If You Like Star Trek's Holodeck Episodes, You Can Thank The Late Writer Tracy Tormé

BY WITNEY SEIBOLD/JAN. 13, 2024 

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, prolific screenwriter Tracy Tormé has passed away at the age of 64. Tormé was a veteran of 1980s-era "Saturday Night Live" and wrote the TV movie "UFO Cover-Up?: Live!" in 1988, cementing his reputation among amateur ufologists everywhere. In the late '80s, Tormé was hand-picked by show creator Gene Roddenberry to contribute to the then-new "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Tormé became the show's executive story editor and creative consultant, a position he held for 24 of the show's early episodes. He is also the credited writer on 12 first-season episodes, including "Haven," "Skin of Evil," "The Arsenal of Freedom," and "The Big Goodbye."

That last episode, which aired on January 11, 1988, was notable in that it was the first holodeck-forward episode of the series. The holodeck was, of course, introduced in the show's pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint," which explained to audiences that the Enterprise-D was equipped with a gymnasium-like room that could holographically create complicated simulated environments. It could be used to go on walks, play sports, or insert one's self into a detective story. Tormé invented a story for "The Big Goodbye" wherein Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) got to play the role of Doxon Hill, a Mickey Spillane-like hard-boiled P.I. Perhaps predictably, there is a glitch with the holodeck, and the holographic bullets become deadly. Picard and some of his crew get trapped inside the holodeck and have to survive the story to escape safely.

The holoeck gave the ordinarily starship-bound TV series an organic reason to add some visual variety, period costumes, and wilder stories. The "holodeck crisis" was a conceit that was reused dozens of times in subsequent "Star Trek" shows. Tormé can take credit for inventing it.

Tracy Tormé, legit UFO guy

After his 12 episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Tracy Tormé left the series. He would go on to co-create the hit five-season TV series "Sliders" with Robert K. Weiss in 1995. That series was a high-concept dimension-hopping show about a group of adventurers who found themselves unable to return to their home dimension. Each episode took place in a parallel universe. Tormé was credited as the writer of 87 episodes of "Sliders." He left over creative differences.

In addition to sci-fi TV, Tormé was known as a UFO expert and wrote several shows and one feature film about real-life UFO phenomena. In 1991, Tormé penned a chilling miniseries called "Intruders," all about alien abductions and large-eyed alien Greys several years before "The X-Files" debuted. Tormé also wrote the screenplay for the biographical alien abduction film "Fire in the Sky," the true story of Travis Walton, a supposed alien abductee. Both Tormé and Walton discussed their mutual experiences on the "Coast to Coast" interview program in 2008. Perhaps it was Tormé's interest in UFOs that made him such a good sci-fi writer.

As mentioned, Tormé didn't invent the holodeck, but he seemed keen to explore its possibilities. He also understood that actors should be given the chance to wear different costumes and play-act new roles every once in a while. "The Big Goodbye" fit the bill perfectly and won a Peabody Award.

Since then, there have been literally dozens of "Star Trek" episodes about the power of the holodeck, usually featuring tales of people stuck inside of them. Indeed, "Star Trek: Voyager" had many, many holodeck episodes, including an episode wherein an alien species equipped the entire ship with hologram emitters, turning the whole vessel into a giant holodeck. Those ideas are Tormé's legacy.

Tormé also oversaw (but didn't write) the episode "Elementary, Dear Data" (December 5, 1988), which saw Data (Brent Spiner) play-acting as Sherlock Holmes. In trying to make a worthy adversary, however, Data and Geordi (LeVar Burton) accidentally created a holographic Moriarty (Daniel Davis) imbued with consciousness. It wasn't long before Moriarty contacted the bridge and took the Enterprise hostage. Tormé seemed eager to overlap the fictional holodeck with the "real world" of the Enterprise. Moriarty would return in an episode of "Next Generation," and again in a 2023 episode of "Star Trek: Picard."

Tracy Tormé was the son of famed crooner Mel Tormé and was raised in the Los Angeles showbiz scene. He was very fond of sci-fi movies as a youth, which he eventually parlayed into a career. He was also a fan of the 1970s sketch comedy series "SCTV" and would occasionally mail scripts to the "SCTV" offices in Canada. They eventually hired him as a writer, which would lead to his gig with "Saturday Night Live.

In addition to "Star Trek" and "Sliders," Tormé additionally wrote scripts for the 1990s version of "The Outer Limits," as well as the sci-fi series "Odyssey 5." His interest in UFOs never waned, and in 2020, he produced a UFO documentary called "The Phenomenon." Fox Mulder wishes he was this guy. Curiously, Tormé never wrote any episodes of "The X-Files." 

According to THR, Tormé was also an expert in the Anaheim Angels, his local baseball team. May he rest in peace.

Read More: https://www.slashfilm.com/1489941/star-trek-holodeck-episodes-thank-late-writer-tracy-torme/