Editing Elementary, Dear Data (section)

===Story and script===
This episode contains elements from and references to the [[Sherlock Holmes]] short stories "[[A Scandal in Bohemia]]", "[[The Red-Headed League]]", "[[The Adventure of the Speckled Band]]", and "[[The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans]]", as well as the Holmes novel ''[[The Valley of Fear]]''. Furthermore, Moriarty's creation being a result of [[Geordi La Forge]] requesting an opponent capable of defeating Data references [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s creation of the same character for the short story ''[[The Final Problem]]'' – specifically, as an opponent capable of defeating Sherlock Holmes who, at the time, Doyle wanted to kill off.

Reportedly, the original ending had [[Jean-Luc Picard]] lying to Moriarty, that he could have existed outside the [[holodeck]], the same way the piece of paper on which he drew the ''Enterprise'' also stayed intact outside the holodeck. Co-executive producer Maurice Hurley wanted to keep that ending, as it made Picard look clever, but [[Gene Roddenberry]] nixed it, saying it made Picard look cruel. Instead, the paper stays intact without any explanation.<ref name="TorRewatch" />

When the episode was created, the staff believed Moriarty to be in the [[public domain]], given that ''The Final Problem'' was written in 1893, over 95 years before the episode aired.   However, the Doyle estate complained to Paramount.  The estate vigorously defends the copyright to the Holmes universe, and the stories were not always in the public domain outside of the United States.  Paramount and the Doyle estate eventually settled a deal, allowing for Moriarty's return several years later in the 1993 episode "[[Ship in a Bottle (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|Ship in a Bottle]]".<Ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.startrek.com/news/28-years-later-its-still-elementary-dear-data |title=28 Years Later... It's Still "Elementary, Dear Data" |date=December 5, 2016 |website=StarTrek.com }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://screenrant.com/star-trek-picard-season-3-daniel-davis-interview/ |first=John |last=Orquiola |date=March 23, 202 |title=Daniel Davis Interview: Star Trek Picard Season 3 |website=ScreenRant }}</ref>