Oh My Freakin' God! Mark Gatiss is a Cruel but Brilliant Bastard!

[rusty_armour]

Oh, I'm so over the moon about "The Great Game" that I barely know where to start! That cliffhanger was superb! I wondered if Gatiss might treat us to a conclusion à la "The Final Problem"! I love the way Gatiss substituted a pool for Reichenbach! Instead of dangling over the edge of those Swiss falls, Sherlock and Jim are left facing off at the edge of the swimming pool! And Gatiss even managed to work in his own version of Moriarty's canon speech to Holmes in which Moriarty says, "You must stand clear, Mr. Holmes, or be trodden under foot." Well, Jim doesn't say that, of course. Being a thoroughly modern IT guy, he sums it up in two words: "Fuck off". Oh! But Gatiss did work in these famous lines from "The Final Problem":

Moriarty: All I have to say has already crossed your mind.

Holmes: Then possibly my answer has crossed yours.

Unlike the original "Final Problem," Gatiss adds a twist. While Watson is led on a bit of a wild goose chase as Holmes goes off to face Moriarty (In "The Final Problem," Watson receives a fake note telling him that an English woman staying at the Englischer Hof has fallen ill), he isn't there when Holmes and Moriarty have their life and death struggle at Reichenbach Falls. However, in "The Great Game," Watson is not only a witness to Sherlock and Jim's duel but a pivotal player as well. It was so moving when he tried to save Sherlock's life, proving once again his courage, loyalty and deep affection for his friend. It's even more satisfying to catch glimpses of emotion from Sherlock that even Jim the psychopath can spot. I love it when Jim threatens to burn out Sherlock's heart if he doesn't stop prying, informing Sherlock that they both know he has one despite what he may have heard to the contrary.

The actor who played Jim was marvelous and utterly delicious! Okay, he's no Eric Porter, but maybe that's a good thing. He brought something fresh to the role and made the character a lot of fun. Twisted and evil as hell, but still fun. And I love love love this new dimension of Moriarty - that he's a "consulting criminal"! Okay, it's rather in the vein of Michael Kurland's Moriarty pastiches, but I think Gatiss still put his own spin on it.

Before I forget, a BIG round of applause for puckrobin for figuring out that Jim the IT guy was Moriarty after seeing his name mentioned on The Personal Blog of Dr. John H. Watson! That was extremely well spotted!

I've gone on so much about Moriarty and "The Final Problem" that I'm almost afraid to mention other aspects of the episode. I'd certainly say it had a darker tone than "A Study in Pink" and "The Blind Banker". After that old woman was killed, I'm not surprised Lestrade wasn't happy to hear a kid's voice on that pink mobile! Still, the series of tests that Jim sets up for Sherlock reveal some interesting facets of Sherlock's character. Poor Watson is left to wonder if Sherlock really is so heartless as to not care about the people being used as hostages. You'd have to be blind not to notice the pleasure Sherlock derives from each puzzle. However, he makes a good argument for not caring when he points out that it will make no difference to the people being taken hostage whether he has a heart or not, that being emotional might actually hinder his ability to help them. Of course, it's a different story when Watson is the hostage. You can see Sherlock struggling to push past his emotions and keep up with Jim's feats of mental gymnastics.

I know I've gone on and on about this in every Sherlock post, but the geeky amateur Sherlockian is busting to get out as the canon references this time around totally blew my mind! Holy crap! I'm not even sure how many novels/stories Gatiss included! Of course, there was "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans". With the possible exception of "The Final Problem," that was the most obvious one. I was impressed by the way Gatiss was able to weave that story throughout "The Great Game". In fact, I believe this is the one Conan Doyle story the Sherlock writers have been most faithful to. As in canon, Mycroft is the one to bring this case to his brother. While the Bruce-Partington Plans become the Bruce-Partington Project in "The Great Game," many details remain the same. Both murdered men are name "West," though "Cadogan West" becomes "Andrew West" in "The Great Game". In "The Bruce-Partington Plans," West's body is also placed on top of a train through the window of a building. It then falls off that same train when the train passes over the points. There was even the fiancée who swore West was innocent and the mention of a knighthood for Sherlock. At the end of "The Bruce-Partington Plans," Holmes receives an emerald tie pin from Queen Victoria.

As I'd like to go to bed some time tonight, I'll just include a quick list of some of the other canon references I noticed:


Bullets in the shape of a smiley face in the wall ("The Great Game") / Bullets in the shape of V.R. in the wall ("The Musgrave Ritual")

John mocking Sherlock for not knowing how the solar system works ("The Great Game") / Watson mocking Holmes for not knowing how the solar system works (A Study in Scarlet)

"I'd be lost without my blogger." ("The Great Game") / "I am lost without my Boswell." ("A Scandal in Bohemia")

Sherlock's Homeless Network ("The Great Game") / Holmes's Baker Street irregulars (The Sign of Four)

Sherlock telling John that he missed most of the important details about the trainers in the lab ("The Great Game") / Holmes telling Watson that most of his conclusions were erroneous when it came to Mortimer's walking stick (The Hound of the Baskervilles)

