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| Holmes and Watson do a Green Hornet and Kato impression |
This episode is based on The
Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton.
Holmes and Watson are returning to London after solving a case. The case in question is suggested as Silver Blaze. Silver Blaze is my all-time personal favorite short story in the Canon and a reference to this story marks one of the many high points of this episode.
Holmes has received a communication from Mycroft Holmes with reference to a case. What follows is the inevitable visit to the Diogenes Club and the first appearance of Mycroft in this series. Fans will no doubt instantly recognize these scenes as belonging to the short story The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter. The script writers have deftly handled the transition between the two stories.
Holmes and Watson are returning to London after solving a case. The case in question is suggested as Silver Blaze. Silver Blaze is my all-time personal favorite short story in the Canon and a reference to this story marks one of the many high points of this episode.
Holmes has received a communication from Mycroft Holmes with reference to a case. What follows is the inevitable visit to the Diogenes Club and the first appearance of Mycroft in this series. Fans will no doubt instantly recognize these scenes as belonging to the short story The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter. The script writers have deftly handled the transition between the two stories.
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| Mycroft Holmes makes his first appearance |
At Mycroft’s request, Sherlock takes up
the case of Lady Eva Brackwell, who is being blackmailed by Charles Augustus
Milverton. Milverton has got hold of some of the letters written by Lady Eva
long time ago and is threatening to spoil her upcoming engagement, by sending
them to her fiancé. Sherlock arranges a meeting with Milverton at 221 B Baker
Street.
The villainous Milverton is immune to Holmes’s reasoning and is hell-bent on extracting money from his prey. Holmes and Watson decide to break into Milverton’s house in order to retrieve the letters and save the lady’s honor. This entails Holmes adopting a disguise to know the layout of Milverton’s house to facilitate the break-in.
While the rest of the episode follows the canonical story closely, the reference to Professor Moriarty at the end is another masterstroke on the part of the director. In the canon, Moriarty makes his appearance only in The Valley of Fear and The Final Problem.
The villainous Milverton is immune to Holmes’s reasoning and is hell-bent on extracting money from his prey. Holmes and Watson decide to break into Milverton’s house in order to retrieve the letters and save the lady’s honor. This entails Holmes adopting a disguise to know the layout of Milverton’s house to facilitate the break-in.
While the rest of the episode follows the canonical story closely, the reference to Professor Moriarty at the end is another masterstroke on the part of the director. In the canon, Moriarty makes his appearance only in The Valley of Fear and The Final Problem.
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| Boris Ryzhukhin as Charles Augustus Milverton |
Vasily Livanov is one of my favorite
actors to play Holmes and Vitaly Solomin is the definitive Watson. Both of them
continue their stellar work in this episode as well.
The supporting cast of this episode as
top-notch as usual. Boris Klyuev is a classy Mycroft. Though a tad on the
leaner side, he makes a convincing Mycroft, the superior version of Sherlock in
powers of observation and deduction. Boris Ryzhukhin makes his
Augustus Milverton a truly despicable character, who will stop at nothing to
attain his ends.
Professor Moriarty makes his actual appearance in the next episode “The Mortal Fight”. He does communicate with Holmes by the end of this episode, indicating his displeasure at Holmes’s meddling in his affairs.
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Professor Moriarty makes his actual appearance in the next episode “The Mortal Fight”. He does communicate with Holmes by the end of this episode, indicating his displeasure at Holmes’s meddling in his affairs.
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| Professor Moriarty expresses his intentions to Holmes |
The
Russian series is not the only one to make the decision to refer to Moriarty in
an earlier episode before The Final Problem. The Granada series too had Moriarty orchestrating
the scam behind The Red-Headed League, before the
episode of The Final Problem.
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Image Source: Lenfilm Films Studio
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Click here to read all my posts about the Russian adaptation of Sherlock Holmes.
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Image Source: Lenfilm Films Studio
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