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1 of 1- nakahara
- Threatened Knighthood
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Canon references
During the episode, there were plenty of Canon references.
The most obvious ones were taken from ACD´s "The Dying Detective", of course. Most prominent one concerned Culverton Smith watching how Sherlock slowly dies and enjoying the sight.
"But you have the truth now, Holmes, and you can die with the knowledge that I killed you. You knew too much of the fate of Victor Savage, so I have sent you to share it. You are very near your end, Holmes. I will sit here and I will watch you die."
But this scene also referenced Basil Rathbone movie "Sherlock Holmes and The Secret Weapon", I believe. In this movie, Sherlock is caught by Moriarty and is about to be killed, when he persuades the criminals that they should enjoy the sight of him dying by killing him in a very slow method - by opening up one of his valves and let his blood slowly drip away. The scene where Culverton Smith messes with the drip is very reminiscent of that:
In the original short-story, John is hidden in the room and observes how Culverton Smith treats Sherlock to later act as a witness against him.
In BBC version, the live witness is exchanged for a symbolic one - John´s cane.
While pretending that he is raving in hallucinations, canonical Sherlock babbles some nonsense about half-crowns and about oysters.
While in a BBC version, he makes a tirade, citing Shakespeare´s "Henry V.".
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I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window there. Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?
- nakahara
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Re: Canon references
Sherlock dissuading the suicidal woman from taking her life (and she giving up her weapon of choice to him) appears in "The Veiled Lodger":
We had risen to go, but there was something in the woman's voice which arrested Holmes's attention. He turned swiftly upon her.
"Your life is not your own," he said. "Keep your hands off it."
"What use is it to anyone?"
"How can you tell? The example of patient suffering is in itself the most precious of all lessons to an impatient world."
.......
Two days later, when I called upon my friend, he pointed with some pride to a small blue bottle upon his mantelpiece. I picked it up. There was a red poison label. A pleasant almondy odour rose when I opened it.
"Prussic acid?" said I.
"Exactly. It came by post. 'I send you my temptation. I will follow your advice.' That was the message. I think, Watson, we can guess the name of the brave woman who sent it."
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I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window there. Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?
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Thread Starter- nakahara
- Threatened Knighthood
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- Posts: 11,979
Re: Canon references
The famous "east Wind" is of course mentioned at the end of "His last Bow".
Could this be a spoiler for the next episode?
There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.
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I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window there. Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?
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Thread Starter- nakahara
- Threatened Knighthood
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- Registered: February 22, 2014
- Posts: 11,979
Re: Canon references
The case of a "Killer Orangutan" Sherlock mentions to children in a hospital is of course a reference to his great literary precedessor Auguste Dupin and the famous "Murders at the Rue Morgue" penned by Edgar Allan Poe.
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I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window there. Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?
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Thread Starter