Ship in a Bottle

He’s suave, dangerous, brilliant and Data’s favorite holodeck challenge. He also happens to have consciousness, and he wants a life out there in the real universe. Moriarty is back! It’s elementary – Ship in a Bottle on this week’s Mission Log. IMHO, Moriarty isn’t a villain in this episode; he’s fighting for his life. I would have done the same thing. Yes and no. He does take villianish actions, no matter his intent. Consider this: in Schisms, Riker was held in jeopardy in another dimension and threatened actions that would lead to the destruction potentially of both vessels. He and others were merely trying to survive. How is this different? Makes me think of “Tron” and all the little people/electrons milling about their cities. I remember looking in the 8 track player of our 1975 Dodge camper van, seeing what looked like a little lit garage filled w gizmos, gears, chrome and wondering if people lived in there to make the music… Another good podcast, hitting on almost all of the points I was thinking about when I was re-watching this episode this past weekend. Second, as noted by our podcasting hosts, whereas “Elementary” is more focused on the ideas of self-awareness and sentience, “Bottle” pays only cursory attention to those themes and rather quickly devolves into a twisty and turny mystery/thriller. The first time you see it, the plot twists seem somewhat clever. But re-watching causes one to start reflecting on the many logical incongruities involved with the computer and holodeck. In the opening sequence, for example, Moriarty reappears after Barclay has left the holodeck. How exactly does that happen? Why couldn’t he do it before Barclay’s discovery of his program? Our podcasting hosts touch on some of the many problems with the command codes, so I won’t dwell on that aspect of the story. A final point to be made has to do with how the holodeck works (and I suppose this point applies equally to each of the two Moriarty episodes). In the events of “Elementary” the holodeck, in order to create an opponent capable of defeating Data, incidentally creates a “living”, sentient being. The implication is that if someone had simply asked the holodeck to create a new life form, it would have said, ”Sure. Here you are.” I get that the holodeck is this ultra-cool and powerful MacGuffin, but how can it be that powerful/sophisticated? Could you simply request it to build a device capable of defeating the Borg? Another, don’t think to heavily on the tech that does not exist episode. I think of ‘Ship in a Bottle’ as Trek’s ‘Total Recall.’ If you want to see how nuts Hollywood is, read David Hughes’ ‘Tales from Development Hell.’ In it, they recount the discussions for the never-made sequel to ‘Total Recall.’ Basically, the studio suits loved the mind-bleepery of the first so much that the sequel would be a series of bleeps. “He’s dead; he’s alive, but thinks he’s dead but it’s a dream; your dog wrote this screenplay, because you’ve been dreaming, and we’re all on Mars, but we’re all dead and dreaming. Etc. etc. etc.” I enjoy watching ‘Ship in a Bottle’ for the performances, but I give up on trying to think too much about the plot. (See also, late season Dr. Who.) Great podcast, though I think you guys need to lighten up a bit. You seem like you’re gonna bust a frontal lobe trying to make 90’s TV make sense. I think the best solution the Enterprise crew could have found for Moriarty and the Countess would have been to make a holodeck inside an actual shuttle craft and install their program into it and give them control of something in the real universe that would also allow them to explore and interact with the real universe. Who knows in that situation maybe Moriarty and the Countess ‘really’ travel somewhere and ‘really’ find a way to leave the confines of their shuttle and really free themselves. Plus who wouldn’t like a series of books about ‘The Adventures of Moriarty and The Countess’? I posted this in the main comment