8 Star Trek Episodes That PISSED OFF Other Franchises
2. Elementary, Dear Data Vs Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Estate
Elementary, Dear Data was the second season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that landed the show in a bit of bother. In it, Data plays Holmes, Geordi plays Watson and the villainous Professor Moriarty makes his first appearance. However, when the writers were working on the episode, they mistakenly thought that the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had passed into the public domain when this wasn't actually the case.
When the episode aired, the estate of Doyle got in touch with Paramount Pictures. They informed the company that the estate still held a percentage of the rights to the characters, therefore they would require a fee if the episode were to ever receive a sequel.
The legal issues surrounding this took a further three years to rectify. By the time they were finally sorted, production was underway on the show's sixth season. The episode Ship In A Bottle was drafted, featuring the return of Professor Moriarty, who had been kept in a static state for the previous few years. There was an explanation given on-screen as to the unusual delay, though really it all came down to the courts.