If you’re lost in the Delta Quadrant—or lost in this lousy timeline we’re suffering through—it’s tempting to escape into a simulation to get you out of the dumps. The crew of Star Trek: Voyager certainly used the holodeck for many purposes, from recreational activities to mission simulations. Many of us Voyager fans fantasized about hanging out in Fair Haven with our beloved crew for a round of rings (no? just me then?).
But not every visit to the holodeck was a pleasant one. We take a look at some dark holographic turns in Star Trek: Voyager.
Author, Author
For an episode that’s mostly a laugh riot, “Author, Author” goes to pretty dark places. We’re left, at one point, wondering if the Doctor’s (Robert Picardo) relationship with the crew has been irreparably damaged. In this Season 7 episode, the Doctor unleashes his magnum opus, the holonovel Photons Be Free. It’s an obvious memoir of his own existence as a hologram aboard Voyager. Except the Doctor’s exaggerated versions of his crewmates are borderline offensive.
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But it’s not like the Doctor really believes Voyager’s crew is a bunch of bigots. He’s simply using them as prototypes for this draft of the story. No one outside Voyager is going to see the holonovel in this state, right? Wrong! The episode pivots to become an engrossing discussion of the rights of creators, especially the rights of someone as unique as the Doctor. While all ends well, the epilogue is a reminder that the Doctor may be made of photons that are free, but there are others like him who aren’t.
Extreme Risk
Star Trek has never been afraid to explore human frailties, and the Season 5 episode of Voyager, “Extreme Risk,” is a great example of that. The episode deals with chief engineer B’Elanna Torres’ (Roxann Dawson) depression and self-harm. Known for her volatile temper, in this episode, we see B’Elanna bottling up her emotions and turning on herself—and the holodeck plays a sadly convenient role in her actions.
Set against the background of the senior staff building the Delta Flyer, B’Elanna takes every moment she can get to sneak off onto the holodeck, turn off the safety protocols and play out high-risk simulations, some of which could be deadly. We finally figure out what’s wrong—in the previous season, B’Elanna had learned that all her Maquis friends had been killed.
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Despite there being no prelude to her depression before this episode (because the show’s writers didn’t intend to follow up on that story beat), it’s not difficult to assume that B’Elanna had been powering through her depression, which eventually surfaced in the form of self-harm. Eventually, B’Elanna’s holodeck program is discovered, and she receives the help she badly needs.
Heroes and Demons
“Heroes and Demons” is a foray into fantasy. When Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) disappears while playing the holo-novel version of Beowulf, the Doctor is called in to join the mission on the holodeck to uncover what the creature Grendel is, and what it’s done with Voyager’s missing crewmembers.
Most of the episode is a frolicking fun romp, albeit intense since “Heroes and Demons” takes place in the first season when neither the crew nor the viewer is aware of the damage the holodeck—physical and emotional—can do.
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In the holonovel, the Doctor meets Freya, daughter of King Hrothgar (Marjorie Monaghan), a warrior who befriends the Doctor and is convinced he can save the day. It’s obvious Freya’s smitten by the Doctor’s apparent heroism, and the Doctor hers. This isn’t the Doctor’s first romance, and like most of his others, it ends in heartbreak. Freya is killed as she heroically saves the Doctor’s life. For a regular crewmember, a dead hologram doesn’t mean much, but that’s not so for the Doctor and his photonic heart.
Human Error
Despite being an unpopular endgame couple, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Chakotay’s (Robert Beltran) romance was hinted at prior to the series finale. In Season 7, Episode 18, “Human Error,” Seven behaves differently. She’s playing the piano, giving a toast, decorating her new quarters and flirting with Voyager’s first officer.
Of course, all this is happening on the holodeck. Seven is playing out a normal life, with friends and a romance. Why the sudden change from her emotionless Borg self? Earlier in the season, Seven had returned to a secret virtual environment she used to visit when she was a drone. She encountered emotions and feelings that she attempts to resurface in “Human Error.”
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Is it a red flag that she chooses the very real first officer to be her holo-boyfriend? Probably. But what’s even sadder is that Seven’s Borg implants prevent her from exploring the full spectrum of her emotions. The Doctor has a fix, but the episode ends with a melancholy Seven shutting down her holo-fantasies.
The Killing Game
In this brutal two-parter, “The Killing Game,” Voyager is hijacked by the hunting species, the Hirogen, and subjected to vicious holodeck programs. The two-parter opens with Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) altered to look like a Klingon, being violently killed. But the Doctor is able to revive her. It doesn’t get much better from there.
The majority of the episode takes place in a simulation of Nazi-occupied France, where Captain Janeway, Seven, B’Elanna and Tuvok (Tim Russ) play resistance fighters, while Chakotay and Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) arrive later as the American cavalry.
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There’s no romanticism of the past here. For example, B’Elanna’s holodeck character is a French woman pretending to be in a relationship with a vile Nazi so that she can feed information to the resistance. And the Hirogen aren’t just torturing the crew on the holodeck; they work the likes of Harry Kim round the clock to keep the simulations running.
This is not a fun two-parter to watch. Voyager does win the day, but that comes at the cost of many (off-screen) casualties.
Real Life
In the Season 3 episode “Real Life,” the Doctor decides to learn some life lessons by creating his own holo-family. Except his idea of “real life” is creating a saccharine family of sycophants. How’s he going to know what real relationships are like if his family is a fantasy?
B’Elanna takes it upon herself to make his family realistic. So, now the Doctor’s family includes an irritable wife, Charlene (Wendy Schaal), who can’t make time for him, and an angry son, Jeffrey (Glenn Harris), who’s fallen in with the wrong crowd. Thankfully, his daughter Belle (Lindsey Haun) is very loving.
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This isn’t too bad. It is real life. However, things take a turn for the worse when Belle ignores her family’s advice and gets mortally injured at Parrises squares. The Doctor, not being able to handle what’s coming, turns off the program before Belle’s inevitable end. But as Paris reminds him, you don’t get to turn off real life, no matter how painful it is.
This episode is devastating but another great example of Star Trek’s ability to examine the human condition through a non-human character.
Worst Case Scenario
“Worst Case Scenario” starts off in an entertaining fashion. B’Elanna is on the holodeck, playing a Voyager crew member who is being secretly recruited to join a Maquis mutiny. It’s not long before the rest of the crew discover this holonovel and attempt different scenarios.
Unfortunately, the story isn’t finished, and worse, the author is unknown. When Paris decides to continue the story, Tuvok reveals himself as the author of this “Worst Case Scenario” training exercise (not a holonovel, after all!). Paris and Tuvok eventually decide to re-work the program, only to get locked into the program by a holographic version of the crew’s late nemesis, Seska (Martha Hackett).
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Seska is like a bad rash. You never know when she’ll pop back up again and how she’s about to ruin Voyager’s day. What began as a creative endeavor turns into a fight to keep Tuvok and Paris alive. Considering how dark the rest of the episodes on this list are, it’s only fair to leave you with one that’s intense but ends on a lighter note.
Star Trek: Voyager is currently available to stream on Paramount+.
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