Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 29 (Elementary, Dear Data)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.


Every so often, even Starfleet’s flagship has some time to relax. The Enterprise is a few days early for a meeting with the Victory, so Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge calls Data down to engineering. There are two reasons for this. First, he wants to show Data a replica of the HMS Victory that he built for his former captain. The second is to use the holodeck to let Data indulge in a fantasy of his own. La Forge is going to play John Watson and Data is going to play Sherlock Holmes.

La Forge calls up a program, but Data solves the mystery too quickly. La Forge storms out of the holodeck, with Data following him. The two end up in 10-Forward, discussing what Data did wrong. The problem is that Data has all of the Holmes novels memorized. Thus, there’s no challenge for him. Dr. Pulaski can’t help but overhear the two of them and points out that Data’s just an android. Thus, he isn’t capable of deductive reasoning. The three of them decide to create a Holmes-type puzzle that could challenge Data, but that fails because the computer simply uses elements from the various stories, which Data is quick to recognize.

The next step is to remove all known references to the novels, but to keep the characters and setting. La Forge asks for an adversary capable of defeating Data. What they get is a version of Professor Moriarty that’s self-aware and capable of taking over the ship. He abducts Pulaski and wants to talk to Captain Picard. Eventually, La Forge realizes his mistake: He asked for an adversary capable of defeating Data and not Sherlock Holmes. Thus, the computer gave Moriarty self-awareness.

This is such a great premise. Moriarty wants to get out and explore life beyond the holodeck. He was a precursor to the Emergency Medical Hologram on Star Trek: Voyager. (It’s a shame that Moriarty never got to make use of the portable holoemitter that the doctor got.) Unfortunately, in the end, Moriarty just gives up. Picard tells Moriarty that Starfleet’s finest will find a way to let him out of the holodeck and Moriarty, realizing that that’s probably the best that he could ask for, just releases control of the ship. When I look back on this episode, I didn’t feel like Pulaski was in any real danger. She was very calm and was treated well.

Overall, I’d say that it’s a three-star episode. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s worth watching at least once. This was one of the episodes that made the second season bearable. I don’t know if I can recommend buying the episode on VHS. When it comes on TV, I don’t mind rewatching it, but I don’t think that I would ever watch it if I had it on tape. You’d probably be better off renting it or waiting for it to come on TV. 

IMDb page

Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

There are a lot of movies that I remember from my childhood to varying degrees.  Some, I remember very well.  Others, I think I remember sort of well.  Young Sherlock Holmes was one of those movies where I remembered a few scenes.  I could remember Watson arriving at a school in the beginning and Holmes leaving at the end.  I could also remember a riddle Holmes had for Watson about the color of a bear.  There was also Holmes hallucinating in a crypt Watson catching Holmes crying twice.  That’s about it.

The movie is about what it would have been like if Holmes and Watson met earlier than they did in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s books.  (Doyle never wrote about either character as a child and had them meeting as adults.)  The movie begins with a man having several hallucinations resulting in him jumping from a window to his death.  After the opening credits, an adult Watson is narrating as the young Watson arrives at Brompton Academy.  The one he was attending closed due to insolvency, so he was transferring to the one Holmes is attending.  The two meet and become fast friends.

When another man hallucinates and subsequently dies, Holmes reads the obituary and sees a pattern.  Scotland Yard doesn’t; both were deemed suicides.  The thing is that there’s a cloaked figure that’s shooting poisoned thorns into their necks, so we know someone’s really out to get these people.  When Waxflatter, the former schoolmaster at Brompton, dies the same way, Holmes takes it upon himself to solve the murders with Watson’s help, regardless of what Det. Sgt. Lestrade says.

Much of the material is new, basically using established characters to tell about young versions of those characters.  A lot of movies have been made about Holmes and Watson, a few of them even taking similar liberties.  We get a few in jokes, like Waxflatter telling Holmes that something is elementary.  Watson also buys a pipe, which he eventually gives to Holmes.

I was actually surprised by how much I didn’t remember about the movie.  There were characters and scenes that were entirely unfamiliar to me.  I think that most of the reason that I don’t remember so much of this movie is that I didn’t catch a lot of these references the first time around.  (Holmes mentions his brother by name, which you may miss if you’ve never read the books.)

It’s an interesting story.  There is that family-friendly feel to it.  There are a few fight scenes and very little blood, other than a cut.  Probably the scariest thing for a child would be seeing the men hallucinating.  One sees fire everywhere while another sees a stained-glass knight attacking him.

I was able to get this streaming through Netflix.  It’s one of those movies that you’re not surprised to find out it was released in 1985.  The picture quality is good, but was probably better when it was first released.  I’m not sure how much was lost to age or transfer.  (There was no concept of Blu-Ray back then.  As for transfer, streaming probably requires a good deal of compression anyway.)

One thing I found nice was the CGI, which was much better than I’d expect.  The stained-glass knight looked about as realistic as you could expect walking stained glass to look like.  There was the scene where Waxflatter was attacked.  The CGI there looked a little patchy, but was still pretty good.

I have to admit that my main motivation here was nostalgia.  I don’t remember if I came across it while looking at the selection of movies or if I somehow remembered it and looked to see if it was there.  Either way, if you grew up in the 80s and you have Netflix, it’s worth a watch. 

IMDb page