Star Trek: Voyager season 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 as Star Trek: The Animated Series in the 1970s, the first official holodeck wasn't introduced until Star Trek: The Next Generation's pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint." Once the holodeck was created, however, it quickly became a staple piece of technology in the Star Trek timeline, with similar holographic technology even being retconned into shows set before Star Trek: The Original Series in the franchise's modern era.
Holodeck-centric episodes were common during Star Trek's 1990s-era series, including Star Trek: Voyager. One such episode in Voyager season 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, but the 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 the Star Trek franchise.
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 the Star Trek universe 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, TNG season 1 was set during the 2360s while many members of Voyager's cast of characters would have been born in the 2330s or possibly earlier.
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 when Voyager'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
"Once Upon a Time" had the first true holodeck children's program
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. Previous Star Trek TV shows focused on much more adult programs, or at least programs that were not specifically designed for kids. While shows like TNG and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine did 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 on Voyager opened up the possibility of showing what childhood entertainment looked like in Star Trek's 24th century, something Voyager took fuller advantage of. Featuring "The Adventures of Flotter" provided a whimsicality to the plot that would have been missing otherwise. Unfortunately, Star Trek: Voyager chose 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.
