Star Trek: 15 Best Holodeck Moments
14. Real Life - The Doctor Experiences A 'Real' Family
This is an episode that comes in three distinct and separate parts and is a particular highlight of Robert Picardo's in playing the Doctor. Despite this, it was not deemed a strong episode by several reviewers, where it received low ratings on first release.
However, Picardo explains that the structure of the episode actually allowed for a greater development of his character than he had previously been able to achieve. In the beginning, he has a family that is straight out of a '50s sitcom like The Brady Bunch. Everyone is simply perfect and absolutely worship their father. It is, quite frankly, creepy!
Thankfully, this is also noticed by B'Elanna Torres, who offers to spice the program up a little. When it restarts, it fast forwards to something closer resembling a '90s family drama, with lots of tension and a far different depiction of the Doctor's role in the house. His kids begin to act out and his wife, shockingly, has a career that she deems as important as his.
The episode swings into a darker ending than initially expected with the impending death of the Doctor's daughter. In the space of one episode, Robert Picardo was able to show a range of emotion that was somewhat lacking up to this point with the Doctor. His earlier attempt at program updates in Darkling had sent him into a psychopathic direction. This humanised him far more effectively, giving Picardo one of the strongest episodes of his first three seasons.