Moriarty's Return Was No Accident!

[Mojochi]

So, in Ship in a Bottle we find out that Moriarty has not only been stored in computer memory, by his own admission undergoing brief, terrifying, disembodied, substanceless periods of consciousness, over the course of 4 years, but when he is put into form once again, we find out that he now inexplicably has not only the ability to maintain in that form at will, but also to manipulate the holodeck itself, into *spoiler alert* an Enterprise facsimile labyrinth, which he intends to use to further his goals.

However, there's another thing we learn in the episode, which plays a peripheral factor in the story, but in fact might be much more integral to the events, than the episode tells. The whole issue arises when a dominant hand glitch in Data's Sherlock Holmes program becomes disruptive, & when Barclay is called on to fix it, the 1st place he investigates is the sequencing of the protected memory file of Moriarty himself.

So there's reason to believe that the lengthy storage of such a complex file might have actually been the cause of the glitch, that maybe storing a file like his for so long goes beyond the capacity of the holodeck design, & had unintended literal con-sequences.

Or were they unintended? If it's true that Moriarty was experiencing consciousness while in storage, & we then see he has a new expansion of control over the programming itself, then it's possible that Moriarty himself found a way to put that glitch into the Sherlock Holmes program, with the express intention of getting someone, maybe even Mr. Data himself, to unlock his program!

He might even have specifically chosen the hand dominant glitch itself, as a way to be an annoyance in solving the crimes of Sherlock Holmes, which often depend on nuances like the killer being left handed etc... So, he might very well have been planning this escape for 4 years... on & off... as it were lol

 

[ThankQ]

I think you're pretty close. I think his, "brief, terrifying glimpses of conciseness" was an undersell. I think he was mostly if not always aware, and being in the computer he had access to all the information he needed to figure out what he was and work out an elaborate plan.

He probably shouldn't have said anything about being aware, but he was so pissed at how they left him he couldn't help trying to make someone feel bad about how he was treated.

 

[Timo]

Hoist to his own petard, then? It was the handedness glitch that gave away his game, after all.

Of course, he might have been way too carefully programmed to being the perfect supervillain. Those always fumble exactly like that, being too clever by half.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mojochi]

Hoist to his own petard, then? It was the handedness glitch that gave away his game, after all

Right. So in my theory, that was his Achilles heel, that once he established the handedness glitch, as a means to get the needed attention from the crew, he couldn't find a way around it existing throughout all of the programs he had access to, or maybe he needed it to be that overreaching so to cast a wide enough net that someone would stumble on it among as many programs as possible, bettering his chances. The unfortunate or maybe even unintended consequence would be that maybe all the programs he's part of would have it, including any he fashioned himself.

Frankly, if he'd known that would be the case, it would be a small risk he had to take, in his plan, & if it weren't for Data's unique keen eye, it might have gone unnoticed. I like this theory, because it means yet again he was bested by Data, who he'd originally been fashioned to be an adversary to. He is truly an adversary worthy of Data, & in that sense better than maybe anyone else.

If you assume Moriarty had nothing to do with the handedness glitch, then it was just luck that it happened & he could monopolize, & it was that same luck that worked for Data later. I think my theory is more poetic lol

 

[Timo]

Moriarty could simply have been careless as well, though. By design of his program. After all, he is an adversary capable of defeating Data. He isn't intended to actually defeat Data; that was never the purpose of the program, and LaForge's fumbling of the commands didn't explicitly change that...

Imagine that, being designed to fail no matter what, and being incapable by design of recognizing that.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JesterFace]

Imagine that, being designed to fail no matter what, and being incapable by design of recognizing that.

Timo Saloniemi

Maybe that played a role in him getting fooled by Picard and the crew.

 

[gakelly]

Maybe he actually fooled Picard and the crew into thinking they fooled him and they are all still on another version of the Holodeck while Moriarty succeeded in leaving the Holodeck for real.