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Hikari

The Brett series would take some beating as a gift👍 I remember eagerly awaiting it as soon as I knew that they were making it. Expectations were high. As the series went on there were faults of course but overall it’s the high benchmark for portrayals of the Canon.

I never usually take any notice of post counts but I noticed that I’m approaching 1000 posts and you have sneaked up on the inside rail and overtaken me😃

I need to chuck in half a dozen meaningless posts to pull ahead again😃

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2 hours ago, HerlockSholmes said:

I never usually take any notice of post counts but I noticed that I’m approaching 1000 posts and you have sneaked up on the inside rail and overtaken me😃

Yep, that's my MO--inside rail sneaker.  Honestly, with the way I ramble on in here and with your relative British taciturnity, I'm surprised it took me this long!  :)

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On 5/31/2018 at 6:20 AM, HerlockSholmes said:

The Brett series would take some beating as a gift👍 I remember eagerly awaiting it as soon as I knew that they were making it. Expectations were high. As the series went on there were faults of course ....

Could you give us a few examples?  Not that I thought the show was absolutely perfect, of course, but curious as to what you considered to be its notable faults.

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18 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Could you give us a few examples?  Not that I thought the show was absolutely perfect, of course, but curious as to what you considered to be its notable faults.

As a complete Brett fan I’m perhaps the least likely to criticise this brilliant series Carol. Hikari is a much better, and less biased critic than me. That said, it was largely during the filming of The Memoirs (the last series) where problems occurred. Firstly the production schedules were made even tighter. This issue was combined with the fact that they were filming stories which are generally considered the weakest of The Canon. Then we add the very sad fact that Brett’s health was in terminal decline.

An example is The Mazarin Stone which also incorporates elements of The Three Garridebs. This illustrates a serious concession as the intention of the series was always to be faithful to The Canon. Brett was too ill to appear so Charles Grey returned as Mycroft to fill the main role.

I find every episode enjoyable and so I find it difficult to point to specific ‘I didn’t like that one’s.’ It’s just that the final series had much to contend with and it shows. A not-at-his-best Brett is still streets ahead of all others in my opinion👍

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On ‎5‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 6:20 AM, HerlockSholmes said:

I remember eagerly awaiting it as soon as I knew that they were making it. Expectations were high. As the series went on there were faults of course but overall it’s the high benchmark for portrayals of the Canon.

View halloa, I'm back after a day offline yesterday.  Herl, did you watch the Granada series from its inception?  In 1984 both of us would have been 19 years old.  Which is not too 'young' to enjoy SH, of course . . but here in the States we could only get the Brett show on PBS--the public television network.  Nowadays, 'Downton Abbey' and 'Sherlock' have made PBS Masterpiece Theatre cool and hip even for Millennials, though they probably see the shows via streaming more so than in broadcast . . but back in the mid-1980s, PBS was still the province of pensioners, mostly, or classical music buffs like my dad, who was getting near to pensioner age, and you had only the one viewing option. 

Really the 'flaw' of Brett's portrayal was only in that he was just a man, tasked with embodying an icon, and SH is so multidimensional, no one person is going to be able to give equal weight to all his facets.  Mr. Brett certainly gave Sherlock Holmes his absolute all, and he paid a high price for his dedication to his craft.  Being Sherlock Holmes is a burden, and carrying that role over a decade must have exacerbated his mental and physical health problems.  Even a relatively sturdier specimen like Robert Stephens had a crack-up over being SH, as we know.

I watched my box set prior to having read all the stories, so I didn't realize at first that the films are shot out of Canon order.  That is confusing but due to the demands of the filming medium, probably inevitable.  The series launched with 'Scandal' and that is a very fun episode.  SCAN is of course the first of the short stories, and I knew that, but the next episode was 'The Dancing Men' . . also a story I like a whole lot . .but it's much, much later on in the stories.  It might have been fun to see Jeremy and David Burke meeting as Holmes and Watson in ASiS.  Both actors were 20+ years older than the Canon pair as introduced, but I don't think viewers would have cared.

I think we can agree that Mr. Brett was a finely attuned, highly strung individual, and his Holmes is very energetic.  Very. JB gives a very good simulation of being coked up much of the time.  He's got SH's barking laugh down and his fleeting twitchy droll looks.  I suppose Holmes fans that identify as 'Rathbonians' (they know who they are) find Mr. Brett too flamboyant and neurotic in the part.  Sherlock could be languid some of the time, but we don't get that from Brett, except in microseconds.  Whether it is a 'flaw' is a matter of one's idea of SH.  I'm not familiar with the Rathbone movies, but I wonder if I wouldn't find Basil too much the other way?  Too languid, not enough jumped up energy?  His face reminds me of a bloodhound.  Holmes was both qualities in equal measure, but jumped up Sherlock is more dynamic as a subject of film than a languid Sherl lying on the couch for days.  Three days of SH lying on the sofa would have made for a really boring (and overlong) episode of TV.

