During the production workshop we talked about the probs and how they could last all these years…. and there Arwel started to talk about John’s chair on his own (…or maybe he saw me little annoying fangirl asking silly questions among the people and thought better to go on with it :’-)))
So we talked about how important probs can be and how they have to be careful with them….
Arwel started on his own about…”for example John’s chair”… he said, he had made a huge mistake inventing John’s chair, because it was made of a very rare fabric, of which he didn’t have any reserves left to repair it whatever would happen to it… so when 221b burned up, the chair was destroyed and had to be replaced. So they had this chair from TAB, which he bought to look a bit like modern John’s and Arwel thought… “well it’s recognizable for the viewer and wouldn’t it be fun for it to re-appear in the modern world???”… well this Arwel thought…. I told very proud of how he had enough fabric of this chair to fix it if it would be damaged and so on…..
Then there was the question: “And what about Sherlock’s chair? Why didn’t it burn?”
Arwel’s answer was that they decided that it was too iconic and that they never could replace it!! They had put so much thought in it before the production for Sherlock even started for ASiP, that they couldn’t think of any other chair for Sherlock to fit!!!! So Sherlock’s chair may stay….
Make of it what you like….for me the question remained, why didn’t they or fake the fire or build a replica if the chair was this valuable or bought a completely different one for after-TFP…. hadn’t have the chance to ask all this though…
(please be aware, that I recount all this from my memory and therefore bring it into my own words. I have no records, so this is not word for word what the people in question actually said!! I try to word the main essence of the sometimes rather ridiculous long monologues *eyeroll* :-)))
To me, the funny thing about this answer is Arwel implying that the chair should have survived the fire. It’s not actually natural for him to have wanted to match the upholstery. The audience expected the fire to… you know… burn stuff.
Like it’s fiction, and the real artifact didn’t have to be destroyed, so this makes no practical sense to me. Only story sense is they are trying to imply something….???
I think it comes down to which props they were attached to to most. And which props they are the most proud of. John’s chair could be replaced with a different chair, similar fabric and shape and still have the same iconic look as before. So they decided that it could be burnt for the series.
Sherlock’s chair is rather unique. Irl the metal frame would have melted and been unusable. But it’s not out of the question that Sherlock would have a replica made up after the fire. Idk? Crew decided to gloss over reality and what would happen to the chair for the looks of it it seems. And the fact that they must have put in a lot of time picking this prop.
I don’t think there’s anything deeper here. Just arwel and his crew who love old chairs
Sherlocked 2017 memories #2: Here’s some things I remembered from
the con, that I was there for, but didn’t tell you in my reports: Sue Vertue
said at the cocktail party that Ben & Martin are two very different people
and are the sort of friends that don’t see each other very often, but when they
do meet up they are as thick as thieves with each other (does that analogy make
sense to non uk people?). Also Sue and him went to Martin’s play, but that they
didn’t go backstage to meet him as that’s usually very tiring for actors and it
means there’s less chance that the actor can then do stage door afterwards, so
him n Sue hadn’t seen Martin this year (I guess she meant since the S4 promo
work was over), but they & Martin are still very good friends. Even thought
they don’t get to meet up that often.Lots of actors work together & become mates for life in this way.
She implied that Ben & Martin are very good mates and
that they adore filming together. Someone at my table said to her that the
press during S4 filming had said that they weren’t good mates & didn’t get
on… to which Sue said that was ‘Balderdash’ (Meaning: utterly untrue.). And that that
was just the press being idiots and trying to find a story where there isn’t
one (as usual!). She said that they are very good friends and really enjoy each
others company and that they have a really genuine chemistry together despite
being quite different types of people with vastly different personalities.
I was there the night Sue, Steven and Una were at Martin’s play and they did go through the stage door after the show, but that same night Martin hurt his leg so he didn’t come back out through the stage door. Sue and the others came back out after a while inside.
It does make sense. It is foolish to believe that they aren’t friends at all. I don’t think the camaraderie they shared for the last 8 years have been fluke or played with. We have footages and interviews as proofs.
The news item that came out after the season came out was planned. The question is why.
You know what. I’m mad at ‘the british tv channel that shall not be named’ (but will be named here anyway).
I am. I am absolutely infuriated.
They went through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and saw the gay of the books… they knew how much it kept popping up in different adaptations of the stories (that is NOT a coincidence). They saw the homosexual subtext that existed in Canon enough to put it in the show— then proceeded to make a JOKE out of it! A JOKE. They saw the gay that existed in CANON Sherlock Holmes books, added it to the show, and then proceeded to LAUGH IT OFF (beyond livid over this one).
They also systematically went through each and every character from the canon stories and proceeded to dismantle them into the abuse normalizing problematic characters they are by season 4 (and insanely misogynistic where some are concerned). And they put in -just enough- from canon to go “See these are them! These are the characters from the books” when they AREN’T. They simply ARE NOT.
BBC Sherlock IS NOT reflective of ACD’s Sherlock Holmes Canon Characters.
AT ALL
Any Sherlockian who has read the books can hold them up to the show and show how basically all that televised fanfic version is— is a fanfic. It is NOTHING AT ALL like Canon and that isn’t just because they put it in the modern era. They did NOT ‘modernize” the stories. They made a DIFFERENT AU Modern Fanfic and then used names and references from the books. BBC Sherlock itself has COMPLETELY DIFFERENT story and characters.
COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
You notice that the first two seasons were pretty good. That is because in those seasons there was more in the show that was reflective of what was in the stories— but they kept going further and further into the woods with adding in more of their own original content and writing until season 4 which was basically 99% all their own stories and based around original characters. It is NOT reflective of the past Sherlock Holmes stories AT ALL.
