Title: Elementary, Dear Data
Airdate: 12/5/1988
Plot Summary
Geordi and Data have some downtime before the Enterprise rendevous with the Victory, so they decide to play Sherlock Holmes and Watson in the holodeck. Pulaski is unimpressed with Data’s deductive skills, as he can only know what his data files tell him. He can’t make new and imaginative deductions. Geordi bets her that she’s wrong and the game’s afoot. However in setting the parameters of their little contest, Geordi makes a mistake that ends up putting the entire ship in danger.
Make It So
Picard reminds me of a father listening to his kids explaining the bullshit they got into when Geordi and Data tell him what’s happening on the holodeck. He later goes into the holodeck with Data to talk to Moriarty and rescue Pulaski.
Number 1
Riker mostly responds to what’s happening by telling Picard things are getting bad and getting shaken around on the bridge.
Fully Functional
Data throws himself into the part of Sherlock Holmes, but it’s like nerds watching Monty Python being able to recite every line as it happens. Geordi is disgusted with the whole thing and takes his Visor and goes home. Or in this case, 10 Forward. This leads to Pulaski getting involved and given how Data behaved in the holodeck, you think she might have a point that Data can’t solve a mystery he doesn’t know the answer to.
Of course the story takes a turn, so we never really see how the bet turns out.
Today Is A Good Day To Die
Worf looks surprisingly good in a 19th century suit. Sadly he never got on to the holodeck in that get up.
Phase Inducers
Geordi is the one who sets this whole thing in motion with just a slip of the tongue.
Counselor Cleavage
Troi works on her best worry looks at Riker when the ship shakes. She also can sense Moriarty on the holodeck emerging, though she doesn’t exactly know its him yet.
Doctor Not Bones
Pulaski is slightly less abrasive in her Data racism. She makes a friendly bet with LaForge that Data doesn’t have the capacity to be able to solve a mystery he doesn’t know the answer to. She gets captured by Moriarty. One wonders if she changed her view on Data after seeing new life come to be right in front of her.
Shut Up, Wesley
Wesley sits this one out.
Canon Maker
We get to see Data play the violin for the first time, something he will do more and more throughout the series.
LaForge used to serve on the Victory as an ensign. I would assume that was his last assignment before the Enterprise.
Canon Breaker
Pulaski says that old trope that we learn more from our failures than our successes. That’s really not true. While we can learn from failure, success usually opens up more possibilites and allow us to progress. Failures are a roadblock that we have to overcome. It’s not that we don’t learn from that, but to say we learn more is certainly up for debate.
This whole things happens because Geordi says to create an adversary that can defeat Data. But before he actually says that, Moriarty can see LaForge call for the arch. He shouldn’t have been able to figure that out until after Geordi gave the computer the instructions.
It’s made very clear that holodeck created matter can’t exist off the holodeck. It’s pretty much the entire dilemma of the entire episode. Except when Data takes the piece of paper Moriarty drew the Enterprise on into the hallway.
A Little Bloody Nose
No one dies! In fact, a new life is created. Holodeck npc’s that die don’t count.
Technobabble
There may be no way to get Moriarity off the holodeck currently, but Voyager would figure out a way with a mobile emitter. Granted, it was future tech, but I always wondered if they ever got that to Moriarty. Seems only fair.
Please Repeat Your Communication
“She’ll soon be shipshape in bristol fashion.”
“Bristol fashion, sir?”
“It’s an old navy phrase, meaning everything in perfect order. As are we, Mister LaForge.”
— Picard digging up an old term and then using it to ease LaForge’s mind on what happened.
Library Computer
The idea that a slip of the tongue could easily create a new life akin to Data seemed a little far-fetched to me, until I started coding with AI recently. Given another 350 years of progress? Yeah. I now believe it.
I Know That Guy:
Daniel Davis plays Moriarty. He would return to the role in season 6 and even a little cameo in Picard season 3, though it’s unclear if he was playing the same character or not. He’s magnificent in the role and if he wasn’t, the episode would’ve fallen apart. Instead it’s just awesome.
Alan Shearman plays LeStrade. He’s done some voice work and some other shows here and there.
Biff Manard plays the mugger. He was probably most known for playing a cop on the 1990 The Flash tv show of which he was a regular.
In the “before they were famous” Anne Ramsay plays Engineer Clancy. She would go on to play Helen Hunt’s sister in the long running show Mad About You. She also had a part in the movie A League of Their Own among a lot of other roles. She would return this season, though for some reason in a red uniform.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
Fantastic episode that really fleshes out the Holodeck, Data’s enjoyment of Sherlock Holmes, Data and Geordi’s friendship that will be a staple of the series for years to come, and the nature of artificial life. Whew, with that much to juggle, it should be a train wreck but instead it’s a high point of seaon 2.
The idea that the computer would interpret creating a character that could outwit Data means it had to give it life subtley implies that Data is indeed alive and much better than Pulaski’s little nastiness back in Where Silence Has Lease where she admits she has to accept that Data is alive.
The plot is really well done. We start out as a light little romp in the holodeck in a Sherlock Holmes story. This ratchets up slightly when Geordi and Data have a conflict on how to properly enjoy the program. This drags in Pulaski who ups the stakes somewhat in having the bet that Data cannot solve a mystery that he doesn’t already know the answer to having read all the books.
That gets Geordi to ask the computer to create Moriarty who can defeat Data which then causes the computer to immediately use up all its AI tokens and cause the power to drain on the ship briefly. This steps up the tension when Pulaski gets kidnapped and Moriarty makes it known he knows he’s a hologram and “Holmes” is not who he says he is, recognizing Data.
Because he’s a part of the computer, he can figure out how to take over the ship. Step by step, the tension and stakes keep building and building. And what does it build up to? A big showdown between Data and Moriarty in a duel of wits to the death? No! Picard listening to Moriarty plead for his new found life and a desperate man who wants to be free, but his nature does not allow it.
Picard saves Moriarty into the computer and all is well. This is pure Trek through and through. To seek out new life, well there it is. Right there in your holodeck. Peaceful resolution and a hopeful ending. The episode even, in its own way, foreshadows Data’s status in Starfleet by planting the seeds of these questions of what is life?
The humor is good too even. Data easily taking out the mugger and finally Picard patiently telling him to let him go is priceless. I can’t quite give it a five star, there’s some that are better, but this truly is a glimpse of what this show would be capable of. While the first episode still felt like a season 1 episode, this could easily be in season 3.
