Star Trek‘s best holograms may not be flesh and blood, but that doesn’t keep them from being truly memorable characters. The holodeck was introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation as an update to the recreation room from Star Trek: The Animated Series and an entertainment feature for the crew members of the USS Enterprise-D. When the interactive environments and stories on the holodeck required characters, such as gangsters for Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to confront while playing the part of hard-boiled detective Dixon Hill, the holodeck generated holograms that operated according to predetermined code.
While not a starship, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had smaller holosuites available for paying customers, owned and operated by Quark (Armin Shimerman). It was implied that the holograms generated by Quark’s holosuites were intended to be a little more hands-on with guests, but family-friendly programs like Captain Benjamin Sisko’s (Avery Brooks) baseball simulation were also available. Star Trek: Voyager took hologram technology to the next level, raising holograms from what were essentially non-player characters to becoming full-fledged individuals, with stories debating the personal rights and autonomy of holograms as photonic life-forms. Here are our five favorite Star Trek hologram characters.
Star Trek’s 20 Best Holodeck Episodes
Star Trek’s holodecks entertain, fulfill fantasies, heal old wounds, train cadets, and malfunction badly, as seen in these 20 best episodes.
5 Santiago Cabrera as Cristóbal Rios’ Many Holograms On La Sirena
Captain Rios’ one-man crew in Star Trek: Picard
La Sirena, the unregistered starship captained by Captain Cristóbal Rios (Santiago Cabrera), was designed to be operated by a crew of six. Because Rios was alone on La Sirena, Rios created his own holographic crew to take on the additional roles as needed. The holograms were all based on the basic Emergency Hologram model that came with La Sirena’s operating system, but all five Emergency Holograms were overlaid with Rios’ own appearance, memory, and personality. Each of Rios’ holograms, who had their own names, could be distinguished by their different accents and personal style that differed from Cristóbal’s, before they were merged into a single hologram, Emmet.
Cristóbal Rios’ Emergency Holograms | ||
|---|---|---|
Name | Function | Accent |
Emil | Emergency Medical Hologram | English |
Enoch | Emergency Navigational Hologram | Irish |
Ian | Emergency Engineering Hologram | Scottish |
Emmet | Emergency Tactical Hologram | Chilean Spanish |
Mister Hospitality | Emergency Hospitality Hologram | US American |
4 Daniel Davis as Professor James Moriarty
An adversary fit for Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation
Professor James Moriarty started out as a holographic facsimile of the infamous adversary of Sherlock Holmes and part of Lt. Commander Data’s (Brent Spiner) Holmes-based mystery program. When even new mysteries generated by the program failed to challenge Data as Sherlock Holmes, Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) prompted the USS Enterprise-D’s computer to develop a foe that would actually be a match for Data. Thus was born a new Professor Moriarty, aware of a world beyond the holodeck and its recreation of the 19th century. Moriarty sought an explanation and held Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) and control of the Enterprise hostage until he received it.
Professor Moriarty grew beyond the limitations of his fictional origin, with new awareness rendering his desire for criminal activity more or less obsolete. Moriarty’s core personality remained intact, however, since he saw no problem with holding hostages or making impossible demands in order to succeed at goals that he couldn’t personally accomplish. Although aware of being a hologram, Moriarty refused to accept the limitations of 24th-century technology that kept him and his beloved Countess Regina Bartholomew (Stephanie Beacham) confined to the holodeck, and only relented when Moriarty believed he’d won.
3 James Darren as Vic Fontaine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Vegas crooner
In later seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the holosuite program of choice was Vic’s Las Vegas Lounge, recreating a 1960s nightclub, complete with its proprietor and star performer, sentient hologram Vic Fontaine. Vic was a down-to-earth, affable host who developed sentience spontaneously and prided himself on giving DS9’s staff a place to take a break from the stress of the Dominion War. Because Vic was aware of the real world, Vic could regularly dole out advice, such as when Vic helped Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois) woo Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor), or guided Ensign Nog (Aron Eisenberg) through the young Ferengi’s PTSD.
Vic Fontaine Appearances on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | |
|---|---|
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 6, episode 20 | “His Way” |
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 6, episode 26 | “Tears of the Prophets” |
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7, episode 1 | “Image in the Sand” |
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7, episode 8 | “The Siege of AR-558” |
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7, episode 10 | “It’s Only a Paper Moon” |
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7, episode 15 | “Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang” |
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7, episodes 25 & 26 | “What You Leave Behind” |
2 Kate Mulgrew as Hologram Janeway
The guiding light of Star Trek: Prodigy
In Star Trek: Prodigy, the USS Protostar came equipped with a holographic training advisor modeled on Captain Kathryn Janeway, designed to maintain basic ship functions and assist the Protostar’s crew as needed. When the Protostar was commandeered by a cadre of Delta Quadrant kids led by Dal R’El (Brett Gray), Hologram Janeway taught the new USS Protostar crew about the existence of the Federation. By providing them with hope beyond the dismal conditions they endured at the Tars Lamora mine, the Protostar crew came to regard Hologram Janeway as not just a teacher, but also a dear friend. As a result, Janeway’s program expanded beyond her initial parameters.
5 Janeways In Star Trek: Prodigy Explained
Star Trek has a whole host of Janeway variants, and Prodigy season 1 added four new versions of the beloved Voyager captain to the canon.
1 Robert Picardo as The Doctor
Star Trek: Voyager’s Emergency Medical Hologram
The first holographic character in a Star Trek show’s main cast, Star Trek: Voyager‘s Doctor was an artificial life form who explored humanity by viewing it from the outside, much like TNG‘s Lt. Commander Data. An Emergency Medical Hologram initially designed to supplement regular medical staff in emergencies, the death of Voyager’s original Chief Medical Officer made the Doctor Voyager’s CMO by default. By constantly running, the Doctor exceeded his intended runtime and his original programming, with expansions to his program to become a father, opera singer, spy, comedian, historian, diplomat, holonovel author, advocate for hologram rights, and Emergency Command Hologram. A mobile emitter, based on 29th-century technology, freed the Doctor to exist anywhere.
The Doctor was responsible for huge strides in the way holograms were perceived. Kes (Jennifer Lien) was instrumental in convincing the Doctor that he was a full-fledged member of Voyager’s crew, and entitled to rights and privileges like any organic person. The Doctor took Kes’ advice to heart, and used it to guide Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) as she learned how to be human after years as a Borg drone. Although Voyager‘s Doctor never chose a permanent name, the EMH’s evolution from a simple medical program to a multifaceted, complex character made Star Trek: Voyager‘s Doctor brilliant, beloved, and easily Star Trek‘s best hologram.
