BBC Sherlock Season 1 Episode # 3 "The Great Game" - Canonical References (Part II)

Dear Readers,

Here is the concluding post of compilation of the references to Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories and novels in the third episode of BBC Sherlock Season 1 “The Great Game”. 

Click here to read the first post.

1. Sherlock's line expressing his lack of knowledge about “Who's Prime Minister or who is sleeping with who..” - Dr John Watson lists the limits to Sherlock Holmes' knowledge in A Study in Scarlet: “Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing”.

2. Sherlock's reply to John in the cab: “Don't know. Dangerous to jump to conclusions. Need data.” - Sherlock Holmes states in A Scandal in Bohemia: “I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”

3. John Watson referring to the fact that he and Mrs Hudson have been watching too much telly – Reference to this exchange from The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor:
Sherlock Holmes: “You have been reading the papers diligently of late, have you not?”
Dr John Watson: “It looks like it,” said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in the corner. “I have had nothing else to do.”

4. Sherlock's line to John after coming out of Kenny Prince's house: “You smell of disinfectant” - Sherlock Holmes mentions in The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier: “I have, as my friend Watson may have remarked, an abnormally acute set of senses, and a faint but incisive scent was apparent.”

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5. Sherlock's comment to Detective Inspector Lestrade: “We’ve been here before. Carl Powers? Tut-tut. Our bomber’s repeated himself.”  - Sherlock Holmes rebukes Inspector Alec MacDonald in The Valley of Fear: “Tut, tut, Mr. Mac!—the first sign of temper I have detected in you.”

6. Sherlock using online gossip to solve the case of Connie Prince – Sherlock Holmes listens to gossip on the streets in A Scandal in Bohemia.

7. John's protests to Sherlock: “There are human lives at stake, Sherlock. Actual human lives. Just so I know, do you care about that at all” – Reference to the line spoken by Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four: “A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem. The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.”

8. Sherlock's advice to John: “Don’t make people into heroes, John. Heroes don’t exist and if they did, I would not be one of them” – This reminded me of the following line spoken by Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier: “By cunning questions and ejaculations of wonder he could elevate my simple art, which is but systematized common sense, into a prodigy.”
 

9. Sherlock's observation about Moriarty: “Just once, he put himself in the firing line” – Holmes states about Professor Moriarty in The Final Problem: “But at last he made a trip -- only a little, little trip but it was more than he could afford, when I was so close upon him.”

10. Sherlock's line about Moriarty: “Well, usually, he must stay above it all. He organises these things, but no one ever has direct contact”. Miss Wenceslas, owner of the Hickman Gallery also confirms the same when she says that she never had any “real contact” and that there were “just messages, whispers…” – Sherlock Holmes states about Professor Moriarty in The Final Problem: “He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be removed -- the word is passed to the professor, the matter is organized and carried out. The agent may be caught. In that case money is found for his bail or his defence. But the central power which uses the agent is never caught - never so much as suspected.”

11. Sherlock replies that he has 7 ideas, after inspecting the corpse of a security guard – Sherlock Holmes has a similar exchange with Annie Harrison in The Adventure of the Naval Treaty: “Do you see any clue?” “You have furnished me with seven, but of course I must test them before I can pronounce upon their value.”

12. Sherlock dismisses John's praise of his deductions about the murder of the security guard as “meretricious” – Sherlock Holmes comments about Dr Watson's writing skills in The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier: “Alas, that I should have to show my hand so when I tell my own story! It was by concealing such links in the chain that Watson was enabled to produce his meretricious finales.”

13. Sherlock Holmes gets the information from his informant that the assassin, Golem is hiding in Vauxhall Arches – Dr John Watson mentions in The Sign of the Four: “They landed me at Vauxhall, with my heavy iron box, and with a bluff, genial inspector as my companion.” There are also mentions of Vauxhall Bridge Road in the novel.

14. John is not clear about Sherlock's plans even after they reach Vauxhall Arches and has to ask him: “Anytime, you want to explain?” - Dr John Watson mentions about Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Illustrious Client: “There was a curious secretive streak in the man which led to many dramatic effects, but left even his closest friend guessing as to what his exact plans might be. He pushed to an extreme the axiom that the only safe plotter was he who plotted alone. I was nearer him than anyone else, and yet I was always conscious of the gap between.”

15. Sherlock explains to John, who is surprised after hearing his roommate's appreciation for the beauty of the night sky: “Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it” - Sherlock Holmes has a similar experience with Dr Watson in The Adventure of Black Peter: “Let us walk in these beautiful woods, Watson, and give a few hours to the birds and the flowers.”