Now that I am conversant in the stories, I may pick out more flaws having to do with the script adaptations,  but I think as a project for its time, with those resources and those actors, they did a top-notch job of adapting Sherlock Holmes to a visual medium.

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I did watch the series as it was first shown Hikari. I excitedly waited for the series and loved it from the start.👍

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Okay, color me confused … I have extremely clear memories of my Dad and I watching the Brett series together … in the 70's. Yet Wikipedia confirms it aired in the 80s. So what the ever-lovin' frickety frack have I been thinking of all this time? Ak!

Hi Mischief! Don't mind me, I'm this way all the time …. :wacko: … but generally considered harmless....

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Maybe you were watching the Rathbone & Bruce movies on a television marathon in the 70's?  Or maybe you did watch the Brett series but it was in the 80's?

Or maybe your television set could see into the future?  Hey, do you still have that set?  We could all come over and watch Series 5 with you!

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On ‎6‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 6:45 PM, HerlockSholmes said:

I did watch the series as it was first shown Hikari. I excitedly waited for the series and loved it from the start.👍

Regrettably I never had a conversation with my Dad about Sherlock Holmes.  I would have expected him to have read some of the stories as a boy.  He may have seen some of the Brett series for all I know, seeing as I was not living at home while it was on, but to the best of my recollection, he never mentioned SH in any form to me.  When one is a Sherlockian, one has to talk about Sherlock in some form, I find.  He just kind of oozes out of the pores.

My father was more like Dr. Watson in his tastes--he was an avid reader of history and all things nautical and aeronautical.  And trains.  Trains, ships, planes and old war vehicles of every description.  He loved the novels of Patrick O'Brien.  Young girls generally do not warm up to these kinds of topics, and I was no exception, though I came to appreciate them later.  My father passed away in 2004, and apart from the regret over not picking his brain about his Holmes experiences, I regret very much that he was not here to experience one of my favorite films, Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, adapted from 2 O'Brien novels . . and most especially the ITV series Foyle's War.  He would have loved both of those so much.

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17 hours ago, Arcadia said:

Okay, color me confused … I have extremely clear memories of my Dad and I watching the Brett series together … in the 70's. Yet Wikipedia confirms it aired in the 80s. So what the ever-lovin' frickety frack have I been thinking of all this time? Ak!

Hi Mischief! Don't mind me, I'm this way all the time …. :wacko: … but generally considered harmless....

If there’s only one fact in the entire universe that I’m certain of Arcadia it’s that you didn’t watch the Brett series in the 70’s.

Unless you’re a Time Lord of course and you’ve neglected to inform Carol of the fact😃

Lets deduce.........

The Rathbone series was in black and white as was the Wilmer series so I’d have thought that you wouldn’t have mistaken or misremembered a re-run of those series. The Peter Cushing series was in colour though. Could you have been watching re-runs of that?

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On second thoughts......

more likely it’s the curse of ‘time’ Arcadia.

Ive lost count of the times that I’ve said that something happened 3 or 4 years ago but it turned out to be 10!

its scary☹️

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A librarian once said that when a patron asked for help in finding an article that appeared, say, a year ago, she would estimate the person's age and adjust the search parameter accordingly.

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Youse guys are making me feel sooooooo much better. <_< 

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1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

Youse guys are making me feel sooooooo much better. <_< 

All part of the service Arcadia.

You can  now see why the UK is top of the ‘shop assistants that should be shot’ league👍

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  • 10 months later...
11 hours ago, Johan Liebert said:

.. Johan was the bad guy in the series and contemplated how to achieve the perfect... Something (no spoiling on my end)

Are you saying we'd better keep an eye on you?  ;)

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  • 3 weeks later...

My name is pretty name self-explanatory , I use it as an avatar in pretty much every website I create an account on , except mathematical site where it would be too generic or already in use . I am deeply into abstract algebra , algebraic structures are for me the most beautiful things on the universe or so .  That would be too much a challenge to explain it, both what they are or rather how they could be defined for general public, and what they mean for me . Too many lines ..  Obviously it is not related to Sherlock Holmes but obviously it is not unrelated , obviously enigmas are exciting for mathematicians in general, even the ones which are made in flesh ( without bad pun ) , I guess it is common place , but also I see quite a parallel in the fact of "using the world " ( human world , or physical world for physics ) to solve complicated abstract problems , and how in returns they enlighten or give a fresh and naive look on events , humans , or things ...

