Star Trek: Voyagerseason 5 inadvertently revealed a major thing about holodeck history in one specific episode. Although an early version of a holodeck was seen as far back asStar Trek: The AnimatedSeriesin the 1970s,the first official holodeck wasn’t introduced untilStar Trek: The Next Generation’s pilot episode, “Encounter at Farpoint.“Once the holodeck was created, however, it quickly became a staple piece of technology intheStar Trektimeline, with similar holographic technology even being retconned into shows set beforeStar Trek: The Original Seriesin the franchise’s modern era.
Holodeck-centric episodes were common duringStar Trek’s 1990s-era series, includingStar Trek: Voyager. One such episode inVoyagerseason 5 was the episode “Once Upon a Time,” which featured a children’s holodeck program called “The Adventures of Flotter.“Voyager’s resident kid character,Naomi Wildman (Scarlett Pomers)was shown playing the program throughout the episode, butthe show also established that the program had been popular even when the rest of the crew were children. This accidentally set up a huge reveal about the holodeck’s history in theStar Trekfranchise.
Star Trek: Voyager Established Holodecks Were More Widely Available Before TNG
Voyager inadvertently revealed something very important about holodeck history
The popularity of Flotter in “Once Upon a Time” showed that holodeck technology was widely available in theStar Trekuniverse before it was officially installed on starships. During “Encounter at Farpoint,” the holodeck was established as a new piece of technology that was supposedly just being rolled out. However,TNGseason 1 was set during the 2360s while many members ofVoyager’s cast of characterswould have been born in the 2330sor possibly earlier.
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For characters like Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) or Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) to have played “The Adventures of Flotter” when they were kids,holodeck technology would have had to be available to the general public long before it was officially installed on starships. Of course, it’s possible that the Flotter stories were present in some other form of media whenVoyager’s crew were children. However, a line of Janeway’s at the end of the episode made it seem like she had played the holodeck version of Flotter, suggesting that the technology was present when she was young.
Voyager Was The First Star Trek Series To Explore Children’s Holodeck Programs
Aside from “Once Upon a Time” revealing the larger history of the holodeck, the episode was also the first time a holodeck program specifically for children was introduced to the franchise. PreviousStar TrekTV showsfocused on much more adult programs, or at least programs that were not specifically designed for kids.While shows likeTNGandStar Trek: Deep Space Ninedid feature child characters, the ones who did interact with the holodeck were older than Naomi Wildman, and generally gravitated to programs that fit more within their age group.
Featuring “The Adventures of Flotter” provided a whimsicality to the plot that would have been missing otherwise
However,having a younger child onVoyageropened up the possibility of showing what childhood entertainment looked like inStar Trek’s 24th century, somethingVoyagertook fuller advantage of. Featuring “The Adventures of Flotter” provided a whimsicality to the plot that would have been missing otherwise. Unfortunately,Star Trek: Voyagerchose not to feature the program heavily after season 5, and the rest of the franchise never expanded on the idea of children’s holodeck programs. While not particularly grandiose, the idea deserves to be returned to at some point in the future as a way to flesh out the universe.
