Because “Star Trek: Voyager” takes place far away from any established Starfleet vacation destinations (the ship is lost in space, 70 years from Earth), shore leave is a sort of catch-as-catch-can affair, and a lot of time was spent on the ship’s holodecks. One might get the impression that shore leave begins and ends on a whim on the U.S.S. Voyager. Early in the series, officers would gather at a holographic French bistro called Chez Sandrine to unload after a long day. There is talk of rationing out the ship’s holodeck time, but the thing was running pretty much all day and night, allowing officers a locale to relax. Later in the show, the bistro would be replaced by a beach resort, complete with holographic swimsuit models. Eventually, the resort would be replaced by a quaint English village, wherein Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) would create her very own rough-hewn, Heathcliff-type holographic boy toy. The village program is explicitly left running 24/7.

Oh, and who could forget the two-part episode “Flesh and Blood” (November 29, 2000) wherein the Hirogen (a species not too far removed from the aliens in “Predator”) ripped out most of the ship’s interiors, turning the whole vessel into a holodeck built for hunting? In that episode, the Voyager crew has their memories wiped on the regular, and are surgically altered to look like various species, all so the Hirogen can hunt them, kill then, resurrect them, and start again. Maybe not a fun vacation for the Voyager crew, but another example of the holodeck being (over)used for recreation.