Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Looking for inspiration in all the wrong places.

As we are now fully into the aftermath of Sherlock's "The Abominable Bride," which brought the Cumberbatch and Freeman incarnations of Sherlock and John to the Victorian era, the sheer meta whirlpool it invoked is like staring into Pandora's box as chaos swirls out.

We now have either a.) A Victorian Sherlock Holmes who occasionally dreams of a modern Sherlock Holmes, or b.) A mind palace Victorian universe existing solely in the mind of a modern Sherlock Holmes, or c.) Two parallel universes with Sherlocks sharing a psychic link, or d.) A TV show Sherlock Holmes whose writers can do any strange thing with him, or e.) A modern Sherlock who has fine-tuned combinations of drugs to work like wonderful cable TV package able to tune to any sort of personal AU programming, or f.) whatever else the hell you might imagine it to be.

It's almost like somebody just looked at fanfic's depth and breadth and went, "Let's just make anything possible within the Sherlock Canon since they're going there anyway."

But at the same time, the fanfic writing world didn't need any help letting their imaginations play out as many possible scenarios as anyone literally could imagine. An imaginary episode doesn't really add much grist to that mill. You've got to have solid ground to build on.

What "Abominable Bride" did dish out, as some have observed, is a mindscape of Sherlock's brain for analysis. Does this mean we'll see fans dividing up along Freudian, Jungian, and other psychiatric school lines during this hiatus? Heading into arcane realms of dream analysis to see what it all meant? Or worse, theorizing/experimenting about/with psychoactive drug cocktails to see which produces the best Victorian adventure? It's definitely a different set of puzzles from the "how did he not die?" days.

One almost wants to grab Moffet by the shoulders and shout, "Did you make a TV listing? For God's sake, is there a TV listing?"

My original thought, before all of this, was that I would ponder "Abominable Bride" for a while and consider what sort of adventures that Victorian Sherlock might have. But if you can teleport yourself to Reichenbach Falls and then fall-fly off of it, well Stoke Moran and doing lasso tricks with a swamp adder, Baskerville Hall and bucking-hound-riding, and herding pygmy cattle across the Thames . . . whoa there, pardner? Cowboy Sherlocking? Now you're going too far . . . unless Matt Smith . . . .

Oh, for pity's sake! That thing will ruin your brain! Just say no to thinking about "Aboominable Bride," kids. Because Toby the Victorian crime dog says so!

Too late.

7 comments:

  1. "It's almost like somebody just looked at fanfic's depth and breadth and went, "Let's just make anything possible within the Sherlock Canon since they're going there anyway."

    See, and that's the crux of the matter! I've always thought that fanfic works best with a well defined canon and that there should be a definite separation between canon and fanon. You can be a creator *or*AC a fan writer, but you cannot be both. Because when the creators take fanfic away from the fan writers - what isA

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  2. See, and that's the crux of the matter! I've always thought that fanfic works best with a well defined canon and that there should be a definite separation between canon and fanon. You can be a creator *or* a fan writer, but you cannot be both. Because when the creators take fanfic away from the fan writers - what is left for *us* to play with?

    (sorry for the mix-up! laptop troubles...)

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  3. I never thought I'd see the day, but they actually have *some* thing right:

    "Holmes and Watson's relationship is sacred, and if you change that, then the show is not about Holmes and Watson anymore," Miller said in a recent interview with the New York Post."

    And that's why Mary wasn't a good idea and all this romantic nonsense about Sherlock and John isn't either.

    "We did think a lot about turning them into a parental unit, which always kills romance," executive producer Rob Doherty told Entertainment Weekly in 2014. "Nothing steals romance like parenthood."

    Which is why the baby was even a worse idea.

    From here: http://www.designntrend.com/articles/69555/20160203/elementary-season-4-jonny-lee-miller-on-why-sherlock-and-joan-would-never-hook-up.htm

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    1. Well, Miller has the right idea, but his showrunners? Joan sleeping with the brother, working for the father, having a weird rivalry with love-interest arch-nemesis . . . that "sacred" relationship is far more messed up than just not having a romance would have done at this point, in doing everything BUT that.

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    2. So do I detect a sad note of criticism for BBC Sherlock? I admit I was very confused by it but I would vote for choice B. But then your left to explain why a modern Sherlock would go to 1895 when he could through time travel gone anywhere at any time. I believe he wore out his welcome with the Whovians as well as the Sherlockians.

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  4. Urghs, I forgot about the sleeping with Mycroft part. That guy never really registered as Mycroft with me. How could she? *urghsurghsurghs*

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