[Quiet Man Cometh]

This would include movies too, but I'm putting it here. Like the question of "Who's your James Bond?," I think there have been enough incarnations of Sir. Conan Doyle's character that a few people have a certain person in mind when they think of Sherlock Holmes.

I know my dad will always think of Basil Rathbone as being Sherlock Holmes. He was an actor in the 1940's I think (checked IMDB on that one). For my mom and I it will always be Jeremy Brett since I grew up watching him on TV with my mother. He was around early 1980s. Robert Downey Jr. is not bad though.

So which one is yours? Movie or TV, doesn't matter.

[Pathosis]

Definitely Benedict Cumberbatch.
I enjoy the movies with Robert Downey Jr., but Benedict nailed it personality wise.
He's a bit of a sociopath, and it's hilarious. :p
The BBC series for Sherlock is by far the best I've seen yet.
I'm not looking forward to this new one called Elementary...ugh.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Elementary is the one with Lucy Lu, right? I think it's Lucy Lu.

I've only seen one episode of Sherlock. The first one I think. I liked Mrs. Hudson. :)

I haven't read the books so I'm not really sure as far as Holmes' personality goes, but I tend to use Jeremey Brett as a model, probably because he's the Sherlock Holmes I knew first. I like the way he barks out a laugh or just a "ha!" at times. I think the actor himself was bipolar, and put some of that in the character a little. I find him fascinating to watch.

[Lestrade]

Can I pick Basil of Baker Street? XD

Honestly I've never been fully happy with any adaptations I've seen. I don't even think I could get through the RDJ ones without taking a few shots along the way so I haven't tried yet.

Sherlock had a mostly fantastic first season, but season 2 just fell apart. It started making no sense and Sherlock himself started being needlessly mean instead of just... carelessly mean like he's supposed to be.

I don't really care that Elementary exists, unlike some Sherlock fans, but casting Watson as a woman just seems like a horrible mistake that'll totally ruin their dynamic.

I SHOULD try to find some of the Jeremy Brett ones, I've heard good things about those. I don't suppose they're on Netflix at all...?

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Sure, Basil works. I admit I forgot about him. I should probably read a couple of the books. We have the Hound of the Baskervilles here in a novel by itself and somewhere I've got a collection of the Conan Doyle stories.

I think having Watson as a woman is a rather interestign idea and I'm curious to see it, but I wouldn't be happy if they did that and still had it set in Victorian England (at least I think that's the right era. Not totally sure). Since it's modern day though, I'm open to more interpretations. I remember the old TV show "Shirley Holmes" that was about a teen girl who was his descedent and solves high school mysteries and such. Never watched it because it seemed silly to me but it shows it's not the first time there was a character gender swap.

One of the eerie things about Jeremey Brett is that he got ill while still filming the Sherlock Holmes series. There are several of them, and they're one to two hours each I think. Not sure if Netflix would have them or not. They might be lumped under the "Agatha Christies Mysteries" title. Anyway, some episodes, like the Hound of the Baskervilles movie were filmed mostly around Watson because Brett was too ill for filming. There is one where they swap out Sherlock for his brother Mycroft because of his illness. In later stories Sherlock Holmes is dying, and the same thing was happening with Brett so he fit the part in a somewhat morbid way.

Oh, and as a random aside for people who like hidden object games and the like, Big Fish's Hound of the Baskervilles game is pretty good for a cheapish game downloadable game. Played it on iPad.

And you might have some luck finding the older movies if you check out your local library. That's where my mom and I found them, and pick up other old mysteries series' and such.

[Lestrade]

O.o Dying? Ooookay, they... apparently did take some liberties with the plotlines there then. 'cause in canon he retires to Sussex and becomes a beekeeper XD And then there's a story set in early WWI where he's a spy. That's the last one in terms of when it takes place, though I don't think it was the last one Doyle wrote... I don't remember now but WOW I AM LAZY I just realized I literally have the complete collection RIGHT NEXT TO ME so I can just open it.

