Series 4 News

[Carol the Dabbler]

Lee managed to play in the Hobbit, but not everybody lives past their 90th birthday. Let's hope they find time in two or three years' time!

That would be good, and they may well manage to continue at that rate.

 

Funny, when you said "Lee," my immediate thought was Lee Pace, who is nowhere near 90. I actually had to check the cast list to see that of course you meant Christopher Lee. Duh!

[Inge l-w]

Sorry, my lovely, patient moderator, I should have been more specific! Happy Columbus Day!

[Boton]

 

Didn't we go through this already with season three? I know some people prefer to believe in conspiracies and lies, but for myself, I think they've been pretty straightforward on this subject the entire time ... they'd like to continue, but they don't know when, for how long, or if they can. We just have to deal with it.

 

Right.

 

I do hope they wrap up the story in some way this season that has good potential to be an ending instead of another unbearable cliffhanger or a setup for another series that just never happens.

 

I think Sherlock Holmes is a character that is easy to revisit. Even if he died, nobody would believe it was for real anyway. If in ten years time of so they decide they want to continue (and can still get the team together), I think they could, even if they had brought the series to a satisfying end now.

 

 

 

 

Dear TOBY, contrary to Rosalie Williams, who started out in her fifties in the Granada Series, if they reprise it in ten years, the probability of Mrs Hudson still being their housekeeper is against statistics. Lee managed to play Saruman in the Hobbit, but not everybody lives past their 90th birthday. Let's hope they find time in two or three years' time!

 

I agree with Toby (and, not incidentally, with Inge).  I'm hoping they leave S4 in a place that it could be the end.  I don't want it to be the end, but I don't want them to leave it with a S1 swimming-pool-style cliff hanger that would make it very hard to take an extended hiatus if they need to and still come back and believably pick up right where they left off.  And there is canon precedence for this, if you like.  Most of the ACD stories, to the best of my recollection, could have made a decent end to to the franchise if needed.

 

However, although I agree that it is unlikely that Una Stubbs could make it through a 15 year hiatus (although if anyone can, Una can!), we could theoretically lose any of our characters.  The Star Trek reboot just lost its Chekov, Anton Yelchin, in a car accident at 27.  Heaven forbid, but we could lose any of our characters, and the franchise would survive as long as BC and MF are intact.  I don't think you can recast Sherlock and John, but you could write around the loss of nearly anyone else.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I'm hoping they leave S4 in a place that it could be the end. I don't want it to be the end, but I don't want them to leave it with a S1 swimming-pool-style cliff hanger that would make it very hard to take an extended hiatus if they need to and still come back and believably pick up right where they left off.

 

I agree. I wouldn't care to see it looking *too* wrapped up, merely in an interesting but not traumatic place. Like maybe an intriguing new case just came in the door. Then they could either leave it in a sort of Sherlock-Holmes-goes-on-forever limbo, or they could develop that case (as they did for TRF/TEH), or they could just deal with it summarily (as for TGG/ASiB) and get on with something else.

[J.P.]

It's not the end, he says. But then it is... 

[Boton]

I saw that video right after I posted.  I wonder if they leave S4 in a place where John could conceivably be taking time off from investigating crime with Sherlock for an undefined period.  It was implied that he did so in canon, right?

 

Now, I'm not saying this is what I'm hoping for or suspect or anything.  But, what if the nebulous suspicions surrounding Mary come to fruition, and she dies as part of either helping Sherlock and John with some job or doing some work on her own.  (Doesn't have to be "wet work," mind you.)  John winds up having to take a few years off to raise Baby Watson at least to the point that she could go to boarding school.  That gives them a nice period of time that they don't have to worry about the actors showing age, because the next great adventure could be five or 10 years in the future, regardless of when they film it or air it. And that would be a a situation that seems to fit the parameters of being something that would be difficult to continue on with immediately.

[Arcadia]

Well, criminey, that sounds more final than ever! Nice try, Ben! :D

[J.P.]

Exactly my thought

[Pamela]

I believe he said it's not going to happen with the same regularity. That's what I took from it.

[J.P.]

Which means longer hiatus-es. How we are going to survive?

 

This does somehow sound like a good bye. Ish.

[T.o.b.y]

I saw that video right after I posted.  I wonder if they leave S4 in a place where John could conceivably be taking time off from investigating crime with Sherlock for an undefined period.  It was implied that he did so in canon, right?

 

Now, I'm not saying this is what I'm hoping for or suspect or anything.  But, what if the nebulous suspicions surrounding Mary come to fruition, and she dies as part of either helping Sherlock and John with some job or doing some work on her own.  (Doesn't have to be "wet work," mind you.)  John winds up having to take a few years off to raise Baby Watson at least to the point that she could go to boarding school.  That gives them a nice period of time that they don't have to worry about the actors showing age, because the next great adventure could be five or 10 years in the future, regardless of when they film it or air it. And that would be a a situation that seems to fit the parameters of being something that would be difficult to continue on with immediately.

 

 

Or maybe Sherlock does the bee-keeping thing a bit early in this version. Who knows, perhaps the last we'll see of him (for now) will be at Janine's cottage.

 

Ugh. No. Please no. But... It doesn't seem all that unlikely. Or maybe... maybe the government will exile him properly this time?

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

... what if ... John winds up having to take a few years off to raise Baby Watson at least to the point that she could go to boarding school. That gives them a nice period of time that they don't have to worry about the actors showing age, because the next great adventure could be five or 10 years in the future....

 

Even if Mary *is* still in the picture, John might take some time off from crime-busting, just to be a dad.

 

In any case, sounds like they've come up with some sort of temporarily-final ending for S4, in order to give themselves some leeway in when to continue.

