Episode 2.2 ,"The Hounds Of Baskerville"

[Hikari]

 

This episode is not without its problems.  It's the weakest one of S2, but since the other two set such a high bar, that actually makes it quite good.  I was a bit miffed by in on first viewing, due to the heavy sci-fi/techno element . . but it grew on me a great deal with subsequent viewings.  Mark Gatiss had the large and unenviable task of translating 'the' best known Sherlock Holmes story, and the most-filmed episode, into 21st century terms that would make sense in a modern context.  I love the views of Devonshire & I lurvelurvelurve the set-up to the case proper, in Baker Street, Cluedo, the harpoon . . and the calling of Henry Knight.  Some of the best dialogue and comradeship moments between our duo, both 'at home' and on location.

 

"Is that why you're calling yourself GREG?/I don't just do what your big brother tells me" has become the foundation for all the Mystrade shipping out there.  Many shippers can devise any number of scenarios in which Lestrade does exactly what Sherlock's Big Brother tells him to do . . .and likes it.

 

Given how often Mr. Gatiss invokes Margaret Thatcher (this being the first of two episodes he wrote around her), that makes me wonder--is he poking fun at Ronnie's pal, the Tory minister, or is MG actually a Maggie fanboy? 

 

"Who?  (general mouths agape)  "Who is this?

--SH, upon being confronted with a picture of Mrs. Thatcher

 

Gee, Sherlock . . .even Americans know the answer to that question!

 

In Sherlock's defense, he would have been in infant school during the Thatcher administration.  No excuse, though. 

 

I have been completely caught in this episode. I have seen it once only and I'm waiting for some real time off to rewatch...So far, it is one of my favourite, in fact. Mark Gatiss did very well with, as you  said, this large task (I'm not sure he would call it "unenviable"...). I love the story and its interpretation in our days, the parallels between the original book and what we see (the map! They kept the map "on a very wide scale"!...). The plot is both complex, good and easy to read, with parallel stories, digressions (does it exist in English?) full of  much irony and poetry (the contrary of what we get, in fact, in many Moffat's épisodes, which are unusefully complicated and so serious and dark...)

 

I didn't notice the "Mystrade" implication of the lines you quote (I don't remember them, actually), but even if it could be cute, I don't really believe in "Mystrade". May be I'll change my mind...

 

About Margaret Thatcher...That must be an exaggeration of the fact that Sherlock, in ACD's books, doesn't remember things which seem essential (about the solar system...). And a politician can't be more famous, mainly by the hatred she raised against her: here in France we have a very famous song called "Miss Maggie", against her and the model of society she represented in her time. The song caused many problems between French and British diplomats. It is quite difficult to guess Moftiss's opinion about Margaret Thatcher, as "Sherlock" has certainly not direct political speech (even if it conveys much in terms of philosophy, psychology and relation to life, nation, etc...). But the parallel with Napoleon ("The six Thatchers") is the transposition of "The six Napoléons", isn't it?) is not a plea in favour of a good opinion about her in our dear writers' minds.

 

 

Janyss,

 

Glad you are enjoying this episode.  THB has, in my opinion, one of the very best setpieces in Baker Street at the top of the episode.  Sherlock is in rare form (which for him means, in a mood) and the interactions with John, Mrs. Hudson and the Client are top-notch.

 

At this point in S2, Mofftiss had not hit upon the harebrained idea of giving Sherlock an insane homicidal maniac for a little sister and a bunch of repressed childhood memories as a result . . . Sherlock obviously regresses throughout the series because by the time we get to The Six Thatchers, he's completely blanked any  memory of who Margaret Thatcher is . . while in *this* episode, he not only knows who she is, but also recalls her nickname which is the password and key to the whole case.

 

Bit of very sloppy writing on the part of Mofftiss, I daresay.

 

Back in "Hounds", Sherlock was still fun, so enjoy S2, their high water mark, as long as you can.

