UNCUT - Ship in a Bottle (TNG S6E12) | Star Trek Journey 249

I held off this whole time watching Star Trek till I could re-sub, this episode iS an abSolute banger of an epiSode. S tier for sure.

At this time the only show that comes to mind that did callbacks like this was Cheers. in '92 and '93 Cheers was winding down and many guest characters came back for the final season.

Moriarty: A deadline has a wonderful way of concentrating the mind Douglas Adams: I love deadlines. I love the wooshing noise they make as they go by

Exactly the kind of Holodeck episode I hate.

The most obvious re-casting of a Star Trek character that comes to my mind…and the most jarring…Lt. Saavik from Kirstie Alley to Robin Curtis!

"End Program" is something I'll still occasionally say

I think this was mentioned a long time ago, but my favorite table read story is from this show. At that time, most Americans said dah-ta and Brits said day-ta. The pilot script actually said the American pronunciation, but Sir Patrick not only created the rule that the first use of a name is the official TNG pronunciation, he changed the way we say a word forever.

honestly surprised they went the transport route when replicators basically do what they want, create matter from energy, also it was nice to see Barclay with confidence with no hang ups that prevented him from doing his job he really grown from his first appearance

47:40 I love the idea of the "S-rank'd episode Tier Ranking"!! LOL!

The "twist" blew your guys' minds more than I thought it would! haha

And what about Picard almost breaking the 4th wall at the end? My mind was completely blown after that. When I first watched this as a kid, I misinterpreted the holodeck within a holodeck plot, and thought they'd been in the holodeck since season two... now that would have been a mind fuck

By the way Josh, your memory really is S-tier. Recalling Ira Graves off the cuff, man. I wish I could remember names and titles like you do. The image of the man pops into my head, or the feeling of the episode, but not the words. And I agree, the odds are very high we're in a simulation already. And probably several layers deep.

not much was at this caliber amongst its peers. twin peaks would be the only one that comes close in quality or call backs

Troi being in her old uniform was probably a subtle way of messing with the viewers, to make us question the "reality" of the closing scene.

im too high for this episode

how did the first holodeck level regine know about what picard told second holodeck level regina. and how did she tell that to first level holodeck moriarty

The “Heisenberg compensators” in the transporter system are named after the real-life German physicist, Werner Heisenberg. He came up with the “uncertainty principle” which states that there are limits to the precision to which pairs of physical properties, such as position and momentum, can be known. Basically, the more accurate you get with one property, the less accurate you get with the other. The compensators are a plot device designed to negate the uncertainty principle.

Daniel Davis’ return as Professor Moriarty was awesome.

When Barclay appeared in this episode so soon after “Realm of Fear”, it really felt like he had become a regular part of the crew. Also, this episode didn’t focus on him and his “neurosis of the week” guest star stories. That also added to that feeling.

Alex, FYI this episode aired in 1993, not 1994.

GET. WORKED. SUCKERS. It's so satisfying when the audience gets fooled just as hard as the main characters. Such good writing!

I love alex's reactions to all the reveals. Just utter shock.

There's an interview with Denise Crosby where she says this about table reads: "Originally, for the first season, the cast and writers would do a table read of the script we were about to shoot and everyone was free to stop on a particular line or scene and ask a question or make a suggestion. I noticed that didn’t happen anymore after the first season. I thought that was too bad."

Apparently this was meant to be a season 3 episode and was pitched by Rene Echevarria and Michael Piller, but Arthur Conan Doyle estate was pissed at Paramount over a Young Sherlock Holmes film. So that prevented this episode from being made back then. Fast forward, Jeri Taylor wanted to see if he could make it, approached the Doyle estate and found that there were some misunderstandings about licensing Sherlock characters. So for a "very reasonable license fee", they were able to make this episode. Brent Spiner was excited for this because he had been eager to play Holmes since that season 2 episode.

You saw one actor recast. Pike was played by Jeffrey Hunter in The Cage, but by Sean Kenney in The Menagerie. (Edit) Alex said it literally just after i typed this.

Another great episode. It's A from me

We say Computer End Program all the time in our house because we changed our Echo Dot's name to Computer. So I'm fairly sure we're not living in a simulation.

One slight thing that bugged me about this episode- what they should have pointed out to Moriarty is that while even if you could beam a chair into the real world and make it solid, Moriarty isn't a being with a brain and a heart and all that, his "mind" is inside the computer, even if they made him "solid" it would just be like... an empty suit of skin.

Dammit, he just ignored our message. He’s still convinced the program is real! How do we get him out?