[Arcadia]

I believe he said it's not going to happen with the same regularity. That's what I took from it.

Same here, but considering how irregular it already is, that's not much consolation. Sounds to me like we're in for one-shots once in a blue moon. Or not.

[Boton]

 

... what if ... John winds up having to take a few years off to raise Baby Watson at least to the point that she could go to boarding school. That gives them a nice period of time that they don't have to worry about the actors showing age, because the next great adventure could be five or 10 years in the future....

Even if Mary *is* still in the picture, John might take some time off from crime-busting, just to be a dad.

 

 

 

Just, for the love of all that is Sherlock, please don't have the last scene be John explaining that being a dad and a husband is the most important job he'll ever have and that the game will wait, walking off into the sunset holding Mary's hand.  I can't live through the next 10 years of wanting to keep reading fan fiction but having to sort through all the stories about how s*dding Mary (TM Pseudonym) has duped John into thinking he wants a life of heterosexual domesticity and is keeping him from his one true love.   ;)

[T.o.b.y]

 

Just, for the love of all that is Sherlock, please don't have the last scene be John explaining that being a dad and a husband is the most important job he'll ever have and that the game will wait, walking off into the sunset holding Mary's hand.  I can't live through the next 10 years of wanting to keep reading fan fiction but having to sort through all the stories about how s*dding Mary (TM Pseudonym) has duped John into thinking he wants a life of heterosexual domesticity and is keeping him from his one true love.   ;)

 

Isn't there already a lot of that kind of fanfiction out there, though? I wouldn't know, really, I haven't been on a fanfic site in ages to be honest.

 

 

If series 4 really ends at a point where you can't just continue right away, then I suppose it's either a bittersweet happy ending where John and Mary go off together to finally have some peace and quiet and play happy family while Sherlock retires at Janine's cottage or it's some kind of huge disaster where Sherlock and / or John and / or Mary go to jail or one or all of them are exiled. For real.

 

[Arcadia]

Maybe it ends 10 years in the future, and they have to wait until the boys are old enough to play their parts. ;)

[Boton]

 

 

Just, for the love of all that is Sherlock, please don't have the last scene be John explaining that being a dad and a husband is the most important job he'll ever have and that the game will wait, walking off into the sunset holding Mary's hand.  I can't live through the next 10 years of wanting to keep reading fan fiction but having to sort through all the stories about how s*dding Mary (TM Pseudonym) has duped John into thinking he wants a life of heterosexual domesticity and is keeping him from his one true love.   ;)

 

Isn't there already a lot of that kind of fanfiction out there, though? I wouldn't know, really, I haven't been on a fanfic site in ages to be honest.

 

 

If series 4 really ends at a point where you can't just continue right away, then I suppose it's either a bittersweet happy ending where John and Mary go off together to finally have some peace and quiet and play happy family while Sherlock retires at Janine's cottage or it's some kind of huge disaster where Sherlock and / or John and / or Mary go to jail or one or all of them are exiled. For real.

 

 

To the first question, yes.  But it seems like every new development brings a fresh wave of ways to write that same story again.  Oh, well.  

 

I think you are spot on about the possible endings of S4.  I'd be OK with either, but if John and Mary play happy families, then I want at least a scene of Sherlock standing and looking hopefully at the Sussex cottage and its beehives, so that I can imagine him finally making up for missing "seven times a night" with Janine.  [ducks to avoid fandom wrath]

[T.o.b.y]

It's good to know that at least one person would be happy if they paired our hero off with Janine, because I think it isn't at all unlikely.

 

I certainly would fume and rant. Ugh. Janine... Molly, okay. Irene, makes sense. But her? No-pe.

 

I want Sherlock Holmes to be eternally single. That's just how he's meant to be. But in the end, I guess his personal life isn't all that important.

 

Hopefully, the ending won't be too sad. Although I suspect that their idea of a happy ending wouldn't appeal to me much.

[besleybean]

I am honestly expecting some ind of traumatic...and definitely a cliff hanger....well more: they're not going to leave it there, are they?!

[Arcadia]

I'm thinking something like the end of S2 and S3 ... not exactly a cliff hanger, but you know the story goes on, even if we don't get to see it. Or maybe that's just what I want to see.

 

I wouldn't mind him hanging out with Janine, tbh. But if they do that, I hope they give Molly some kind of closure first, and don't just drop her into limbo.

[besleybean]

I had never even thought of Janine making any kind of re-appearance...

[Carol the Dabbler]

Well, she's already been back once (in the abandoned-church scene of TAB), plus even before that, Moftiss had stated that she and Sherlock might see each other from time to time -- like if he needed a date for some event.

[Inge l-w]

If they go that far off ACD-canon, then it will devolve into a sitcom, romcom or whatever, and BBC may be the one commissioning the series but Masterpiece foots the bills. It will eventually rest with the attraction of the show in the American and Far -East markets.

[Arcadia]

I don't think Masterpiece has any input into the storylines. They just provide some funding.

[Boton]

If they go that far off ACD-canon, then it will devolve into a sitcom, romcom or whatever, and BBC may be the one commissioning the series but Masterpiece foots the bills. It will eventually rest with the attraction of the show in the American and Far -East markets.

 

Well, Sherlock/Janine is not close enough to ACD for a purist like you, Inge, which I totally respect. But, the original Holmes did retire to Sussex Downs to live as a hermit with no one but his housekeeper. Modern people don't have housekeepers much, of course, but people from both the Victorian era and the modern one did and do have relationships they'd rather everyone else kept their noses out of.  So, the modern interpretation could be Sherlock living with his good buddy Janine, and what they get up to in the middle of the night with the deerstalker is up to them.  (And to my imagination!)