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

Tovey must have felt strange being in a wood at night whilst wearing clothes - new experience for him.

Just caught up with it - not as good as last week but still highly enjoyable.

Apparently the Scooby Doo episode included druggy fog and loudspeaker dog noises. Was that part of the original?

Mol

I finally watched it last night and did enjoy it.

Mind you, I seem to have made it through 44 years, including a five year crime novel spree, without coming into much contact with Sherlock Holmes beyond a black and white Hounds film which I only half remember, an episode of Star Trek TNG, this series and the RDJ film. So I can't really comment on whether it was a worthy adaptation.

I'm rectifying this omission at the moment, the first books I'm reading on my Kindle are Holmes stories. I'm really enjoying them.

Looking forwaqrd to tonight's episode now, which I will probably end up watching next weekend (resulting in having to avoid a whole h2g2 thread again).

Deb

I didn't watch it tonight.

I am currently in the middle of husband and daughter (who *did* watch it) debating how it was done. They think they've worked it out.

Mol

I just wonder if Moffat is halving his workload by writing the same thing for his two shows. There were an awful lot of similarities between that and the Dr Who finale a few months back.

True. But he did it far more stylishly tonight.

My only issue was the last two seconds. It completely changed the tone of the episode.

I don't see why. It's perfectly obvious from the original books that Holmes survives.

B

Yeah, we all know he survives. But there's assuming that the master of deduction has solved the issue of dying, and being shown him loitering by his grave.

It's not necessarily a criticism, The Wedding of River Song was one of my favourite things of last year and this will likely be one of my favourite bits of 2012. If Moffat had gone the whole hog and brought back Lara Pulver/The Lady (who was very River Song-y in A Scandal in Belgravia) I'd have been perfectly happy.

It just struck me how similar the two were - I doubt it was intentional because Moffat had been setting up the Who finale for years and the timing of it and Sherlock was just coincidence.

Last episode was good. When stripped down though, the basic story (the hero discredited by a conspiracy) has been done many times before. Moreover, a couple of elements had a certain... familiarity. In a good way, I think.
Okay, this one is probably not deliberate, but there was more than one turn of phrase in Mycroft's description of the interrogation of Moriarty that reminded me *vividly* of the famous Neitzsche quote: "He who battles with monsters should beware, lest he becomes a monster himself; for, if you look to long into the abyss, the abyss may look into you." It really is probably just me, but when Mycroft said "There are certain people of his sort whom we watch," and later "He just sat, staring into the darkness..." it caught my attention.
Alright, on second thoughts, that one's pretty tenuous . The other one was a bit more contemporary: the final rooftop confrontation struck me as very similar to a scene in 'The Dark Knight' between Batman and The Joker. Moriarty pretty much paraphrases the Joker when he said "*laugh* I don't want to kill you! What would I do?! Go back to ripping off mobsters? No, no. You see... You. Complete. Me." More than the phrasing though, the roles of the two characters is almost identical: After all, one of the two main ongoing Batman comic titles is called 'Batman: The World's Greatest Detective', and the delight Moriarty takes in chaos (as well as thwarting Holmes) is unmistakeable.

If it's obvious in the book that Holmes survives the fall then surely it's bad writing: didn't Conan Doyle set out in that story to kill of Holmes because he was fed up of the character, and only resurrected him some time later by popular demand?
I also thought Irene Adler bore a striking resemblence to Riverboat Song, although I never found Adler anywhere near as annoying.

>>how it was done.

Then how was it done?

Sherlock seemed to be waiting for something at the bottom of the drop; he made sure the sun was behind him to dazzle Moriarty (to conceal something behind him?); there was a bin lorry there to cushion his fall; Watson was prevented from entering the scene when he was knocked over, by which time a crowd (of helpers?) had arrived. Then there's the 'finger tapping' business; and the repeated use of IOU...Io, in the legend, was a nymph who had her identity changed by Zeus, and Sherlock said to Molly he needed 'U'.
Suggestions on a postcard please.

