Star Trek regularly relies on the recreational simulator to explore genres outside the sci-fi constraints of the franchise, and here are 20 of the very best holodeck episodes. During Star Trek: The Original Series, if the writers wanted to tell a gangster story or restage the gunfight at the OK Corral, there had to be a convoluted sci-fi explanation. The introduction of the holodeck changed all that, allowing various Star Trek shows to put a sci-fi spin on sports movies, spy thrillers, and World War 2 movies.
First introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the holodeck has provided Star Trek with some of the most enjoyable and emotional episodes of all time. While holodeck episodes are often an excuse to cut loose, they can also be a means to explore mental health or the existential concept of reality itself. Here are 20 of the best holodeck episodes from across the entire Star Trek franchise.
20 Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 6, “Kobayashi”
After discovering the holodeck aboard the USS Protostar, Dal R’El (Brett Gray) ran Star Trek’s Kobayashi Maru simulation to test his capabilities as a starship Captain. With a crew of Star Trek legends from TOS to DS9, Dal learned valuable lessons about the pressures of command. His creative efforts were a joy to watch and even led to a favorable comparison to Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) by the man who knew him best, Commander Spock (Leonard Nimoy).
19 Star Trek: Voyager Season 4, Episodes 18 & 19, “The Killing Game”
Star Trek: Voyager’s Hirogen were a fascinating species who were galactic nomads driven purely by their hunter instincts. When they encountered the USS Voyager and its holodeck technology, they imprisoned the crew in various violent simulations to sate their appetites for the hunt. It’s an interesting exploration of the concept of the holodeck and its more unsavory uses, even if it relies heavily on the novelty of placing the Voyager crew in a World War 2 setting.
18 Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2, Episode 8, “I, Excretus”
Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ “I, Excretus” sees the crew of the USS Cerritos engage in simulations of various Starfleet drills – pitting Bradward Boimler (Jack Quaid) against a holographic Borg Collective. As with Lower Decks‘ “Crisis Point” holodeck episodes, “I, Excretus” is full of Star Trek references as Boimler rescues some Borg babies, becomes Excretus of Borg, and encounters the Borg Queen. As it’s a holographic simulation, It allows the overtly comic Lower Decks to feature the Borg without compromising their major Star Trek villain status.
17 Star Trek: TNG Season 6, Episode 8, “A Fistful of Datas”
Although it’s a good excuse to show off Brent Spiner’s acting range in a series of outrageous mustaches, “A Fistful of Datas” has much to recommend. It’s essentially an episode about Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) and his difficulties in bonding with his son, Alexander Rozhenko (Brian Bonsall). Hoping to bond like Klingon warriors, Worf instead participates in a Wild West hologram program at Alexander’s request. Due to a freak accident, the outlaws and residents of the Wild West town all look and sound suspiciously like Data. It’s a comedy filler episode, but has some genuinely touching moments between Worf and Alexander.
16 Star Trek: TNG Season 1, Episode 12, “The Big Goodbye”
“The Big Goodbye” is the first of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “holodeck gone wrong” episodes, trapping Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) inside a Dixon Hill holonovel. There’s a joy in seeing Captain Jean-Luc Picard, a serious man who enjoys Shakespeare, delight in pulpy detective fiction. It’s a lot of fun to see Picard, Lt. Cmdr. Data (Brent Spiner) and Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) attempt to outwit the deadly holographic gangsters, establishing the ground rules for future Star Trek holodeck episodes as they go.
15 Star Trek: Voyager Season 5, Episode 12, “Bride of Chaotica!”
A misunderstanding involving a race of photonic aliens results in the USS Voyager crew having to play along with a schlocky sci-fi holonovel from the pen of Lt. Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill). “Bride of Chaotica!” is at its best when Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) is vamping it up as Arachnia, Queen of the Spiderpeople. Kate Mulgrew’s Janeway rarely got to have fun as she had to steady the ship, so it’s refreshing to see her cut loose as the campy sci-fi villain in “Bride of Chaotica!”
