aside from the the fact the shooting scripts are obviously not written-in-stone documents of “finality” in any way, Moff and Gatiss have always talked about how they fill the scripts with handwritten notations and directions as shooting progresses, so take from that what you may.
a little louder
shooting scripts are obviously not written-in-stone documents of “finality” in any wayand also, directors exist, and so do things like logistics and improvisation
so
- not every difference between script and screen is evidence of deception
- not every difference between script and screen is due to the actors
- some nuances on the page never translate to the screen, and some nuances on screen can never be captured on the page
comparing is fun, but most of what it reveals are just artifacts of the process
Tag: important
in all honesty–and this is me speaking from the assumption that there is no 4th ep or series 5 johnlock–i don’t think there was ever any intention on the part of the creators to have john and sherlock be together. i think they intentionally played with that idea because it was fun and interesting for them to engage in victorian-style homoerotic subtext, but they didn’t want the social or political “burden” of actually following through on john and sherlock’s relationship. they thought the subtext was clever, but they never viewed it as something to take seriously, and they perhaps didn’t think queer people were the ones taking interest in the belief that this show would positively represent them. they just wanted to play in the world of sherlock holmes, but they didnt want to have their sherlock be “the gay sherlock.” and yes, all of that is cruel and bullshit, but i think they never took this as seriously as we did.
Not only is it clear that the scripts are not the “final versions,” I would also just like to remind everyone, for the hundred thousandth time, once and for all, that Martin and Ben are terrific actors but have absolutely no power to overrule a script. They can ad-lib a line here and there, especially a cute joke (”Am I the current King of England?”), but they cannot change the meaning of the entire show on their own.
The reason the scenes in the show differ from the scenes in the script is because the script was changed by Moffat and Gatiss. Period.
It defies belief to think that Martin and Ben could take it upon themselves to tell a different story than the one the showrunners were telling and have the showrunners just go along with it, informing their directors and editors to just
*sigh* go ahead and do what Ben and Martin want, they’re the ones really in charge. Yes, there has been a history of actors “secretly” playing characters as gay, but that doesn’t extend to changing the dialogue in multiple scenes to suit their own ideas.
If you are a TJLCer and you honestly believe that Ben and Martin conjured up Johnlock all on their own, then how do you explain the “oh my god” and “my husband was just the same” appearing in the ASiP script, “bathed in starlight” appearing in the TGG script, the subtext in the script throughout the whole show, the subtext in the visuals throughout the whole show (including Sherlock’s flashbacks to ASiP!John in TLD), the subtext in the music throughout the whole show, and the fact that they apparently both decided to abandon this plan mere days after forcing yet another aborted love confession onto their weak, pushover showrunners at the end of TLD? If this was an actor-led coup that required the cooperation of the editors, directors, cinematographers, lighting directors, production designer, costume/hair/make-up team, and composers, then why didn’t it succeed? Why no romantic John-in-a-blanket scene?
I’m honestly confused as to why TJLC not only throws out seven years of consistent evidence, some of which it just got its hands on yesterday, just because a clearly incomplete, non-final script has surfaced, but has also embraced the long-debunked idea that Moffat and Gatiss have no partnership with their actors with allows for the exchange of ideas in both directions (Martin deciding to replace a line with a look, which the showrunners obviously approve of, because they’ve spoken about it with admiration; Moffat and Gatiss deciding to tell the actors to do something that they haven’t written into the script, which the showrunners have…also acknowledged that they do).
That script is written like a mere joke, the tarmac scene is a mere joke but Ben and Martin turned it into something so beautifully painful jfc??? that bit of John turning around when Janine and Sherlock kiss that’s not even in the script, you do know who to thank for Johnlock, BEN AND MARTIN NOBODY ELSE
This was Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat’s Writers’ Bible, a primer for incoming writers of the show, meaning, they showed it to Steve Thompson.
I was so taken with their philosophy of John Watson.
“Keep them (SH and JW) as much as you can – John is our man in the show, we can’t do it without him.”
Whatever happened to JW during season 4 is beyond me.
What prompted them to change his character, granted that The Final Problem was real, to put him in the sidelines, was painful.In a nutshell^^^^^ Also; what happened to them having fun? Moffat use to say this a lot, they just have a load of fun. I miss them laughing. And yes, you can laugh in adversity, we all do.
I am crying right now.