Picard’s comment at the end… when I saw this in its original broadcast, I talked back to the screen and said they ARE in a box. It’s called a television set.

Guys Holodecks are not real...just sayin

When Picard told the Countess, who then told Moriarty, who then told Riker about uncoupling the Heisenberg Compensators - That Riker wasn't the real Riker, but was Picard's Holodeck-in-a-holodeck Riker.

the boys did'nt get picard's speech at the end where STar Trk is indeed a Program running inside a little box called Television

Also, I've been watching Miami Vice, (only on S1) aired from 1984-89, and while it is largely episodic, there are some very minor background arcs, like investigations that carry through multiple episofdes, even if everytime it comes up, it's a new angle of investigation that's wholly contained to that episode.

Episodes like this are why when "Inception" came out and everyone was falling out of their chairs at how amazing and original it was, meming it to hell and back, I was just unimpressed and disengaged. Pretty much everything Inception did, I'd seen in different episodes of Star Trek already. Yelling at the sky "This isn't original, this isn't new! Star Trek did it all already!"

I have no problem with deanna in regular outfit at the end. she is a councelor/therapist and some patiants may be influenced/hemmed if she is in uniform during a session.

A holodeck within a holodeck! It was fun seeing your mind blown reactions to both twists! Episodes like this are why TNG is winner and still champion!!

After watching this a bunch of times, I realize that worf grabs the phaser with his left hand too, a really really early hint at what is going on.

Hill Street Blues ran from '81 to '87 and was an early master of episodic yet serialized. Twin Peaks ran at the same time as TNG; L.A. Law, too.

Recasting was practically unheard of until Darren from bewitched that’s why Doctor Who purposely regenerated their main character cause the only other people that have ever done it was bewitched.

I was so excited when you guys saw the 2nd twist! Moriarty is one of my favorite guest characters. Great job with this one!

Imagine how Picard must feel; he just got back from dealing with an incredibly tense lighting disagreement with the Cardassians and now he has to put up with this

No time for table reads in TNG. IIRC in TOS they had a “table” that they would occasionally rehearse scenes around during camera setups. Someone talks about it in one of the books. But for Star Trek of this era, no table reads, scripts sometimes came to them THE NIGHT BEFORE SHOOTING. With 26 episodes a season on a 7 day shooting schedule, it’s insane that the quality was so good.

This was the very first episode of any star trek I had ever watched, and it's the reason I go into star trek in the first place (I was very late to the party, at the time and it was a rerun on TV well after the series had ended). It was a great introduction to trek for m

I'm here early...I was jonesing to watch this. I could have resisted the urge and held off for another 14 hours but I figured I'd help the guys out with a five dollar purchase.

40 episodes of TNG left I do at times wonder if Inception took any inspiration from this episode. Obviously the stories are quite different in many ways, but there are definite parallels. Also without a massive movie budget to work with and no flashy visuals or wirework, it leaves the viewer to focus entirely on the whole "world inside a world" story. Definitely catches you off guard the first time. Given there's no actual way to get them off the holodeck, giving them a procedurally generated galaxy to explore is probably the most benevolent course of action they could take. Though it strikes me as odd that that little box at the end can run not 1 but 2 highly intelligent, sentient programs with simulated emotions and seemingly completely human, but nobody can recreate an android like Data. I mean building an android body isn't the issue. Lal worked fine physically. It's the positronic brain that failed. Couldn't they just build them a couple android bodies with whatever hardware is in that box incorporated into them, and download their programs into those androids? I guess the solution they came up with leaves less loose ends, and sets up the whole questioning reality ending. And yes, Alex is spot on with the holodeck moving the simulation under you like a treadmill. My theory is also that each person in the holodeck has a bubble of simulation around them that's only shared if they're close enough to another real person. Like if you had a program of a beach and 2 people went in opposite directions until they were 200 metres apart, obviously they can never be that far apart, so the holodeck shows you a tiny image of them to make them look far away, but if you end the program, all of a sudden they're 10 feet from you. Great episode with excellent twists.

Sick Bay scene- Moriarty: "Tell me good people, what happened to Dr Pulaski?" Cmdr Riker: "The fans didn't like her."

They rarely had more than a week or two at most to write scripts. The staff would break a story (form an outline) then the script was assigned to a writer. Probably the only time they would have more time is for season premieres, and the first few episodes after that. Everything else was always a race against time.

Continuing narratives were always a thing in soap operas, but so far as genre shows, it probably started in the 90s. The most prominent early ones I know was Babylon 5.

