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Doing The Math


CSIBakerStreet

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All right. Now, in the episode The Great Game, we find out when Sherlock first started. He said he was a kid in 1989. And on the commentary for The Hounds of Baskerville (I'm pretty sure), Steven Moffat says Sherlock's in his 30's. Said 30 before on the commentary for A Study In Pink. So I did the math. Our Sherlock would have been nine years old when he first started doing what he does. And just a neat little point, at the time of the H.O.U.N.D experiments; 1986; he would have been 6. Also they said the best year for Sherlock Holmes was 1895, but our Sherlock wouldn't have even been born yet! So, on top of all of this, he was 32 when he "left" us. These calculations may vary since we don't know when his actual birthday is. But...we at least know he was born in 1980.
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  • 4 weeks later...
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Well. It's nice to know someone appreciates the work I do. In case you're interested, the main equation is y1 (y1 being the current year, or in this case when we first met Sherlock/me.2010) -y2 (the supposed year of his birth. 1980.)= s (the age of Sherlock when we met him). Then, you simply back track certain years to find out how old he would have been then. Simple.
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Who said the best year for Sherlock was 1895?

If its what I think than they were talking about the CANNON Sherlock by Doyle.

If not than you really have discovered an error.

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I was interested in the age of Sherlock a while back and this post has got me interested again.

 

 

We should all know when Sherlock's birthday so we can throw him a not-so-surprising birthday party (Sherlock would have already realised we were throwing him a party and ruined the surprise)

 

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I believe someone on another thread said the Holmes buffs claim it's January 6.

 

The year obviously varies, depending on which adaptation you're talking about, but I recall someone saying that the Casebook states the year of "our" Sherlock's birth. My copy should be along any day now -- then we'll know whether Moftiss used the same calculations as CSI.

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Assuming that Moftiss didn't find the need to change his birthday completely (staying as true to the CANNON as possible) Sherlocks

actual day of birth should be the same; however his AGE is something else.

That is important

so we know how many candles to put on his birthday cake!

 

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I'll look further into that little tidbit about 1895 for you, Miss Adler. Meanwhile, I have done another equation. Doing The Math 2: Sherlock's/My Death Date. This one was extremely difficult, the writers were sneaky. Luckily, however, the modern math ACTUALLY matched the original math for ONCE. Now, it's important to note not only what you see in The Reichenbach Fall; but what you HEAR. John's therapist, Ella Thompson, says it's been 18 months since their last appointment. So I backtracked. And their last appointment would have been in January of 2011.

 

Quite a while back. Which means that the point at which John and Ella having their appointment, 18 months later, is June 2012. Now. Here's the tricky part. The start of John's story, the screen says "3 months earlier." but then a LOT later, the screen says "2 months later". Now what I thought was that it still meant it was in that first month. But no. It was counting down. So three months earlier than June, that's March. And two months later than March, that's May. And John's last blog post was a month after that, June 16th. That is, as I am full aware, the modern math. For those of you fond of the original novels/short stories, you may enjoy this.

 

Now, April 24th, (a month after March. Yes, suffice to say the original math does not include March anywhere in its equation of The Final Problem, but that doesn't matter.) Sherlock Holmes goes to visit John Watson in his study. Then he and Watson meet at Victoria Station the next day, April 25th. Then, they spend 2 days in Brussels. (Remind any of you of anything? HOUND, for instance? Bob Frankland covers up for me/Sherlock when I/he breaks into Baskerville charading as Mycroft by saying he met me/Sherlock (but Mycroft) at a convention and he pretended to try to remember where it was and he said "Brussels, was it?" See, nothing gets past me.) Equaling it being the 27th of April. Watson and Holmes then leave for Strasbourg on the next day, the 28th. But then Conan Doyle became the trickmaster here.

 

For the next thing he says, Holmes and Watson spend a WEEK traveling through Switzerland. A WEEK. There I was struck and thought for a moment I'd never know when I "died". I stopped counting, because my mind had done so much work and I was racking it trying to solve this quagmire. However, I was relieved to find that Doyle went right out and said it. Holmes and Watson reached the village of Meiringen on the third of May. If you scan as carefully as I did, you will find NO other dates after that. So since, as far as I'm aware, there are no disagreements from the modern math, then his/my death date is May 3rd, 2012. If there are any arguments to this, look to the writers, but I can assure you that I am completely right.