14 Star Trek: DS9 Season 6, Episode 20, “His Way”
“His Way” introduces Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s resident holographic lounge singer, Vic Fontaine (James Darren), who makes an instant impression. Vic helps Odo (Rene Auberjonois) to finally confront his romantic feelings for Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) in one of DS9’s holosuites. The episode plays out like a classic screwball comedy of errors, as Odo and Kira finally find love at Vic’s club. However, it’s not until some typically passionate arguing after one of the episodes’ many comic misunderstandings that the two become an official couple, to the delight of everyone on DS9’s promenade.
13 Star Trek: Voyager Season 5, Episode 8, “Nothing Human”
Star Trek: Voyager explored the moral and ethical implications of holographic technology like no other Trek show before or since. One of the strongest examples of this is “Nothing Human”, in which the Doctor (Robert Picardo) requests the assistance of a holodeck representation of a cruel Cardassian exobiologist called Crell Moset (David Clennon). It created a fascinating ethical dilemma over whether a simulation of someone is the same as the original because the Doctor created the hologram without the awareness of Moset’s worst crimes. Eventually, the Doctor deleted the program because he could not reconcile Crell Mosset’s brutal methods with his scientific genius.
12 Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 9 “Crisis Point”
“Crisis Point” is both a great holodeck episode and an affectionate tribute to the Star Trek movies. Created by Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) as an alternative to therapy, “Crisis Point” casts Mariner as Vindicta, a vengeful villain who is the Khan Noonien-Singh (Ricardo Montalban) to the Cerritos’ Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis). It’s an action-packed, tongue-in-cheek Star Trek adventure that also reveals the sensitive information that Freeman is Mariner’s mother to Boimler, setting up a very awkward moment in the Lower Decks season 1 finale.
11 Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 10, “Pathfinder”
There are several Star Trek: Voyager episodes that use the holodeck to provide an alternate take on the titular hero ship. “Author, Author” in season 7 is more about the Doctor’s rights to be recognized as a sentient life form than it is about the holodeck simulation. “Pathfinder” is different as it revisits Lt. Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) and his addiction to the holodeck. Tasked with figuring out how to communicate between the Alpha Quadrant and the USS Voyager, Reg becomes obsessed with his holographic simulation of the ship and its crew. It’s an update on the classic TNG episode “Hollow Pursuits” that forms a key moment in Voyager’s homecoming arc.
10 Star Trek: DS9 Season 6, Episode 18, “Inquisition”
“Inquisition” takes an idea from Star Trek: The Next Generation season 4, episode 8, “Future Imperfect” to tell a gripping espionage thriller. When Starfleet Intelligence accuse someone on DS9 of being a spy, it quickly becomes apparent that Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) is firmly in the crosshairs. Coming hot on the heels of the revelations that Bashir had been replaced with a Changeling, and had also been genetically augmented, it’s hard not to suspect another big reveal. Thankfully, it’s an elaborate holodeck simulation to test Julian for a position with Section 3, an offer that Bashir firmly turned down.
9 Star Trek: TNG Season 2, Episode 3, “Elementary, Dear Data”
Data’s Sherlock Holmes simulation is good fun, but it also sets up the idea of a self-aware hologram that will lead to Star Trek: Voyager‘s Doctor storyline. The sentient Professor James Moriarty (Daniel Davis) would later return for an even better holodeck episode. However, there’s a lot of fun to be had with the concept of Data being too smart even to play Sherlock Holmes, solving Conan Doyle’s complex mysteries easily. The Holmes character would leave a lasting impression on Data, who kept the deerstalker and pipe among his “trinkets” in Star Trek: Picard season 3.
8 Star Trek: Voyager Season 3, Episode 22, “Real Life”
Star Trek: Voyager‘s Doctor was a natural successor to Data, and many of his best episodes repurposed elements of the TNG android’s arc. In “Real Life”, the Doctor created his own loving suburban family to experience a loving home life. However, when his loving 1950s sitcom-style family unit received criticism, the Doctor attempted to add conflict. What followed was a gut-wrenching family drama as Voyager’s EMH found himself unable to save the life of his daughter, while his son went off the rails. It was a bold new take on Star Trek‘s “holodeck gone wrong” trope that delivered a devastating ending.