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

4. State abbreviations -- most of this has already been covered, but just to sum it up: the original abbreviation of Indiana was "Ind." (with a period). Then when they introduced "ZIP Codes" (our postal codes), the also standardized all state abbreviations to two letters (some of which are confusingly similar and thus awfully hard to remember). These are properly written with no period. The transition seems to have confused many people, though, because I really have seen "In." on letters.

How I was taught in school was IN was the proper way; however, if doing it In then it needed to be written as In. And the longer form abbreviation was 3-4 letters depending on the state as Minnesota is usually MN or Minn. (probably to prevent confusion with min being short for minimum or minute.

[J.P.]

I always assumed the dog wasn't killed with the first shot.

 

What TOBY said about the drugs - it's actually a wonder that Sherlock didn't have any flashbacks of his childhood on his drug trips.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Forgot to add my 2 cents on the episode. I watched it again last night. Enjoyed it and noticed that Liberty In were shown as typed font on something that looked like paper separately with no punctuation. Definitely the way to do it to keep people guessing what it means.

[Artemis]

I think a better way to do it would have been to write both words in an all caps font.  That way, it would have been hard to guess *and* correct, lol.  'Cause like I said in my first post, I don't feel like misdirection via typographical error is very clever.  I'm just being picky, though.  It bugs me when I see it, lol.

 

 

[Pseudonym]

Yes, all capitals would have worked. 

 

Does typography bother you or just grammar? Because there is a barber's shop I drive past every day, that used to have a slick, modern sign over the door that looked really cool. Then it was taken over by new management, so they put a new sign up, and it's in red comic sans. Looks awful and irritates the shit out of me every time I see it. 

[Artemis]

Usually just grammar, but occasionally typography.  I might have been bothered by your example, for instance (though more by the color choice than the font choice).  But I'm more analytical than artistic, so style doesn't jump out at me as much.

 

 

[Arcadia]

I think it's possible that typography bothers me more than grammar.

[Pseudonym]

Ah. It's the graphic designer in me, it just makes me cringe. I want to burst in and wail "Comic sans? COMIC SANS? WHHHHHHhhhhhhyyyyyyyy......." 

 

Does anyone remember Microsoft (kept spelling that Mycrosoft, you stay out of this Myc) Publisher? I loved playing around with the picture borders on that as a kid, which was what constituted as an IT class for a twelve year old. 

[Arcadia]

I've always had PageMaker. One of these days they are going to make computers so PageMaker won't run on them anymore, and I am going to cry for months. Years, maybe. I really don't know what to replace it with.... 

[Pseudonym]

Never heard of PageMaker...

[Artemis]

All I can remember using for anything is Microsoft Paint.  Still use Paint, lol.

 

 

[Arcadia]

I have Photoshop, but I think Adobe's going to make it "cloud-only", if they haven't already. That's another program that's going to be hard to replace someday. I've tried a lot of other photo editors but none of them are nearly as good. *sigh* 

 

PageMaker was one of the first desktop publishing programs ... Publisher was a sort of knock-off of it. But Adobe replaced PageMaker with a "cloud-only" program awhile back. GRRRRRRRR.

[Pseudonym]

I use Photoshop a lot. Wish it wasn't so hideously expensive - hopefully my laptop will keep running for a good while yet! 

[Arcadia]

When I was forced to upgrade mine (because the old version wouldn't run anymore) I went on eBay and bought the just-expired version for a fraction of what the latest version would have cost. The box had never been opened, and you could still register the product. Happy customer.

[Arcadia]

Oh, and it's the Elements version, which is a lot less expensive to begin with. Does everything I need it to do.

[Janyss]

I picked up today of a FB page that Mark Gatiss, who had been a veggie for a while, gave up when beginning living in couple. It reminded me of the hôtel owner's line, begging pardon to his boyfriend for having fallen on bacon at a wedding party, while he was supposed to be veggie. Is it kind of guilt here :)?

