Today is Sherlock Holmes' birthday. Had he still been alive in Toobworld, the Great Detective would have been 164 years old.
Toobworld Central accepts that Sherlock Holmes existed in the TV Universe, in several alternate dimensions as well. And that's how the Time Lord known as the Doctor got several of his outfits - from his friendship with Holmes.
(Read "The All-Consuming Fire" by Andy Lane for the story of how Holmes and Watson met the Seventh Incarnation and Ace. Just remember - "In the epilogue, Benny pronounces that Conan Doyle changed "a lot of the facts", meaning that Conan Doyle (or, possibly "Watson") is an unreliable narrator." [TARDIS Data Core Wiki] Holmes must have met at least the Fourth Incarnation if not several others before.)
For Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld, there is only one Sherlock Holmes - that played by Jeremy Brett in a run of series which adapted all but four of the original canon of stories.
However......
There are a lot of people out there, mostly "Millennials" I should think, whose memories don't extend past 2005. For them there is only the Doctor whose incarnations begin with Christopher Eccleston. And even worse, for them Sherlock Holmes is the modernized incarnation played by Bernard Cumberbatch.
Don't get me wrong. I love the series 'Sherlock'. I consider "The Sign Of Three" to be one of my top ten favorite TV show episodes. But it is not Sherlock Holmes. Holmes and Watson exist in a world of horse-drawn carriages clattering along fog-enshrouded cobblestone streets.
However......
There are a lot of people out there, mostly "Millennials" I should think, whose memories don't extend past 2005. For them there is only the Doctor whose incarnations begin with Christopher Eccleston. And even worse, for them Sherlock Holmes is the modernized incarnation played by Bernard Cumberbatch.
Don't get me wrong. I love the series 'Sherlock'. I consider "The Sign Of Three" to be one of my top ten favorite TV show episodes. But it is not Sherlock Holmes. Holmes and Watson exist in a world of horse-drawn carriages clattering along fog-enshrouded cobblestone streets.
Like I said, I love 'Sherlock'. And I wanted to find some way to keep it tied to Earth Prime-Time rather than send it scurrying off to some alternate TV dimension as happened to those Sherlocks played by Peter Cushing, Douglas Wilmer, Leslie Howard, and another contemporary Holmes played by Johnny Lee Miller (not to mention all of those Sherlock Holmes to be found so many TV movies.)
And so, playing off the concept of 'Life On Mars' and 'Ashes To Ashes' (and solely for the purposes of the Toobworld Dynamic), I have set 'Sherlock' in the land of Limbo, the after-life between Heaven and Hell. Acting as the Gene Hunt of the piece is the soul of the original Sherlock Holmes; and like that other metaphysical mentor, Sherlock no longer looks like his earthly form. Instead of moving on to the next plane of existence, Holmes remains in Limbo to shepherd other souls, specifically any who were once known in Life as Dr. John Watson. And that's who we see in the series - not THE Watson, but another medical man/soldier by the same name who died in Afghanistan during the war against the Taliban. However, he still believes he is alive and so Sherlock has to prepare him for that next eventual stage of his journey.
Hey, it works for me and my TV playground!
And so, playing off the concept of 'Life On Mars' and 'Ashes To Ashes' (and solely for the purposes of the Toobworld Dynamic), I have set 'Sherlock' in the land of Limbo, the after-life between Heaven and Hell. Acting as the Gene Hunt of the piece is the soul of the original Sherlock Holmes; and like that other metaphysical mentor, Sherlock no longer looks like his earthly form. Instead of moving on to the next plane of existence, Holmes remains in Limbo to shepherd other souls, specifically any who were once known in Life as Dr. John Watson. And that's who we see in the series - not THE Watson, but another medical man/soldier by the same name who died in Afghanistan during the war against the Taliban. However, he still believes he is alive and so Sherlock has to prepare him for that next eventual stage of his journey.
Hey, it works for me and my TV playground!
But still there are those out there who think 'Sherlock' is THE Sherlock. And perhaps because Steven Moffat worked on both series, they would LOVE to see Cumberbatch's Holmes team up with the fDoctor - no matter which incarnation, but apparently only since 'Doctor Who' was rebooted in 2005.
It's a premise I just can't use. As I said, for me Sherlock Holmes is time-locked into the Victorian and Edwardian eras and this iteration is the soul of a dead man. The Doctor hd as been near death many times, but when it got too close to ringing down the final curtain, he regenerated into a new body. (And now finally into a woman!) Those other incarnations of the Doctor are not dead; they are part of the new incarnation's mind and soul. And so I don't think he could ever employ the power of the TARDIS to cross the dimensional barriers into that world of Limbo.
Even if they knew that's my take on the subject, why should they care about my opinion? I have no delusions about my word as law. And so some of them have taken matters into their own hands to create mash-up videos in which "Nu-Who" Doctors meet up with this revamped practitioner of rational thought.
Even if they knew that's my take on the subject, why should they care about my opinion? I have no delusions about my word as law. And so some of them have taken matters into their own hands to create mash-up videos in which "Nu-Who" Doctors meet up with this revamped practitioner of rational thought.
And I must admit some of these are pretty good......
Happy birthday, Mr. Holmes.... Wherever and whenever you are.
1 comment:
Good work bro.keep it up
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