It's great fun to read Arthur Conan Doyle. He was a wonderful writer, and like Thakeray often worked on his next installment as a messenger was waiting at the door to bring his work to the printers. (Well, that's the legend.)

Enjoy yourself.

I think we ought to throw Shezza Watson a baby shower.

Liberty, you are in for loads of fun! As someone who has read these stories for fifty plus years, I get a real thrill when obscure references to the canon come up. It's like being a member of a secret society and having a special handshake.

Two more to add to the pile:

The Adventure of the Naval Treaty (ACD)  The Navel Treatment (Sherlock)
The Adventure of the Speckled Band (ACD) The Case of the Speckled Blonde (Sherlock)

Cheers!

Hmmm. Lots of different opinions here. In the original stories, there are dozens of good villains. So, bring it on! I've been reading all the short stories one after the other and there are times Sherlock makes mistakes. So the villain potential and the "Sherlock isn't perfect" meme are available. But here's what I do NOT want to see.

Mycroft's naked body parts. (Face, neck and hands = OK.)
Enough already about Redbeard.
Mary sacrificing herself to save Sherlock's life.

Dramagod, thank you for starting this thread. I've been reading ACD's works for 5 over 50 years. (Yes, that's fifty years.) I adore Sherlock, but had approached it with great trepidation. I feared that Mofftis would ruin it. But how wrong I was! Sherlock hits the perfect pitch. The original stories stand up well in their own right.

In the original stories by ACD, Watson appreciated women. He describes how they hold themselves, how they speak, their clothing, their hats, their appearance in general, etc. He has an eye for the ladies, but he respects them, even if he romanticizes them.

More interesting to me is the fact the in the ACD fiction, Watson has a problem with gambling and at one point Sherlock takes his cheque book away from him and locks it  up in his desk.

Now I'm reading "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" for the 50th time. Good adventure and suspense. Plus we get to see John Watson in his woman worshiping mood, and Sherlock showing concern for the woman client. This story has several of my favorite quotes in it too.


You can read it on line for free. If you haven't read it already - lucky you! You will see how the creators of this story "mix it up" for Sherlockians by putting in incidents of the canon in the programme, but not in the story where "they belong."

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/doyle/arthur_conan/d75ad/chapter12.html

Took the quiz again - I'm still Moriarty:

"You are Moriarty. Some people might say you’re a bad person, but you’d argue that you’re just misunderstood. You have a real combative streak and a constant drive to be the center of attention – no matter the cost. You’re probably a little bit lonely, but you won’t settle for less than a friend (nemesis?) who can keep up with you. Your serious flair for the dramatic and impeccable fashion sense means that no one can make an entrance (or exit) quite like you do. Are those shoes Westwood too?"

Actually most of that is spot on.

I can't wait to see these. Must run off and find them -

I hate the Kitty Riley character. I have not seen the actor's (Katherine Parkinson) other work. She did a fabulous job in this role. But right now, all I can think about is her thrusting her, erm, shirt in Sherlock's face and asking him to autograph it. Sleazey. And in the men's loo.

But the way she held her own in the scene in her own flat when confronted by Sherlock and John was impressive. Even more so, I loved the way she was "the source protecting journalist" acting all noble. Then who comes prancing in carrying the shopping? Why, it's Richard Brook. Kitty trying to act like a hero, reassuring the hysterical Richard Brook that he was safe with her, was ridiculous. Katherine Parkinson played that well. She was in a room with three top-rate actors and she played the part exactly right. Another example of how this programme gets everything right. Great writing, great acting.

I was forced marched through the classics (both in both Latin and Greek) at an all girls' school. Very old traditions. We even wore plaid skirts, white shirts, and blazers with the school emblem. Nausicaa appears near the end of the Odyssey, so you don't have to slog through the whole thing. And you don't have to read it in the original Greek. Lucky you!