Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 6 – "The Bounty"Daniel Davis makes his third appearance as Star Trek: The Next Generation's Professor James Moriarty, but a major issue from his first TNG episode meant that he may never have appeared again. In Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 6, "The Bounty", Daniel Davis plays a slightly different version of the character from the classic TNG episodes "Elementary, My Dear Data" and "Ship in a Bottle". The episode reveals that a resurrected version of Data (Brent Spiner) has been installed as the A.I. responsible for the security of Daystrom Station.
Moriarty, the classic character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as a nemesis for his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, first appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2, episode 3 "Elementary, My Dear Data". Davis' portrayal of Moriarty made him a fan-favorite character, but he wouldn't return to TNG until season 6, episode 12 "Ship in a Bottle". In an exclusive Screen Rant interview with Daniel Davis, the actor revealed the reason for the long gap between appearances. Read his quote below:
"The only problem that we ran into with the first episode was that they didn't get clearance from the Conan Doyle Society to use those characters because they assumed mistakenly assume that the works of Conan Doyle were in public domain. Because he'd been dead for more than 50 years. Then they find out to their shock that the Conan Doyle Society holds the rights to those characters and stories in perpetuity because the Conan Doyle Society sponsors so many orphanages and charitable organizations. And the funds that come in from the use of those characters are what keep the organization going.
Mr. Roddenberry got into a little bit of hot water, which he was able to solve after a few years, and then happily called back and said, we're ready to do another episode. We've got the rights this time."