16. Sherlock refers to the “Homeless network” as his “eyes and ears all over the city” - Sherlock Holmes explains about the Baker Street Irregulars to Dr Watson in A Study in Scarlet: “These youngsters, however, go everywhere and hear everything. They are as sharp as needles, too; all they want is organisation.”

17. Sherlock is seen employing his boxing skills against Golem, the assassin in the planetarium – Dr John Watson lists Sherlock Holmes' skills in A Study in Scarlet: “Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.”

18. Sherlock deducing the presence of a criminal mastermind behind the case of the fake painting as well as the murders of Connie Prince and Carl Powers – From The Final Problem: “Again and again in cases of the most varying sorts -- forgery cases, robberies, murders -- I have felt the presence of this force, and I have deduced its action in many of those undiscovered crimes in which I have not been personally consulted.”

19. Sherlock following Watson on the case of the missing defense plans without the latter’s knowledge – In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes sends Dr John Watson to Dartmoor to work on the case and then goes to Dartmoor himself deliberately keeping everyone in the dark about his presence

20. The plot involves the brother of Andrew West’s fiancee stealing the defense plans – In The Adventure of the Naval Treaty, Joseph Harrison steals the titular treaty from the office of his sister's fiance, Percy Phelps.

21. Sherlock informs John that Mycroft threatened him with a knighthood again - In The Adventure of the Three Garridebs, Dr Watson writes: “I remember the date very well, for it was in the same month that Holmes refused a knighthood for services which may perhaps some day be described.”

22. Sherlock's sitting posture at 221 B Baker Street is a reference to Sidney Paget's illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle's story: The Adventure of the Red Headed League

23. Sherlock's exchange with Jim Moriarty: “People told me I don’t have a heart” “We both know that’s not true” - Reference to this line written by Dr John Watson in The Adventure of the Three Garridebs: “For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain.”

24. Sherlock's line to John: “All right. Are you all right?”- Sherlock Holmes' line from The Adventure of the Three Garridebs, after Dr Watson gets shot at by Killer Evans: “You’re not hurt, Watson? For God‘s sake, say that you are not hurt!”

25. John's comment to Sherlock: “You ripping my clothes off in a darkened swimming pool” – Reference to Dr Watson's statement about Sherlock Holmes from The Adventure of the Three Garridebs: “He had ripped up my trousers with his pocket-knife.”

26. Sherlock calling Jim a “consulting criminal” - Sherlock Holmes makes the following statement about Professor James Moriarty in The Valley of Fear: “"Having an English job to do, they took into partnership, as any foreign criminal could do, this great consultant in crime.”

27. The following exchanges between Sherlock and Jim Moriarty are taken from The Final Problem:

• “Is that British Army Browning L9A1 in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?” –  “It is a dangerous habit to finger loaded firearms in the pocket of one's dressing-gown.” (The Final Problem)
• “Don’t  be silly. Some one else is holding the rifle. I don’t like to get my hands” – “He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organized.” (The Final Problem)
• “No one has got close to me. And no one ever will”. – “The agent may be caught. In that case money is found for his bail or his defence. But the central power which uses the agent is never caught -- never so much as suspected.” (The Final Problem)
• “Now you are in my way” - “You stand in the way not merely of an individual but of a mighty organization, the full extent of which you, with all your cleverness, have been unable to realize.” (The Final Problem)
• “You can’t be allowed to continue. You just can’t.” – “It is necessary that you should withdraw” (The Final Problem)
• “Come to warn you. Back off” – “You must drop it, Mr. Holmes,” said he, swaying his face about. “You really must, you know.” (The Final Problem) 
• “I would try to convince you but everything I have to say has already crossed your mind!” “Probably my answer has crossed yours.” - “All that I have to say has already crossed your mind,” said he. “Then possibly my answer has crossed yours,” I replied. (The Final Problem)

I welcome the readers to point out any references that I might have missed.

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BBC Sherlock Season 1 Episode # 3 "The Great Game" - Canonical References (Part I)

It is time for another BBC Sherlock Canonical References post!

As packed as the previous episodes were with nods to Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories, the real deal starts here. Mark Gatiss deserves credit for the script, which is chock-a-block with easter eggs.

I have split the entire set into 2 posts. Here is the first half:

1. The episode name “The Great Game” – Reference to this line in The Adventure of the Final Problem: “I tell you, my friend, that if a detailed account of that silent contest could be written, it would take its place as the most brilliant bit of thrust-and-parry work in the history of detection.”

2. Sherlocks’s reaction to the convict’s mention of sex – Dr Watson states in A Scandal in Bohemia: “He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer.”

