Ship in a Bottle (TNG episode)
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"Ship in a Bottle" is the 138th episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Harking back to an earlier episode of the Star Trek: The Next Generation series, Elementary, Dear Data, the holodeck creation of Professor James Moriarty (played by guest actor Daniel Davis) from Sherlock Holmes is awakened from his long sleep when his program, saved and deactivated years ago, is reactivated. Moriarty, an artificial sentient being who wishes to escape the artificial world of the holodeck, was assured by the crew of the Enterprise-D that they would endeavor to find a way to free him. Finding himself still trapped within the holodeck Moriarty is irritated at the lack of results on the part of the crew and their seeming lack of even the tiniest bit of effort. He takes control of the Enterprise-D through the computer, insisting that a way be found for him to experience life beyond the confines of the holodeck.
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The additional twist is the action by Moriarty to create a companion for himself, commanding the computer of the Enterprise-D to place another sentient mind within a female character of the Sherlock Holmes novels. It has been theorised that this was an attempt by the writers to have Moriarty appear as an independent entity; a sentient being with his own wants and needs, not merely a talking version of the literary character. Unfortunately, even with the threat of ship-wide destruction over their heads the crew can not determine a way to allow Moriarty the freedom to travel. Thus, they deceive Moriarty and his companion by simply programming the holodeck to create the appearance that they have escaped their prison. Believing they are in the real world, the two artificial beings embarked on a happy lifetime of exploration and adventure.
The production staff had been told by Paramount not to use the Sherlock Holmes character again in the series, as the staff had mistakenly believed Sherlock Holmes was now a public domain character. A call later in this season to the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle quickly revealed that the owners of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's estate (namely his daughter Dame Jean Conan Doyle) were very happy with Data's portrayal, and offered to license out the character of Moriarty to the Star Trek team for this episode.