h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

surely, being the Grauniad, it'll turn out to be a plot by mossad and the zionist regime?

Well according to Tanya Gold in today's Grauniad, that's what they think.

The Grauniad ending. Sherlock caused Moriarty
to slip on the muesli and hurtle over the edge while Sherlock
escaped wearing a beard and sandals.

My theory (and for the record, thought Baskerville was a weak episode but have thoroughly enjoyed all of them) is thus:

Shorlock obviously has to convince those watching that he dies. I think that he somehow (my only really weak point, this) swaps himself for Moriarty who drops and is killed. he has already set this up enough to let John, who gets hit by the bike and seems to be concussed (there's a lot of head-holding as well as the slightly dizzy and detatched sound and visual effects), think it must be holmes. The shock of his friend's death/injury along with the disorientation of the concussion could let John see what he assumes he will see. Sherlock made a big deal of making sure John was standing in EXACTLY the right spot...

Shorlock? Really? Sorry!

Nor shot Shorlock?

I'm finally able to catch up on the opinions, having watched the episode now. I enjoyed it, can't imagine how it was done but obviously Molly helped somewhere along the line. I think it would have been more elegant to leave Sherlock as presumed dead for now - most people know he didn't really die at Reichenbach Falls (even me, who hasn't read that one yet)*.

I slightly have the hump with Doyle at the moment for his killing off then reanimating another character - Watson's mother-in-law. In The Sign of Four when we're first introducted to Mary Morstan she tells us "My mother was dead, and I had no relative in England." But then in The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips Watson states "My wife was on a visit to her mother's,". I had to waste 5 minutes of precious reading time looking for the first reference after I read that.**

Deb

* but don't you find that with telly these days - everything has to be explained, then you get a reminder 10 minutes later in case you've forgotten?

** I know how petty and sad that is.

"but don't you find that with telly these days - everything has to be explained"

Oooooh, don't get me started!
Last year, both Doctor Who and The Fades had story lines where stuff happened which wasn't fully explained. Some of it, even though both series have now completed, still isn't explained. Heck, the 2010 Doctor Who series still has questioned unanswered. And there are people turning off because of this! I completely fail to understand the mindset that does this. It is the unexplained that makes it interesting, that keeps you hooked, wanting to see the next ep or series. I suspect a failure of imagination and a feeling of entitlement that they should have their entertainment served up on a plate. It is so much more enjoyable when you have to work for and even more so when the author surprises you and you got it wrong.

rant over

I think there's Who a lot older than 2010 which has left questions unanswered.

One of those questions, of course, being "Why Colin Baker? Why?"

B

As Moffat has said: if people weren't on Twitter complaining that stuff needed explaining they'd probably understand it better!

And Mu, I think the real question is "Why John Nathan-Turner, why?" He is more responsible for the awfulness of Colin Baker's Doctor than Colin Baker was.

Deb: Are you sure it's the same wife? Watson was after all married three times.

Thanks for that Xanatic. I don't know actually. I downloaded the complete Sherlock Holmes onto my kindle and am reading them in order, which I assumed was chronological, and I also assumed it was the same person. I didn't realise he'd been married more than once.

Doing a scan through The Sign of Four he met Mary Morstan in 1888, in early July according to a letter she received that morning. Ah, The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips seems to have taken place in December 1887.

I'm now looking askance at John Watson, who was (presumably happily) married in December 1887 and chasing after another woman seven months later. I suspect I probably shouldn't be reading so much into Watson's domestic situation. After all, to the BBC he's a confirmed bachelor.

Deb

Watson was always a ladies man. Even Holmes refers to that in the stories.

Nowt wrong with married men chasing after women...

Well, there is sometimes. Depends on the nature of the arrangement.

The Sherlock Holmes stories were originally published in The Strand magazine. We have a collection of stories from the magazine living in the loo at the moment and I was reading the introduction today. Apparently, when Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock, some people in London wore black armbands in mourning for him.

And the editorial board was *horrified*. Sherlock Holmes was one of the reasons the magazine had done so well.

Mol

Sherlock Holmes is not for reading in the loo. Go put it on a proper bookshelf, preferably next to a leather chair and some brandy.

That is correct. Holmes is for firesides and brandy.

There's no Sherlock Holmes in the collection And I only read the introduction, not the stories.

Mol