...okay, if this book has them in publishing order then the World War I one wasn't the last published.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

TV always varies from books. I'm only guessing at when the series takes place, I can't find where it actually says anywhere. One episode in particular was called "The Dying Detective" and I don't know if he actually died or not (Holmes that is). I don't know the stories but I do know the shows change from the stories. The differences of some are discussed in the DVD collection I watched. Can't remember if it was "Memoires" or "Casebook" or another one.

And it just occured to me that it makes absolutley no sense to lump Sherlock Holmes with Agatha Christie Mysteries. >.< I think I got them mixed up because they were both shown in on A&E's "Mystery" back when the channel still did such things.

[Lestrade]

The Dying Detective is a story where Holmes fakes that he's dying to trick a guy who'd been trying to poison him.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Ah. I remember that one then. It was on the collection I rented from the city library. It was one of the later episodes in Brett's career, apparently. I never really got around to memorizing the names of most episodes, I usually need to read the description to recognize it. That probably comes from the fact that I keep missing the episode title when the open credits start. The only titles I can remember off the top of my head right now are "The Speckled Band" and "The Golden Pince-nez" though I'd probably recognize more if I heard them. Hound and The Sign of Four are the two movies.

[Lestrade]

Makes sense since they're novellas originally = )

I just skimmed a bunch of post-Reichenbach stories (and read a few of them) and rediscovered my love for Inspector Lestrade XD It's kind of funny, but Gregson just sort of vanishes from the later ones and Lestrade is hanging around at Baker Street just for the heck of it. It's sort of sweet the way he seems to become a genuine friend.

I swear, I really was a Lestrade fan even before Rupert Graves >.>

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I've never heard the name before, bearing in mind that I've yet to actually *read* any Sherlock Holmes stories (I'm assuming that topic remains). I read Agatha Christie for mysteries, and watched Sherlock Holmes on TV though I'm going to get around to Hound one of these days. My reading stack is rather large. I certainly don't need anymore novels half read.

I've got a contemporary novel where a mystery is solved with the help of Mrs. Hudson, but that is a ways down my reading list. Maybe. I always have a hell of a time picking a new book once I've finished one. The only Holmes characters I know by name would be Holmes, Watson, and Mrs. Hudson.

[Lestrade]

There are a handful of recurring inspector characters in the stories, and the most notable are Lestrade, Gregson, and Stanley Hopkins though he only turns up in the later ones. Lestrade is in Hound, though.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Cool. :). (Random information fun!)

I remember watching a newer version of The Hound of the Baskervilles that had Jason London as the inheritor (can't remember the character's name). Can't recall much of the film but I think I liked it. I remember I got my sister to watch it because she was familiar with Jason London.

*checks IMDB*

Got it. TV movie made in 2000 with Matt Frewer as Sherlock, Kenneth Walsh as Watson, and London plays Sir Henry.

Frewer seems to look the part pretty well from the old illustrations. :)

I did like Jude Law as Watson in the first Downy Jr. movie, but then I like Jude Law, and I don't really have as particular an image of Watson as I do of Holmes.

[Lestrade]

I jokingly refer to Jude Law as Hot Watson. Because wow, he is.

I do appreciate that they didn't seem to go the Jam Watson route.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Yes, I also agree with that assessment...


I don't know if my perception of Holmes is skewed (might be) but it seems to me like they're trying to make him younger and more hip. Might be the reason for all the pop-ups of new Sherlocks everywhere. I like the quirky habits but the character seems to be extra quirky these days.

(must read some of the stories so I can actually validly comment on his character. -.-)

[Lestrade]

Canon Holmes is pretty darn weird XD And I don't think he's all that old in the early stories either. I mean I don't think it ever specifies but he's probably under 30 in the beginning. He's kind of a condescending jerk at times, but mostly because it just doesn't occur to him to be anything but blunt; he also genuinely wants to help people with his abilities. And he ALSO does cocaine and morphine when he's bored and not on a case... well, at first. It doesn't go into it in great detail but he gives it up eventually. Watson doesn't approve at all even though cocaine was totally legal then, heh.