‘Star Trek: Picard’: Daniel Davis on Moriarty’s Surprising Return

After three decades off the screen, Moriarty — and Daniel Davis, the actor who portrays him — is back on today’s Star Trek: Picard, once again taunting and hunting members of Starfleet. Only this time, Sherlock Holmes’s holographic arch-enemy is not the same Moriarty who appeared on two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Spoilers past this point, but in today’s episode, titled “The Bounty”, written by Christopher Monfette and directed by Dan Liu, after heading to a Starfleet black site called Daystrom Station to try and discover what this season’s villains the Changelings are planning, Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and company instead encounter Moriarty. Quickly, Riker realizes that a musical tone playing under Moriarty’s attack is not about the villain; but in fact a whistling tune he figured out way back when Riker first met Data (Brent Spiner) on Next Generation.

“The interesting thing for me was that I never got a complete script from them because they’re very tight about keeping everything under wraps,” Davis told Decider. “All I ever received were my scenes that I had in the show, just the pages… I read the scene and I thought, ‘This isn’t even Moriarty. This isn’t the guy that I created on the show.'”

Don’t worry, Davis wasn’t ultimately disappointed — he was elated to return to the show that helped make his name back in 1993, the same year he launched his other most iconic role, as butler Niles on sitcom The Nanny. And despite Moriarty’s brief, decidedly different return on today’s Picard, he still got a custom made suit and a 90 minute chat with Patrick Stewart out of the deal.

For much more from Davis on the character’s return, as well as whether there will be a Nanny reunion for the thirtieth anniversary, read on.

Decider: You’ve been in dozens or roles… What do you think it is about this two episode appearances from a couple of decades back as Moriarty that has stuck with viewers for so long?

Daniel Davis: I think that it was a brilliant choice to combine the Star Trek mythos with the Sherlock Holmes mythos because a lot of the fans for ones are the fans of the other. So it satisfied, it just satisfied the longing in Data and Geordi to create something on the Holodeck that they would enjoy doing, and so I think it translated to the fans. It astonishes me still to this day how popular those episodes are, but they were so well written. And as usual with Star Trek episodes, there is so much to unpack in every episode that you can watch again and again and again and just keep, you know, adding your own thoughts to it. They were just great episodes. “Ship in a Bottle” was my favorite because of just the dealing with the fact that: what does it actually mean to be a sentient human being.

Jumping ahead to Picard here, how did they first approach you about reprising this role? And what was your reaction like?

Well, my agent called me and the first thing he said was, “We’ve heard from Star Trek,” and I said “Yes.” And he said, “Don’t you want to know what it is?” And I said “I don’t care. Whatever it is, yes.” And, so, once we had agreed to do it, the interesting thing for me was that I never got a complete script from them because they’re very tight about keeping everything under wraps. All I ever received were my scenes that I had in the show, just the pages. So, I read through and, of course, the moment I had agreed to do it, I had written my own little fantasy of what the episode might be. And I think I had hopes, or at least I imagined, that it would be some sort of resolution between Picard and Moriarty. Because Picard doesn’t break promises, and he told the character that he would find a way of getting him off the Holodeck, which he never really did. And so I thought, ok, so this episode is going to be about Picard coming to terms with some of his past mistakes and blah, blah, blah. And then suddenly I would be like The Doctor on Voyager, or I’d have an arm band that would allow me to come off the Holodeck and be a real person.

But, of course, then I read the scene and I thought, “This isn’t even Moriarty. This isn’t the guy that I created on the show.” And so I put in a call and was able – I kept trying to speak to the executive producer who was always on set, so I could never really get any information about who I was in that moment. So, I didn’t really understand what I was doing. I ended up doing it the way it was written and hoping that it would work. And then, of course, they just sent me a screener of the episode like two days ago, and I thought, “Gee, if I had had that information, you know, before I shot it…” — Because Riker, as you probably remember, says in the scene when I’m introduced, “This is not the sentient being that we knew on the Enterprise.” And I agreed, when I read it I thought, “No, I’m not.” So who am I? And then when the other scene, the second scene, played when they come in the room where Data is and he says he wasn’t trying to harm us, he was trying to guide us. And then I thought oh, I was a figment of whatever Data’s brain, or however it’s functioning, just created me to guide them to him so that they would find him. So I served a function, but it wasn’t really Moriarity in that sense.

