Star Trek: Strange New Worlds just solved a major Spock mystery after 34 years
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
*Warning: Spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 episode 4 ahead.*
Star Trek's Spock is a legendary character in his own right, but in the latest episode of Strange New Worlds, it's confirmed that he's actually related to another legend connected to an entirely different franchise.
In episode 4 of season 3, Spock (Ethan Peck) and La'An Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) get caught up in a murder mystery that traps them within a prototype holodeck. At the start of their investigation, Spock says to La'An: "As my ancestor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would write, 'The game's afoot.'"
Yep, the same Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who created the iconic detective Sherlock Holmes is also Spock's great-great-great-great something grandfather in the fictional world of Star Trek.
Weirdly enough, this isn't the first time that Spock has suggested Doyle is actually part of his bloodline.
Back in 1991's "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," Spock tells the Enterprise crew that: "An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains — however improbable – must be the truth."
This quote is synonymous with Sherlock, and it's easy to see why it might resonate with someone as logical as Spock. But it's technically Sherlock who said those words, not Doyle, which got Trekkies at the time asking if this fictional detective could be a real ancestor of Spock's within the Star Trek universe.
Spock is half-human because his mother comes from earth, so that tracks, but as longtime fans might remember, Sherlock is repeatedly referred to as a fictional character within Star Trek.
As such, mentions of him in the likes of The Next Generation refute the idea that Sherlock could have been a real person in this fictional world.
34 years later, Strange New Worlds has finally cleared up that mystery by confirming that Spock was actually referring to Arthur Conan Doyle rather than his creation, Sherlock.
Never mind that Doyle didn't have any directly descended grandchildren of his own, which means Spock couldn't actually be related to him – it's still fun to pretend.
Plus, considering the Trelane and Q revelation earlier this season, who knows what family links we're still to discover?
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is available to stream on Paramount+.
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Authors
David Opie is a freelance entertainment journalist who writes about TV and film across a range of sites including Radio Times, Indiewire, Empire, Yahoo, Paste, and more. He's spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and strives to champion LGBTQ+ storytelling as much as possible. Other passions include comics, animation, and horror, which is why David longs to see a Buffy-themed Rusical on RuPaul's Drag Race. He previously worked at Digital Spy as a Deputy TV Editor and has a degree in Psychology.
