burch, Associate Professor Computer and Information Science (CIS)

Enter Holodeck , a system for generating interactive 3D environments co-created by Callison-Burch, Yatskar, Yang and Lingjie Liu , Aravind K. Joshi Assistant Professor in CIS, along with collaborators at Stanford, the University of Washington, and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). Named for its Star Trek forebear, Holodeck generates a virtually limitless range of indoor environments, using AI to interpret users’ requests. “We can use language to control it,” says Yang. “You can easily describe whatever environments you want and train the embodied AI agents.”

Holodeck leverages the knowledge embedded in large language models (LLMs), the systems underlying ChatGPT and other chatbots. “Language is a very concise representation of the entire world,” says Yang. Indeed, LLMs turn out to have a surprisingly high degree of knowledge about the design of spaces, thanks to the vast amounts of text they ingest during training. In essence, Holodeck works by engaging an LLM in conversation, using a carefully structured series of hidden queries to break down user requests into specific parameters. 

Just like Captain Picard might ask Star Trek’s Holodeck to simulate a speakeasy, researchers can ask Penn’s Holodeck to create “a 1b1b apartment of a researcher who has a cat.” The system executes this query by dividing it into multiple steps: first, the floor and walls are created, then the doorway and windows. Next, Holodeck searches Objaverse , a vast library of premade digital objects, for the sort of furnishings you might expect in such a space: a coffee table, a cat tower, and so on. Finally, Holodeck queries a layout module, which the researchers designed to constrain the placement of objects, so that you don’t wind up with a toilet extending horizontally from the wall. 

To evaluate Holodeck’s abilities, in terms of their realism and accuracy, the researchers generated 120 scenes using both Holodeck and ProcTHOR, an earlier tool created by AI2, and asked several hundred Penn Engineering students to indicate their preferred version, not knowing which scenes were created by which tools. For every criterion — asset selection, layout coherence and overall preference — the students consistently rated the environments generated by Holodeck more favorably. 

The researchers also tested Holodeck’s ability to generate scenes that are less typical in robotics research and more difficult to manually create than apartment interiors, like stores, public spaces and offices. Comparing Holodeck’s outputs to those of ProcTHOR, which were generated using human-created rules rather than AI-generated text, the researchers found once again that human evaluators preferred the scenes created by Holodeck. That preference held across a wide range of indoor environments, from science labs to art studios, locker rooms to wine cellars. 

Finally, the researchers used scenes generated by Holodeck to “fine-tune” an embodied AI agent. “The ultimate test of Holodeck,” says Yatskar, “is using it to help robots interact with their environment more safely by preparing them to inhabit places they’ve never been before.”

Across multiple types of virtual spaces, including offices, daycares, gyms and arcades, Holodeck had a pronounced and positive effect on the agent’s ability to navigate new spaces. 

For instance, whereas the agent successfully found a piano in a music room only about 6% of the time when pre-trained using ProcTHOR (which involved the agent taking about 400 million virtual steps), the agent succeeded over 30% of the time when fine-tuned using 100 music rooms generated by Holodeck. 

“This field has been stuck doing research in residential spaces for a long time,” says Yang. “But there are so many diverse environments out there — efficiently generating a lot of environments to train robots has always been a big challenge, but Holodeck provides this functionality.” 

In June, the researchers will present Holodeck at the 2024 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Computer Vision Foundation (CVF) Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) Conference in Seattle, Washington.

This study was conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science and at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). 

Additional co-authors include Fan-Yun Sun, Jiajun Wu, and Nick Haber at Stanford; Ranjay Krishna at the University of Washington; Luca Weihs, Eli Vanderbilt, Alvaro Herrasti, Winson Han, Aniruddha Kembhavi, and Christopher Clark at AI2.