The Best Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 6, Episode 12 Quotes

Moriarty: A deadline has a wonderful way of concentrating the mind.

- Explain.
- Picard command codes are no longer valid.
- What's happening?
- Who's transferred the voice authorization?
- I have.
- I'm afraid I had no choice but to take control of your vessel.

Moriarty: I stayed in the dungeon of your computer for years, waiting for you to learn more. It wasn't until I took matters into my own hands, that something got done.

[last lines]
Barclay: As far as Moriarty and the Countess know, they're halfway to Meles II by now. This enhancement module contains enough active memory to provide them with experiences for a lifetime
Captain: They will live their lives and never know any difference.
Counselor: In a sense, you did give Moriarty what he wanted.
Captain: In a sense. But who knows? Our reality may be very much like theirs, and all this might just be an elaborate simulation, running inside a little device sitting on someone's table.
[everyone walks off, except Barclay]
Barclay: [tentatively] Computer, end program.

Captain: Somehow... I have to find a way of giving him what he wants.

- Computer: Transport log 759.
- That is the correct log.
- However, no information is being presented.
- Well, that's impossible.
- It is almost as if our attempt to transport the chair never occurred.

Lt. Commander Data: Captain. I have determined how Moriarty was able to leave the holodeck. He never did. Neither did we. None of this is real. It is a simulation. We are still on the holodeck.

Barclay: [flabbergasted] You know... you know what you are?
Moriarty: A holodeck character? A fictional man? Yes, yes, I know all about your marvelous inventions. I was created as a plaything so that your Commander Data could masquerade as Sherlock Holmes, but they made me too well, and I became more than a character in a story. I became self-aware. I... am alive.
Barclay: That's not possible.
Moriarty: But here I am.

- Every second we waste puts us in that much more danger.
- Don't worry, commander.
- You will soon have control of your ship.
- Regina: Goodbye, thank you for everything.
- Computer, prepare to depart.
- Open shuttlebay doors.

[Moriarty has taken control of the ship's computer]
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: Somehow he managed to override the security lockouts and rewrite them. The man is brilliant in any century.

Captain: Picard to bridge.
Cmdr. William Riker: Riker here.
Captain: Number One, what is my present location?
Cmdr. William Riker: Engineering. Is something wrong, sir?
Captain: No. Thank you. Picard out. Our comm badges must be locked into the simulation. If that had been the real Commander Riker, he would have given my location as holodeck 3.

Moriarty: Policemen - I'd recognize them in any century.

Barclay: Well, we're going to try to transport this chair off the holodeck first. We didn't want to try it on the countess until we were sure it would work.
Countess: How thoughtful. Isn't he thoughtful, James?

Moriarty: My God - we're adrift in the heavens!
[when looking out into space for the first time]

Moriarty: I ask only that I be allowed to explore this new world. Your vessel, for instance. What sea does she sail? Might we go above deck?
[Picard and Dr. Crusher exchange a look]
Moriarty: Weather permitting, of course.
Captain: Professor... I think there are some things of which you should be made aware...

Countess: I'm so looking forward to this new experience. My, traveling the stars.
Barclay: You know about that? You - you - you know where we are? Countess, forgive me, but you just don't sound like a holodeck character.
Moriarty: That's because she isn't.
Countess: James!
[Moriarty and the Countess kiss passionately]
Moriarty: If you loved a woman like this, Leftenant, would you be content to let her remain a simulation?
Barclay: You - you gave her consciousness?
Moriarty: Yes, just as it was given to me.

Captain: Professor, I feel it necessary to point out that criminal behavior is as unacceptable in the 24th century as it was in the nineteenth - and very much harder to get away with.
Moriarty: Don't worry, Captain. My past is nothing but a fiction, the scribblings of an Englishman dead now for four centuries. I hope to leave his books on the shelf, as it were.

Moriarty: Please tell your Captain I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye. I do wish I could see his face when he realizes where he's been the last several hours.

Captain: I have come here to prevail on your intelligence and your insight.
Countess: But not apparently my humility?
Captain: Credit where credit is due, madam. I can see you are a woman not only of breeding but of wit and sagacity.
Countess: And you, sir, are a man of charm - and guile. You remind me of Viscount Oglethorpe. He was a man who could bewitch any woman who breathed.
Captain: And do you suspect that that is my intent?
Countess: I cannot be certain of your intent, but I am certain that you're the kind of man who usually gets what he wants.

Countess: Have you ever been to Africa, Mr., um...?
Barclay: Uh, B-Barclay, Lieutenant Reginald Barclay. No. No, I haven't.
Countess: *I* have! When I was seventeen, I went on safari with my uncle. My mother took to her bed in terror I'd be bitten by a tsetse fly, but I had a marvelous time! I got to wear trousers - the whole time! Oh, it was hard to go back to a corset, I can tell you.
Barclay: Yes, I'm sure it was.

Lt. Commander Data: This contradicts everything we know about holodeck physics.
Moriarty: Then perhaps you don't know as much as you thought.

Barclay: Do you have the chair, Commander?
Lt. Commander Data: No. It lost cohesion as soon as the transporter cycle was complete.

