Star Trek: Real Life

Episode: "Real Life"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 3, Episode 22

Original Air Date: April 23, 1997

via Memory Alpha

In his ongoing effort to broaden his own experiences, the Doctor creates a holodeck family for himself: a wife and two children.  Predictably, they are all nauseatingly perfect.  Torres makes a few tweaks to the program in order to provide the EMH - Kenneth to his family - with a more realistic experience.  Shocker, his wife and kids are now quite a lot more resistant to his efforts to control them.  What starts as chaos quickly turns to heartbreak when his daughter Bella suffers a terrible accident.

This is all part of the Doctor's wish to better understand his patients and it's an admirable goal.  The real barrier isn't so much lack of experience as lack of emotional range.  Last episode, I mentioned Kes's exceptional empathy.  Her strength is the Doctor's deficit.  Brilliant as he's constantly reminding everyone he is, he doesn't get people.  Unfortunately, that's a real world problem for too many in the medical profession. 

How does a computer program improve in this area?  As this story demonstrates, confronting pain and loss is important.  Perhaps most important of all for this particular character, admitting his own limits and vulnerability is essential.

The episode is good, but not nearly as good as the Starfleet Academy episode "The Life of the Stars" which referenced it 29 years later.

Acting Notes

via American Dad Wikia

Wendy Schaal played the role of Charlene, the Doctor's holodeck wife.  She was born in Chicago, July 2, 1954.  Her father Richard Schall was also a television actor who later married Valerie Harper, a fact which certainly helped Wendy's own acting career.  Wendy studied at Los Angeles City College.

Films have included Innerspace, The 'Burbs and Small Soldiers.  On television, she's had regular roles on Fantasy Island, Good Grief and It's a Living.  Early in her career, she made guest appearances on such classic shows as Little House on the Prairie, Rhoda and Welcome Back, Kotter among others.  She's had a successful voice acting career, including playing Francine Smith on American Dad! for the past 22 seasons and counting.