Star Trek: Every Lt. Barclay Episode Ranked Worst To Best
6. Author, Author
Author, Author is Star Trek: Voyager's answer to The Measure of a Man, though somewhat disturbingly, it doesn't quite have the happy ending for the Doctor that the Next Generation episode had for Data.
When the Doctor submits his holonovel for publication, he receives quite a bit of harsh feedback from his shipmates for his less than flattering depiction of them. His publisher loves it however, and when the Doctor says that he needs more time to edit the depictions, he is refused. The publisher simply brushes aside the Doctor's rights as an author because, in his mind, the Doctor is a hologram, and therefore has no rights.
The case goes to trial, with Barclay and Admiral Paris standing to support the Doctor. Although he wins the day, in that he is allowed creative rights over his work, the matter of whether not holograms should be deemed sentient is not ruled on. This is not The Measure of a Man and it is not the great victory the audience was hoping. The final shot sees dozens of EMH Mark 1 holograms toiling at a mining facility, existing as that very slave race that Guinan predicted, all those years previously.