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Episode 1.3, "The Great Game"


Undead Medic

What Did You Think Of "The Great Game?"  

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I always found it a bit weird that the old woman who decided to describe Moriarty's voice settled on it being soft where as the first descriptor that would come to my mind, and most people's I would have thought, would be the accent. The only way his accent wouldn't be of note is if the series were set in Ireland. Not that it would likely help in any way, just weird she didn't say it. 

Also, is Moriarty meant to have grown up in England? Carl Powers was English I think (didn't old Sherl say he came from Surrey?) so it seems Moriarty went to school with him, in which case his accent is very strong if he grew up in England, though I suppose he might have moved back to Ireland afterwards. It would be fascinating if Moriarty's parents suspected he might have done something to Carl and swiftly moved the family away.

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Moriarty wasn't necessarily Carl's age, was he? Though AS is BC's age and Sherlock said he was "just a kid" himself when Carl died. Still, at that age, just a very few years can make the difference between teacher and student. In any case, Jim could have been noticeably older than Carl (he did refer to him as "little Carl"), in which case his accent might have been fully formed before he moved there. Or Jim may have attended a school in Ireland that competed with one in Surrey or wherever it was.

 

Odd, though, I never thought his accent was that strong.

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No, I don't hear his accent that strongly either. Not enough that I automatically went "Aha! Irish!"

 

But I do have the impression Carl and Jim were schoolmates. Didn't Jim say that Carl laughed at him? That might be where I got the idea, since it sounds like something that would bother a kid, but not an adult.

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I think his accent is strong. Yea, he says something along the lines of 'he laughed at me so I stopped him laughing.' To me that makes him sound either the same age or younger. 

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Really?! I don't hear it like that at all. I know the type of thing you mean though, there's a particular Greater London accent I always think sounds like that.  

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The only actors on this show with a distinct accent to me are Lestrade and Donovan, like in that scene in TRF where they're discussing if Sherlock kidnapped the kids. All the other actors in the show including Moriarty sound similar to me. Jane Leeves is another English actress with a unique accent but I just assumed they were from a particular part of England like how Boston folks speak differently than any other part of the US.

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Ha, they are two of the people who I don't hear as having a particularly distinct accent (other than English obviously).

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Honestly most of the main actors on this show don't have particularly strong accents. If they don't say can't, flat or at all, it would be hard to tell they're English at least for me but I'm American so I'm probably just ignorant to different English accents.

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Hm, not sure I agree, but then I am always interested in accents. Languages not so much, except when they become the strange English/other hybrids we have in some parts of the country. What about Janine? Surely you clock her as being Irish?

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Janine did sound different to me yes but I didn't think Irish particularly.

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As a fellow American, I agree with Gerry ... I think it's just because my ears aren't that attuned to the differences between Irish and British accents. I recognized Janine's as different, but didn't realize it was Irish until someone told me. But I assume that's because it's nothing like the heightened, stereotyped Irish accent from Hollywood musicals that I grew up with. ("Faith and begorrah, where's me gold!)

 

On the other hand, I can distinguish between a Virginia and a North Carolina accent, for example, because I encounter them in real life often enough to hear the difference. But we have a lot of different Hispanic accents around here too, and I can hear a slight difference, but I have no idea where any of them originate unless they tell me. Hmmm, I'm not sure how that fits into my theory. Ooops. :smile:

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I suspect so. :blush:
 
Bono used to sound very Irish to me, but now he sounds more generic "over there somewhere." Is that because I've become more accustomed to the way he sounds, or has he lost some of his accent due to travel, etc?  Anyway, I wouldn't have pegged Moriarty as having Bono's accent. Janine, maybe, if I'd given it any thought, which I didn't. Too busy attempting to decipher Sherlock's bullet train delivery, maybe. :smile:

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Now I'm mulling it over I think it must be a country thing - flipping it around there are only certain American accents I can pin down as a particular place otherwise they are just generic American. The old woman on the phone though, being English, she would have had him down as Irish no problem (imho). There are some Irish accents that I get a bit muddled with Scottish, but I don't think his is one of them. I wasn't sure if Janine was Scottish at first. 

I'm curious if you guys noticed anything different with Culverton Smith's accent? That was definitely more regional that most of the accents on the show.  

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... I do have the impression Carl and Jim were schoolmates. Didn't Jim say that Carl laughed at him? That might be where I got the idea, since it sounds like something that would bother a kid, but not an adult.

 

I don't think it was ever stated precisely what their connection was.  I've seen conjectures that they were classmates, that they were swimming competitors from different schools, and that Jim was a young teacher (and kids DO make fun of their teachers!).  He'd have to be someone with access to Carl's shoes.

