Detective fiction abounds with colorful gumshoes, from Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, to Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe.  But none of them made an impact on the mystery genre quite like Dixon Hill, the hero of a series of short stories and novels by 20th-century Earth writer Tracy Torme.  Torme originated the character in the short story "The Big Goodbye," originally published in 1934 in the pulp magazine Amazing Detective Stories.  In 1936, the first Dixon Hill novel, The Long Dark Tunnel, appeared in print, to be followed about four years later by The Parrot's Claw.  By the 24th century, Torme's creations are more popular than ever, both in written form and as holographic entertainments.

Even the hardest-working Starfleet officers require the diversion of a fictional world now and then, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard is no exception.  Though Picard is well-versed in high culture (Klingon opera, and the works of William Shakespeare, to name a few), he still gets a vicarious thrill from entering the hard-boiled detective milieu of Dixon Hill.  When the holodecks of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D receive a technological upgrade in 2364, Picard gets his first opportunity to experience Dixon Hill's 1930s San Francisco through the eyes of Tracy Torme's famous private-eye hero; on the holodeck, Picard is Dixon Hill.  However, a compputer glitch occurs because of a long-range scan from the insect-like Jarada, nearly costing the lives of Picard, Dr. Beverly Crusher, Lieutenant Commander Data, and Mr. Whalen, the ship's fiction expert.

In spite of that near-disaster, Picard finds the Dixon Hill setting irresistible.  On a subsequent holodeck visit to Hill's San Francisco, Picard instructs the ship's computer to use Tormes's settings and characters -- without replicating specific story elements -- to create an original Dixon Hill adventure  capable of surprising and challenging him.  Unfortunately, Betazoid ambassador Lwaxana Troi unexpectedly intrudes; unfamiliar with the holodeck's workings, she disrupts the adventure by making romantic overtures to Rex, the holographic bartender.  On still another occasion, Picard introduces his old friend, Guinan, to Dixon Hill's adventures.

Following the Enterprise-D's destruction at Veridian III in 2371, Dixon Hill's fictional world becomes pivotally important to Captain Picard and to the entire Federation.  The Dixon Hill program on the holodeck of the new Soverign-class U.S.S. Enterprise-E enables Picard and his 21st-century ally, Lily Sloane, to evade a group of Borg drones bent on assimilating both the Enterprise and the Earth itself.  Tracy Torme's Dixon Hill has not only literally helped save the world, but also promises to provide Picard with entertainment and deversion for many years to come.