Just had the “Meet the Makers” panel with Mofftiss and Sue, which was kinda….anti-climactic? They were a bit more subdued, maybe because they took LIVE QUESTIONS randomly from the audience. They were aware that people suspected the questions were vetted to be softballs, so they went back to live, which yay them, I think it was brave. I’m not snarky here, I love and respect them for making Sherlock.
The only answers which were illuminating were 1) that season 4 was always going to be about Mary’s death, because John being a widower is an important part of canon, so she has to go. Thus the series became about grief. How John handled it, how Sherlock handled it. paraphrasing here, because they loved Mary so much.
Two, as Steven put it, you shine a light where you want it, you don’t paint the whole backdrop. Meaning, what they left out of the story doesn’t matter. This arose when a girl asked what happened after John got shot by Euros, and Steven made it into a bit of a joke … oh well Sherlock called the police, and followed the tracker he put behind John’s left ear, etc. etc. So there’s your answer for a lot of things like, how do they survive huge explosions, or what’s on that note? Doesn’t matter, blank background.
Three, all three of them together have a project greenlighted at BBC that has nothing to do with Sherlock but could be considered a, quote, stablemate. A later answer implied that it was updating a classic.
Someone asked about Garridebs, which I had personally also asked Steven about, and he gave the same reply again, that the important part of it was the personal moment when John is shot, BUT, we don’t need to see that from our John and Sherlock because everyone knows Sherlock would be upset. So he just used the name cuz he had three bodies to drop into the sea, why not call them that? Umm, ok.
Four, the decision to make Redbeard a child was made during TAB filming. According to them, It had become something of a joke, Sherlock mourning a dog so much, but what if it was a child? And they named him Victor Trevor from the canon.
I know some people are convinced they are lying liars who lie, but in person they are very genuine. Of course they are going to leave some loopholes open in case they need to come back to them, but I RRREEEAAALLLLYYY think they love Mary, think she’s not evil, and she’s dead.
As absurd as the idea of forgiving Mary is, of her shooting him “nicely”, the worst thing storytelling-wise is the extreme pain they showed Sherlock in. It was extreme and *awful* to watch. He’s our protagonist ffs we’re meant to feel protective. It’s one of the reasons it was inconceivable to me they’d show that then let it go. We’ve all pointed out that if you want to redeem someone you have to give hints, show actual remorse, etc, etc, but the protagonist in THAT much pain and it meant…nothing? It’s like Moffat is sadistic and simply likes to show pain just for the sake of drama, unconnected to anything…no consequences or responsibility or resolution as usual.
We are told that there are “no coincidences” in Sherlock and that we should regard the subtext – then we are told that nothing means anything and that “fans are reading too much into this”.
We are told that the show is the “Sherlock and John show” and that it’s all about them and their relationship – then the show is about Mary and Eurus.
We are told that the fourth season is “tv history”, “groundbreaking” and that we are “part of making history” *snort* – then we get a ridiculous finale which is leaked twice before airing on television and which is nothing like “tv history”. (More like a crossover with Saw and The Ring)
lol @ the number of people who seem to think that because they get to ask a question “in a more private and informal setting” that they’re somehow going to get a more honest answer
Moffat & Gatiss need to make up their damn minds. So they’re anti “warm paste” but then Sherlock has no subtext or deeper meaning & basically is “warm paste”
i mean you can believe that if you want but if you actually WATCH THE EPISODES it is clear he is lying because the changes in the skull painting weren’t just that they dimmed it in places because of weird lighting issues
they fucking changed the colors, completely turned it off, and BLACKED IT OUT at various points through the series
people can sound as sincere as they want but applying some critical thinking shows that HE 👏🏻 IS 👏🏻 FUCKING 👏🏻 LYING 👏🏻
Obv. I shortened the answers just to be concise, but I’ll expand on a few things that people are wondering about:
Skull pic – Mark was absolutely sincere talking about this, and this was a VERY casual fun setting (he’s quite charming and fit irl!). First he explained how the original artist was charging loads of cash to use his print, and they decided enough of that. They had Arwel make a skull, which was a print over a light box (blah blah lil pics of ACD, you’ve heard that before). When shot however, the other lights would hit it – did he say “oddly”? I forget the exact word. It would look too glaring, and like a postage stamp stuck on the wall (pantomimes that). So they changed it. Original question girl follows up “you turned it down?” And Mark replied “no, no, it was done in post” and a comment that “there’s really nothing more to it”
Budget: Mark and Sue both talked about how Sherlock was a huge hit, people think they are rolling in dosh ($) to get them made, but it’s the BBC, and it’s just not that way. Sue made a quip about how she’s the boss, but it’s not all in her hands (paraphrasing there – I have an excellent memory for dialogue, so most of this you can take as quite accurate). Arwen described drawing the “bond lair” – his words- and showing them the pics and then pantomimed jaw dropping astonishment from the team. He followed up with talking about how such a huge set was difficult to bring in on budget. In all the talks of $ there was a slight note of bitterness, or disbelief. SLIGHT note, they are British, but definitely there. I’m very sure they weren’t making it up.
Lights- I was unclear earlier on what Arwel said – he talked at length that there were 3 sets and a location every time they went down the stairs, so you’re literally seeing 2 different ceiling lights because you’re seeing two different sets. I mushed it up with the skull stuff earlier, sorry. He also spoke about how hard they try for continuity, but stuff just gets lost, and “every time you hand an actor a prop, they break it” and followed with a funny anecdote about Eccles and (forget) both IMMEDIATELY broke their first sonic screwdriver.
I’ll have more tonight for you hopefully! Glad I can share stuff with you. Do you wanna see more pics or is that boring?
Sherlock Fandom Archive 