The Holodeck makes no sense

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[NeonVisual]

The holodeck uses photons, forcefields and replicators.
You can drink and eat in a holodeck, it just replicates it, and if the person is still interacting with the object when the holodeck shuts down it stays solid, assuming it's something like a glass or a piece of fruit. It just doesn't turn it back into energy. Forcefields can't simulate water either, so the holodeck replicates it whenever it's needed.

[JeremyCaron]

Wesley fell into the water on the holodeck once and then walked off of the holodeck and was still dripping wet in the hallway in front of Picard. Always thought that broke the rules too.

[metazare]

It never even occurred to me that they left the holodeck with a piece of paper they got from inside.

But you know what I did catch instead? When Data hands the paper to Geordi, and Geordi flips it to the camera to show the viewer it's a picture of the Enterprise. For Geordi to turn the paper to the camera the way he does in the scene, means that Data handed it to him, and Geordi was looking at it upside down.

I remember catching that as a kid when I first saw the episode on tv.

[Veran]

It has always been said that some of the items in the holodeck are replicated not just illusory. Living matter isnt real, but simple things are thats why:

When you eat in the holodeck then leave, the food doesnt vanish from your body, which could harm you if your body had already absorbed that food into its cells.

When you get wet in the holodeck and leave, you are still wet. Happened to Wesley i believe.

That being said, they are very inconsistent with it and usually hand wave it by saying it was a ‘malfunction’.

[gregquinn]

In the first story Picard was supposed to reference the paper and say Moriarty could have left at any time. Basically Picard tricked him into thinking he was trapped. But at some point it was decided that making Picard a liar to keep a sentient being trapped wasn't the look they were going for with Jean Luc. So it was changed but the paper scene was already in. So later it was retoconned that sometimes it's just solid holograms and sometimes fully replicated matter.

[neolithictransitrevolution]

Maybe the Holodeck was a big replicator but someone realized that constantly generating an entire world is a huge power suck so they changed it to just light and force fields

[slightlyevolved]

Don't forget that earlier episode with the gangsters that walk out of the holodeck and don't disappear at the door, but delay and then slowly disappear from the feet up.

[johnnyr]

My head canon has been:

Is a physical person actively touching it? It's replicated matter.

Is the person not/no longer touching it?
It's light & forcefields.

[oneill_]

In this episode, Moriarty tricked the crew into thinking he left the holodeck, but he had actually created a program. So, until towards the end they were in the holodeck the entire time. iirc, it was during this that he gave that paper to Data

[stdesy]

The holodeck does in fact seemlessly replicate some items. Primarily foodstuffs but it could easily explain the note given to Data. The rest is primarily force fields and projected images. As for “quasi-matter”, who knows? They really didn’t have a good idea of how the tech worked until a few seasons in until late 1991 when the Star Trek TNG technical manual was published. Same goes for replicators and transporters, which in the earlier seasons seemed to be explained by matter/energy conversion (which is nonsensical because that tech would make antimatter unnecessary) as opposed to what it actually is, deconstruction and rearranging/reconstruction of atomic bonds with extreme precision.

[Influx]

Yeah, Trek's writers weren't always interested in writing actual Sci Fi as they were fan fiction

[Valkyrie]

Judging by how long it takes TNG replicators to make breakfast, the loading times on the holodeck must be insane...

[pokemasterism]

IIRC the writers actually did catch that during writing and wanted to have the realize they brought the paper out with them, but decided not to include that plot point

[joshhoey]

"Ship in a Bottle" also sets a strong lower-bound for how good the holodeck actually is; it must be incredibly accurate if it can trick even Data into thinking he's still in the real world.

[p.bamygdala]

The fact that people are discussing this in great detail 30 years later warms my heart!

[arc]

Nile’s life took a turn after he stopped working for Nanny Fine.

[ElizaHamilton]

Or: If people eat something created by the Holodeck, does the food disappear out of them when they leave?

Or, uh…can people create functional bathrooms in the Holodeck, or do cleaning crews have a really horrible mess to clean up every day?

Also: What did it look like to Moriarty when Picard threw the book out the Holodeck doors? Did it look the same to him as it did to Picard (and us, the audience) or did it somehow look different to him, because we don’t really know for certain how aware he is of the outside world or how it works?

[slentwnter]

There’s a interesting scene in the Lower Decks episode called ‘Crisis Point’ where one of the characters gets covered in blood in the holodeck, when they leave the blood immediately disappears as they cross the threshold of the door into the corridor, I thought that was good attention to detail, unlike TNG and VOY.

[Pyranders]

Latinum can't be replicated, which is supposedly why it's so valuable, but it can be transported, and we know from past episodes that you can use transporters to duplicate things. Star Trek has an infinite money glitch.

[linuskonig]

My head canon has always been that Moriarty could never have left the holodeck because he doesn't have a brain. I think the holodeck only generates the outer hull of it's characters and processes their thoughts in it's CPU, not in holo brains of the characters. Even if they had been able to get Moriarty out of there, he would probably just be an empty hull without a brain or any internal organs.
That's how I have always viewed it but I may be wrong.