[Hikari]

I picked up today of a FB page that Mark Gatiss, who had been a veggie for a while, gave up when beginning living in couple. It reminded me of the hôtel owner's line, begging pardon to his boyfriend for having fallen on bacon at a wedding party, while he was supposed to be veggie. Is it kind of guilt here :)?

 

I think possibly, yes.  So does that make 'Gary' a stand-in for Mark's partner?

 

I love this little dialog when our pair from London checks into the Keys hotel:

 

Concierge:  Sorry we can't do a double bed for you boys.

 

Watson:  We're not . . .it's fine.

 

(The little chef appears.)

 

Chef (conspiratorially):  Mine's a snorer.  Is  yours a snorer?

 

JW:  Have you got any crisps?!

[Janyss]

He gave up!

Well, I could rewatch yesterday evening. I didn't know anything about "Mystrade" in my first viewing, but one must admit that Rupert Graves's tone on "brother" can give way to many interpretations..even if I would be more in favour of Lestrade just being fed up with the Holmes brothers (far from over for him, then!). I would not be against two guys together in general, but the clue is rather thin here!

[Pseudonym]

What do you want to bet that the whole UMQRA thing came about after a joke about 'looking for dogs at night' versus 'dogging at night'?

[Artemis]

I didn’t even know that “dogging” was a word, lol. But now that I do, I wouldn’t doubt you’re right about that!

[Pseudonym]

Oh yes, what John stumbles upon, definitely dogging.  :P

[Hikari]

He gave up!

Well, I could rewatch yesterday evening. I didn't know anything about "Mystrade" in my first viewing, but one must admit that Rupert Graves's tone on "brother" can give way to many interpretations..even if I would be more in favour of Lestrade just being fed up with the Holmes brothers (far from over for him, then!). I would not be against two guys together in general, but the clue is rather thin here!

 

"Mystrade" is a very popular ship in the Sherlock fandom.  Mycroft and Lestrade have a very active life together in the fans' mind palace for two characters who, based on shared screen time (nil) have not actually met as far as the audience can see.

 

But of course, Mycroft has 'known' DI Lestrade for a very long time; he has been surveilling the Scotland Yard inspector ever since Little Brother started consulting for the Met.  As a policeman, Lestrade is a civil servant . . a government employee . . which technically makes Mycroft his boss, ultimately.  Dating the boss is a bad idea, but that doesn't stop the Mystrade shippers, oh, no!  In this universe, Lestrade is the hunky 'Downtown Man' to be the companion 'goldfish' of the loneliest man in England.  After all, if Little Brother is happy with John, why should he have all the fun?

 

"A Fish Called Greg"

---------------------------

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O95uwKfVQww

 

Well, shoot--I do not have good luck with these links.  But that is the name of the video.

 

"Uptown Mycroft"

-----------------------

 

And this one's not available!  Dang it!

 

It is now! :smile: -- Arcadia

Edited January 19, 2018 by Arcadia
fixed links

[Janyss]

There's a worse idea than dating the boss: it's dating the employee, so...here in the episode, Lestrade doesn't really deny having been sent by Big Brother so as to look after Sherlock. Another reason seems pure imagination for me.

[Carol the Dabbler]

"Mystrade" is a very popular ship in the Sherlock fandom.  Mycroft and Lestrade have a very active life together in the fans' mind palace for two characters who, based on shared screen time (nil) have not actually met as far as the audience can see.

 

[....]

 

"A Fish Called Greg"

---------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O95uwKfVQww

 

Well, shoot--I do not have good luck with these links.  But that is the name of the video.

 

"Uptown Mycroft"

-----------------------

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAlgzvosT0

 

And this one's not available!  Dang it!

 

I believe that Mycroft and Greg have finally shared a bit of screen time.  Don't they both show up at the London Aquarium in Six Thatchers?  And there may have been another few seconds somewhere.

 

Here's your first link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O95uwKfVQww

 

Sorry I can't help with the other one!