Plot Synopsis: Professor Moriarty returns, only this time he gains control of the Enterprise in his quest to leave the holodeck and be reunited with his true love.
Plot A and B Analysis: The extraordinarily long teaser begins with Data as Sherlock Holmes, something we haven’t seen in four seasons! Something goes wrong (big surprise) and Barclay is asked to check into it. While doing so he releases professor Moriarty, whom we last saw in Elementary, Dear Data. Moriarty is PO’ed that Picard has forgotten him and demands he come to the holodeck. Barclay unplugs him, but after he leaves, Moriarty magically reappears. Plot A is about Moriarty, plot B is about the colliding planets, which could result in the birth of a new star. Moriarty stuns everyone in the 12th minute by leaving the holodeck! After a brief honeymoon period he asks Picard to bring out his girlfriend and is refused, so Moriarty seizes control of the ship. He demands they find a way to bring his countess out into the real world, and they only have five hours to do it before the planets collide and they get wiped out. Something isn’t right though, which Data figures out in the 27th minute. From there on the game is to outfox one of the most brilliant fictional characters ever created. Everything is tightly written and the episode ends in a creative and unexpected way.
Favorite Scenes: The entire episode is very consistent throughout, but there are three standouts. First, when Moriarty steps out on to the “Enterprise“, second when Data tells Picard the truth about their situation, and third when we realize the final fate of Moriarty.
Use of Cast/Characters: Picard is great here, and while he is taken in as much as the audience at first, in the end he concocts a plan that succeeds against Moriarty. Data is the guy who figures out what’s really happening, as he should be. Geordi and Barclay are active too, and nice to watch, even though one of them is a fake for most of the episode. No character development occurs for any of the principal cast and Riker, Troi, Beverly and Worf don’t really have anything to do. Daniel Davis returns as Professor James Moriarty, and he does a great job. I have a nitpick: he’s a little too gentlemanly for my taste, even scenes where he should come across as ruthless he doesn’t quite make it. Stephanie Beacham plays Countess Regina Bartholomew and is pretty flawless.
Blu Ray Version: A few errors were fixed, some of the graphics were punched up. Pause at 42:26. When Picard walks out of the Holodeck on the left side of the corridor you can see the door is open, and some filming equipment is just visible. There are a couple of deleted scenes. The first takes place in the teaser when Barclay unplugs him, and is pointless. The second takes place just prior to Moriarty leaving the Holodeck, and is also unnecessary.
Nitpicks: It seems very possible that the transporter could generate a fake log because it was fake too. This would still leave Data noticing Geordi is left-handed to discover Moriarty’s ruse. Speaking of Moriarty, in the final minutes, from his perspective what’s to stop the Enterprise from flying right over to his shuttlecraft and beaming them back on board or just vaporizing it? The most pragmatic thing for him to do would be to destroy the Enterprise. Oddly, in the last scene of the episode Picard’s chair is missing. Notice that when we first see the fake Troi in the 17th minute she’s wearing a standard uniform, but in the final scene the real Troi is wearing the maroon one. This is another clue that we are really out of the Holodeck. I would have preferred it reversed, with her wearing the old uniform in the Holodeck and the standard one at the end, since that’s what she wears now.
Overall Impression: This episode is a worthy successor to Elementary, Dear Data. In addition to having a story with several great twists and no real flaws, it all occurs while no one ever leaves the ship. It is a joy to see Holmes and Moriarty at it again! There’s a nice ‘meta’ quality about this episode which is also nice. This is an episode you have to keep up with and Ship in a Bottle credits the audience with being intelligent, which didn’t happen a lot in the 90’s. Even the title makes sense! I rate this episode 4 out of 5 stars.
Behind the Scenes/Trivia: SeaQuest DSV fans may recognize Stephanie Beacham as Dr. Kristin Westphalen from the first season of that show. If you want to see the tech cube and its enhancer again, they reappear in the Voyager episode The Killing Game II, serving much the same purpose. As a reminder, TNG couldn’t use Holmes for years as Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate were irritated with Paramount because of the film Young Sherlock Holmes, and there had been a long legal battle. By this time however, everything has been resolved and they didn’t make Paramount pay too much to use Doyle’s characters. According to the writer Ron Moore, the nested holodeck universes confused even the staff, who had to draw up diagrams to keep track of everything. This is the first TNG episode aired after DS9’s pilot. Holographic characters are not able to leave their area until The Doctor finally gets his mobile emitter on Voyager.
Missable/Unmissable? If you like mysteries, complex plots, Elementary Dear Data or Moriarty, this is unmissable. Even if you don’t it’s a recommended episode. The next one is not. In fact it’s a prime candidate for the worst episode of season six.