i-love-the-bee-keeper:

There were a few scenes that have now become ‘the missing scenes’ of s4. Some people think they are evidence of a LS. Just want to address some of the speculation from a setlock viewpoint:

All of us on Ruther2′s setlock team can attest, the research and investigation on every scene we knew was being filmed was intense. Often we had set lockers on location at the time a scene was being filmed. We also had connections with the crew to see if any info could be obtained via that source. Some of us took time off work to cover the setlock period to just work on incoming information. Certain set lockers worked tirelessly for hours deciphering scripts, notes, partial written documents, you guys were awesome. It was indeed a well run organised operation. Kudos always to Ruther, he was excellent at running the entire thing, and the rest of the team that gave input, time, finances, hours, countless boring vigil at locations that were less than enjoyable, artworks, photographs, videos and of course dedication and energy. 

It must be noted that filming of several unused scenes is normal for BBC Sherlock. S4 was not an anomaly. So lets’s look at some of those now fabled lost scenes from s4:

• Martin on a camel
• Niagara Falls
• MI6/Vauxhall Cross
• Mint and Mustard

Taking these scenes one by one:

Martin on a camel; Ruther himself debunked this one as being Martin.  He discovered the project that was using the camel footage and it had nothing to do with BBC Sherlock. Yes, the profile of the person on the camel looked a little like Martin, but it wasn’t him. 

Niagara Falls: Nick Hurran was working in Canada before he came home to direct TLD. The timing was tight, Nick could not do recees with Arwel and the team. Tom Guy, from the locations dept went over to Canada to get Nick’s approval on locations for TLD. This would usually be done by Nick in person but due to the work project in Canada he couldn’t be there. Nick as director has to sign off on the locations. During the time Tom was in Canada he sent this tweet.

Now we all ran with this. It was a romantic location. Niagara is also a waterfall, and thus has a link to Sherlock via the idea of falling over a waterfall. It was great fun playing with this idea that John and Sherlock would end up in Niagara Falls for an adventure and finally kiss. It didn’t help that lurker Arwel joined in the fun, as a couple of weeks later in soggy London, now working on TLD, Arwel tweeted this:

It is a ‘stock’ photo of the falls, not one personally taken by the Sherlock crew. Arwel was very in tune to the fandom and despite his protestations later on, he very obviously and deliberately did ‘play’ with fandom theories.

Following the first tweet from Tom Guy the setlock crew kept a close eye on anything coming out of the Niagara area; scanning tweets, looking at local Niagara filming agencies, looking at any hint that cast and crew left the UK for Canada and were seen at airports, checking acting agencies recruiting for support actors in NF, or any support actor tweeting that they had been in a secret project there. None of the above came to light. There were a couple of fans who live in the area monitoring it too, and they didn’t see anything indicating a filming crew was at work at the Falls during the period. It’s not impossible that a scene was secretly filmed at a major tourist attraction with hundreds of people present on a daily basis but it is unlikely. Tom Guy appears to have taken a day trip to the Falls during a work assignment to get the locations OK’d by Nick Hurran. It was the boring conclusion most likely to have occurred. 

MI6/Vauxhall Cross John and Sherlock scene: Two of the setlockers on location the day Benedict filmed the scenes on Vauxhall Bridge for the end of T6T were told by the security guys on site that a scene had been filmed inside the MI6/Vauxhall Cross building. They said that there was a scene with Martin that was filmed in an unused part of the building. This was never verified. 

Mint and Mustard: Filmed, we had evidence.  

Recently Mark and Steven mentioned they had filmed a ‘date night’ with John and Mary, but didn’t use it in the final cut for TST.

So in conclusion maybe some scenes were filmed to use in future projects, such as games/apps or in the Sherlock attraction if the BBC get their theme park. There are also copious unaired scenes from s1-TAB that they have stored away. It’s all additional footage chosen to be unaired by the show runner. It’s an industry practice. Maybe at Sherlocked in October Arwel will show some new stuff, as he does that, maybe Claire will discuss Amanda in various wigs that never made it to screen, and Loo dressed up in the Sherlock wig. There may be a new book or photos on sale of unaired images. They could put out a DVD one day of the unaired scenes. We just need to be careful that we don’t think certain scenes are fact when in truth they were only ever speculation. I advise that everyone checks out Ruther2′s Storify if ever in doubt.

https://storify.com/Ruther2