softmachine

I forgot i'd posted these. It's a bit tragic when you get tired of your own joke after a couple of attempts *lol

i would, but not necessarily a whole one to myself.... and certainly not three of them!!

downloaded this to watch over a few nights' night-shifts at work the first half hour is delightful, pitched absolutely perfectly. Watson is hilarious. At first Stephens' Holmes seems a *bit* too Oscar Wilde-ish but you get used to it really quickly and actually it's perfect for a mix of the serious and the theatrical and a touch of melancholy in the music too

how interesting!! Must set aside some time to watch this fully! many many thanks for posting about this!

Khan: "My name is.... Holy Peters!!!" McCoy: "Dammit Spock, you green-blooded hobgoblin!!" Kirk: "Open up that damn coffin." Spock: "This is all highly illogical."

you've been to a wedding....

yes! It's kind of hard to define but there is that sense of him being so close to us.... I can see why fans in the 50s were so keen to propogate the idea he was 'still alive' at the time..! it's also so magical to see him actually watching a 'non-canon' film about one of his own adventures!!! Even if he was squirming with embarrassment throughout... The DVD missed a trick in not making this an actual mini-film we could watch, like with the film-within-a-film in the DVD/BD of Tarantino's 'Inglorious basterds'

'saffas' - i now know a new word! welcome to the site i'm sure you'll have fun

my GOD but those are utterly adorable!!!!!

"you see but you do not observe" :D

sorry, i couldn't concentrate on that for more than 3 seconds. What was the article about?.......? :p

i only saw it at xmas very much impressed with it. McKellan is never short of brilliant and he really brought out another side to Holmes, both in the flashbacks and in the 'present'.

MORE ON WATSON'S RABID CYNOPHOBIA!!!! (fear of dogs) This past week I have been lucky enough to aquire some tatty old copies of Classics Illustrated's versions of the Holmes stories. They are very worthy of analysis in their own right, and proper scanning, but a quick post with some cameraphone pics will suffice for the moment. In pondering briefly The Copper Beeches, a few posts above, I had cause to mention Watson's hatred of dogs, a repressed emotion brought out into the open through his association with the great detective. Well, the visual artists of Classics have given us exponents of the Lower Criticism yet more grist for our mill. In rewriting the climactic battle with the deadly Hound Of The Baskervilles, they depict Watson thus:- What savagery! What Herculean strength! This is not merely someone who is "reckoned fleet of foot" but someone with massive untapped reserves of power.... normally dormant, but which erupts when confronted with the object of his hatred.... canines. In lesser vein, here is Watson as the artist 'Zansky' (an ancestor of Banksy??) represents him in 'The Sign of the Four', when sent to fetch Toby: Can't you jet hear the bitterness and anger in his voice, the absolute resentment, not only at having to work alongside a dog, whom he considers a base and lesser creature, but also at having to be sent to fetch the beast? This is food for thought and may possibly serve as the basis for a Trifle Monograph..... OUR QUEST FOR TRUTH CONTINUES!!!

honestly madam, can I be blamed if Mr Watt's handwriting was so close... :p

Baring-Gould, Bell's 'Baker St Studies', Starret's 'Private Life' and '221b', Brend's 'My Dear Holmes', Blakeney's 'Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Ficton?', Holroyd's 'Seventeen Steps to 221b' and 'Baker St ByWays', Harrison's 'In The Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes' and 'The World of..'; Trevor hall's 'Ten Literary Studies', 'The late mr Sherlock Holmes' and 'Sherlock Holmes and His Creator'..... plus the collected Lord Donegal's 'Baker St and Beyond'..... if you can find an affordable copy of Dorothy Sayers' 'Sherlockian Studies' get it!!... I did used to own Bell's 'Chronology' but as lovely an item as it was to have, chronology in detail bores me rigid so i gave it to a friend's charity auction. it's a compact little library but infinitely rich

is the text of the above letter eligible? I would hate to have this vital piece of totally genuine evidence be lost to the ages thanks to the vagaries of Photobucket's resizing/ editing tool. Incidentally, two good Watsonian "ejaculations" in Sign, one of which is in front of Miss Mary Morstan..... I say...!