Sherlock receives a letter written by a woman on Bohemian paper ("The Great Game") / Holmes is hired to retrieve an indiscreet letter that the King of Bohemia sent to Irene Adler. For that matter, Holmes receives a letter from Irene Adler himself after she outsmarts him. ("A Scandal in Bohemia")

The old woman hostage is killed ("The Great Game") / Holmes's client (John Openshaw) is killed ("The Five Orange Pips")


I'm positive that there are more references that I'm missing, but those were the ones that immediately sprang to mind when I was watching the episode. Okay, I'll admit that I've had to do some fact-checking as I wasn't sure which Conan Doyle story described the "V.R." Holmes shot in the wall. I also wasn't sure if it was in The Hound of the Baskervilles or "The Blue Carbuncle" where Holmes told Watson that most of his deductions were wrong. In "The Blue Carbuncle," Watson finds Holmes studying a mysterious hat that has been brought to him by Commissioner Peterson. However, Watson doesn't even try to make any deductions about the hat, declaring that he can see nothing.

Well, it's going to be hard waiting to see how the Moffat/Gatiss team plans to resolve that spectacular cliffhanger, but the frustration hasn't hit me yet because I'm still so thrilled about that episode!

Comments

[rusty-armour.livejournal.com]

When I was looking over Study in Scarlet again and Watson's list of things Holmes is ignorant of, even though I love Holmes's speech on the brain-attic, I thought "if this were true, he'd probably be a crap detective". Of coursem Conan Doyle contradicted himself on that point. I can remember if it's a later Conan Doyle story or a non-canonical one where they refer back to that list and say Watson didn't know him as well.

Yes, but that one puzzle in "The Great Game" aside how often is Sherlock or Holmes likely to need knowledge of Astronomy when trying to solve a mystery? My understanding of Holmes's brain attic argument is that he tries to store only that information that will be most useful to him in his chosen field. I can't remember if it was a Conan Doyle story or a pastiche in which Watson admits that he didn't know Holmes well when he wrote his list, but I'm sure there are a number of details he didn't get right considering that Holmes was still such a mystery to him at the time.

I love the fact that Lestrade and Sally have actually read the blog and know details like that about Sherlock.

I had to laugh when Lestrade said, "Do you really not know that the Earth goes around the sun?" Yes, it's pretty hilarious that Lestrade's whole team seems to read Watson's blog. *g*

One of the things that made Holmes and Watson seem truly alive is that they are aware of the actual stories we've read. Such as Holmes commenting that Watson's "degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales".

I think I get what you're saying. When Holmes or Watson makes reference to a past case, it almost does make it seem as if they're living, breathing people, especially when Holmes criticizes the way Watson writes up his stories. *g*

I'm still up in the air about how I feel about Undergrad Moriarty. I do like the Consulting Criminal idea rather than just a straight mob boss type.

Allen

Well, I think having a younger Moriarty works here because a lot of his skills seem to be related to computers and technology -- an area that younger people seem to excel at because they've grown up with things like cell phones, the internet, etc. And IT guys often seem to be young men as opposed to older ones, not that this is always the case, of course. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I have an easier time picturing a computer hacking type villain being a young man as opposed to an old one. I think the younger age also works in the sense that he's a closer match to Sherlock. The episode seemed to emphasize the characteristics they shared in common, such as the dread of being bored and the need to exercise their brains. I like to think that Jim is what Sherlock could have become if he'd been a psychopath rather than a sociopath.

[puckrobin.livejournal.com]

"I think I get what you're saying. When Holmes or Watson makes reference to a past case, it almost does make it seem as if they're living, breathing people, especially when Holmes criticizes the way Watson writes up his stories. *g* "

Less the cases themselves and more the actual published accounts. Like the stories we are reading actually exist in the Holmes-universe too. And therefore, perhaps his universe is our own.

Sure, it doesn't stand up to logical scrutiny. Why would the king of Bohemia's past affairs and involvement with Irene Adler become acceptable common knowledge within three years? How would the Bruce-Partington Plans adventure ever get declassified within their lifetime? And why did none of Holmes's clients sue Watson for libel? Why did no client burst into laughter when Holmes said Watson could be discreet? And looking at the chronology, only A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four had been published at the time Holmes "died" fighting Moriarty even though the stories themselves would imply more accounts were available to the general reading public.

But in an emotional sense ... that Holmes and Mycroft and various clients appear to have read *precisely* the same stories we have, it makes it feel like they are part of our world too.

And it's less cosomology as all the other things that Watson claims Holmes is ignorant of. He claimed Holmes had virtually no knowledge of theology or literature and an extremely limited knowledge of politics, yet all these things can serve as motivations. (Holmes later displayed great knowledge in all these areas, so I guess Conan Doyle changed his mind.)

[rusty-armour.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound horrible, but I think a lot of the time Conan Doyle simply forgot what he had written in previous stories. It would explain the confusion in chronology, not to mention the location(s) of Watson's war wound(s) and Holmes's changing ignorance/knowledge of subjects such as theology and literature. In fact, I'm guessing that Conan Doyle wrote whatever was required for a particular story and didn't necessarily worry about whether he was contradicting himself. Even if he did decide to do some fact-checking, I'm sure it would have been frustrating to figure out in which of the many stories he would have described a particular Holmes trait or whatever, though I suppose A Study in Scarlet would have been a pretty obvious place to start. *g*