This is exactly my feelings on the show I am in love thank you for making this.
I really don’t know if the wonderful person who made this video has a tumblr, but I felt the necessity of sharing, because this video was important for me, so it could be for you here as well. I put in the tags, anyway, but it isn’t mine. Anyway….
Watch this right now
I am crying . I am fucking in tears here. I had to pause it in the middle. EVERYONE WATCH THIS YOU HAVE TO PLEASE HAVE TO. This is for us.
This is amazing
If you find yourself making up flimsy excuses for how Sherlock could survive blowing through a second-story window and manage rigging Mycroft’s house like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone, then you have no merit in calling queer fans who saw the gay subtext “delusional” or “reaching”.
a note of encouragement to young fanfic writers:
no matter how bad you think your fic is, your storyline and characterisation will still be better than those in the final problem
It makes me so angry that Mark took the trouble to send a poem to the Guardian because his show was compared to James Bond but he won’t bother answering heart-broken fans, instead just blocking us like he’s swatting away a bunch of mosquitoes
male author vs. predominantly female authors
Yeah. This baffles me.
Probably he realizes that the James Bond comment/critic was ridiculous and easily dismissed whereas the heartbroken fans after TFP have valid points.
I’m afraid, it might be exactly the other way around. In the male author he sees his social and intellectual equal. In the female authors he sees nothing he wants to be bothered with. They’re female, they’re fans – boths facets that he seems to associate with “no my equals”.
forget subtext, here comes: text
sherlock flirts with john, winks at him. john asks if he’s single, is happy that he is. sherlock is flattered to be asked out but declines
sherlock asks john out on a date. sherlock crashes his date.
sherlock and john fight like a couple. mrs hudson points this out. sally tells john to not hang around sherlock but concedes that he probably won’t heed her advice because ‘opposites attract’. moriarty says that sherlock does have a heart, he kidnaps john the person he knows sherlock cares about. john offers to die to save sherlock.
john’s girlfriend dumps him because she’s jealous of sherlock. she says john is sherlock’s boyfriend, john does not deny this. irene tells john he and sherlock are a couple, john smiles and does not deny this.
john acts like sherlock’s wife in front of the press. the newspapers call john gay in the context of being sherlock’s constant companion. moriarty talks about people that sherlock loves. sherlock immediately says only one name: john.
sherlock says that he will be reunited with john by jumping out of a cake like a stripper at a bachelor party. sherlock thinks that without him john has no life and expects him to still be living at their old flat. by the end of the episode john meets the press with sherlock acting like his doting spouse just like at the beginning of TRF
sherlock drops everything to write his best man speech and plan john’s wedding. sherlock makes a very long speech about how wonderful john is and talks about all the great times they’ve had together. sherlock says john is obsessed with him and that his blog is romantic. john spontaneously gets up during the speech to hug sherlock, everyone claps like they’re the couple who just got married. sherlock’s very prominent role in john’s wedding continues as sherlock plays the violin for john and mary’s first dance. sherlock writes a special waltz for them to dance to. sherlock teaches john how to waltz.
sherlock relapses into hard drug use after john’s wedding and subsequent absence from his life. john dreams about sherlock coming to take him away. john wakes up and answers his door hoping that sherlock is coming to see him. mary is angry that john thinks sherlock is so important that everybody (kate) must know who he is. mary is angry that john thinks it’s been a long time since he saw sherlock, it’s been only a month. sherlock is dying until he remembers that john is in danger and then wills his hear to start beating again. sherlock kills magnussen to ensure john’s safety.
mary is jealous that john is always with sherlock so she decides to go to baker st as a client as it’s the only way she will get to see her husband. nonetheless john soon leaves her again to go off with sherlock. when sherlock tells john that mary is in danger john is not concerned and dismisses the issue. john attempts to have a romantic conversation with mary, sherlock inserts himself into it as if he were john’s love interest.
@thatsmyotterteacozy said: I would include: “Mrs. Hudson and Angelo, two long term friends of Sherlock both assume John and Sherlock are romantically together when they meet John. They don’t believe John when he claims otherwise.”
totally. there are so many more, eh? like, just on my dash right now was a gifset of john and sherlock at buckingham palace where john’s like *looks at sherlock’s crotch* ‘are you wearing any pants?’ like uhm. this is just there, there’s no meta to be had, there’s no subtext
IT IS TEXT
YEAH
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