Now you have me wondering if the holodeck programs are free for all, or if private simulations are possible. The social ramifications of either are profound.
We need a “Star Wars Despecialized Editon” of Enterprise where the only thing they change is the theme song.
If it helps at all, this was originally supposed to be U2’s “Beautiful Day”, but they couldn’t get the rights to use it. It’s still an abrupt shift in sytle and tone, but it fits the intro really well.
I like this take. Use him like you’d use a stunt coordinator, or a pyrotechnics specialist. Have a complex action scene that needs to convey action, chaos, high-stakes, and fireballs, for 12 straight minutes? He’s your guy.
I’ll add that this didn’t start with the SW prequel movies either. The various essays on the topic typically focus on The Phantom Menace to make this case (see: Red Letter Media); we do love to hate on that movie. But if you look to early drafts of the very first Star Wars movie script, it’s clear that it took a village to make it more than B-movie material. Also, the making-of stories are complete with every kind of move-making person improving and adding to our producer’s vision, right down to salvaging the whole mess in the editing room. It’s been a problem the entire time.
Now I wonder if THX-1138 and American Graffiti have similar war-stories behind them.
Basically, writing movies like running a 100% improvised DnD campaign. Which is to say it’s great, as long as your audience signed up for repeated intellectual kicks to the groin.
It’s also worth mentioning that 17 million scovilles (17,000,000 SHU) is way off the top of the chart by an order of magnitude: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale
Gag or not, this may not be for human consumption.
On the one hand: no matter what you replicate it’s ethical, nutritious, and good for you. There are literally no bad choices for your body.
On the other: you have access to a bottomless culinary database that spans innumerable diets, cultures, broad swaths of history… and you order Chef Boyardee’s finest with a few saltines. I think it’s time to talk to the ship’s counselor, because nobody should be eating struggle meals in a post-scarcity society.