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Star Trek: The Next Generation 2x3 "Elementary, Dear Data" - Full Watch-along (Patreon)

Published:
2026-02-13 19:00:03
Imported:
2026-10

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Follow along using your own copy of the episode!

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Star Trek: The Next Generation 2x3 "Elementary, Dear Data" - Full Watch-along

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Geordata killing time for 3 days broing out over role playing hologames? What a friendship!

Summer

As a Sherlockian, I must point out that since this episode approximately 5,000 pastiche stories of Holmes have been written, one must wonder if the stories Data read includes all pastiches. Clearly in this story the holodeck behaved like chatgpt

뱀파이안젤

and this is why they warned us about a.i...

Summer

Holmes is great Bunny, it’s inexpensive to get the whole original set on kindle. Also Sherlock Holmes tv series from the 80’s is on youtube, Jeremy Brett played Holmes

뱀파이안젤

Sherlockian is my middle name... Why? My birth was an utter mystery~

Squeesher

Jeremy Brett Holmes is the best Holmes for sure

Summer

Indeed, to me he is the standard for TV Holmes. Clive Merrison was good on BBC audio drama too.

Summer

Season 2 will grab you…..one day

Squeesher

*notices your new name* ok, Jeremy Brett is 2nd best then...

William Terry

The signal flags on the mizzenmast of Geordi's scale model of the HMS Victory spell out Nelson's famous signal "England expects that every man will do his duty". Great reacts! I miss Bev but agree with bunny to give Pulaski a fair chance. Muldaur has a classic voice and can steal a scene like a pro. As for Moriarty, the holodeck previously affected the outside when it gave Wesley a virus who spread it to the crew I would expect someone from the holodeck surviving in an Enterprise corridor around season four but I don't remember.

Summer

Lol just honoring my two favorite fandoms

Matthew Graves (Graviton)

I was sure you would love this one Bunny. I can only imagine that a holodeck would be basically the ultimate toy for a cosplay Wenthusiast. Just needs some more beta testing, LOL. And yes, I immediately chuckled when I saw your shirt. Very apropos thematically. I had GitS on VHS tape back in the day, along with Akira and a few other anime movies, which were much more obscure at the time. Great movie. I was curious to see what your reaction would be to the ongoing Data/Pulaski dynamic. They were definitely trying to do somthing of a variation on the Spock/McCoy relationship. For some people, Pulaski comes off as overly dismissive and belittling of Data. IMO, as with so much, it all depends on the writing. When done well, Pulaski comes across as skeptical, but still playful and genuinely curious about Data's limits and potential. This is, I feel, a very well written episode and it comes across well. The moral question about the nature of artificial life is a major theme that TNG loved to explore. With AI so at the forefront of public discourse these day, I feel that alot of episode that tackle that question have aged quite well, and this is definitely one of the great ones. The questions posed aren't really resolved, but that is by design. The episode is deliberately meant to stimulate one into considering the nature of consciousness. Thats just great sci-fi. As a side thought, if the idea of assembling an intricate model appeals to you, knowing your interest in anima, I might recommend looking into an old school Gundam model kit. It takes a certain level of precision and attention to detail, not to mention plenty of free time. But in then end, you end up with an amazingly pose-able model/toy with an incredible number of working parts. I only did one, many years ago, but it was a lot of fun. It takes a certain mindset, though. Not to mention a lot of free time, and a work area you can keep from being disrubted by, say, enthusiastic pets. They come in a huge variety of challenge levels to assemble (not to mention costs). Also, lotsa fun little Holmes easter eggs in this episode.