Captain: Professor, it's good to see you again.
Moriarty: If you'd missed my company, I should think you'd have summoned me before now.

[Data and La Forge indulge in another Sherlock Holmes adventure]
Lt. Commander Data: [as Holmes] With practice, handwriting can be forged. It takes a trained eye to notice certain... discrepancies. For example, whether someone is right-... or left-handed.
[he throws a matchbox to a holographic gentleman, who catches it]
Lt. Commander Data: Your brother was right-handed. The alleged suicide note was written by a left-handed individual, such as yourself!
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: Er, Data... it's in his right hand.
Lt. Commander Data: [puzzled] Curious. There seems to be a problem with the holodeck's spatial orientation systems.
Gentleman: [derisively] London's greatest detective, huh?

- Professor, I ask you to believe me.
- If you step out of that door, you will cease to exist.
- If I am nothing more than a computer simulation, then very little will have been lost.
- But if I am right...
- Mind over matter.

Countess: [after Moriarty and the Countess think they've left the Holodeck and the Enterprise] James.
Moriarty: Yes, my love.
Countess: Can we go back to Earth... someday?
Moriarty: Of course, my dear... Of course.

Moriarty: [on the Countess] The program fashioned her for me to love, but I must admit, I would have done so anyway. She is remarkable. My life has not been the same since I met her. I don't simply love her, Captain. I adore her.

- Captain, I have determined how moriarty was able to leave the holodeck.
- He never did. Neither did we.
- None of this is real.
- It is a simulation.
- We are still on the holodeck.

- I promise you, you'll want for nothing.
- Ri ker: Riker to moriarty.
- It's time.
- Yes, commander?
- We're ready.
- As are we.
- Step into the transport area.

Moriarty: All I know is, despite Picard's promise, he's done nothing. Just left me to go quietly mad.

Moriarty: I will not release your vessel until I am looking at it through a shuttlecraft window.

- That way, we can minimize the risks in bringing her to you.
- You wouldn't want to lose her because we acted too quickly.
- Riker [over comm]: Riker to captain picard.
- Picard here.
- Can you join us on the bridge?
- On my way.

Captain: What does a woman like you see in a man like Moriarty?
Countess: He's an exciting man, Captain. He's brilliant. Incisive. He's ruthless. He has... an almost irresistible appeal.
Captain: He's also an arch-criminal.

- Then I saw you working the padd with your left hand.
- Commander la forge is right-handed, sir.
- A similar malfunction occurred in the Sherlock Holmes program
- I was running before moriarty first appeared.
- Mr. Data, if what you say is true, then this is not geordi la forge.
- Are you certain?

Cmdr. William Riker: Release control of this ship!
Moriarty: I'm afraid I can't do that.

- Computer: Diagnostic complete.
- All files conform to specified parameters except those contained in protected memory.
- Protected memory?
- All right. Display those sequences.
- Computer, unlock this sequence and run the program.

Moriarty: I only want what you have the luxury of taking for granted. Freedom. I want to leave this holodeck.
Cmdr. William Riker: I think you know that's impossible.
Moriarty: Your crewmates here in my little ship in a bottle, seem a bit more optimistic,
Cmdr. William Riker: Oh?
Moriarty: They attempted to use your transporter device to remove a simulated object from the holodeck.
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: If they tried it, they must have thought they were on to something.
Moriarty: Their attempt was futile because their transporter was a facsimile. I expect more form you.

Moriarty: I sense a distressing lack of enthusiasm on your parts.

Captain: I have just given the computer my command codes, thinking I would get control of the ship.
Lt. Commander Data: You may have inadvertently given Professor Moriarty the means of gaining control of the real Enterprise.

Moriarty: I have consciousness. Conscious beings have will. The mind endows them with powers that are not necessarily understood - even by you. If my will is strong enough, perhaps I can exist outside this room. Perhaps I can walk into your world right now.
Captain: Professor, I ask you to believe me. If you step out of that door, you will cease to exist.
Moriarty: If I am nothing more than a computer simulation, then very little will have been lost, but if I am right...
[he turns to the exit]
Moriarty: Mind over matter - cogito ergo sum.
[he steps out of the holodeck onto the corridor, to everyone else's surprise]
Moriarty: I think - therefore I am!

- Picard: Space, the final frontier.
- These are the voyages of the starship enterprise.
- Its continuing mission: To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Moriarty: How long have I been locked away?
Barclay: Uh, well, it looks - looks like about, uh, four years.
Moriarty: It seemed longer.
Barclay: What are you talking about? You can't possibly have been aware of the passage of time.
Moriarty: But I was. Brief terrifying periods of consciousness, disembodied, without substance.
Barclay: I don't see how that could be possible.

Moriarty: I have them running around like rats in a maze.

Moriarty: There are more worlds in the heavens than there are grains of sand on a shoreline.

- The captain would not do that.
- I'd like to talk to him.
- Well, I... I can ask.
- Ask him to meet me in the sitting room at Baker Street.
- That would be far more appropriate.
- I'll have to store you in memory again until I get an answer.

Moriarty: I am a man out of time, Captain, and that isolates me.