Star Trek: 15 Best Holodeck Moments

The second episode to truly use the holodeck to its full potential, Elementary, Dear Data is a second season offering from the Next Generation. It introduces to the Star Trek universe Dr. James Moriarty, Holmes' greatest enemy and the only character who, by the computer's reckoning, can truly best Data.

The episode was deemed a triumph by cast and crew, though it came with several production issues. First, the beautiful sets that were constructed for the episode were very expensive and so to save on money, a day of the production schedule was shaved off, angering director Rob Bowman. Then, after production had wrapped and the episode aired, there were issues from the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

When writing the script, the producers had believed Holmes and the other characters to be in the public domain. They found out after airing that this was not the case. The Doyle's estate reminded them that they would need a percentage of any profit, should the characters be used again, something which took four years to settle.

There were also two endings scripted for the episode. In the first ending, Moriarty was actually able to leave the holodeck. This was proven by the fact that Data carries the drawing, given to him by Moriarty, off the holodeck. Picard notices this, and proceeds to trick Moriarty. Gene Roddenberry didn't like this, as in his view, it made Picard deceitful. The televised ending was instead given the green light and the existence of the paper is never explained!