6.12 Ship in a Bottle

Rating: 3

A holodeck character of Professor Moriarty, originally recreated from the Sherlock Holmes novels four years ago by Geordi as a challenging foe for Data, claims to Barclay that he has been ‘alive’ in memory, waiting for a promise from Picard to free him from his holodeck prison. He punctuates a holodeck meeting with Picard with a surprise; he is able to leave the holodeck due only to sheer force of mind. Although he promises to live a life free of criminal activity, he quickly demands that the holodeck-created love of his life also be allowed to exist outside the holodeck, and when he requests are not met, he takes over the ship.

Comments

I don’t mind the holodeck as a source of entertainment, but, like many other trek lovers, I am kind of tired of holodeck plots where the deck or its characters threaten the entire ship.

Nits

Picard demonstrates to Moriarty that he will vanish if he tries to leave the holodeck by grabbing a holo-book and tossing it through the exit. It vanishes just as it would if it left the holodeck. Keep in mind, however, that it has not left the holodeck. Moments later, Moriarty walks through the same exit and does not vanish. Granted, Moriarty has control of the holodeck and has reprogrammed it, but just how would he have accomplished this sleight of hand?

Picard tell Moriarty not to leave the holodeck because he will cease to exist. Isn’t Moriarty a computer program that is stored somewhere and could simply be ‘restored’?

Just how do these holodeck simulations work? The actual physical space is quite small, and we see that a larger space can be simulated only with realistic backdrops on the walls. So certainly one could believe that they were on any part of the Enterprise at any one time. But when Data, Picard, and Barclay were on the Enterprise simulation, what would happen if they walked down a hallway longer than the room? Wouldn’t they realize pretty quickly that they were inside a confined space?

Quotable Quotes

"…all this might just be an elaborate simulation running inside a little device sitting on someone’s table."
- Picard, acknowledging the fact that, "It’s only a TV show"