2.3 — “Elementary, Dear Data”
Plot: Geordi and Data take advantage of some down time to play Sherlock Holmes in the Holodeck. A challenge from Dr. Pulaski proves that you should never dare a man under 40 to do anything. Seeking a suitable challenge for Data’s deductive powers, Geordi summons up master criminal Professor James Moriarty–but an error gives Moriarty consciousness, and a means to attack the ship.
Thoughts: Another strong episode makes me hopeful that the vicissitudes and doldrums of season one are behind us (augh–since I first wrote this, I’ve seen a few more episodes).
I like Pulaski in this one. Her beef against Data does not seem so poisonous, because she has a sense of humor about it, conveys curiosity about Data instead of just animosity, and appears to at least be open to persuasion. Data has no trouble clearing the low bar that she sets for him, so his feelings probably aren’t hurt. The best thing about Pulaski (as Randi has been pointing out) is that she seems more or less like a real person, in contrast to some other members of the crew, and this episode does nothing to undo that.
The problem with her polemic against Data in the first two episodes is that it shows poor social awareness. Whatever the foundation of her concerns about trusting an androiod of alien provenance with being third in command of the ship (maybe I’m xenophobic, but I share the concern), she should be aware that blatant disrespect towards Data is socially inappropriate in context. If she has concerns, she should find a different way to raise them, and should do it urgently in private. Outwardly disrespecting Data is not just a slight against Data, but a slight against Picard and the other bridge crew. I hope this episode builds a bridge between the two characters and we don’t have to hear any more about it.
Several factors make this a stronger episode than so many that have gone before. The rapport between Geordi and Data is nice. The production value achieved by recreating 19th century London on a soundstage with a TV budget is very good. The costumes, as in “The Big Goodbye,” are a highlight, although its hard to imagine where they came from. The ship’s replicator? The replicator, in that case, is very creative.
Best of all, although creating an antagonist for Holmes is not actually very appropriate(*), Moriarty is a very good antagonist for this episode, because unlike the other antagonists we have seen on TNG so far, Moriarty has a legitimate point of view, distinct from the other characters, that completely justifies his actions. The episode is quite a different from his point of view. What if you spotted an error in your environment and discovered that your whole life was a simulation created for someone else’s amusement? It’s like The Truman Show, or as Moriarty probes the artificiality of his world, his very own “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.” Yes, they did take a few steps down this road in “The Big Goodbye,” but here the theme is much more developed.
While Moriatry is perhaps capable of defeating Data, as he learns about his situation he chooses different goals for himself, and paradigm shifts away from archvillain, while still displaying a will to live and cunning worthy of the Arthur Conan Doyle pedigree. Picard gets to talk him down peacefully, because we’re still watching Star Trek, not Remington Steele or Magnum P.I.
Still, is there enough here? Does the story coast along too much on its dress up charms? Could it use more twists and turns? Is there enough jeopardy for characters and crew? This episode is pretty good, but not on the level of the best Trek. It’s not even quite a “Court Martial” or “A Piece of the Action”–but still a big improvement over season one.
Warp 4 of 6.
(*) Professor Moriarty is a quite minor character in the Holmes canon, despite appearing in practically every film version ever. Doyle invented him for the first time iand killed him off in the same 18-page short story, and he never appears again, although he is referenced two more times. Homes’ brother Mycroft appears in canon twice as often–still barely at all. Doyle is an amazing writer–I can still read the Holmes stories today and they are just as compulsive and fresh as I image they were in the 1890s.
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