Moriarloks

Moriarloks are a fictional alien species well known to readers of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries. They first appeared in the story "The Visitors" with the plan of cloning Holmes, taking the clones to their home planet (Moriartia) and using them to solve elaborate problems of logic. They are named after an asteroid-based space-travel theory put forth by Holmes' nemesis Professor James Moriarty in his book The Dynamics of an Asteroid.

Even though the aliens are clearly more advanced than humans, given their ability to travel through space (and, it is revealed, time), Holmes' logical capabilities clearly surpass theirs. As one of the aliens remarks, "^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^.......00001110000000>>>>> [One Holmes can clearly out-think us all, yet a series of cloned Holmeses would propel our thinking forward three-hundred stardates]."

Ultimately, the story ends with a series of cloned Holmeses battling a series of Moriarloks on top of a series of Reichenbach waterfalls. All of the cloned Holmeses and all of the Moriarloks fall to their deaths. The reader is left to assume that Holmes has defeated the Moriarloks at the cost of his own life and the lives of his clones. However, in a twist ending, Dr. Watson discovers that one of the Moriarloks tied the real Holmes to a spacechair in a spaceship. Before Dr. Watson has a chance to explain to Holmes what happened, Holmes says, "Let me guess. My clones faced a series of Moriarloks atop a series of Reichenbach waterfalls and they wiped each other out." In response to Watson's stunned expression, Holmes merely replies, "It's all elementary, my friend."

The Moriarloks make a return appearance in a diminished state in "SpaceRevenge" when the two remaining Moriarloks (the reader was previously made to assume that the Moriarloks were all defeated in "The Visitors") publish a tell-all memoir about Holmes called "The Elementary Man." Holmes preserves his reputation by showing the Moriarloks' accusations to be false, most frequently by showing that they commit the fallacy of "begging the question."