Fair Haven is another example (one of many) of Voyager episodes which mirror episodes of TNG. In this case I'm speaking of the TNG episode which deals with the Professor Moriarty character on the holodeck.
These two episodes (and others like them) suffer, in my opinion, from a fatal and really stupid flaw: holodeck characters should NOT be able to reason and react the same way as living, breathing beings do. Sentience, self-awareness, reaction to crew behavior-- none of it should be possible--under any circumstances. Imagine playing World of Warcraft or some other online game, and your character turns to look directly at the screen--at YOU--and addresses you directly, knowing that you're not really a level-six mage or whatever. It can't happen in real life, and I have a hard time believing that the advanced engineers of the 24th century allow such bad programming to let it happen on Federation ship holodecks.
For this reason, the fact that the entire premise on which the episode is based is faulty, I honestly can't 'buy' the action in this episode, and can't watch it.
These two episodes (and others like them) suffer, in my opinion, from a fatal and really stupid flaw: holodeck characters should NOT be able to reason and react the same way as living, breathing beings do. Sentience, self-awareness, reaction to crew behavior-- none of it should be possible--under any circumstances. Imagine playing World of Warcraft or some other online game, and your character turns to look directly at the screen--at YOU--and addresses you directly, knowing that you're not really a level-six mage or whatever. It can't happen in real life, and I have a hard time believing that the advanced engineers of the 24th century allow such bad programming to let it happen on Federation ship holodecks.
For this reason, the fact that the entire premise on which the episode is based is faulty, I honestly can't 'buy' the action in this episode, and can't watch it.