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

[Carol the Dabbler]

23 hours ago, besleybean said:

The Sherlock Pilot is not an official episode. It was not aired and won't be...it was a proposal to BBC execs.

Yes, in that respect it's like the first Star Trek pilot.  Each was a proposal that was rejected as such, but in each case the show was approved after some major changes were made.

If either of those non-episodes had been acceptable without major changes, however, they would surely have been aired as episodes.  Why expend the time, effort, and money to re-make an episode that has already been approved by the powers-that-be?

 

[besleybean]

I assume, but it rarely happens.

There is always room for improvement.

The subject came up last night...

for the first time on TV, they are just about to air the pilot for Blackadder- and I didn't even know that there was one of those!

[Arcadia]

On 6/11/2023 at 12:44 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

Yes, in that respect it's like the first Star Trek pilot.  Each was a proposal that was rejected as such, but in each case the show was approved after some major changes were made.

If either of those non-episodes had been acceptable without major changes, however, they would surely have been aired as episodes.  Why expend the time, effort, and money to re-make an episode that has already been approved by the powers-that-be?

 

And in fact, the first Star Trek pilot rather famously ended up being an episode as well (two, actually) in spite of very major changes. Waste not, want not.... 😄

[Carol the Dabbler]

15 hours ago, Arcadia said:

And in fact, the first Star Trek pilot rather famously ended up being an episode as well (two, actually) in spite of very major changes.

The first pilot was so different from the series that they hadn't planned to use it.  However they had gotten so far behind schedule that they had time to make only one episode but needed two.  So (for anyone who hasn't already heard this) they filmed a one-hour envelope story and patched it together with the first pilot as a two-parter that they called "The Menagerie."  Several parts of the old pilot, most notably the ending, were reinterpreted to fit the new story, and the whole thing worked surprisingly well.

Emergency averted!

 

[Hikari]

On 6/10/2023 at 12:37 AM, besleybean said:

The Sherlock Pilot is not an official episode. It was not aired and won't be...it was a proposal to BBC execs.

I think that's common knowledge.  There must be dozens if not hundreds of unaired pilots every year on both sides of the Pond for shows that were rejected and not picked up as regular series.  Generally speaking, in the United States, the launch episode of any new show is referred to as the pilot, even if it has an official episode title.  A lot of times the graphics, opening cast credits and even theme music might be very different from the pilot episode to the next installment.  Shows that get green-lighted for a full season order usually get an uptick in the budget and so more money can be spent in polishing up the final 'look'/sound of the show into what will be its 'brand' format.

It was very interesting to see how the show developed from its initial pitch to its finished product that we saw in the regular films.    Benedict's character in particular was practically redesigned from the ground up.  In the unaired episode, Sherlock Holmes is much more a contemporary young man of the 2010s.  His style is modern.  Some of his clothes look quite club-suitable for an ordinary Millennial.  Bendi sported his natural hair color.  SH seems a little bit unusual in his social interactions but on the whole a lot more approachable and more 'normal' than he would present later.  Martin didn't have to tweak John very much; he got a wardrobe upgrade and stopped wearing white undershirts.  Also his  hair had grown out between the pilot and the Study in Pink episode.  The lighting was better and the whole thing looked more expensive generally.  I'm particularly glad that 221B got an upgrade as well.  The original set was quite violently pink chintz and looked like an Edwardian grandmother's sitting room that smacked vaguely of a funeral parlor.  The enlarged set had a much more masculine and suitable vibe.

When we meet Sherlock in the series proper, he has a much darker and more remote/formal presentation, both in the color and cut of his clothes but also in his manner.  He stops feeling like a contemporary of Watson in 2010 London and harkens back a bit to a Victorian reserve that sets him apart from his peers.  Though SH can and does often act out in childish ways, his 'look' is very much adult, and he's got more gravitas than originally conceived in his modern-cut denim jeans.  The final iteration of SH has got a very expensive and tailored gents' wardrobe, just as his Victorian counterpart would have had.  They are modern clothes and yet they feel quite timeless.  Sherlock's signature 'look' goes a long way toward establishing his character without need of words.  The Scarf and Coat almost become separate characters in their own rights! 

