the late Trek writer Tracy Tormé. Because it could create simulated environments, the show could have a lot more visual variety; it gets boring looking at the same eight starship sets week after week. Now characters could playact as 1930s film noir detectives, James Bond-like spies, or 1950s sci-fi heroes. They could go river-rafting or, in Worf’s case, fight villains from a “He-Man” cartoon. The holodeck made the entire “Star Trek” franchise more pliable.
“A Space Adventure Hour” finally allows “Strange New Worlds,” already a visually varied show, to have one more outlet for its genre explorations. Of course, “Strange New Worlds” takes place before the original “Star Trek” series and a century before “Next Generation,” so some readers may already be crying foul. Know that “Strange New Worlds” covers for this by explaining that holodeck technology is still in its design phase, and that it, in its current form, requires more power than a starship typically generates. Holodecks don’t work yet, explaining why it they wouldn’t be standard issue on a starship for another century.
Of course, if there’s a holodeck episode of “Strange New Worlds,” it’s going to have to be an homage to “Next Generation” and Tracy Tormé.
