By Joshua Tyler
| Published
Star Trek’s Spock has always been a master of analytical reasoning, and now we know why. He’s a direct descendant of Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
That revelation was dropped this week on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, in the holodeck adventure episode “A Space Adventure Hour.” It happens in a scene where Spock (Ethan Peck) talks to the ship’s security officer, La’an, about his analytical prowess. Spock says directly, “As my ancestor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would write, the game is afoot.”
Here’s the scene…
It’s worth noting that when Spock says this, it’s not actually Spock. It’s a holodeck recreation of Spock, based on the computer’s knowledge of him. It’s safe to assume that the computer wouldn’t have made this fact up out of thin air, and that we can now safely say that Spock being a descendant of Sherlock Holmes’ creator is canon.
Arthur Conan Doyle wasn’t just the man behind a famous literary character. He was also a physician, intellectual, and real-life detective himself. The author investigated and solved real-life crimes as a consultant for Scotland Yard.
Now we know Spock’s singular genius isn’t just a product of his Vulcan half; he also has equally brilliant contributions from his mother’s human DNA.
