I wasn't expecting another "fun" episode. I enjoyed it. The campy awfulness of the old TV set design and costumes was spot on.
Spock-La'an works well, I want to see more of it. It's difficult to find a lot of plot progress in comedy eps, but pushing their relationship forward a bit is nice. I really hope it goes somewhere meaningful, but this being a prequel, I guess just how far it could go is limited, unless they're willing to diverge off canon.
Hollywood AR walls don't hold anything against a holodeck, but we're getting there. It's cases like this that make me think I wouldn't enjoy one for real though, I'd just spend all my time getting paranoid. And did La'an get permission from everyone to use their patterns?
This earlier holodeck is lacking in any kind of true failsafe and is relying on the simulation program alone to not hurt people. Later on the enterprise, they never really figured that out. Scotty should have wrote his notes on safety much bigger than footnotes.
The writing staff must have been using this episode to vent their frustrations of the TV industry. When they were writing it, I wonder if they knew yet they had a confirmed 5 seasons, or if this was written during a hiatus.
I guess the takeaway message from this episode is "you can always rely on those around you". Except when they're holographic murder simulations, then all bets are off.