Greg

I really enjoy this episode and this was one (of many!) that I was eagerly waiting for Bunny to get to and hope that she liked it as much as I did. Luckily that was not a problem, LOL I am also a big fan of Sherlock Holmes, having been given a set of his stories in 'children's format' as a kid and reading into them very eagerly. They were simplified some to remove the Victorian speech and a few other areas tightened up so that younger minds could understand what was going on better. Since then I've read all the stories and books and seen most of the movies and TV shows about him. In Season One as a kid when they teased Data's interest in Holmes I was REALLY hoping they would return to the idea and I was very happy when they did. It's a really well done episode and was nominated for awards as well. Guest acting was again top notch, the settings and locations, the overall plot, and as Bunny said, a great moral question and problem that had to be dealt with. While I may quibble about the ending (I can't see Moriarty giving up control like that), it was a fast paced, tight, episode that was enjoyable from start to finish. I mentioned the guest acting a bit ago -- Daniel Davis got the role of Moriarty and he went on to star in a TV show and appear in some movies as well. And the young confused Ensign we saw at the start in Engineering was Anne Elizabeth Ramsay in one of her first roles, and she would go on to have a long career in movies and TV shows. The wooden model of HMS Victory -- Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar and the ship he died on when victory was at hand -- was a nice touch. The starship Victory, by the way, is a Constellation-class ship (the same as the Stargazer from Season 1), and yes, it has four nacelles. But speaking about the Victory, I have to point out the usual plot holes here -- the Enterprise is just going to sit in space doing NOTHING? For THREE days? Why not have the ship warp to meet the Victory halfway? That always bothered me, perhaps more then it should. As a fan of Holmes, it was great seeing all the callouts to various stories and characters from the stories, and even the computer made murder mystery felt very much like something Doyle would have written with how it was handed. The attention to detail in 1890's London was also great. And your right La Forge -- London DID have electric lamps by then. I'm guessing Holmes just preferred to stick with what worked, as he never saw any reason to change if it didn't help him with his career. There's some irony here in how Moriaty was created, as he was made by a simple wording mistake in the desire to create someone who could defeat Data. Moriaty was created by Doyle to kill off Holmes, as he was tired of writing him and his stories and wanted to do something new. And then Picard had to make the decision at the end if he should 'kill' Moraity or not. Finally, some fun trivia to finish up, taken from Wikipedia: Reportedly, the original ending had Jean-Luc Picard lying to Moriarty, that he could have existed outside the holodeck, the same way the piece of paper on which he drew the Enterprise also stayed intact outside the holodeck. Co-executive producer Maurice Hurley wanted to keep that ending, as it made Picard look clever, but Gene Roddenberry nixed it, saying it made Picard look cruel. Instead, the paper stays intact without any explanation. When the episode was created, the staff believed Moriarty to be in the public domain, given that The Final Problem was written in 1893, over 95 years before the episode aired. However, the Doyle estate complained to Paramount. The estate vigorously defends the copyright to the Holmes universe, and the stories were not always in the public domain outside of the United States. Paramount and the Doyle estate eventually settled a deal, allowing for Moriarty's use in this limited case. The episode features Daniel Davis as James Moriarty. Daniel Davis used an English accent for this role, though he is from Arkansas and speaks with an American accent when not in character. Davis was auditioning for the role of Moriarty alongside another actor in the room Brian Bedford directly in front of director Rob Bowman. Davis said of being in the room with Brian Bedford, "So he's the standout in my mind, and we were sort of taking bets with each other about which of us would get it. We hadn't worked together or seen each other in a long time. So it was a very friendly rivalry. Then, when I got it, he was a very good sport and invited me to come to dinner to celebrate that I had gotten the part."

Super Sunny Sunblade

ChatGPT a.i. prompts must have been inspired by Star Trek TNG dialog with the ship's computer! I'm convinced by this episode now more than ever!

Desmond

You're right, this episode does lose sight of the initial premise a bit. It doesn't answer the original question that it presents: can Data solve a mystery that he hasn't already memorized? But the Moriarty plot is compelling too. The question of what qualifies as "alive" is classic scifi, and one that we may soon encounter ourselves, give the advances in AI.

Jack

It's fascinating how much trouble a misspoken AI prompt can cause with technology at the level of the 24 century Enterprise! It makes one wonder just what we are in for in our real future! As for Sherlock Holmes, as others have recommended here, the Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett as Holmes is absolutely superb. Brett plays the best rendition of Holmes ever put to film. (Yes, even better than Cumberbatch.) It's like the character jumped right off the page, and the stories are really faithfully adapted.

Jack

I am TOTALLY up for a "Ghost in the Shell" movie night!

Mark Gosine

"As for Sherlock Holmes, as others have recommended here, the Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett as Holmes is absolutely superb" Awesome. I'll check it out. I've not heard of it.

Mark Gosine

Yes, Daniel Davis, role here was outstanding, Indelible.