 

I'm trying to figure out how that was supposed to work.  How long would the toxin take to affect Carl, once he touched it?  And would just touching be sufficient?  Doesn't Sherlock see actual bacteria under his microscope?  It would be much more efficient (i.e., take a much smaller amount) to use the toxin produced by the bacterium instead.  That's the same as Botox, and Wikipedia says it must be either injected (intravenous or intramuscular) or else inhaled, so I'm guessing Jim knew that Carl had a habit of rubbing his nose (or even better, picking his nose).  It only takes a tiny amount.  An athletic kid Carl's age (he was about 12, wasn't he?) would weigh maybe 100 pounds, which is 45 kilos, and the lethal dose (inhaled) of the toxin is 13 ng/kg, or about 590 ng, just over half a milligram.

 

It works by paralyzing muscles, so I suppose when inhaled it would first paralyze the breathing muscles.  However, how long would it take?  According to the same Wikipedia page, when injected into facial muscles as Botox, it takes about three days to work, with maximum effect at two weeks.  So it might be hard to time it precisely, and having Carl collapse at the swim meet may have been more or less accidental.

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Wasn't it supposed to have got into his body via his psoriasis cream? Sherlock mentions the flakes of skin (ew) on his shoe laces. 

 

I don't see Jim as old enough to have been a teacher...?

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I'm curious if you guys noticed anything different with Culverton Smith's accent? That was definitely more regional that most of the accents on the show.

Yes I definitely noticed a difference with Culverton smith. Honestly it's more likely for me to notice stronger English accents in the guest actors than the regulars like the wife in the scene where Sherlock fake cries in this episode or the women in the newscast clips in TRF. Also the actress playing kitty the reporter in TRF.

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The accent that makes me cringe is the one Mary does on the plane - the brash American one. I don't know if it is awful if you're American or just sounds awful to me. I don't get the point of that whole scene, surely she would be making a point of being forgettable rather than being such a pain in the @rse that everyone around her seat is bound to remember her. 

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Oh, that New York Jewish Aunt accent ... I've never understood why anyone finds it funny! It really grates on me, as I suppose it is meant to. But grating ain't the same as funny, and she didn't even stick it that well.

 

At any rate, I think the idea is that she's creating such a strong impression of her character, that when she pops up as someone else, no one will ever think to connect the two. They'll remember the noisy lady but not the nice prim airline attendant who wheels her out.

 

Yes, I noticed Smith's accent was a little different. Also Mike Stamford, and Westie, and other assorted bit players. I noticed Jim's was different ... I just didn't realize it was Irish.

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So that's what Geordie means! Do you know the song "Sailing to Philadelphia" by Mark Knopfler? There's a reference to a "Geordie boy" that I never got, I thought maybe it was slang for low economic status or something, except the rest of the song doesn't seem to support that. Now I know.

 

One of my favorite songs. If you haven't heard it:  (Yes, the other voice is James Taylor.) (Who has a North Carolina accent, btw. :smile:)

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Speaking of James Taylor ... just to show how regional accents can be (or used to be, the country's changed alot due to TV and population drift and other factors) ... but where I lived in North Carolina, up in the mountains, the locals had a noticeably different accent than James Taylor, who's from the lowlands. And if you went even deeper into the mountains, you'd find the really old Appalachian accent, which I was told sounds very Scottish. My friend had some kin from that area, I could barely understand them. Wonder if they're still there. Probably the whole area's been taken over by developers and turned into a ski mecca. :(

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I'll have a listen to the song when I get home. I find it interesting how different areas have their own words for things and ways of speaking - when I did venture forth to the hairdressers on Saturday one of the women there was talking half in Welsh and half in English. There was someone else there from London, and I was wondering if she realised it was another language or if she just thought the accent was so strong she wasn't getting it.

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Wasn't it supposed to have got into his body via his psoriasis cream? Sherlock mentions the flakes of skin (ew) on his shoe laces. 

 

I don't see Jim as old enough to have been a teacher...?

 

Oh, you're right, the psoriasis cream.  That might have been easier to get at than his shoes, just find out what brand he uses, doctor up another jar of it, and substitute whenever the opportunity arises.

 

Depends on how old Jim is supposed to be, compared to Carl.  A high-school teacher can be just four years older than their students, though it feels like a much greater age difference (which could explain Jim's reference to "little Carl").  But I'm actually fonder of the competitor-from-another-school theory.

 

... when I did venture forth to the hairdressers on Saturday one of the women there was talking half in Welsh and half in English. There was someone else there from London, and I was wondering if she realised it was another language or if she just thought the accent was so strong she wasn't getting it.

 

Some years back, I was in the post office and an elderly man came over and said something to me.  I didn't understand a word, but assumed he was talking the way some older people do, so I apologized and asked him to repeat, and listened very closely that time.  Still couldn't catch a single word.  Then he cracked up laughing, pointed to my hair, and said "I'm half Cherokee, and I said 'I like braids.'"

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