I still can’t believe that Daniel Davis is not really English. He does the accent so well

Goddam, y'all. You spoil us~

What I love it that Star Trek doesn't catch you guys off-guard very often at this point anymore, you see most of the twists coming before they even happen. So I am always pleased when Trek can still surprise you and make you think about stuff n things.

Table reads were common if episodes had a 6-7 day schedule for each episode. Only the mains and significant guest stars would be there and they may not include some non essential scenes. Frequently the draft from the table read would change before filming.

Y our 80s tv question: the top drama series of the 80s were Dallas and Dynasty which were both dramas with continuing stories. Dallas was the first successful prime time series to use continuity regularly. Hill Street Blues and La Law were a couple other shows with ongoing plot lines.

Not long after this aired Stephanie Beachem played Dr Westphalen during the first season of Sea Quest DSV.

Interesting story about why there was a four year gap before Moriarty returned. When they first did Ellementry My Data. They thought Sherlock Homes was public domain. It wasn't, and they had to clear things up with Arthur Conen Doyls estate. I guess it took that long to straighten things out.

At the time of this episode, I thought when Picard spoke of "an elaborate simulation running inside a little device, sitting on someone's table," to be a nod to the Star Trek series airing on a television. Which at this time was a little device (with a max size of about 32 inches) sitting on a TV stand.

Ah low key one of my fave eps of s6, S tier for me. It’s such a left field return and done so well.

"I'm not gonna laugh. I'm not gonna laugh." Lol :)

The reason for including Barclay, was they needed a character who would have no knowledge of Moriarty to allow for the early expositional scene since the episode was so long ago.

More interesting information. The character has been planned to be brough back earlier but there was a protracted legal battle between The Conan Doyle Estate and paramount. When Jeri Taylor decided to reinvestigate the possibility she learned it was a misunderstanding, the Doyle Estate was upset about a Paramount picture called "Young Sherlock Holmes". When Taylor explained the episode wasn't "the real moriarty" but a replication, the Estate was more open to allow it for a substantial licensing fee. The Genesis of this episode was a script by Rene to Piller in the third season with an elaborate premise where Picard returning from the plant appears to see Riker seizing command and taking the ship into enemy territory. What's actually happening is something very convoluted where Riker is trying to discredit the claims of a villian but the holodeck insulates Picard from taking the fall for some complicated reason about claims made by a villian that Riker essentially DOES take control f the ship because he wants to take the fall for a risky plan while making sure Picard's name was clear as he had no knowledge AND a simulaton proving that had Riker tried this plan, Picard would have acrively opposed it. Sounds elaborate. So in a brainstorming session where they were informed by Taylor there were free to use Moriarty again, Rene brought up the story with an aspect that Piller had loved and they decided to adopt it to a story about moriarity with a simialr type of mystery and twist.

To answer your question about whose idea it was to bring back Moriarty - apparently, Michael Piller was looking for a way to bring Moriarty back, and he remembered a story idea Echevarria had from way back in his first pitch session in season 3, and suggested reworking it to feature Moriarty. Barclay was included in the episode to have someone who didn't know about Moriarty, to give them a way to explain his backstory for viewers who might have missed "Elementary, Dear Data".

The twist then second twist were great, and pretty ahead of its time. A lot of fun! At the ending where Picard says "all this might just be an elaborate simulation running inside a little device sitting on someone's table" I've always assumed this was referring to TNG itself being a TV show playing on the viewer's TV, which were of course much smaller and often set on tables, and a wink to the viewer.

TNG is so atrocious with recasting. Do you guys not even pay attention. Spot has been recast so many times....

At the end, when Picard said, how their reality might be a simulation playing out in someone's device.... that was a definite meta-recognition that they (our beloved TNG crew) were fictional characters playing out in a VCR.

So looking it up, yes, TNG did table reads, and a famous example cited by google, chatgpt is how Picard's way of pronouncing "Data" during a table read actually influence american english where that is now the preferred pronunciation as oppose to the former. Interesting. So that means if you went back before TNG aired, the more common way of pronouncing it was "not Data's name"

Since the floor of any environment in the holodeck is a simulation, it can always be in motion as you move upon it.

only character change that I recall is Saavik played by Kirstie Alley and Robin Curtis

Something I hadn't noticed before: When Barclay meets the Countess, she says "This has to do with taking James and me into the real world." A subtle clue.

To this day, When I think of Moriarty, I think of Daniel Davis in TNG. Great acting, incredible writing. It made me love the original Holmes stories but also got me to question at a young age the nature of identity and even reality.

I LOOOOOOOVE this episode. Daniel Davies is so good!

This is follow-up at its best.