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Episode
124
Elementary, Dear Data
Geordi La Forge has an idea: Pit Data as Sherlock Holmes against a foe on the holodeck. But the foe has ideas of his own. Seriously. He is thinking. Really. And he may have control of the Enterprise. Uh oh. Danger for Dr. Pulaski and a chance for Captain Picard to play dress up as we put Elementary, Dear Data in the Mission Log.
I love the crew dressing up in period costumes for a holodeck adventure but the computer creating a “sentient” being has always rubbed me the wrong way.
the problems they have w the Holodeck have always bothered me…was this the first Holodeck ever put into use? Do other ships have this problem? sigh….I liked how DS9 proved cool things happen elsewhere in the galaxy…
Season 2 brings false hopes he’ll get a love interest
Original Radio Show
Does it bug anyone else that when Geordi and Data walk out of the holodeck where Geordi makes the big dramatic reveal of Moriarty’s drawing of the Enterprise, that Geordi was holding it upside down so that he could dramatically flip it over to be right side up for the camera? It’s always bugged me that he wouldn’t have immediately turned it right side up as he was looking at it lol
John, please don’t feel the need to defend yourself for liking Pulaski! I like her too. And one can love Beverley Crusher/Gates McFadden and still appreciate Pulaski as a character; it doesn’t need to be either/or. Data can also be one’s favorite character and find the doctor’s harsh skepticism/reaction to him “intriguing.”
This was one of those ‘wow!’ episodes for me as a kid. In that first viewing
I kept expecting Moritary to be revealed as an out-and-out villain and defeated, so when it concluded with a respectful detente I was shocked. This was a different type of show than I was used to, a show that followed the contours of my own adolescent idealism.
I was reluctant to re-watch this episode as an adult as I often steer away
from the holodeck episodes, but I’m glad I didn’t. Daniel Davis’ Moriarty is perfect, like a Victorian Roy Batty. The self-awakened creation engaging in dialogue with its creator is a favorite archetype of mine. Take Frankenstein’s fiend or Milton’s Satan and replace the Gothic angst of those characters with Enlightenment optimism and you have some great viewing.
I hope the general amnesia that pervades TV shows does not mean that the
Moriarty program gets forgotten in some dusty sub-folder…
This is some serious mind-bleepery. Moriarty’s speech at the end had me completely entranced- it was well-written and well-delivered. I completely buy that Moriarty was sentient. The other holodeck incidences could kind of be explained away if you wanted, but for me, this time it’s unavoidable. I find questions of defining sentience to be endlessly fascinating and incredibly important.
One thing I will argue with both of you on, however, is the idea that the Enterprise computer is gaining sentience by proxy. I see it more as the computer was able to create (or even birth) an intelligent life.
This episode made me want to go back and rewatch Westworld (the HBO series version).
Good point about the Enterprise computer whether that sentience is cause or effect. We simply don’t know, but it seems to me that the computer is at least feeling out what that “awareness” is like by manifesting Moriarty. Of course, there’s more of him to come… and then you do have the Enterprise actually “creating” in season 7…
one thing this made me think of is Moriarty may be “an adversary who could defeat Data” BUT he ISN’T “an adversary who could defeat Picard.” Which I think plays to Picard taking the reins in this one.