Star Trek Social Club

I remember a line in at least one episode that claimed holodecks consume so much power, they run on their own independent power system and aren't connected to the warp core.

Can't remember which episode it was, but it was likely one of the two parters where the Hirogen take over Voyager and have the WW2 sim.

Maybe they are and nobody has realised 🤯

As people said, the Holodeck uses a lot of energy, "Homeward" is an episode who show this.

In emergency cases most holograms can be shut off to match increased energy demands by weapons and shields.

Disengage the safety protocols and suddenly you've got weapons and shield emitters than ought to work just as well as their material counterparts, but can't be damaged (or any damage can be instantly reset). We know that holograms can be projected into space so the only limitation would be the range of the holoemitters.

Considering how often a single holodeck tries to take over the ship/kill its occupants/malfunctions, the fewer the better.

I thought the same. It helps to watch the first episode of the next generation. Will talks to wesely about it and its a rare thing at that time and sounds like it takes a lot of resources. Later episodes the holodeck using a lot of power comes up. People have to sign up for them and I took it there is no point in making more holodeck rooms than is prudent for the amount of power they draw just for leisure (mostly) activities. All the rooms have replicators but if someone was running it constantly it would become quite the power drain and we see in voyager that with no source of resupply have to ration replicators (although curiously I don't recall them rationing the holodecks, but maybe they did). As far as discovery in the future you see the energy issues and they use that programmable matter which I think is supposed to be more energy efficient.

OG Discovery had some kind of combat simulator (kind of a proto-holodeck) that Lorca and Tyler used to train for a mission.

After the 31st century refit, the cabins used programmable matter for their furniture, etc. My understanding is that programmable matter is the transistor to the holodeck's vacuum tube (i.e. it made holograms obsolete). Ok, I said that, but there are advanced holograms at HQ, so I guess holography hasn't gone totally out of style. I don't recall if it was ever established as such, but my head canon is that programmable matter is more efficient for "static" objects since it doesn't need energy to maintain form, just when it changes (unlike holograms which require constant energy). That would explain why PM is used for furnishings/decor and holograms are still used for humanoid constructs.

As for why all rooms aren't holodecks/suites in the 24th century, probably due to power consumption. In VOY 4x18 "The Killing Game", the Hirogen had Harry Kim expanding the holo emitters throughout the ship which seemed to be putting considerable strain on the ship's power system (despite not being in battle or at high warp; perhaps not in warp at all -- been a minute since I saw that episode).

While the Prometheus had ship-wide holo emitters and seemed fine power-wise, there's a difference between projecting an EMH (or two) versus simulating an entire environment plus the associated NPCs.

I'd say the biggest reason is energy, like everyone else. But also, being able to make your room into any fantasy scenario you want would probably lead to problems with adjusting to everyday life. They don't need a whole ship full of Barclays screwing up at their job.

Prodigy has holoemitters on every deck and is able to reconfigure the bridge using them. It is possible but they just need a reason.

They didn't go into depth at all, don't believe we even have one with a name, but they talked about seeing federation ships made entirely of 'holographic containment walls' in Discovery Season 3. Pretty sure it was when they first arrived at federation headquarters in the future.

There was also that ship in insurrection where it was just one giant holodeck, but still existing inside a regular ship. The concept just hasn't made it into something that's broadly popular in the mainstream trek fandom.

wait, does Discovery has a holodeck?

They actually seem to have what you're describing, more or less - Burnham was able to run complete holosimulations in her quarters.

This is a fun thought experiment and I'm kind of surprised Discovery didn't do something like this with holodeck tech in the "future" since the writers weren't afraid to do other tech-taken-to-natural-conclusion like tiny phaser transporters (or whatever those were).

Semi-related but I always thought it would be cool to see a Star Trek future where things have advanced so far that it would appear to someone like Picard like he and the Enterprise appeared to the Mintakans.

A) waste of energy

B) horrible source of possible complications, problems and Desasters.

Guess that's already enough reasons. Good idea though.

I feel like most of the objections could be satisfied by having non-essential holodeck stuff in rooms only.

So you have a bed and lighting and core furnishings without it. But you get to use the holodeck to adjust all that to your taste, decorate the room, and othewise make the space yours. Maybe you get a virtual companion if you are lonely.

OTOH, I think replicators are already capable of doing most of what would be done by the in-room holodeck in that case.

To me the energy needs don't really matter since energy consumption only matters in emergencies in Star Trek usually. If the first things you lose when there are power issues are your decorations and your virtual companion, I think that's OK...

Edit - and in the limited space available to a personal cabin even in the Trek universe - it would be cool for your kitchen to be able to become your movie room with a simple voice command, or a personal gym, or an extension to your main living area during a party, etc...