Mark Gosine

This is flat out one of my favorites. Not my favorite, but Holmes and Trek combo with a budding sentient holodeck character is a joy to watch; over and over. Love it. The charm, mystery, fun! Yes, yes, they should have more program constraints! It's the bloody 24th century after all! However, as a coder, you never know how far, and in unexpected ways, the users will use the program.

Struzzylive

To how to unsee worf as a snickers bar he’s not. He’s more like a big raisen lol

Summer

Its great, Mark, Granada, especially the first few seasons, tried hard to create Victorian London and Brett is the best.

Max

Finally a legendary tier episode TNG is known for! :) Also my personal favorite of season 2 which got me into Sherlock Holmes & Case Closed: Detective Conan

WastedPo

I personally don't feel that the episode intentionally concluded that Pulaski was correct about Data. To me, it just feels like a dropped plot thread, which is my one big criticism of this otherwise very enjoyable episode. I'm fine with it being unresolved as to what Data's capabilities are, but it would've been nice to have at least a short little scene at the end between Data and Pulaski to acknowledge the episode's original premise. Sort of a, "We'll deal with this later," type of agreement between the two. (Or alternatively, I do wish somehow they could've had Data do something, even subtly, in the episode to make Pulaski realize he is capable of spontaneous deduction. Frankly, he's already demonstrated such deduction throughout the first season, but of course, Pulaski wasn't there for that.)

William Terry

Great point! Small haggle: cogito ergo sum isn't proof that one is alive, that's a different question. It's proof that you yourself exist.

Edward M. Crowe

There is a AI sub-plot here that no one seems to have picked up on yet, just some oblique allusions. At video 10:34 to 10:50, Dr. Polaski states: "You learn by rote -- to you, all is memorization and recitation". To which Jordi responds: "But, deductive reasoning is one of Data's strengths". To which Polaski responds that that proves her point. So Data, Jordi, and Polaski set up a new challenge and go into the Holodeck. At 13:53 to 14:30, Polaski challenges Data's "success" by arguing that "You didn't deduce anything". Data: "No -- is that not what Holmes did -- reasoning -- from the general to the specific!" Polaski: "No. Inspiration, original thought, all the strengths of Holmes, are missing from Data". Now, I agree that (as Bunny noted), this particular dispute was never satisfactorily resolved in the episode. However, everyone who has done their philosophy courses (BUNNY !!!!!!!!) would immediately recognize the allusion to the two basic structures of logic: deductive and inductive. To some extent, Polaski is challenging whether Data is limited to deductive reasoning alone, or is also capable of inductive reasoning, and whether Data's ability to "recognize elements from two different Holmes stories", even if it could be called inductive, is also NOT SUFFICIENT TO EMULATE HOLMES! This is where the AI allusion comes in. There is a THIRD structure of logic, which AI uses, which was recognized a long time ago, called ABDUCTIVE logic. This is what Polaski was referring to, and which we never got the answer as to whether Data could utilize it. To quote one source: "Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), the 'father of American pragmatism', coined the term abduction, describing it as the 'logic of discovery.' Unlike deduction, which confirms what is already known, or induction, which seeks patterns in the observed, abduction ventures beyond the given, proposing explanatory hypotheses to account for unexpected phenomena. It's the detective piecing together the crime scene, the scientist formulating a daring hypothesis, the child asking 'why?' with boundless curiosity." See, e.g. Tim Williams, "Beyond Deduction and Induction: Unleashing the Power of Abductive Reasoning in AI", Jan. 30, 2024. As to whether Data's reasoning abilities actually include this capability, well ... I guess we'll just have to follow along and see!! Ha ha!!

bunnytails

Muldaur DOES have an excellent voice! Deep, poised, commanding!

bunnytails

I pretty much have seen Pulaski as how you described: skeptical, but playful and curious. It feels different than McCoy and Spock.

Comrade Wireless Caller

My take on this episode has always kind of been along these lines. Geordi had to give the computer the free reign to create a sentient holodeck character capable of “defeating Data”. Unfortunately in doing so, the Moriarty character was altered into something other than just a literary, or in this case, an ordinary Holodeck villain. It’s almost like the idea of “defeating Data” didn't matter to him anymore because he’s now free to imagine other motivations for himself, beyond just being just any other Holodeck villain. The moment he was altered the episode was no longer about which one of them won. It was about his character dealing literally with an entirely new reality! One of course accidentally created by Geordi!