Baring-Gould for me I tend to think that the earlier/earliest Sherlockian books are the best... there's a sense of freshness and humour to them, before the same topics had been covered a million times; later generations seem to take it a tad too seriously, fighting over themselves to be given invites to the BSI...!

it's interesting, because when Allesandro asked the question i leafed through my copy of the Annotated SH, and although there is a *lot* of notes about the dating in this story, apparently nobody has previously noted the discrepancy in Small's statement.... slipped through the net? or is the basic assumption that he was rounding down? so Allesandro, you are a true detective

an official Scotland Yard "hello"

hello Nichola what a shame about work not giving you that day off..... spoilsports.... if I needed (NEEDED!!) to attend a convention my colleagues i'm sure would have been happy to swap a shift with me..... guess not every workplace is as accommodating.. :(

bit random, but.... now that I've had time to think about it, why couldn't they have gotten a better screengrab for the 'photograph' of Irene kept by 'Holmes' as a memento?? It even *looked* like it was a modern photo, with her wearing a hint of modern dress :D couldn't they have Photoshopped a Victorian portrait or something?

It brings me great pleasure to reveal some long lost evidence in the form of a letter, alluded to by Holmes in the beginning of The Copper Beeches but long since mislaid. I think it will prove instructive. It was found by a friend of a friend in a relative's attic some decades ago and has only now come to light. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A fantastic find, and a real eye-opener I think as to how far Holmes' fame had spread so quickly! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Copper Beeches also contains an interesting phrase from Holmes: "I think that I have touched bottom at last." This will no doubt excite speculation from students of the Lower Criticism. A Freudian slip on Holmes' part? Or a cheeky clue laid by Watson as to the true events which transpired at Winchester? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Students are also recommended to the exciting moment, splendidly illustrated by Paget, when Watson stepped up to the huge mastiff "[and] blew its brains out". Is this evidence of the canineophobia so prevalent, yet subtly repressed, by Watson throughout the canon? Did the poisoning of the landlady's dog in their first ever adventure together give him confidence that his violent feelings towards dogs, so much hidden by him for so long, could now find an outlet? Was the titular Hound of the Baskervilles really dispatched with a few shots to its flank by Holmes, or did Watson go gun-crazy and perform more brains-blowing feats with his old service revolver which the editors of the Strand felt a little too outré? We demand to know. And we shall know!

My friends, I invite you all to join me in an exciting venture, in which we shall carve out for ourselves a small niche in the corners of Holmesian (or is it Sherlockian?) fandom and scholarship. No longer shall we be browbeaten by the exponents of the Higher Criticism. I ask you to join me in.... the Lower Criticism!! To explore the mysteries and joys of the canon by recourse to chronologies, railway timetables, cartographical works and other such detailed texts simply will not suffice. The Lower Criticism shall embrace confusion, oddity, childishness and silliness in a tangential approach to the adventures of our two heroes... coming at the truth, perhaps, from other angles! The Lower Criticism accepts as sources the thoughts of The Man In The Street, Your Mum, Disgusted of Tumbridge Wells and the estates of G. Lestrade, S. Hopkins, J. Moriarty (railwayman) and others. Yes of course you can make them up! It never stopped Watson, did it? We accept as substantiating evidence the non-canonical writings of generations of writers other than Watson and Doyle, and accept also as definitive, in the absence of primary sources, the many and contradictory media representations of our heroes. Be it comics, cartoons, tv or novels these non-canonical works equal the afore-described 'Holy Writings'... and may even be considered in some cases as superior. We delight in schoolroom sniggering at apparently outdated slang and terminology and positively erupt in giggles every time Watson "ejaculates" in the Baker Street rooms. I exhort you to share your favourite examples. Most importantly, we accept as scholarly practice the random and wild theorising without the facts that was held in only apparent disdain by Holmes himself.... even if, and especially when, our theories completely contradict our previous utterances (and will be contradicted by our next ones). The symbol of our movement shall be a trifle, for reasons which do not need explication. Please begin any and all postings towards our little group here with a pictorial example of such. My friends, are you with me???? I beseech you to join me if convenient. If inconvenient, join in all the same.

you're right, Allesandro; looks like one of the many inconsistencies in the canon. Theddeus Sholto describes his father's death in "1882" - as Mary and Watson both says "about six years ago" (giving us 1888 for the apparent/supposed date of the story). So for Small to witness/cause Sholto's death three or two years after 1882 is clearly impossible. solutions? Small, in his wretchedness and lowly existence, lost track of all time and/or was misremembering; or in writing up earlier portions of the case Watson is relying on his notoriously faulty and mistake-ridden notes. (incidentally, thanks for asking this question; I've opened up my copy of the story for the first time in too long.... looking forward to rereading it properly now!)

I absolutely loved this tv at its best, what with this and 'Dickensian' the Beeb are spoiling us! can't wait for the BD release to see it in gorgeous hi-def and relive all my favourite moments only downside was that ridiculous fatsuit!