It keeps happening!

I think it's unfortunate how it kinda undermines Star Trek's message of fully-automated luxury gay space communism, but I can't help but point out that Quark's for-profit holosuites worked flawlessly throughout the entire run of Deep Space Nine.

Or maybe Rom was just that much more competent than a Starfleet engineer.

As with all things, Starfleet of course has the have the unstable, bleeding edge version on their spaceships. I'm sure Vulcan holodecks are much safer lol
I do think we're supposed to recognize that Rom is actually very skilled though. We see it through Nog's opinion of him, and how well he does after he joins the Bajoran maintenance crew, despite his first initial awkward interactions. And restrictions often improve creativity in real life, so it makes sense to me that he'd have some unique skills, compared to engineers from Earth, who are used to being able to requisition anything they need eventually. You even see some of it aboard Starfleet ships, like when Geordie meets Leah Brahms, and has to defend all the changes he's made to the warp engines on the fly, or in the Upper Decks episode of Lower Decks, when Billups is teaching the ensign about maintenance.
It's part of the whole idea of the show, that these other people, even ones we might not initially get along with, have valuable perspectives. "Infinite diversity, in infinite combinations."
- I do think we’re supposed to recognize that Rom is actually very skilled though. We see it through Nog’s opinion of him, and how well he does after he joins the Bajoran maintenance crew, despite his first initial awkward interactions.
  He also invented those self-replicating cloaked mines that stopped the Dominion from coming through the wormhole and saved the Alpha Quadrant.
  But still, the fact that the holosuites didn't deteriorate after Rom quit working for Quark suggests the first possibility rather than the second.
The only time there was an issue was when the bridge crew got uploaded into Bashir's spy program.
- But that wasn't a holosuite issue, do dumped their patterns into holomatrix or whatever on purpose.
I believe the Enterprise holodeck was connected to its supercomputer which could hold an entire civilization without issue, hence the whole thing was prone to develop intelligence randomly.
The cardassisn holodecks were better.
(Or they were sick of that trope.)
- They couldn't have been sick of the trope because they brought it back for Voyager.
  That's why I wrote "Starfleet engineer" instead of "Geordi" specifically, BTW: the holodecks (and Sickbay holoemitters) B'Elanna was responsible for were less than 100% reliable, too.

"HOLDECK"

Oh no, the alien virus has gotten into LCARS, too!
Moriarty is giving a clue to something

Episode idea: Someone creates a cat cafe program, but they find themselves unable to leave when one of the cats falls asleep on their lap.

Why can't a malfunction result in an orgy!?

Apparently Seth MacFarlane asked himself the same question because in The Orville, exactly that happens.
Or maybe the orgy resulted in a holodeck malfunction? I gotta re-watch.
- In Futurama, Zapp Brannigan was slapped with 3 paternity suits when their holo-shed malfunctioned.
- Lol, I was about to post this same image
- I believe the holodeck program was porn that contained a virus.
The Enterprise D crew was selected specifically to avoid seduction by Riker (otherwise they'd never get anything done), so it takes more than a holodeck malfunction to make them start an orgy.
- There's a whole line of jokes about "Holodeck Waste Removal" floating around the back corners of YouTube. But the algorithm has grown so gnarly, I can't find any of it anymore.
Proper function = orgy.
Malfunction = borg-y.
- You will be ass stimulated. Resistance is futile.
- Proper function = an orgy for me with several attractive women
  Malfunction = an orgy for me with and all dudes

If it malfunctioned and tried to kill you once a year, would it still be worth it to have a holodeck?

Question for the philosophers, I guess.

I dunno, how many people still live in Midsomer despite what seems like a rate of one murder per week?
Cars are inherently dangerous, but it doesn't stop people from knowingly texting while driving, driving under the influence, or while getting road head. And cars could malfunction for any number of reasons, be it on their own or due to shit maintenance
- Sounds like it's not worth it to own a car so we should just text, drink, and 69 on the train.
Maybe?

Whenever two or more major characters enter a holodeck, or are interacting with multiple people who enter a holodeck:

Maybe stop softmodding the holodeck with different technology that hasn't been fully tested with it

Someone actually did a breakdown of TNG holodeck malfunctions and the actual rate averages less than 1 episode per season. That's if you don't count someone legitimately messing with the holodecks first. And I don't know if you could even consider Moriarty, since the holodeck was specifically asked to create a special nemesis for Data...

The Big Goodbye
Elementary, Dear Data
A Fistful of Datas
Ship in a Bottle
Emergence

DS9 "Our Man Bashir", but that was a case of a malfunction elsewhere and the characters doing some hold my beer shit to keep everyone alive. "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang", but the simulation was specifically programmed by the author to do it, and there wasn't any danger to the crew besides Vic.
Probably some others on Voyager, but I don't remember anything from Voyager very well.

One episode of my favourite sci-fi show please!

One cliché Western / Detective story coming right up.

I've figured out why star trek always has some sort of technical issue. Everything is designed by AI. The engineers are vibe coding everything on the starship; from replicators to the holodeck. Especially the holodeck.

Yeah, but it's so much fun. A little death and mayhem now and again can be excused.

Holodeck Problems

Gotta solve 'em

Crawlin' through Jefferies tube, like a Swāgrom