Object

Holodeck Computer (Enterprise Ship Computer Holodeck Subroutine)

A distributed holodeck control subroutine of the Enterprise ship computer: an invisible, modular intelligence that speaks in clipped, disembodied prompts and manipulates shimmering holographic volumes, tactile force fields, and program state. It lacks a single physical face—its presence registers as a cold mechanical voice, the sudden flicker of an observation‑lounge display, or the millisecond lockstep of a timed trigger. Officers and guests issue terse commands; the unit locks program parameters, escalates threat levels, projects false sensor returns, and times precision events. Characters address it directly to initiate, override, or halt simulations; when it adjudicates, players feel hits, pauses, and enforced system shutdowns as rules snap into place.
21 appearances

Purpose

To load, run, regulate, and adjudicate holodeck and shipboard simulation programs: accept voice and console commands, enforce safety and program constraints, modulate environmental and force‑field parameters, record simulated 'hits', and trigger precise timing events during tactical simulations.

Significance

Serves as the technological arena and literal referee for the episode’s tests of command, strategy, and identity: it enables Kolrami’s war game, becomes the opponent and symbolic foil in Data’s Strategema defeat, and functions as the timing and deception engine behind the Hathaway ruse. Its rulings convert intellectual contests into public humiliations, its timing locks in life‑risking gambits, and its clinical authority forces officers to shoulder moral responsibility, exposing human frailty and Data’s shaken infallibility.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

21 moments