TNG: Elementary, Dear Data
August 26th, 2003 at 3:17 pm (Trek Talk)
TNG: Elementary Dear Data showed a great combination of good writing and incredible set and costume design. It also gave Brent Spiner an opportunity to drop out of role for a short while and show off his acting skills. All in all a very good episode.
Nick said,
August 27, 2003 at 11:52 pm
It is an excellent episode. One of the best. The best Star Trek episodes are fun while doing what science fiction does best, which is ask philosphical questions. A holodeck character has body and mind, acts human, reacts like a human. It quacks like a duck, so why is it not one? Apparently, the answer is Cartesian: holodeck characters are not self-aware. They do not think, they just express the computer’s programming physically. They are merely actors in a play with no will or soul. However, Moriarty gains self-consciousness and by doing so apparently becomes more than just a character, but something akin to human. I would argue he’s more human than data, just limited in where he can go. He’s used later in another good episode, I think.
The holodeck was often used to bring the fun of some of the odder, but more fun episodes of the original Star Trek, like ones with mobsters or Nazis, to TNG in a less eye-rolling manner, I think. Good stuff. The Moriarty episodes were up there with the better Q episodes, I think.
Leopoldo said,
August 28, 2003 at 6:11 am
Yes, Moriarty does show up in a later episode (review will come when I get to that season). The question of what makes someone human is also explored with great success in a later episode where starfleet tries to clasify Data as property so they can dissasemble him to see what makes him tick. That episode has a similar context and great writting.. I believe that review is coming up as well.
dyingofluv said,
September 4, 2003 at 9:54 am
Moriarty is every bit as absorbing a character as Q, but a bit more subtle. He doesn’t rile people the same way Q does (Although of course Picard is not happy about anyone who causes as much trouble as Moriarty). And i thought Moriarty was extremely well acted. I wish they had done as much with him as they did with Q.
bobbi chase said,
September 8, 2003 at 10:54 am
isn’t this the one with the prostitute?