But at the same time, you’re putting the costume back on… So what was that like when you got back into that suit?

Well, first of all, I was of course delighted to be asked to return. I’m a huge fan of the show. I’m a huge fan of Star Trek from the very beginning, and to be a part of it and to be working with those people again was really exciting for me because they’re such– It’s such a cliche to say that a company is like a family, but at this point they really are like a family. They’ve been together for so long. And I went out, they treated me so beautifully and so well. They sent a tailor to my home in upstate New York to measure me for my costumes because the original costumes had been lost to time, and so they tailor-made a suit for me with an imprint “S” and a whole outfit.

The first day I was on set, I went for a costume fitting, and as I was coming out and crossing to the parking lot to get back to the hotel, I saw Jonathan Frakes standing speaking to someone, but I couldn’t tell who he was talking to. And he turned around at one point and he saw me and he said, “Well, look who’s here,” and he was speaking to Patrick who was standing in the doorway of his trailer. And it was like “Oh Daniel, it’s wonderful you’re back. I’m so happy to…” He invited me in for a chat and we sat down and talked for at least 90 minutes, and it was just wonderful. But getting back into the character, which is what you asked me – It was a little tricky because I didn’t really recognize him. I didn’t really recognize, in the writing, who this guy was. But I adjusted to it. And of course being with them, and acting opposite them and acting off of them, you just go right back. It’s like riding a bicycle.

You have a really lovely close-up introduction shot in the episode where you have this sort of curve of your mouth. You put a little snarl on it. What do you do there? How do you form an expression like that, from an acting perspective?

It’s always the mind body connection. Acting is just thinking and listening for me. And, the moment I saw Riker and I heard him speak my name and recognize my name, it was just this little, sort of, smile of recognition. It was sort of like, “yeah, you remember me, and I‘m going to make you remember me even better.” And it was just something going on in my head, I can’t really tell you. It’s a question of mechanics more than anything else.

Fair enough. I guess I just wanted to offer my appreciation of that moment.

I appreciate that you appreciated it. My sly little smile.

Looking back, you had that second Next Generation episode airing in 1993 — which, like we talked about, was a big deal. That’s also the same year when you kicked off your role in The Nanny. What was that year like for you? To have those two big moments in your career?

Well, it was an embarrassment of riches really, because I always keep my hair kind of long because I play so many, sort of, classical parts, especially in theater. So, I’ve always worn my hair long. And I went to audition for The Nanny at my final callback at CBS and I think by the time I got home, the agent called and said, “You’re going to be doing it, you got it.” And then I got a call about coming back to Star Trek, and so I was just glad I hadn’t cut my hair. So we kept the hair and shot that episode, and then right after I shot it just a few weeks later, I was on set with short hair to play Niles in The Nanny.

It was a very serendipitous year. It was the pilot of the episode and, quite honestly, I think I had done maybe twelve pilots that never went anywhere and I thought “If this one doesn’t go, I’m going back to New York and going back to the theater,” and then I didn’t know whether it would go or not. My agent called after they screened it in the test market and said this has tested higher than anything CBS has put out in a very long time. So we did it, and we did it for six years. And it was great fun. In fact, I just last night went to Renée Taylor, who played Fran’s mother on the show, gave herself her 90th birthday party last night in Manhattan and I went to that and some of the old gang was there and we had a wonderful time.

Fran Drescher had mentioned doing something for the 30th anniversary of The Nanny this year, have you heard anything about that?

There were a couple of the young kids, who are now grown ups, were at the party last night, and they brought it up and I said this is the first I’m hearing of it. So, I honestly – I don’t have a clue what’s happening. We haven’t heard.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Star Trek: Picard streams Thursdays on Paramount+.