Molly – Original character
Eurus – Original character
Mary Morstan – Original Character
“What’s that?” you say, “No that can’t be true! Mary married John from the books”.
Yes. A character by the name of Mary Morstan married John from the books but you better believe it is not the ‘Assassin who works for the CIA’ that Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss wrote. And even the aspects of Mary that WAS from the books -was not featured or used in the ‘Sherlock’ show-. In fact she was separated that much further from the true Mary Morstan from the books considering that wasn’t even the character’s original name as they took it from someone else.
Everything about the Mary Morstan that Moffat and Gatiss wrote is original content. Thus, -despite- the fact that she has the same name, it is still an original character even if they took a name from the book and slapped it on that original character.
I would argue that taking book names and slapping them on origional characters is a common theme with Mofftiss too. Write a character with a different personality, background and storyline, find a name from the books to use for that character and then slap it on. Nevermind the personality and characterisation of that character is a bare shadow of what the character by the same name in the books has and is like.
They rely on the fact that most people have never seen or read the books. That way they can lie and allude that ‘oh yeah sure these are the characters from the books, this is basically the story” when, No. NO THEY ARE NOT.
And most people have not read the books and do not realize how MUCH Sherlock and John (especially from season 4) are IN NO WAY AT ALL like Holmes and Watson from the books. Not at ALL. There are HUGE glaring differences. One of them being that Watson is -very- devoted to Holmes, even AFTER the fall, and would kick S4 John’s arse up one way and down the next if he saw him lay even a finger on Sherlock Holmes.
Oh and then there is Sherlock Holmes himself! Sherlock is
deconstructed to be in a victimized role and that is -never pointed out-. It is never said “hay, maybe this is not all entirely his fault and people should be apologizing for their own roles in issue too.” No. He is abused and harangued constantly and yet it is all still painted as his fault and he -accepts- that! He is verbally cast as a selfish unfeeling character, while at the same time we know he is not because in the show Sherlock shows a LOT of feeling for those around him. He is constantly beaten down and everything is blamed on him with absolutely no recognition to the huge amount of effort he puts in for others or how others are also at fault for the issues that happen in the show.
In the the end we are left with a abusive John Watson and a Sherlock Holmes that I half wonder has some version of stockholm syndrome with how he constantly accepts the blame for everything despite some things obviously being the fault of unapologetic and abusive people surrounding him. That is not them. That is NOT the protective healer/guardian Dr. Watson or the thoughtful and curious Sherlock Holmes from the books.
-BBC Sherlock isn’t the books. It just isn’t. It isn’t the stories or the characters. It is NOT ACD’s Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson… and BBC is NOT, in any way shape or form, a ‘modernization’ of the stories. It is just another fanfic in a sea of fanfics, with a new world and characters. It simply happened to be a very popular one for a while.
Moving on…
Beyond all that anger and fury— I love the fanfic and the fandom.
Because reading fanfic that people write, just off of BBC and without the author’s having read the true canon stories… that’s it… that’s them. Somehow despite Mofftiss attempt at systematic gutting of the characters through the seasons, the fandom had clung and kept the original idea that was shown. They took the original understanding of the characters from the books that was reflected in the first few episodes, and kept it. Kept it despite what was done to those characters and how they were twisted in later seasons and I love that.
I could totally see the canon Holmes/Watson characters doing many things that are done through fanfic. I could. Because ignoring S4 Sherlock and John…. the ones from prior seasons that sherlock fans envision are closer. The dynamic reflected in some of the best fanfic out there, that’s them. Thats them from the true canon. That dynamic of caring so much about each other and the sweetness they have towards each other. That is totally Holmes and Watson from the books and it is fantastic.
The fans really are better writers than the two guys who made a televised show and tried to ruin it with the last season (Intentionally or unintentionally).
No matter what those two men do to their one televised fanfic of a show, the fandom has a great grasp of what the characters are like. So many fanfics reflect the dynamic that Holmes and Watson have from the books far better than Mofftiss ever did… I love that even with different characters, and through a different lense, the true dynamic of Holmes and Watson is alive and nothing… NOTHING that BBC ever does to try to backtrack and erase it will ever change that.
Oh and because Sherlock Holmes is a work created by SOMEBODY ELSE that was made years before BBC ever even existed, they have absolutely no legal right or claim on the Sherlock Holmes character -at all- (and they HATE that). Theirs is just a fanfic same as everyone else’s and ANYONE’S writing of Sherlock Holmes is just as legitimate as BBC’s (they know that and can’t stand it. They -wish- they owned Sherlock but they DON’T). As popular as it may have been, theirs is only one adaptation in a sea of HUNDREDS of other adaptations. More came before them and more adaptations other than ‘sherlock’ will be made afterwards too.
Johnlock is ACD Canon.
There is meta and analysis showing where the original Canon characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John watson was written as gay by Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle. The meta is out there. Johnlock is Real.
Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are over 130 years old.
The Sherlockian fandom has been around for almost as long.
Johnlocked Sherlockians have existed long before BBC ever did (though it did not used to go by that name). Johnlock is real, the story lives on and one adaptation isn’t going to change that or stop the fandom.
SHERLOCKIANS RULE. Especially Johnlocked Sherlockians.
I love everyone in this room.
Thank you.
Standing here clapping. Thank you! Partly that’s why I began writing ACD – because I was so fed up with BBC.
This. All of this.
At this point I feel like this adaption is one of the worst that exists.
They could have put any name on this but no, they had to claim this was a Sherlock Holmes adaptation. It pisses me off that they did it such a disservice and they can f*ck right off when they claim they’re Holmes fanboys.
Sherlock Fandom Archive 