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Thanks, algebraist!  I'm a fan of abstract algebra myself (was seriously thinking of dropping math in favor of another field of study until I got to that course), though that was years ago.  I sometimes think I'll plant a cluster of abelia shrubs, partly because they have pretty flowers, but mostly so I could refer to them as my "abelian group."  (Of course I'd be the only one who'd enjoy the joke.)

Do you use algebra in your line of work, or is it more of a hobby?

 

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  • 8 months later...

I've only just got into reading online forums, as most of my friends have little knowledge about my interests. It's great to be able to converse with people who have discovered the wonderful world of Sherlock Holmes. I first discovered the Sherlock Holmes canon when I was nine years old, and I remember perfectly the first story i read, as it is still one of my favourites. My father gave me a copy of The Hound Of The Baskervilles for my birthday. i was soon hooked, and since then i have read all of the Sherlock Holmes canon multiple times, read countless pastiches, watched all of the Granada adaptions starring Jeremy Brett, and listened to all of the BBC radio dramas. two years ago I started watching the BBC series "Sherlock" and I was greatly impressed with how the writers had incorporated the original stories into modern day London. Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes was excellent, and although the character originated in the gas-lit streets of Victorian London, he fit perfectly into the more familiar modern day. 

The story behind my username is this: 

I have been watching Star Trek for as long as I can remember. I have seen all of The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. i'm currently watching the new series, Star Trek: Picard as well as Star Trek: Discovery. I've seen all the movies, and read lots of trashy spin-off novels, as well as a few good ones. i am through and through, a true "Trekkie", so imagine my delight, when watching Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, i saw Spock, my favourite character, quoting Sherlock Holmes!  His precise words were: “An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the solution.” This means of course, as I am sure you know, that Spock is canonically descended from Sherlock Holmes. In the 2009 J.J Abrams reboot of Star Trek, Spock also paraphrased this quote, though he gives no reference to his ancestry. (He could be descended from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but let's forget that, because its way less interesting, and anyway, ACD was a spiritualist, and in my opinion, there is no way Spock would quote someone who was so easily duped by the most fraudulent of tricks. Moving on.) 

when i watched Sherlock for the second time, i payed close attention to the script, hoping to pick up some more subtle references to the original canon that had escaped my notice the first time. in S2E2, The Hounds Of Baskerville, Sherlock goes on a bit of a deductive rant, and finishes by rambling on about how he has always been able to distance himself from his emotions. John responds to this, saying "All right, Spock". This is either a reference to Star Trek VI, Star Trek (2009), or maybe he's just making the point of the similarities between the reasoning, cold 'high functioning sociopath' and the (mostly) emotionless Vulcan. 

I'm new to online forums. Is it normal to post such a long essay?

LLAP.

 

 

 

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Howdy, Spock! :welcome: 

I'm no experts on forums myself (this is the only one I've ever joined) but I've seen all different lengths of posts here … so you're fine. A lot of us are here because of the Cumberbatch Sherlock, but we have some long-time Holmesians too. And I think you'll also find there's also a few Trekkers here! I think we even have a Trek thread, somewhere. So you've picked a good place to be, hope we see you around a lot.

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18 hours ago, All Right, Spock said:

in S2E2, The Hounds Of Baskerville, Sherlock goes on a bit of a deductive rant, and finishes by rambling on about how he has always been able to distance himself from his emotions. John responds to this, saying "All right, Spock". This is either a reference to Star Trek VI, Star Trek (2009), or maybe he's just making the point of the similarities between the reasoning, cold 'high functioning sociopath' and the (mostly) emotionless Vulcan. 

I've always interpreted that in the latter fashion, with the assumption that John is implying that Sherlock is (at that point) going a bit too far with it.

And welcome to the forum!  It's good to see another Trekfan here!   :llap:

[By the way, if you'd care to use that emoticon yourself, it's on the emotie menu under Sherlock Forum, or you can type in the BBCode colonLLAPcolon (using an actual : in place of each "colon").

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  • 3 months later...

I'm from brazillian, and  Rebecca Watson is a caracter that I create inspired by the historys of Shelock... My play was a small sucess in the region, and now I'm studying to go to England try to be an actress. I aways loved Sherlock Holmes, the movies, the books; but only after I saw the serie from BBC, I had the inspiration to create Rebecca.

I'm just writing this because I want someone to talk about my favorite subject, wich is Sherlock

 

Sorry for the typos, I'm not fluent

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Hello Rebecca and welcome to the forum! :wave:

It's good to have you here. :smile: So you say you created that character - do you primarily see yourself as an actress or a writer?

And don't mind typos, quite a few of us here aren't native speakers and we don't let that stop us either. :D

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