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
A Senior Trekker writes....................
The Second Season of Star Trek the Next Generation has often been downplayed due to multiple production and writing staff problems, and several major cast changes. Although of mixed quality, it does contain some outstanding and brilliant episodes, and Senior Trekker is extremely grateful to all those people who worked so hard under difficult circumstances to keep it on our screens.
This was one of the best episodes of this or any Star Trek series: the plot, dialogue, sets and costumes stand out for their huge attention to detail but I think the suspension of disbelief is mainly due to the quality of the acting. After all, this is a genre within a genre requiring great leaps of faith into an extremely complicated fictional construct.
And it's fun.
Well known screen and theatre actor, Daniel Davis, plays adversary Professor Moriarty with such a pitch-perfect accent that for a long time I thought he was actually British. The gravitas he brought to the character equalled or excelled many I've seen in more conventional Sherlock Holmes adaptations.
The depiction of Victorian London was first class. Of course, no one is going to get every detail correct, especially when they are working within the constraints of episodic television, but this script even went so far as to make a correct reference to Rules, oldest restaurant in London and de-rigueur haunt of the most stylish Gentlemen of the day.
(Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5)
This was one of the best episodes of this or any Star Trek series: the plot, dialogue, sets and costumes stand out for their huge attention to detail but I think the suspension of disbelief is mainly due to the quality of the acting. After all, this is a genre within a genre requiring great leaps of faith into an extremely complicated fictional construct.
And it's fun.
Well known screen and theatre actor, Daniel Davis, plays adversary Professor Moriarty with such a pitch-perfect accent that for a long time I thought he was actually British. The gravitas he brought to the character equalled or excelled many I've seen in more conventional Sherlock Holmes adaptations.
The depiction of Victorian London was first class. Of course, no one is going to get every detail correct, especially when they are working within the constraints of episodic television, but this script even went so far as to make a correct reference to Rules, oldest restaurant in London and de-rigueur haunt of the most stylish Gentlemen of the day.
(Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5)
helpful•419
- celineduchain
- Dec 27, 2021
Details
- Runtime46 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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