Sherlock Xmas special & season 4

[GertyBoo]

Can anyone tell me when these two air on TV?

His mission was supposed to result in his death within six months. Maybe he just decided to get it over with. Did they give him anything to help him out of it, or did they literally just talk him out of dying?!

These always go over my head to a large degree. But they are pretty to watch.
I love the idea that its mrs Holmes behind it all!

Watched it last night.

Really enjoyed it, especially when they intimated that Victorian Sherlock was imagining Future Sherlock (even though this threatened to make my head explode).

I liked everything except the apparent melding of the sufragettes with KKK motifs and a group of vigilantes (who yes, had a point to make about their treatment by husbands etc).

Liked the scary ghost.

Loved Andrew Scott.

What's the book Mary found? Can someone remind me please? I know nothing about this Mrs Holmes theory!

Moriarty in the book is a professor of mathematics whose most eminent work is "The Dynamics of an Asteroid".

Mrs Holmes (actually presumably Dr or Professor Holmes) in the TV show wrote a book called "The Dynamics of Combustion."

Can't wait for the next series 😄
I love Mary. I expect she'll have had the baby by the time it comes round.

The 'it's never twins' bit made me smile when watching another TV detective (trying to avoid spoilers) where it was exactly that - twins!

I loved it. Didn't like obese Mycroft at all till I got the mind palace bit and remembered Sherlock always sniped at him about putting on weight.

Not sure if those foul sideburns on Lestrade were a mind palace dig at him too but they were quite horrid.

Una S is excellent as Mrs Hudson.

Only odd bit was the KKK hats but again in the mind palace of Sherlock and the reference to the 5 pips that's explainable, if unpleasant. Mortar boards would have been a better choice of headwear if the women felt the need to copy men's daft tendency to found secret societies and play dress up.

Loved the settings, the dialogue, the premise, the cast.

I was quite surprised they gave us a full-on flashback to a teenage(?) overdosing Sherlock in a drugs den, but it's been a common headcanon for fans ever since that first drugs best in A Study in Pink. I confess I found it a little bit more of an emotional hit since we've now seen his parents who are lovely. Or possibly criminal masterminds. Or perhaps a bit of both? It was easier to chalk him turning to drugs as a result of a troubled upbringing along with the being smarter than almost everyone else; but to see he's got two loving parents who are involved in his life and who care about him and no doubt indulged him as a child, alongside a brother who worries constantly - but he was still drawn to the drugs...

Fiderer I think I'm right in saying that the original books referred to Mycroft as being, ahem, a larger gentleman.

I'm sure I read an interview that said to get round the deviation from canon they decided to have Sherlock sniping about Mycroft's weight in order to imply he had been larger in the past.

CaveMum Now you say that I vaguely remember an illustration with a tubbier/larger Mycroft.

No excuse for the lovely Rupert Graves being sideburned in such a hideous fashion. I could almost forgive the hat. Although no, hideous too.

I liked Lestroude's sideburns. I mean not 4 nowadays, but they completely fit with the fashions of the late 1800s.

Yes, but hideous, and neither Sherlock nor Watson were afflicted with them.

Reckon Sherlock subliminally wanted the luscious Lestrade to look less handsome.

Lestrade could have sideburns, warts and a toupee and I still would.

I felt they were feminising Sherlock to make it more pc and am a bit meh about that. All the "lets have a round of applause for all those plucky women" type guff.
The back and forwards from Victoriana to modern day got irritating and I found the ending rushed and garbled and too Moffaty for my liking.
Mary as smug superspy just irritated me.
Like Dr Who it got too clever clever and up its own backside for my liking.

Yes 2rebecca I don't know if I mentioned it on this thread before but I was irritated by Mary too. Not just 'the bestest assassin that ever lived ever' she's also now a super hacker who can access MI5's files in under five seconds?

I know it was important to Moffat/Gatiss that Mary was liked and wasn't the nagging drudge who spoils the boys fun, which is usually the role for any wife of a main male character, but they've taken it too far and she comes across as smug and annoyingly perfect and makes the other characters look a bit useless really! MelinaPendulum on YT called her a 'Mary Sue' - an idealized woman who saves the day through unrealistic abilities - and I think that's accurate.

I desperately want the BBC to give Doctor Who to Neil Gaiman. Then Moffat could concentrate on making really good Sherlock instead of increasingly mediocre samey-samey Sherlock and Who (though Doctor Who did have a good last season to be fair.) But of course they won't do anything to risk offending their golden goose. When it all gets chaotic and frantic on either show I can almost see Moffat manically pacing up and down and just going 'Fuck it! If I make them dash from room to room quick enough, and shout 'A-ha!' enough, no-one will know that I haven't got a sodding clue how to end this scene. Done!' At his best he's awesome, but he's just too thinly spread to make brilliant TV now.

Moriarty in the book is a professor of mathematics whose most eminent work is "The Dynamics of an Asteroid".
Mrs Holmes (actually presumably Dr or Professor Holmes) in the TV show wrote a book called "The Dynamics of Combustion."

I don't know why they'd have changed the title, but I do think that it's meant to be the book, combustion is still ultimately mathematics isn't it? And I do think that's it's a clue that she will be their arch-enemy. Perhaps it was planned out from the start, with another of Sherlock's family members referring to him as his arch-enemy being fore-shadowing. What I don't see is how - if you have a situation where Sherlock either has to kill his mother or be killed - he'll be anything other than a shell of a person at the end of the shows run?

I am interested to see how the next series will pan out. I'm hoping that Mycroft doesn't die as they seemed to be hinting, and I'm hoping that we don't get some awful Three-Men-And-A-Baby montage with Sherlock and the Watson baby - but I suspect that's exactly why Moffat wanted a Watson baby...

I can't imagine still being a fan if Mrs. Holmes is the ArchEnemy. Moffat & co. will definitely lose me with that absurdity!!

All this talk of moriarty being a front man etc is making me think of the latest bond film

Agree with your last sentence Rebecca...

I bow to nobody in my admiration for Neil Gaiman. He's a fine novelist, a superlative comic writer and he once gave me ten p for the college washing machine. But his track record on his two Doctor Who scripts is 50/50, (Moffat's six scripts before he took over were all gold IMO) and he has none of the experience required to be a TV script editor let alone a full on show runner on a notoriously challenging show. Even if the job was split into two parts, both roles would still be the province of experienced hard core TV professionals, and there's not a lot of suitable candidates. And it's not like we'd instantly get loads of Sherlock if Moffat quit Doctor Who, because we'd still be reliant on Cumberbatch and Freeman's availability.

Just researching from the SiP, and noticed the cabbie Jeff says Moriarty is an organisation!

Re watching!

I am watching the Abominable Bride again. I love it. The beginning makes me chuckle and I am enjoying it even more now i know how this episode finishes. Can't wait for the next series.