We hope it's not The Final Problem. Sherlock - 9pm Sunday - BBC1

[givemushypeasachance]

I thought it might be an idea to start a new thread for The Reichenbach Fall since The Hounds got its thread up to over 200 pages since last Sunday!

Non-spoilery vague preview description: "Sherlock and John lock horns with their old enemy in one final problem that tests loyalty and courage to their very limits. Sherlock must fight for his reputation, his sanity and his life. But is he all he claims to be?"

BBC link for The Reichenbach Fall

Take note of the later start time of 9pm. Get your deerstalkers and spiffy pocket magnifiers ready!

I love the geekiness/conspiracy theories on this thread

I think i feel more cheated by the brevity of this 'series' than the last, because the last series sort of appeared out of no-where. i don't remember much of a fanfare, it was summer (when usually they only put crap on), so really it was a very pleasant surprise when it turned out to be so very good. There was also the feeling that given how successful it was, that there wouldn't be a long wait for the next series...This time round- after such a long wait- a lot more was riding on it.

I'll adnit I found last night's a bit slow and boring- until the end. Since then (and reading this thread) i have gone over it again and again- and it was quite brilliant. Fortunately, I have to watch it again, with DH (such a chore)

SeaShells - agree with mushy, the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes should be your first starting point. The novel The Hound of the Baskervilles is an excellent read and can be enjoyed without knowing anything about SH, but once you get into the Adventures of you will never watch the series again in quite the same way. You'll be too busy picking up on quotes and little snatches they've thrown in here and there, allusions to the books etc.

My favourite is actually The Red Headed League as it's just so surreal and gives Holmes a chance to show off his skills. I also like the Christmassy Blue Carbuncle. My least favourite has to be the Devil's Foot, I think that's from the Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. There is a theory that Doyle was definitely tiring of him during the latter stages and running fast out of ideas. I certainly think so with the very last stories anyhow - The Lions Mane, The Dying Detective, The Sussex Vampire etc. They are good, but not a patch on the earlier stories. I think he did well to stop when he did.

Watson remarried by the way, but we never got to find out who to. Holmes never married and retired to live as a beekeeper on the south coast.

No really, I will shut up now.

And no, I don't believe the conspiracy stories that Holmes was a real person. But Conan Doyle was actually a bit of a detective himself dontcha know........George Edalji and Oscar Slater benefitted from his detection skills among others. He was even rumoured to be involved in the hunt for Agatha Christie when she went missing (mediocre crime writer that she was).

Ok yes, shut up Rhubs, you're making yourself look a complete geeky fool!

No no- I've loved your contributions on this thread

Geek is good.

thanks! I'm a book worm and collector-I'd easily buy the lot and get over whelmed so it good to know where to start :)

The more I think about, the more I wonder if Holmes could fake his death, so could Moriarty...but a bullet to the brain is pretty finite an end in most cases . I definately think the whole street scene was a set up. When they look over the edge, Moriarty says " you have an audience now" as the street had suddenly got busier...I think with people in on it.

Rhubs, are you the Rhubs of DT twitter fame?

I agree: geekiness is good :)

Hi there SeaShells,

I've just read the entire Holmes series, for pretty much the same reason you're thinking of doing it! - Here's my blog posting where I review the experience. Hope it's okay to share it. :)

Best thing on TV - love it. It must be the only programme I actually STOP everything and watch.

My theory is - we see Watson at the beginning and end with his therapist, telling her, so this episode is his version of events.

Yes to the jump in the laundry truck and body switch. But when Watson went over to him after being deliberately knocked over, he assumed it was sherlock as he watched him jump and thats why we see Sherlock when the body is flipped over to go on the trolly. Watson believes it was Sherlock and so thats what he would have told the therapist.

Reality is as we know it wasn't/couldn't of been.

A very sad way to leave us hanging - but at least we have the promise of another series.

Sherlock isn't dead...and series 3 is already being written say no more....

Hmm...if there was no computer code that could unlock everything, how DID Moriarty break into the Bank of England and Pentonville Prison? He had people on the inside helping him in each case? (err actually I think we were shown that's what happened, I've just answered my own question, but it all happened so fast!)

Based on the book itself, Holmes was resurrected but Moriarty stayed dead after the Reichenbach Falls...so perhaps that is the end of him? Will get a little laboured if they keep having Holmes pitched against the same arch enemy, or Moriarty keeps being the guiding hand behind other criminal activity.

I read all of Holmes last year and the later stories do get (generally) weaker as they go on, but I loved a Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. 'Baskerville' is by far and away the best story, though...really unsettling and frightening, and the TV version had me cowering behind a cushion last week!

Wonder of its time to ask MNHQ again to have Moffat for a webchat?

"I should get myself a live-in one."

Yes to a Moffatt/Gattis chat, but on the proviso that they bring BC with them and install him in front of a web cam so we can all stare and drool

Haven't read whole thread but my feeling is it was Moriarty's body falling not Sherlock's - and was then switched before Holmes got there, by Molly.

Reading the stories in order is a very bad idea because the first one in particular, A Study in Scarlet, was written when Doyle was young and still learning, and is not by any means either strong or typical."

givemushypeasachance I certainly agree with this - I've only read two Sherlock Holmes stories, A Study in Scarlet, which I really didn't like and it almost put me off reading any more, and of course The Hound of the Baskervilles, which I enjoyed. Now I've seen this series (though I desperately want to catch up on the first series - how did I miss it!!) I think I'll try reading a few more stories. But I just loved how they did the whole series.

Am I the only one on the planet who fancies John more than Sherlock?!

Am I the only one on the planet who fancies John more than Sherlock?!
Yup. He's a teddy bear, he can't compete with the cleverness.

The video was taken as his ex's wedding. They're very good friends. Don't ask me how I know. I feel a namechange coming on (and I'm not even sure how to do that!) BTW, I'm not his ex!

Freesias, I really enjoyed that blog, thanks

Now I'm going to go against everybody, and say that The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of my least favourite. I don't know why, it just seemed too atmospheric for me!

I like The Engineer's Thumb, I know it isn't completely solved, but the way he knew exactly where to find the house was very clever. I love Silver Blaze, The Speckled Band, and the one where the little boy's kidnapped from boarding school too.

I think I prefer the short, snappy ones to the longer ones.

Ok, watched the 'falling' scene again on iplayer a dozen or so times and we see Sherlock falling, not an already dead body, he is flailing his arms and legs, then it cuts very quickly (with barely a break) to a body hitting the ground. At that moment there is a big open-topped lorry full of squishy bags but by the time John gets up from being knocked over it has gone. I reckon there was just time for Sherlock to land safely in the lorry, then fling himself over the edge on to the pavement, breaking some kind of container of blood in the process, as the lorry quickly drove off. Also, when Sherlock is put on the stretcher he is hustled away very quickly and disappears round a corner, we assume he is going into the hospital but he might not have been. A swap could have been done then, while out of sight of the street, and another body taken into the hospital. After all no one would blink an eye at an ambulance or similar parked there so it would be easy for Sherlock to be spirited away.
That's my theory anyway.

Remember the little girl? She screams when she sees Sherlock? There's a clue.....{wink}

So someone has a Sherlock mask....and the little girl saw it...hmmm..