I mean, what actually is the worst that can happen?
TNG, with the Moriarty episodes, seems to imply if a hologram exists the holodeck, they get deleted. But Voyager's EMH constantly gets turned off or disrupted (more so after getting the mobile emitter) and is otherwise fine.
I do not like this inconsistentcy. Don't even mention the fact it shouldn't have been that difficult to get holo emitters through the entire ship. Surely a single humanoid hologram doesn't need as much power as a full on holodeck. Even if it did: Do you need more than 1 working holodeck? Just re-route power from one.
TNG, with the Moriarty episodes, seems to imply if a hologram exists the holodeck, they get deleted. But Voyager's EMH constantly gets turned off or disrupted (more so after getting the mobile emitter) and is otherwise fine.
I have mind-canon for this: on Enterprise D, Miles O'Brien was relegated to transporter duty, and Commander Broccoli was their Holodeck expert.
So I figure that the Holodeck on Enterprise D was running without even basic backups, much less a thoughtful disaster recovery plan.
Voyager, in contrast, at least had the recycle bin enabled.
Also, we all know, in our hearts, that there's a macro on Enterprise D that wipes the entirety of Holodeck history, each time Broccoli closes a program.
The history isn't the only thing that needs to be wiped after Broccoli is done in there.
Voyager, in contrast, at least had the recycle bin enabled.
I would remind you that it seems to be very common in Star Trek episodes to forget how reading data works. When the doctor was first outgrowing his program, they had to use up the "diagnostic hologram"'s program to repair his. Apparently they didn't understand backups at the time. And when Ed Begley jr downloaded a bunch of data from Voyager (including the Doctor) it deleted the original.
On the other hand, the existence of the backup Doctor in the Warship Voyager episode shows that they finally figured out a way to copy data without destroying the source.
By Voyager I think they started to treat holodeck characters like video game NPCs and the holodeck like the display. I think the Doctor could step outside, the computer knows he's there but no one can see him.
I can't blame the writers of TNG in 1987 for not knowing about that stuff yet. A lot of it hadn't been invented yet.
Never mind the entire ship got rigged with them during the Hirogen takeover.
