I was kinda dreading these episodes. The quickest way to mock a TNG fan is to say, “Oh, Data dressed as Sherlock Holmes turns you on?” Truth is, this isn’t quite as awful as I remember. Yeah, you’d like to think that people battling around in outer space will have more important things to do that wank about in the Holodeck — and, for the love of Surak, will someone implement a safeguard to keep Holodeck figures from causing physical harm, taking over the ship, achieving higher consciousness, etc, etc. . .But if you hold your nose, you can have an okay time.
Holodecks..the Deus Ex Machina of Trek! Even more so than Q or time travel…. there are quite a few more episodes in which it comes into play… even in DS9 and Voyager, if I remember correctly…