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You've got a good point, that Moftiss would presumably want to stick with canon on such a crucial point.

 

The final entry in John's blog is dated 16th June, which is consistent with your May 3rd date for the "fall" (since it could well have been a few weeks before John wanted to make any kind of public statement). I'm not so sure about the year, though. Apparently that blog entry was already on the internet by late January of 2012, so the event must have occurred before that, perhaps in 2011.

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I would appreciate you checking up on the 1895 "tidbit", yet I find myself less interested in his/your "death date" and more interested in his/your birthdate.

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You've got a good point, that Moftiss would presumably want to stick with canon on such a crucial point.

 

The final entry in John's blog is dated 16th June, which is consistent with your May 3rd date for the "fall" (since it could well have been a few weeks before John wanted to make any kind of public statement). I'm not so sure about the year, though. Apparently that blog entry was already on the internet by late January of 2012, so the event must have occurred before that, perhaps in 2011.

 

Let me see... I've already indicated that I/Sherlock was 30 in 2010, the year he/I and John met. John's first post was December 14th of the year before. 2009. The rest of his post dates, in order: December 15th (2009), January 20th (2010), January 21st (2010), January 25th (2010), January 28th (2010), January 29th (2010) [when he/and I met for the first time...how could I ever forget that date?], January 31st (2010), February 1st (2010), February 7th (2010), 2 posts on March 23rd (2010), March 27th (2010), March 28th (2010), April 1st (2010), May 1st (2010), 2 posts on May 30th (2010), June 16th (2010) [Hmm, that same date...], July 13th (2010), August 1st (2010), August 12th (2010), September 2nd (2010), September 15th (2010), December 19th (2010), December 25th (2010), December 31st (2010), January 1st (2011), March 12th (2011), 2 posts on March 16th (2011), and...the...last...post... June...16th. DAMN. Well. You were right. And I in my arrogance over stepped the limits of my sheet. Well done. Ahem. I shall now correct it. Sherlock's/My death date is May 3rd, 2011. So it's been longer than I thought. A year. A year since I faked my own death and was seperated from John. No wonder he was so angry at me when he was still on here and I still had one.

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... I in my arrogance over stepped the limits of my sheet....

Good thing I wasn't drinking anything when I read that -- it would have gone right up my nose! ;)

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See what? Carol, drinking and then it going up her nose because of my little joke or me in the sheet? Because I was speaking figuratively. I didn't really overstep the limits of my sheet, I leave that to someone else. Oh, and by the way, Conan Doyle is a sly old fox. I/Sherlock did not die on the THIRD of May, but the FIFTH. So, for THE LAST TIME, the correct date is May 5th, 2011.
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What happens is they reach Meringen on the third, then on the afternoon of the fourth they set off with the intent of crossing the hills and spend the night at the HAMLET of Rosenlaui, not IN Rosenlaui. Finally the passage "My friend would stay some time at the fall, he said, and would then slowly walk over the hill to Rosenlaui, where I was to rejoin him in the evening." That plus the date of the newspapers. The first one is May 6th, 1891. The second is May 7th. So yes. I was...wrong. Again... (Ignore anything you've seen in THIS post before I edited it...Let's just say Sherlock made another mistake...)
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Oh! I would have loved to see you overstep the limits of your sheet! I don't even care if you were speaking figuratively, it ignites my imagination!

 

 

Oh and, maybe all this does not make sense because Doyle didn't bother to check his math...or maybe he made a simple mistake.

He wasn't infallible, he was human.

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But you DID get the joke, right? And I am quite at odds to admit that Doyle made several errors in his writings, but as you say he was "human". He was at different ages when he wrote them, they aren't in sequence either. And he did write it for some time, that I suppose could account for any small mistakes. Yet, whether he made mistakes or not, people always seem to enjoy his novels. And I must admit, he was a great writer.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I do have a sense of humour and I did get the joke.

 

I would like to point out the John H Watson phenomenon. Mary Morstan calls him 'James' in "The Man with the Twisted Lip";

Dorothy L. Sayers speculated that she was referring to a middle name and that it was Hamish (Hamish is James in Scottish Gaelic).