Just found this comment from a 2015 discussion:

One thing I really like about the pilot is Sherlock's apparent youth (I love the line in John's blog that "he looks about twelve.") There's something about the idea of them starting with Sherlock in his twenties that really appeals to me ... and also, so many of his little personality quirks make more sense on a much younger man. Oh well, I suppose Moftiss had to leave something for the next incarnation of SOne thing I really like about the pilot is Sherlock's apparent youth (I love the line in John's blog that "he looks about twelve.") There's something about the idea of them starting with Sherlock in his twenties that really appeals to me ... and also, so many of his little personality quirks make more sense on a much younger man. Oh well, I suppose Moftiss had to leave something for the next incarnation of Sherlock to work with. Someday somebody will do a jeans-clad, boyband-haired, barely adult Sherlock Holmes and everyone will think it's brilliant. herlock to work with.  Someday somebody will do a jeans-clad, boyband-haired, barely adult Sherlock Holmes and everyone will think it's brilliant.

Even in the aired Study in Pink episode, I erroneously assumed that BC was a recent drama-school graduate of about 24 years of age when I first saw it . . Come to find out I had seen him in several supporting parts previously (Atonement and The Other Boleyn Girl to name two) but he looked so different as Sherlock I did not recognize him.)  It was a surprise to find out that he was a decade older than I first thought and had been a working actor with increasing degrees of success all that time.  The TV show in which he played Hugh Laurie's oldest son (how brill was that casting?!) didn't cross my radar until after "Sherlock" when I was hunting up Bendi's ouevre.  In the unaired pilot, he definitely looks to be early 20s, like maybe 'just left university last year' age.

In A Study in Scarlet, the famous roommate duo meet when Dr. Watson, recently returned from Afghanistan is 27 years old and his new flatmate is just days shy of his 26th birthday.  One supposes then that Doctor Watson runs into his old dresser Stamford at the Criterion Bar in the week between Christmas and New Year's, if SH has a birthday on January 6th  (that bit is ex-Doyle, being an invention of W.S. Baring-Gould, but it's a convention I am fond of).  The age gap is 18 months.  With BC and MF, it's 5 years.  I was aware of Martin Freeman from The Office and from his appearance in Love Actually.  I think it'd be fair to say that at the start of Sherlock, Martin was more famous than his castmate.  But BC went supernova in the course of one Sunday evening, almost like he was James Dean or something.  I think that level of global buzz over this show and its star took everyone by surprise, a bit.  Doctor Who has an enduring popularity over decades but it never attained the global audience that Sherlock did in just one episode.  It was an incredible thing to witness.  What J.K. Rowling achieved with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Moffat, Gatiss, Cumberbatch and Co. did in one go with A Study in Pink--instantly created an absolute international phenomenon.

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, Hikari said:

... John ... stopped wearing white undershirts. 

Nope.  It's just that we rarely see them.  Remember the scene in The Great Game where he wakes up on Sarah's couch?  He either had been wearing the undershirt beneath his outer shirt all along, or else had carried it with him in anticipation of spending the night.

I suspect that he wears them for a real-life practical purpose:  If they ever showed John with no shirt at all, the makeup department would need to spend a good deal of time creating the scar on his shoulder.

 

[Hikari]

I'll amend my earlier comment to "John's white undershirts stopped being visible except when he was wearing them as sleepwear."  Good thing, too, as dead white does nothing for Martin's complexion and it looks a bit tacky.

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, Hikari said:

I'll amend my earlier comment to "John's white undershirts stopped being visible except when he was wearing them as sleepwear."

Been a while since I saw the pilot.  When did he wear a (visible) undershirt, other than as sleepwear (or private loungewear)?