Star Trek: 10 Best Holodeck Episodes
1. Voyager: Real Life
When the USS Voyager was stranded in the Delta Quadrant, they suffered a range of problems and losses right off the bat. One of them was the death of the ship's doctor and his staff. The crew of the Voyager was left with the Emergency Medical Hologram Mark I to take care of them. The Doctor was not meant for the level of usage he got but he learned, adapted and proved to be more than up to the challenge.
One of the ways The Doctor tried to grow was by creating a holodeck family. He felt that this was necessary to understand the human experience better and improve as a physician. His family consisted of his wife Charlene, his son Jeffery and his daughter Belle. But once crew members started to meet them, they pointed out that his family was impossibly perfect and his experience was not real. B'Elanna Torres offered to program some difficulties into his family.
She was, to put it mildly, extremely successful.
The new iteration of The Doctor's family was far more dysfunctional. Charlene was more removed and distant. Jeffery was involved with a rough element. Belle wanted to get involved in dangerous sports. The end result of all of this was Belle being critically injured and at death's door. Rather than facing this, The Doctor walked away from the program until Paris convinced him to go back and see it through.
It was a painful experience for The Doctor, as it would be for anyone. Giving an artificial life form a truly human moment is a hallmark of Star Trek. This tragic moment played out all too realistically and made this one of the most engaging episodes of the series.