Elementary Dear Data by: Briana Alan Lane and directed by: Rob Bowman

 

“Elementary, Dear Data” is written by: Briana Alan Lane and is directed by: Rob Bowman.  It was produced under production code 129, was the 3^rd episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2, the 29^th episode overall, and was broadcast on December 5, 1988.

 

Once again Star Trek: The Next Generation immediately becomes more interesting when it decides to take an episode to explore its characters it turns into something great.  “Elementary, Dear Data” is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche set aboard the holodeck, essentially following up on the ideas from “The Big Goodbye” while pushing forward both Data and Dr. Pulaski as characters.  It’s honestly a little odd that this is from a completely new writer as it was one of the first five put into production after the 1988 Writer’s Guild of America strike.  Briana Alan Lane is a woman who wears a lot of hats and was writing for other television series at the time, yet it seems “Elementary, Dear Data” is her only contribution to Star Trek.  Now this is clearly an episode made on a budget, using the holodeck and the setting of Victorian London means that the show could reuse sets from previous productions and the standing Enterprise sets.  This is one of those episodes of the show that just looks amazing because of that, the sets despite being in a studio setting, are shot by director Rob Bowman so incredibly well that the immersion doesn’t even break when characters bring back the arch back into the Enterprise proper.  It, logically, shouldn’t work as a shot because the arch is a perfect example of late-1980s science fiction set dressing.  Bowman is clearly Star Trek: The Next Generation’s strongest director, his direction was one of the few things about “The Child” that actually works, same with pretty much every episode he directed from the first season being elevated because of it.  As an episode, the lighting and shadows in particular are done incredibly well.

 

The plot itself is one of the first times that Star Trek: The Next Generation actually allows an episode to develop the stakes, yet keeps things escalating to the point of questioning what it means to be alive.  The episode opens with the general premise of Data and Geordi taking the roles of Holmes and Watson on the holodeck, the first aspect of conflict in the episode not coming because Data knows all the conclusions.  They put themselves into a version of “A Scandal in Bohemia” and Data unmasks the villain before the plot even begins, and then has to be told by Geordi why that doesn’t work.  It’s some of the best character work that the show has actually done thus far, by virtue of being actual character work.  The immediate next escalation is to try to create a new Sherlock Holmes story based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but that doesn’t work because it just does an amalgamation of several other stories, mainly “The Speckled Band” and “The Red-Headed League”, so he immediately solves it, again not having fun.  Lane then brings in Dr. Pulaski as a character, still refusing to acknowledge Data’s humanity, to escalate the bet into creating a scenario on the holodeck of a mystery and villain that could beat Data.  This is all within the first 20 minutes of the episode, so the back 25 minutes are playing that out between unraveling a mystery that begins with first Pulaski being kidnapped and then a completely unrelated murder because the program of Dr. Moriarty has gained sentience.  The plot eventually does have to rope in Picard into the conclusion as there is a minor background plot involving a rendezvous, mainly to have some larger stakes for the Enterprise in general.

 

Interesting for Pulaski as a character, it’s not Data who ever proves his humanity, it’s Moriarty as a character that gives Pulaski pause.  Fascinating because while Moriarty doesn’t have the uncanny valley makeup of Data as an android, he is a fictional character who gains consciousness and humanity.  Moriarty as a character is one created in terms of the Sherlock Holmes canon to kill off Holmes, pop culture generally growing the character into some great adversary and mental genius when he really isn’t.  Daniel Davis plays Moriarty with far more depth and logic than really anything Conan Doyle wrote, and he’s slowly learning through the episode, and the performance is really what sells the way Pulaski eventually respects him.  Diana Muldaur has been given quite a lot of material to work with and it really does elevate the episode.  Plus Brent Spiner as Data is really getting to shine and develop who he is, it really feels like Data is slowly growing to understand what it means to be human and alive.  Spiner’s chemistry with LeVar Burton is also just incredible to watch.  Burton genuinely makes a great Watson, adding in that human element that so many Holmes adaptations emphasize with the character to contrast Holmes as an outsider.  Yes, it’s usually going too far to make Holmes as a character completely alien and emotionless, but because it is Data it works.

 

Overall, “Elementary, Dear Data” is honestly the first perfect episode from Star Trek: The Next Generation.  This is one of those episodes that has a vision and accomplishes that vision wonderfully.  It works both as a Holmes pastiche and example of what Star Trek can actually do in the 1980s, it takes the time to explore the characters, craft an actual story, give us something completely satisfying.  It’s just a shame Lane didn’t come back to write anything else.  10/10.