>>I don't see why. It's perfectly obvious from the original books that Holmes survives.

It’s not obvious in the original book that Holmes survives – far from it. A great deal if made by Watson of the details of that final encounter with Moriarty. The two sets of footprints up the path to the waterfall – no sets coming back. The shear walls of rock around the fall – no way up them and away. The impossibility of anyone going over the edge and surviving the fall onto the rocks –let alone all the currents etc. etc.

The only ‘hole’ in the story is that neither body is found. But no one is surprised at this given the ferocity of the water etc.

I’m relying a lot on memory here – but there was a gap of around 8 or 9 years before Doyle brought Holmes back to life again in The Adventure of the Empty House due to the demands of the public.

He had written The Hound of the Baskervilles in the intervening years but had set it pre the encounter with Moriarty and Holmes’ apparent death. Actually Holmes is absent for most of that book, with a lot of the action focussing on Watson as he investigate the Moor and reports his findings back to Holmes – it appears that Connan Doyle was still fed up with writing about him.

When Connan Doyle finally gave in a brought Holmes back his explanation for his escape isn’t really all that strong. But it is just about plausible enough to allow Holmes to be brought back for his admiring public.

As for the Sherlock of last night, Moffatt Co. could have left it at that final shot of Watson in the graveyard. It would have been historically accurate at that point; it would have taken the plot to the end ‘The Final Problem’ as it was written. But as an audience these days we have the benefit of knowing that Connan Doyle was forced to bring Holmes back and that more stories do exist.

I did wonder if they would leave us in suspense and not let on if they were going to continue with another series. So it was a relief in a way to know that there would be another series, and that they were still following the plot of the Holmes cannon as a whole.

I have a theory into how Holmes’ jump/death was done. I think Molly will turn out to have played a very important part in it.

I do want to i-player the episode again though – am I right in thinking that Watson actually took Holmes’ pulse when he eventually got to the body, or was that just one of the hospital medical staff?

Surely it was Moriarty's body in the same Sherlock mask that he used to frighten the kidnapped girl?

That's how I'd've dunnit.

You're all wrong. Here's how hedunnit:

http://twitpic.com/87sv4m

Yes - but where does The Rock Gobbler fit in?

I think part of the key will be a larger time gap between Moriarty dying and Sherlock 'jumping' than they made it look. That would give him time to set a few more things up, like acquiring the mask used to scare the children (I think you're right about that one).
Has it been confirmed that there _will_ be another series? The ending certainly left it open, but it could still have stopped there if the Beeb decide to drop it. There have been plenty of things that have ended like that, a variation on "walking off into the sunset".

Yes Watson took his pulse.

Two factors to consider,
1)he needed Molly - said he thought he was going to die.
2)Holmes asked Moriarty to meet at St Barts Hospital - very convenient. He also told Mariarty that he was prepared to do anything.

So the question is how did he manage to fall without breaking any bones or damaging any internal organs. Presumably he took something to make him appear to be dead?

Of course he could have drugged Watson somehow (maybe in the taxi, which was conveniently waiting for him outside 221b Baker street), power of suggestion like in the previous episode, threw Moriarty off the building at the last moment, wearing a Holmes rubber mask. People crowding around the "dead body" so Watson doesn't get a good look. Or maybe Moriarty's body was switched for a drugged Holmes at the base of the hospital - we don't know how long Watson was knocked out for, after he was hit by the cyclist - he was dazed and get's up groggily. We are also told that there was a way of calling the attack on his friends off, without Holmes dying - "your death is the only thing that's going to call off the killers, I'm certainly not going to do it".

Holmes said to Moriarty on the rooftop that "he was him" and to Watson he said it was all "just a magic trick".

I agree the dummy has to play a part in it - otherwise there would have been no point in including it earlier in that episode.

#94 "Surely it was Moriarty's body in the same Sherlock mask that he used to frighten the kidnapped girl?"

That's true as well - Moriarty pretending to be Sherlock so that the girl believed it was him.