Elementary, Dear Data
- Episode aired Dec 5, 1988
- TV-PG
- 46m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
4.4K
YOUR RATING
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.
Wil Wheaton
- Wesley Crusher
- (credit only)
Anne Ramsay
- Ensign Clancy
- (as Anne Elizabeth Ramsay)
Rosemarie Baio
- Holographic Widow
- (uncredited)
Majel Barrett
- Enterprise Computer
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Michael Braveheart
- Crewman Martinez
- (uncredited)
Jeffrey Deacon
- Command Division Officer
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaPicard 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."
- GoofsMoriarty 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.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Star Trek: Science vs. Fiction: Holodeck und Hologramme (2006)
- SoundtracksStar Trek: The Next Generation Main Title
Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage
Featured review
Sherlock Data
La Forge is frustrated with Data's ability to solve holodeck mysteries too quickly when playing Sherlock Holmes, ruining the element of suspense in the story. On a suggestion, he accidentally creates a villain who is capable of really challenging Data (in the form of Moriarty, Holmes' greatest adversary), which puts the Enterprise into a lot of trouble. Detective stories tend to make for great episodes, so why not throw in the greatest fictional detective of all time into a story? The plot is simply fantastic and the twist feels so obvious that you feel like you should have picked it up much before then. This episode again demonstrates how using sci-fi to alter the parameters of our universe can be used to tell a great story.
helpful•53
- SeekingCinema
- Feb 23, 2020
Details
- Runtime46 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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