Ship in a Bottle (23 Jan. 1993)

Diagnosing anomalies in the recreative Sherlock Holmes hologram game programs, Lieutenant Reginald 'Reg' Barclay III discovers protected memory contains the arch-villain character professor... See full summary »

Director:

Alexander Singer

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (creator), René Echevarria,

Stars:

Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Patrick Stewart	...	Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes	...	Commander William T. Riker
LeVar Burton	...	Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn	...	Lieutenant Worf
Gates McFadden	...	Doctor Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis	...	Counselor Deanna Troi
Brent Spiner	...	Lt. Commander Data
Stephanie Beacham	...	Countess Barthalomew
Dwight Schultz	...	Barclay
Daniel Davis	...	Moriarty
Clement von Franckenstein	...	Gentleman
Majel Barrett	...	Enterprise Computer (voice)

Storyline

Diagnosing anomalies in the recreative Sherlock Holmes hologram game programs, Lieutenant Reginald 'Reg' Barclay III discovers protected memory contains the arch-villain character professor James Moriarty, who has become self-conscious and demands fulfillment of a recent promise by the crew that they would think up a way for him to leave the holodeck . To Picard's astonishment, Moriarty proves empirically his will suffices to leave the Holodeck, he even retains a physical body. Picard grants him the benefit of the doubt despite his crimes in fiction, but refuses to grant life to the countess Barthalomew, who was created as his ideal but holographic mate. Moriarty manages to seize control of the Enterprise to force the crew to obey anyhow at pain of total destruction. That still leaves the technological challenge, but Data's logical deduction comes up with an entirely different viewpoint, inspiring another challenge and approach...

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Plot Keywords:

24th century

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Release Date:

23 January 1993 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Paramount Studios had used the character of Sherlock Holmes, owned by Arthur Conan Doyle's estate, in two previous projects: Young Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek: The Next Generation: Elementary, Dear Data. Although some Star Trek source books claim that "Elementary, Dear Data" was produced in Paramount's mistaken belief that Holmes' character was in the public domain, Doyle representative Jon Lellenberg insisted in 2009 that "Elementary" was produced with the Doyle estate's cooperation. The closing credits of "Young" state that the Doyle estate was involved in that project, so it is unlikely that Paramount would have lost that knowledge in only 2 years. Whatever the truth, Paramount were eager to revisit Brent Spiner's interpretation in a follow-up. But the Doyles demanded more money for continued use of the character, and it was some years before Paramount offered them a "very reasonable licencing fee." Brent Spiner was particularly thrilled with this episode, because he had always wanted to play Holmes again.

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Goofs

Moriarty tells Picard that Sherlock Holmes was written by an Englishman. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Holmes) was Scottish, not English.

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Quotes

Moriarty: I sense a distressing lack of enthusiasm on your parts.

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Connections

References Star Trek: The Next Generation: Elementary, Dear Data (1988)

User Reviews

A Mind-Bending Episode, Not the Best But Still Amazing

Barclay inadvertently unlocks Sherlock Holmes' arch nemesis, Professor Moriarity, from the holodeck. He seeks an audience with Capt. Picard to discuss his self-awareness situation. His demands to be able to leave the Holodeck are not taken seriously enough and takes control of the starship. If the professor and his love, the Countess Barthalomew, are not allowed to leave the ship on their own, he will destroy the Enterprise and its crew.

This episode doesn't stand out as one of the most memorable in the series, but it's still a fine episode in its own right. And why shouldn't it be, featuring Dwight Schultz as Barclay, easily my favorite recurring secondary character. And Moriarty is a respectable character. (The Countess Barthalomew, unfortunately, comes off as being very poorly written. She is very dense, comparing outer space to Africa and talking about the joy of wearing trousers. I can't imagine an educated woman would be this daft.)

Philosophy professors could sit back and play "Next Generation" episodes for semester after semester with a little commentary to fill in the history. This episode is very scientific (including discussion of "uncoupling the Heisenberg compensators" on the transporter, whatever the heck that means). Underneath all that, it's simply a fleshing out of Descartes' "Cogito Ergo Sum" doubting method. (Moriarty actually quotes Descartes in the episode.)

Descartes asked, how can we know what is around us is real and not simply in our mind? Future philosophers modified this to the "brain in a vat" hypothesis -- given constant stimuli, would a brain know it wasn't in a body if the input told it that it was? Here we have Enterprise crew who may be on the Enterprise or may simply be in the holodeck. How can they tell if what they see is real or is simply fed to their senses? Just as philosophers determined that we likely cannot tell, so, too, does the crew find that reality and simulated reality are virtually the same.

I watched this episode at around three in the morning after drinking some whiskey. It really made my brain work extra hard, which is something that isn't safe if you're not used to exercising it. But that's what really sells this episode -- the deeper message under the basic plot. But when you walk away from your television, you might ask yourself if your life is real, or is it merely a very long dream created by Gene Roddenberry?