Professor Moriarty

Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character who is the best known antagonist of the detective Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". (T. S. Eliot would later use the same phrase, in homage, to describe Macavity in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.) Conan Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was referring to Adam Worth, a true-life (though non-violent) model for Moriarty.

Moriarty in pop culture

In Nicholas Meyer's 1976 novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Professor Moriarty is portrayed as Holmes's childhood mathematics tutor, a whining little man with a guilty secret. However, he is rather incensed to hear that Holmes has depicted him as a criminal mastermind, apparently as a side-effect of his cocaine addiction. Because of Moriarty's threats to tell the authorities, and Holmes' worsening condition, Dr. Watson seeks the help of Sigmund Freud, who uncovers the truth behind Holmes' perception of "the Napoleon of Crime". This is one of many works to seize on the fact that Moriarty never actually shows his face in the Holmes canon (though, of course, different authors do different things with this idea).

Related Topics:
Nicholas Meyer - The Seven-Per-Cent Solution - Cocaine - Sigmund Freud

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Michael Kurland has written a series of novels in which Moriarty is the hero: his organisation of crime is the method by which he raises the money required for his experimental physics apparatus (predating the Michelson-Morley experiment by some decades, for example). In the first book of the series, The Infernal Device, he foils a plot against Queen Victoria, reluctantly allying with Sherlock Holmes.

Related Topics:
Michael Kurland - Michelson-Morley experiment

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A computer simulation of Professor Moriarty, played by actor Daniel Davis, appeared in the ' episodes "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Ship in a Bottle". Due to technical errors, Moriarty gains sentience and seizes control of the Starship Enterprise. Freed from holographic captivity in the latter episode, he again takes over the Enterprise and blackmails Captain Jean-Luc Picard into letting him leave the ship with his mistress Countess Regina Bartholomew. The wily Picard tricks Moriarty into believing that a holographic simulation in which the Professor leaves the ship is in fact real - leaving the holographic Moriarty still safely stored in a databank aboard the Enterprise.

Related Topics:
Daniel Davis - Elementary, Dear Data - Ship in a Bottle - Starship Enterprise - Jean-Luc Picard

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Moriarty appeared in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: having survived his final encounter with Sherlock Holmes he went on to become the head of British Intelligence under the code-name "M" (a nod to the James Bond novels and films). He instigated the creation of the League as a covert ops unit with plausible deniability. Following his death in the midst of a gang war with Fu Manchu, he was succeeded as "M" by Mycroft Holmes. The film of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen also included Moriarty, but with a more supervillain-style take on the character.

Related Topics:
Alan Moore - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Sherlock Holmes - M - James Bond - Covert ops - Plausible deniability - Fu Manchu - Mycroft Holmes - Supervillain

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