Doyle never says anything of the sort beyond including the initial H. I think that it was a mistake that was assumed to be on purpose somehow warranting an overthought explanation. Sometimes the simplest answer is the correct one (Doyle made a mistake)

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... Sometimes the simplest answer is the correct one (Doyle made a mistake)

 

But that wouldn't be nearly as much fun, now would it? ;)

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NOOOOOO!!! DRAT! I'm wrong AGAIN!!! HOW MANY STUPID TIMES...Damn it! It's all John's fault. He doesn't specify and his time schedule is completely incoherent! Ignore EVERYTHING I ever said. Except for the original math, the order of dates, and when I said I/Sherlock 'died' in 2012. I was right on that score. You see, the order of dates of John's posts were right but the YEAR was wrong. I examined John's posts more closely and guess what I found? The post on December 31st, "Happy New Year" I believe it's entitled. RIGHT at the beginning, John says "Before we go into 2012.". So, then my/Sherlock's 'death' DID occur in that year.

 

I realized Carol, that when you said it was first available in January of this year that the timing of my/Sherlock's 'death' did still work out. And then of course this means that John and I/Sherlock met in 2011, also then I/Sherlock was 30. Meaning then that I/Sherlock was born in 1981 and I/Sherlock 'died' at 31. And that I/Sherlock was only eight years old in 1989, when I/he first got involved with a case. The year of the Baskerville experiments, 1986, I/he would have been five. This is just me thinking here, but Irene inserts the numbers 1058 in the fake phone and I/he say/says "Thought you'd choose something more specific, but thanks." We find out the importance of 1895, but we never find out the importance of 1058.

 

Now, does anyone other than me think that's something to do with his/my birthday? Think about it. 10/5/8 or 1/05/8. It's highly unlikely that it could be 05/81 because that really changes the true order of the numbers and I think it's made clear they're meant to stay in that order AND although it would give us the month of birth, it still wouldn't fix a real date. That gives us several options. October 5th of 1981 being the first, the first of...May...1981 the second option.

 

8 here would represent the year of birth. What is rather depressing here is, if the date is really May 1st; 1981, then I/Sherlock would have died 4 days after my/his birthday. But that's what we don't know. That's one thing I'd really like to ask, it'd stop this wild goose chase I've been running. It's been literally killing my brain. But this is the final time and I'm REALLY RIGHT. Finally. Good night, Vienna.

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... John's ... post on December 31st, "Happy New Year" I believe it's entitled. RIGHT at the beginning, John says "Before we go into 2012.". So, then my/Sherlock's 'death' DID occur in that year. ...

Bit of a time warp then, huh? Otherwise, John couldn't have blogged about May events in January. (I assume I'm not the only one who finds this sort of thing a bit disorienting!)

 

 

... Irene inserts the numbers 1058 in the fake phone and I/he say/says "Thought you'd choose something more specific, but thanks." We ... never find out the importance of 1058. Now, does anyone other than me think that's something to do with his/my birthday?....

My interpretation is that he thinks 1058 is a more-or-less random number, and that his "thanks" is in response to her giving him the (presumed) password. (Wouldn't Sherlock consider his own birth date to be pretty darn specific?)

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(Wouldn't Sherlock consider his own birth date to be pretty darn specific?)

 

I don't, I am Sherlock. :D But I think I'm done for a while. My brain was really starting to hurt. I thought I was going to lose it for a minute. :blowmytop: I'm just going to relax and play the violin. Suppose if I've nothing better to do then, I will have with you, Miss Adler. :picard: I just really wish sometimes that I could have done anything OTHER than jump off a 70-foot hospital/medical college. I... I miss John. :watson: Anyone else notice that I've been using the emoticons more recently?

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Oh yes, just then.

I've always found your way of writing difficult to read all in one block. Now with emoticons it has become more broken up therefore easier to read.

 

I do agree with Carol though, it is very unlikely that 1058 is Sherlock's birthdate (unless the writers were winking from behind the curtain at us).

Also 8 years old does sound okay as the first time Sherlock Holmes gets involved in a case. Not too young but believable.

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