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3. Sherlock shooting at the wall – Dr Watson mentions in The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual: “ … Holmes, in one of his queer humours, would sit in an armchair with his hair-trigger and a hundred Boxer cartridges and proceed to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V. R. done in bullet-pocks,..”

4. Sherlock's statement: “I don’t know what’s got into the criminal classes” – Sherlock Holmes makes a similar reference to the criminals in The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax: “and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes.” and in The Sign of the Four: “…a good many of the criminal classes begin to know me,…”

5. Sherlock's further comment about criminals: “It’s a good job I am not one of them” - Sherlock Holmes remarks in The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton: "You know, Watson, I don’t mind confessing to you that I have always had an idea that I would have made a highly efficient criminal. This is the chance of my lifetime in that direction"

 

6. John's discovery of a human head in the fridge – Dr Watson states in The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual: “Our chambers were always full of chemicals and of criminal relics which had a way of wandering into unlikely positions, and of turning up in the butter-dish or in even less desirable places.”

7. Sherlock remarks about the human head: “I got it from Bart’s morgue. I’m measuring coagulation of saliva after death” – Stamford explains about Holmes in A Study in Scarlet: “When it comes to beating the subjects in the dissecting-rooms with a stick, it is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape. Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death.”

8. John defending his choice of “A Study in Pink” as the title: “Pink lady, pink case, pink phone. There was a lot of pink” – Sherlock comments about Dr Watson in A Case of Identity: “It is true that you have missed everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and you have a quick eye for colour.”

9. John going for a walk, after getting irritated by Sherlock's complaining about Watson writing about his shortcomings – Watson states in The Sign of Four: “I confess, too, that I was irritated by the egotism which seemed to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be devoted to his own special doings.”

10. Sherlock comparing human mind to a hard drive – Holmes in A Study in Scarlet: “I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.”

 
11. John arguing about Sherlock's (lack of) knowledge of the solar system – Sherlock Holmes makes this statement in A Study in Scarlet: “What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently; "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work."

12. Sherlock's statement: “All that matters to me is my work. Without that my brain rots” – From The Sign of Four: “I cannot live without brain-work. What else is there to live for?”

13. Sherlock's advice to John to stop writing about their cases - Sherlock Holmes states in The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier: "..since I have often had occasion to point out to him how superficial are his own accounts and to accuse him of pandering to popular taste instead of confining himself rigidly to facts and figures."

14. Sherlock standing at the window and remarking to Mrs Hudson: “Look at that Mrs. Hudson. Quiet, Calm, Peaceful. Isn’t it hateful?” – In The Sign of Four: “Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world?... What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material?”

15. John’s comment about Sherlock lying to Mycroft: “Sibling rivalry. Now we are getting somewhere” - From A Study in Scarlet: “…how often I endeavoured to break through the reticence which he showed on all that concerned himself.” (Watson) and “Did you never ask him what he was going in for?" I asked. "No; he is not a man that it is easy to draw out…”  (Stamford). From The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter: “During my long and intimate acquaintance with Mr. Sherlock Holmes I had never heard him refer to his relations, and hardly ever to his own early life.”

16. Sherlock's line: “I would be lost without my blogger” – Sherlock Holmes states in A Scandal in Bohemia: “I am lost without my Boswell”
 

17. Lestrade's remark to Sherlock – “You like the funny cases, don’t you? The surprising ones.” – Lestrade states in The Adventure of the Second Stain: ''a mere trifle, but the sort of thing you take an interest in – queer, you know, and what you might call freakish.” Gregson also makes a similar statement in A Study in Scarlet: “...it’s a queer case though, and I knew your taste for such things”.
 

18. Sherlock makes deductions about the Bohemian stationary from Czech Republic and also the type of pen. - Sherlock Holmes makes deductions about “Best quality paper” and “...paper of native Indian manufacture,” in The Sign of Four as well as in A Scandal in Bohemia: “The paper was made in Bohemia”
 

19. Sherlock's deduction about the feminine handwriting – Sherlock Holmes makes a deduction about masculine handwriting in The Adventure of the Cardboard Box, and about feminine handwriting in The Hound of the Baskervilles

20. Sherlock's description of the five orange pips is a direct reference to the plot of The Five Orange Pips: “Its outrages were usually preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic but generally recognized shape -- a sprig of oak-leaves in some parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others.”

