Star Trek: 10 Best Holodeck Episodes
6. Deep Space Nine: Take Me Out To The Holosuite
Like Captain Picard, Captain Benjamin Sisko had his fair share of hobbies to help him deal with the stress of being in such an important role. Thanks to his father, Sisko had developed a healthy love of cooking. He was also an avid musician and singer. But his favorite pass-time was baseball. Sisko even had several holodeck programs he took with him on every assignment to enjoy.
Until the Vulcans showed up.
Captain Solok was an old nemesis of Sisko's from his time in Starfleet Academy. Solok had also developed a fascination with baseball during his time on Earth, and now had an all Vulcan team. He challenged Sisko to a game, which he immediately agreed to. Sisko tried to put a team together from his friends and crew, becoming a hard nosed captain and coach at the same time.
In the end, Sisko's motley team was absolutely destroyed by the precise and well trained Vulcans. But it did remind Sisko that the game is supposed to be fun. When they leaned into that, they were able to score one run. The final score was 10 to 1 for the Vulcans. Still, they celebrated a moral victory which confused the hell of Solok.
It was a genuinely fun episode because it took so many of the characters fans were used to seeing out of their usual element and put them off balance. The decision to have the opposing team entirely made up of Vulcans was smart simply because it's hard to imagine them playing a game of any kind, let alone baseball.