Elementary, Dear Data

Episode aired Dec 5, 1988
TV-PG
46m

IMDb RATING

8.1/10

4.6K

YOUR RATING

Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

Action Adventure Drama Sci-Fi

An attempt to provide Data with a challenging Sherlock Holmes holodeck program backfires when its Professor Moriarty character accidentally becomes self-aware.An attempt to provide Data with a challenging Sherlock Holmes holodeck program backfires when its Professor Moriarty character accidentally becomes self-aware.An attempt to provide Data with a challenging Sherlock Holmes holodeck program backfires when its Professor Moriarty character accidentally becomes self-aware.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.1/10

4.6K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Picard utters "merde", the French word for "shit". As it was said in a foreign language, it passed the TV censors. Merde is sometimes translated as "damn" in subtitles. This is not euphemism but reflects common usage in French. French conversation is relaxed about the use of swearwords with sexual connotations, whose literal translations would be considered very strong or taboo in English. For example, "Je m'en fous" literally means "I don't give a f***" but is used by the French in the same way as the milder "I don't care."

Goofs
Moriarty hands Data a piece of paper upon which is a sketch of the Enterprise. Data immediately storms off the holodeck, and shows the paper to La Forge. As the paper was holographic, it should have vanished the moment it was removed from the holodeck. However, other episodes have established that some objects (such as food) are actually replicated within the holodeck, and thus are "real" (i.e. not holographic), depending on the needs of the program and its user (as well as the plot of the individual show).

Quotes
Moriarty: Is the definition of life "Cogito ergo sum" - I think, therefore I am?
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Yes, that is one possible definition.
Moriarty: It is the most important one - and for me, the only one that matters.

Connections
Featured in Star Trek: Science vs. Fiction: Holodeck und Hologramme (2006)

Soundtracks
Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Title
Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage

User reviews23

Review

Featured review

7/10

this is wonderful!

A lot of the loose threads are left for other episodes. I'm not just referring to ship in a bottle, but also to measure of a man. Admittedly it bugged me when the Issue of Data's computer-like intelligence, which was the catalyst for the doctor's challenge and thus for the main problem, was not answered but one would need an entire episode at least to answer it and that is given to them about 6 episodes later.

For now Moriarty is a great villain and well performed by Daniel Davis. The entire episode has a metaphysical plot-hole the size of this continent but hey, Star Trek IS metaphysical! watch the above named episodes to get a sense of fulfillment to the issues raised. There are a few minor errors but this episode is amusing, intriguing, silly and classic all at once. Of how many episodes can that truly be said ? 4 or 5 stars.