Episode 1.0, The Unaired Pilot (60-min. "Study in Pink")

[besleybean]

Yes, serendipity indeed.

[Earendil]

Could I get a link to this, Have not been able to find it anywhere. Please! I need to watch some sherlock before S3 comes out.

 

Google first hit .

[Pamela]

Watched it again this evening, and I had forgotten how really great that scene at Angelo's (I know that's not the name of the restaurant) really is!  Yes, that whole premise of Sherlock taking so long to catch on to the cabbie idea was really (for me anyway) the only weak point of SiP.

 

I remember in the commentary for SiP that they were glad they were able to go back and do some things over.  One of the things they didn't mention that I'm glad they changed was the color of the bottles.  In the unaired pilot, the bottles were brown and you couldn't see the pills.  And of course in SiP the bottles were clear.

[T.o.b.y]

Do you think the conversation at the restaurant is actually better in the pilot? Funny, I prefer the version in the finished episode. It's more believable for two people who have only just met and don't quite know what to make of one another.

 

Why do you prefer the pilot version (if you do)?

[Pamela]

I wasn't referring to the personal exchange, but to this exchange:

 

John:  ... the killer's got an invisible car?

Sherlock:  Yes!  Exactly!  ... There are cars that pass like ghosts, unseen, unremembered.  There are people we trust, always, when we're alone, when we're lost, when we're drunk.  We never see their faces, but every day we disappear into their cars and let the trap close around us.

 

And then the wine he throws in his own face and the chase and so on ...

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

I really did like that scene as well. I admit I liked the longer version that became "A Study In Pink" but I'm kind of sorry the dialog about the "London cab" got lost.

[T.o.b.y]

Oh, now I get it. Yes, "the invisible car" was great. Too bad they killed that. And the idea with the wine was good, too. Maybe they'll re-use it in a future case?

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

We can only hope and keep our fingers crossed.

[Carol the Dabbler]

It seems they usually do re-use dropped scenes.  What has been pointed out recently?  Sherlock being drugged (which went from the pilot to "Scandal") -- and there was at least one other mentioned somewhere around here....

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

How Mrs. Hudson shouts at Sherlock in the street because of the bullet hole now in her wall because John shot the cabbie from the Camden House through the window and how she's going to up his rent....then it was revisited in "TGG" with a bored Sherlock shooting the wall in the yellow smiley face outline?

[Carol the Dabbler]

I think that's a new one, Fox.     But yes, that too.

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

I posted something like it a day or two ago but no matter.

[T.o.b.y]

Somebody pointed out to me recently that Sherlock looked as if he'd aged quite a bit. I didn't agree at first, but if you compare this shot from the pilot:

 

To this promotional for series 3:

 

 

 

It does look like my "he grew up so fast" sighs will soon be in order...

[Pamela]

Well, it has been, what, a four year span?

[T.o.b.y]

Good question. When was the pilot filmed? In 2008 maybe?

 

I do hope they keep the show going long enough to see this Sherlock with at least a few grey hairs.

[besleybean]

2009.

And they are hoping to.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

The series was announced in August 2008. So filming probably didn't start until late 2008 or early 2009. So Cumberbatch was about 32 in the first shot aging 5 years in the last one being 37 now.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yes, I believe I've heard Moftiss say that the pilot was filmed in 2009.  (Usually the date attributed to a program is when it was aired, but the pilot was never aired.)

 

And yes, please -- I'd love to watch "the boys" age (very gracefully, of course).  But no rush!

 

[besleybean]

I understood the Pilot was filmed late 2009...but I could be wrong.

Actually yes, cos I suppose it would have to be about a year before the aired episode 1....

So right BI, probably early 2009.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

He's still looking very good. That is a close up so skin imperfections are going to be very noticeable. Plus it was cold and that would have an effect on skin reactions to makeup and such.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Lighting makes a huge difference as well.  The pilot shot was filmed with the sort of overall lighting that minimizes shadows, whereas the promo shot has one bright light off to one side that maximizes shadows, even tiny ones like skin pores.

 

Outdoor vs. indoor lighting (though not an issue here) can also make a huge difference, primarily in color rendition.  (For example, a person like me with "silver threads among the gold" can look blond indoors and silver-haired outdoors.)

 

[besleybean]

Martin's hair does that sometimes.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

And Sherlock's hair can either look very black in some lighting and more auburn in others.

[besleybean]

Indeed.

[Karie]

The second I watched the unaired pilot, I wanted to discuss it in comparison to the aired version. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any forums to do so (I hadn't discovered this website yet). Now I think I will need to re-watch it to be able to thoroughly get into it. 

 

 

Also, I'm ashamed for being a ridiculous fangirl here, but Benedict Cumberbatch was hot in the pilot, haha. I wish they had kept that hairstyle! 

 

Oh, yeah.   LordByronBatch!

 

 

Oh dear.  I think I have to go watch this again now.
 

 

 

Let me preface this by saying that I always, always find BC stunningly attractive... but that pilot ---GUH. I don't know what it was. Perhaps it was the slightly different hair (I, too, wish they'd kept it), or the more casual dress. Perhaps it was his slightly younger (and I think it had just as much to do with his more naive demeanor as his face) appearance, a seemingly fresh-from-uni air about him.  

 

Whatever it was, I can watch it over, and over, and over again, and I can stare at the pictures all day. 

 

You know something else I recently realized when looking at comparison pics online? The fact that his neck and part of his chest is often exposed in the UAP, while the aired version has him commonly bundled up in the scarf.  That little bit of skin... ugh, it just does things to me.  And the rampant sexuality aside, I think it also goes a long way toward showing a more open Sherlock, as opposed to the one hiding behind walls and layers that we got in the aired version. 

 

 

My impression of the unaired pilot (we all seem to have differing ones) was that Sherlock came across as much younger and somehow more vulnerable, whereas he was more aloof in the aired version. That is one of the reasons I prefer the aired one, I think it makes a better start of showing just how special his relationship to John is, how rarely he opens up to other people. Well, that and the camera - the quality's just better imho.

 

Yes, exactly. And while I prefer the UAP, I do love what you said about how it makes John more special that he got through such a protective shell in "our" Sherlock.

 

As I said, I prefer the original.  I love his look, his vulnerability, his... sweetness? I loved the extra bits, with the drugging scene, the Angelo's scene, the wine-in-the-face and fake-staggering-in-the-street scene.  I loved the "I'm his doctor" scene at the end, and the fact that Sherlock seemed a bit more touched and appreciative that John killed someone to save his life in this version. I liked that he actually put on the protective forensic suit at the crime scene, because let's face it, no DI would allow him to go trotting around a murder scene without proper precautions against contamination, no matter how "good" Sherlock was or how much he needed his help. That always rang false to me. I found Donovan and Anderson slightly less annoying and gross in this version, as well. 

 

As I said, I would have to do a re-watch to refresh my brain a bit to comment further, but this episode will always have a very special place in my heart.  Do I understand that this version of Sherlock probably wouldn't have worked overall, and get why they had to redo it? Of course.  I think the Sherlock they came up with was obviously better for the long haul, and his idiosyncrasies and perceived childhood traumas will keep the fandom theorizing for ages to come. 

 

But I will keep UAP Sherlock in my pocket forever. 

 

And, of course, there's always the addition of Mycroft, without whom this show would NEVER be the same.