Feature 101 aries are strictly set and visible between the world of the viewer (commonly called the reality) and the Getting Immersed in Star Trek: worlds, but as soon the lights go up in the theatre, Storytelling Between "True" and theimaginary television world set ofis fiction.being switched You may offtravel or you between close your book, you immediately return to the real world. "False" on the Holodeck However, what if the level of immersion can be raised to such a high level that the boundaries be- Sebastian Stoppe - ning with Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG; USA tween reality and fiction become invisible? Begin TELEVISION IS A writer’s medium. Especially in se- 1987–1994), the multi-media franchise Star Trek rial formats, television enables the writer to nar- introduced the holodeck. In this article, I want to rate large-scale stories spread over several episodes examine the holodeck as storyteller in the mod- within a season. Although the plots do not need to ern world. I want to show that – aside from being be narrated in a linear way, watching TV is a mostly a highly immersive medium – the holodeck itself linear process. Regardless whether you watch a new can create imaginary worlds to an extent that the episode of your favourite series week by week or - rather prefer "binge-watching" an entire season, sto- ing untraceable. boundaries between reality and fiction are becom rylines evolve in a linear way meaning you still have to watch episode after episode to get the whole story 1. A Perfect Simulacrum presented in the way the authors intended. Gradually Basically, the holodeck is an empty space with a high you will become immersed in the show, diving in the ceiling and no furniture at all. A yellow grid pattern covers the walls of the room and there is a large 81). However, immersion is not restricted to tele- doorway with an arch that contains a control panel visionfictional (Bracken world you and are Skalski). being told You of may (Rigby become and Ryan im- - (fig. 1). mersed into a book as well as a film. Yet still bound Figure 1: View of an idle holodeck with the arch doorway. 4 SFRA Review 316 Spring 2016 SFRA Review 316 Spring 2016 5 When not in use, the holodeck is like a dark TV screen or a blank page in a book. But once a pro- gramme is started, the holodeck comes to life. Ho- aStarfleet photon personnel,torpedo by the clicking corridor on theis a bridgestage set controls, which lodecks simulate life in its lushest form. It does not anddoubles there for is allno corridorswarp core on and the no ship, constant no one humming can fire like Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) does see the entire crew walking through the entire ship, inmatter TNG whetherWe’ll Always you Havesimply Paris recreate (USA a1988), specific you place set weof the hear ship. the However, constant we humming see a Starfleet and we captain, know thewe up combat training like Lieutenant Worf (Michael warp core is within normal parameters. The simula- Dorn) does occasionally, or you enter a narrative like tion of reality that is presented to us through televi- the Dixon Hill detective stories or like the adventures sion becomes reality because we are completing it. of Sherlock Holmes throughout The Next Generation. 'The hallucination is total and truly fascinating once Holodecks are perfect simulacra, to borrow a term the hologram is projected in front of the plaque, so by French philosopher Jean Baudrillard. Holodecks that nothing separates you from it […]' (Baudrillard do not pretend to be another place, they are (Stoppe, 105). We are becoming immersed into it, and until '"Tee, Earl Grey, heiß"' 105). Like Baudrillard points the show is over and the screen goes dark, the sto- out, 'to dissimulate is to pretend not to have what rytelling is reality to us. Without being aware of it, one has. To simulate is to feign to have what one we are getting immersed into a simulacrum. The doesn’t have' (3). When simulating, one adds some- stories – written by authors – guide us through it. thing false to reality which cannot be distinguished 'We become immersed and present in their worlds, from reality objectively. 'Pretending, or dissimulat- emotionally experiencing them as if they were really ing, leaves the principle of reality intact: the differ- happening to us' (Rigby and Ryan 82). ence is always clear, it is simply masked, whereas Enter the holodeck. Baudrillard argues that a three- simulation threatens the difference between the dimensional simulacrum would be less close to the "true" and the "false," the "real" and the "imagi- real than a two-dimensional (107). Would an added nary"' (Baudrillard 3). Baudrillard himself refer- dimension unmask the simulacrum? Baudrillard re- ences McLuhan who considers television as a ‘cold’ fers to traditional television and thus his argument medium which presents a simulation of reality that that a three-dimensional television would detract us needs to be completed by the viewer. McLuhan sees from the real has a certain point. That is, because we are the hologram plunged into the simulacrum. By not of the visual, as you might think when compar- watching 3-D television you are indeed heavily re- ingtelevision to radio primarily and the asaural an amplification(364). For McLuhan, of touch tele and- minded that this world is unreal. Remember McLu- vision stresses all human senses, not only the visual han arguing that television is an extension of touch one. Baudrillard takes this idea one step further, in- in terms of interplay of all senses. By watching three- dicating that television transforms the viewer into a dimensional pictures we are immediately reminded holographic character. 'You bend over the hologram of touching things, of literally grasping things to like God over his creature: only God has this power understand and recognise them. But there is noth- - ing solid to touch, we are still holograms. However, ing Himself immaterially in the beyond' (Baudrillard what if we are switching sides? Being the real one in 105).of passing Like God,through it seems walls, that through we are people, not only and looking find a world made up of holograms that can be touched into another world while watching TV. It seems as if anyway? The holodeck is able not only to produce we are really in this world. For example: While we a simulated reality, a simulacrum in terms of Bau- are watching Star Trek, something miraculous does drillard. It is able to materialise all things the ‘view- happen. We are being drawn into the story and onto er’ is interacting with. Reprising my example from the ship. We follow the narrative and at one point we above, there is not only one corridor standing in for feel like a crewman of the Enterprise, walking with all but there are all corridors of the ship, I encounter the others through the corridors, onto the bridge and living with them in their quarters. You may object one, there is a warp core and humming throughout that we are still able to differentiate between reality thea Starfleet ship and captain I can and not an actor pretending to be hologram anymore, I am a real person in a simula- The truth is: all people in the show are actors and not crum. Like a video fire game, a photon the holodecktorpedo. I'seem[s] am not the to and fiction, but are we? What is "true" and "false"? 4 SFRA Review 316 Spring 2016 SFRA Review 316 Spring 2016 5 have the ability to not just tell us a story, but to let us they have taken a journey to the world on the screen actively live it' (Rigby and Ryan 2). Seen objectively, from their actual location on the couch or wherever I cannot determine whether any of my actions do they may be in the molecular world' (88). In a way, have an effect on reality or not because I cannot dif- the holodeck creates a world within the world that is fer between the real and the simulacrum anymore. I to some degree complete and consistent (Wolf) and am totally immersed into the medium which is the we actually do the before-mentioned journey: We physical presence are present in a most physical way. as a state in which 'the video game player feels that holodeck. Rigby and Ryan define Figure 2: A holodeck archway with control panel. However, the boundaries between the real and the Fictional texts commonly follow a certain narrative simulacrum still are well-set. Whenever we walk in which a story is presented in a certain way, thus through the holodeck door, we enter another world forming a plot. As television is a linear medium, it (as long as a programme is already running). Once is sometimes supposed that narratives must be pre- inside, the door to the outer world closes and disap- sented in a linear way, too. However, this is not true pears (hence the holodeck places a simulation upon at all. As with books, the plot line does not need to the doorway, too). But like in a video game, one is be strictly linear. A writer may present a story by always able to let the doorway including an arch using different techniques such as fragmented nar- with a computer terminal re-appear by instructing at the same time. Immersion functions in either way escape a video game: by summoning the game menu becauseration or although flashbacks. the Certainstory may plot be lines non-linear may happen itself, (Stoppe,the computer '"Tee, toEarl do Grey, so (fig.