7 Star Trek: DS9 Season 7, Episode 15, “Bada-Bing, Badda-Bang”
“Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang” is Ocean’s 11 in the style of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, pitting the crew against a programming glitch that manifests as brutal holographic gangsters. To return several favors to Vic and oust the gangsters from his club, the DS9 crew stage an elaborate con, assuming various heist movie archetypes. To top it all off, Captain Sisko got his own Picard poker moment by cutting loose with his crew; playing the character of a high-roller, and joining Vic Fontaine for a joyous duet of “The Best is Yet to Come”. It’s a refreshing change of pace before DS9 plunges headlong into the final stages of the Dominion War.
6 Star Trek: Voyager Season 3, Episode 25, “Worst Case Scenario”
The holodeck allowed Star Trek: Voyager to explore what a Maquis mutiny would look like without compromising the integrity of its lead characters. A holodeck program entitled “Insurrection Alpha” was designed by Lt. Tuvok (Tim Russ) to train Starfleet security officers in the event of a mutiny. Although Tuvok abandoned the program, Voyager’s only Maquis traitor, Seska (Martha Hackett) had discovered it and altered it with potentially deadly consequences for Tuvok and Tom Paris. It’s an exciting episode that, in depicting the Maquis mutiny, answers one of Voyager‘s biggest “What If?” questions.
5 Star Trek: DS9 Season 7, Episode 4, “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”
The holosuites at Quark’s Bar provided much-needed relaxation for the DS9 crew as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Dominion War heated up. One of the very best examples of this is “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” in which Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) is challenged to a baseball game by his Vulcan rival, Captain Solok (Gregory Wagrowski). Watching Sisko teach his crew how to play baseball, and succumb to the fury and passions of all great sports coaches is a joy. Sport is something that’s rarely tackled well in Star Trek, if at all, but “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” is a classic underdog sports movie with a DS9 twist.
4 Star Trek: TNG Season 6, Episode 12, “Ship in a Bottle”
Moriarty returned to Star Trek: The Next Generation in “Ship in a Bottle”, which saw the criminal mastermind subvert Picard, Data, and Barclay’s perception of reality itself. Petitioning Picard for the right to live outside the confines of the holodeck. In an ingenious attempt to convince Picard that Moriarty is ready for the outside world, Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis trapped the three Starfleet officers inside an elaborate simulation of the USS Enterprise-D. Ultimately, Picard, Data and Barclay turned the tables on Moriarty, trapping him inside a holocube, where he’s gifted the illusion of free will.
3 Star Trek: DS9 Season 4, Episode 10, “Our Man Bashir”
A transporter malfunction resulted in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine crew being stored inside the holosuite systems during a James Bond-style simulation. It’s a substantial upgrade on TNG‘s “A Fistful of Datas” as it allows each of the DS9 cast to show off their range. Avery Brooks played a chilling Bond villain, while Colm Meaney excelled as his eye patch-wearing henchman. “Our Man Bashir” established how DS9‘s holodeck episodes would often be a chance for the cast to take a break from the darker storylines involved with the Dominion War. It also proved that Alexander Siddig is the best 007 that the James Bond franchise never had.
2 Star Trek: TNG Season 3, Episode 21, “Hollow Pursuits”
“Hollow Pursuits” is the first Star Trek episode to explore the connection between holodeck technology and mental health. Focusing on the shy and awkward Lt. Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz), “Hollow Pursuits” reveals how the holodeck enables Reg to rehearse social interactions like standing up for himself with Commander Riker. The message of the episode is that, as comforting as these simulations can be, they can often stop people from appreciating the world around them. It’s a fantastic Star Trek story about mental health that many Trek shows have tried to improve upon, with only one episode topping “Hollow Pursuits” for emotional impact.
1 Star Trek: DS9 Season 7, Episode 10, “It’s Only a Paper Moon”
“It’s Only a Paper Moon” expands upon the message of “Hollow Pursuits” by focusing on Ensign Nog (Aaron Eisenberg) and his struggle to come to terms with his experiences on the battlefield. Nog sought solace at Vic Fontaine’s club, where he used his Ferengi heritage to help the nightclub owner turn his business around. Sadly Nog’s inability to leave Vic’s club prevented him from coming to terms with his experiences and fear of death. “It’s Only a Paper Moon” shows every aspect of Star Trek‘s holodecks: the entertainment, the healing properties, but also the addictive qualities of experiencing another life. It’s why it’s the franchise’s very best holodeck episode.