Product Details

• Actors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden
• Directors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Gabrielle Beaumont, Robert Becker, Cliff Bole
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English, French
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: June 2, 1998
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304925107
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #357,006 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While investigating a glitch in Data's "Sherlock Holmes" holodeck program, engineer Reg Barclay (the awkward recurring engineer played by Dwight Schultz) inadvertently releases Professor Moriarty (Daniel Davis) from the ship's memory. Moriarty, the sentient holodeck character created in episode 29, "Elementary, Dear Data," is alive, bored, and singularly frustrated by Picard's lack of action: he wants off the holodeck so bad he steps over the threshold and into the real world by sheer will. His problem is bringing out his digital lover (Stephanie Beacham) with him, and he hijacks the Enterprise (perched on the event horizon of a forming star that threatens to engulf the vessel) to pressure the crew into finding a solution. The ingenious Chinese box of a story is like a series of interlocking mind games and makes for a delicious battle of wits: things are not always as they seem. Davis's Moriarty is not exactly the criminal mastermind of Doyle's books ("He was only written that way," pooh-poohs his elegant love interest), but he is a genius and a charismatic opponent, and writer Rene Echevarria pens a plot and a character worthy of such a creation. --Sean Axmaker

From the Back Cover

After enjoying a Sherlock Holmes mystery on the holodeck, Data (Brent Spiner) and Geordi (LeVar Burton) accidentally release the villainous Professor Moriarty (Daniel Davis), who has been trapped in the computer for four years. An exam reveals that the professor is in fact a sentient human being.

Though Moriarty relishes his new surroundings, he misses his beloved (Stephanie Beacham) and asks Picard (Patrick Stewart) to bring her to life as well. When Picard refuses, Moriarty threatens to destroy the ship. Then Data makes a startling discovery - the entire experience is a holodeck simulation controlled by Moriarty. Unfortunately, the danger is no less real, and the Enterprise will be destroyed unless they can escape from this "ship in a bottle".

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very intriguing storyline, October 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 138: Ship in a Bottle [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is one of my favorite episodes, and I think this sequel to "Elementary, Dear Data" was even better than the original. The solution at the end was thought-provoking and creative. After seeing this episode, one must wonder what how we really know that anything is real. Perhaps we are just a hologram????

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Moriarty - a genius in any century, September 27, 2004

By 

Shelley Gammon "Geek" (Kaufman, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 138: Ship in a Bottle [VHS] (VHS Tape)

After encountering some anomolies in their Sherlock Holmes adventure, Geordi & Data ask Lt. Barclay to look at the Holodeck for problems. It's amazing that they were running the Holmes program, and yet Data didn't even seem to remember about Dr. Moriarty. In a previous episode, Dr. Polaski challenged Data, saying that he couldn't solve a genuine mystery, but only ones he had already read. Geordi inadvertently told the computer to create a character capable of defeating Data instead of defeating just Holmes. Moriarty became self aware (something that holographic characters aren't supposed to do) and essentially became alive.

This was prior to Barclay's service on Enterprise, so he is shocked to find this character in protected memory that knows he's a hologram and asks for Picard by name. Daniel Davis (known also as the British Butler on "The Nanny" series) is superb as the diabolical genius - criminal and debonair, mischieveous, yet polite - Sherlock Holmes' literary nemesis, Dr. Moriarty. He wants to have freedom from the confines of the Holodeck and is rightfully angered that he has been forgotten and claims he has experienced the passage of time while in limbo in the computer's memory.

No longer trusting of Picard's promises, Moriarty takes control of the ship, endangering her crew as she falls into the gravity well of a newly formed star. Moriarty has Picard running around like "a rat in a maze" and forms an ingenious ruse to get his demands met.

With full control of the ship in the hands of Moriarty, Picard must find a way to appease his apparently scientifically impossible requests.

Since the mission of the Enterprise is to seek out new life, it's amazing how quickly they want to shut down the new life they accidentally created, but they do need to wrap the episode up in a neat little bow by the time 42 minutes is up (1 hour show minus commercials). It was a treat to see Davis again. A native mid-westerner, his mastery of the English accent is truly impressive. I wouldn't mind seeing B4 (Data's "clone" that we meet in the movie "Star Trek: Nemesis") interacting with Moriarty in a future Star Trek film... this Moriarty character is truly intriguing. Despicable, yet lovable at the same time.

Edge of your seat viewing, charming and entertaining.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most intriguing use of the Holodeck, June 26, 2000

By 

Dio_K (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 138: Ship in a Bottle [VHS] (VHS Tape)

with Daniel Davis playing Dr. Moriarty, Lt. Data's "Shirlock Holmes'" arch enemy. One of the best story lines written by the staff of TNG. Episode 138 is a sequel to Episode 29, "Elementary, Dear Data" from the 1st season. The ending to this episode will have you wishing there were another season of TNG to make yet another sequel.