 
21. The design of the room “221C” is based on the description of the room, where Enoch J Drebber's body is found in A Study in Scarlet: “It was a large square room, looking all the larger from the absence of all furniture. A vulgar flaring paper adorned the walls, but it was blotched in places with mildew, and here and there great strips had become detached and hung down, exposing the yellow plaster beneath. Opposite the door was a showy fireplace, surmounted by a mantelpiece of imitation white marble. On one corner of this was stuck the stump of a red wax candle. The solitary window was so dirty that the light was hazy and uncertain, giving a dull grey tinge to everything, which was intensified by the thick layer of dust which coated the whole apartment.”

22. Sherlock remarks in 221 C: “The curtain rises” - Sherlock in The Adventure of the Second Stain: “Excellent!” said he. “Come, friend Watson, the curtain rings up for the last act.”

23. Sherlock accessing “Most Wanted” list on his smartphone, to get details about Golem, the assassin – Sherlock Holmes maintains alphabetically sorted files about  in 221 B. As Dr Watson states in A Scandal in Bohemia: “For many years he had adopted a system of docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not at once furnish information.”. Sherlock Holmes himself remarks in The Adventure of the Empty House: “Just give me down my index of biographies from the shelf...My collection of M's is a fine one.”

24.  Sherlock's reply to Lestrade: “You just see, but you just don’t observe” – Holmes makes a very similar statement to Watson in A Scandal in Bohemia: “You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.”

25. Sherlock’s knowledge of astronomy in solving the puzzle of the fake painting – A nod to the inconsistencies in the Canon

26. Sherlock commenting on Molly's weight gain: “Domestic bliss suits you. 3 pounds” - Sherlock Holmes makes a similar observation about John Watson in A Scandal in Bohemia: “Wedlock suits you,... I think, Watson, that you have put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you”

28. Sherlock's remark about John's deductions: “You are in sparkling form” – “Excellent, Watson! You scintillate to-day.” from The Adventure of the Illustrious Client and “Really, Watson, you excel yourself,” from The Hound of the Baskervilles and “Brilliant, Watson. You are scintillating this morning.” from The Valley of Fear

29. Sherlock's comment about John's deductions: “You have missed everything of importance” – Sherlock Holmes remarks to Watson in A Case of Identity: “It is true that you have missed everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and you have a quick eye for colour”

30. Sherlock deducing the mud as belonging to Sussex with London mud overlaying it: “Clear as a map reference to me” – Dr Watson mentions in A Study in Scarlet: “Geology.—Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.”

32. Sherlock deducing that poison was the cause of Carl Power’s death – Dr Watson documents Holmes' knowledge in A Study in Scarlet: “Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally.”

33. Sherlock's knowledge about the case of Carl Powers – Dr Watson mentions about Holmes in A Study in Scarlet: “Sensational Literature.—Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.”

34. John's remark to Sherlock about his long time interest in solving cases: “You started early, didn’t you” – From The Hound of the Baskervilles: “..though I confess that once when I was very young I confused the Leeds Mercury with the Western Morning News.”. Further, Holmes mentioned about some cases that he handled before Watson’s arrival at 221 B in The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual: “These are the records of your early work, then?” I asked. “I have often wished that I had notes of those cases.” “Yes, my boy, these were all done prematurely before my biographer had come to glorify me.”

35. Sherlock is seen wearing a purple shirt – From The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle: “He was lounging upon the sofa in a purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly studied, near at hand.”

36. Sherlock's instruction to Lestrade: “Go arrest them Inspector. That’s what you do best” - From A Study in Scarlet: “I have chaffed them so much that they would never have let me hear the end of it.”

37. Sherlock getting information from a victim’s wife by pretending to be the friend of the deceased – Sherlock Holmes uses Social Engineering tactics in a number of cases to gather information

38. Sherlock explains his strategy to get information from the aforementioned subject: “People don’t like telling you things. They love to contradict you” – From The Sign of the Four: “The main thing with people of that sort, … is never to let them think that their information can be of the slightest importance to you. If you do they will instantly shut up like an oyster. If you listen to them under protest, as it were, you are very likely to get what you want.”. Dr Watson uses a similar method to get information from Frankland in The Hound of the Baskervilles.

39. Sherlock's statement to John, when examining the corpse: “Give me data”

1. “No data yet…” from A Study in Scarlet
2. “There are hardly any data…” from The Sign of Four
3. “I have no data yet” from A Scandal in Bohemia
4. “Data, data, data. I can’t make bricks without clay” from The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

40. John does not seem to like Sekhmet, the cat in the late Connie Prince's house – Possible reference to Watson mentioning about having a bull pup in A Study in Scarlet: “I keep a bull pup,..”

That concludes the first part. Click here to read the second post.

Click here to read all my posts about BBC Sherlock.

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