"Shore Leave" (season one, episode fifteen; production code: 017; 29 December 1966): Wikipedia-link.
Commentary: "Shore Leave" is the prototype of all the later T.N.G.-era holodeck episodes. In this case, the crew's fantasies are brought to life by telepathic sensors that read their minds & an underground factory that swiftly produces mechanical contrivances, from vintage World War II aeroplanes to a tiger. There is peril, as the landing party at first suspect they are hallucinating, until Doctor McCoy is run through with a lance from a knight on horseback. (Have no fear,the underground factory stitches him back together without issue.) Eventually, the Caretaker appears, a member of the unnamed species who built the "amusement park;" the Caretaker offers the Enterprise crew use of the planet for shore leave, but par for the course, claims Mankind is not yet ready to meet his species.
"Shore Leave" is one of the really classic episodes of The Original Series. It was written by Theodore Sturgeon, known for Sturgeon's Law (Wikipedia-link):
Ninety percent of [science fiction] is crud, but then, ninety percent ofeverything is crud.
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