I think Moffat is at least as essential to the show as Cumberbatch and Freeman. Like many of you, I've been watching Doctor Who as well. I can typically tell within the first five minutes of an episode if it's a Moffat episode, or if the episode has a different primary writer (this is changing as I've made it to the 11th Doctor, with Moffat now being head writer and executive producer, but the Davies days, I could tell). Moffat's writing style sucks me in and keeps me glued to the TV like few other things do.

The chemistry between Cumberbatch and Freeman is critical to the show, true, as it the quality and care of all of those who contribute. But looking at either, "They never had X person," or "They've lost X person to other projects," without Moffat, I wouldn't have cared about Sherlock.

I would not watch this series anymore if the main actors were replaced.
But if there had been different actors from the very beginning - good actors - then of course I would have still watched.

Last edited by Mary Me (February 22, 2013 11:00 am)

I am English and had never heard of Benedict before Sherlock.
Benedict is playing John Harrison in Star Trek.
I think Benedict is the best Sherlock ever, but I would give somebody else a fair viewing.

When I started watching Sherlock I had never heard of Benedict Cumberbatch, nor did I know who Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat were. (I had never heard of Doctor Who either).
The only person in this series that I already knew was Martin Freeman because he was in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
There are many absolutely brilliant elements in this show, like the witty dialogs, the breathtaking cinematography, every single one of the actors. I think this show would have still been good even if they had chosen another actor to play Sherlock Holmes - but it would have been different and I am not sure if another actor would have been able to present this wonderful chemistry that we see between Benedict and Martin. It was stated that it was clear right from the beginning that they wanted Benedict to be Sherlock. He was just perfect for the role, you could say that this role was escpecially written for him, so I don't know if another actor would have been just as good.

So I would still have watched it but the question is if I would have loved it in the same way that I do now.

Switching actors now would kill the show. I am very glad that TPTB chose the actors they did. Before this show I had never heard of Benedict Cumberbatch. I have now seen him in another BBC TV movie and was stunned by how powerful the preformance was. 

besleybean wrote:

TPTB?
The actors were chosen chiefly by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, tho I know at least Beryl Vertue was also on the panel and so maybe Sue Vertue, too.

I always use the term TPTB because I am not privy to who makes the decisions about any of the shows I watch. TPTB may very well just be those two guys or them and Sue Vertue, but since I don't really know I use that term to cover all possibilities. 
 

I generally just refer to them as Moftiss, although by that, I also mean Sue and Beryl and anyone else. XD

Anyway, the Jeremy Brett series changed Watsons (David Burke, Edward Hardwick), and for me the series worked just as well, probably because Brett was such a force of nature as Holmes. He seemed to have a good on screen rappor with both Watsons, but I honestly don't know whether the same thing would work on BBC Sherlock.

Martin and Benedict are so much associated with those two characters now and they have such an amazing chemistry on screen that it would seem utterly weird to see them attempt to do it with someone else and just pretend that nothing had changed and nothing strange was going on.

I really don't think they'd do anything like that though. Moffat & Co aren't in this for the money or the fame. They're in it because they're Sherlock Holmes fanboys and want to make a great show. They're intelligent enough to realise that changing actors would jeopardise the greatness of the show and I think they'd rather end the series than do that, should one or both of the actors decide that they didn't want to do it anymore.

Hopefully, this will never happen!

Well, I didn't know Benedict before this. I just started watching because I was bored and I wanted to give it a try. So what I didn't know wouldn't hurt me. However, if the lead actor was not a good one or was simply not suitable for the role, then I probably wouldn't have continued watching after the first episode. Bottom line, I have no idea. 

I started watching this show out of curiosity and boredom. I was never a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. What drew me in were the preformances. I said in an earlier post that I would trust TPTB to cast the corect actors. I think I missed the point of the question. If this show were to be done with different actors - I doubt I would tune in. It was the chemistry between the two characters and the way those characters were brought to life by the actors that made me a fan.

My 7 year old put it perfectly. He and I started to watch one of the older versions. The lead actor was Jeramy something. After about twenty minutes Adam got up and said, "This doesn't hold my interest like the good one does." and he left to go find somethign else to do. What can I say other than out of the mouths of babes. I couldn't agree more with him.

Davina wrote:

Jeremy Brett not really comparing like-with-like here. Sherlock is a complete re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes in the modern world. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy in the lead role is a near perfect portrayal of the original stories.

I'm sure that is true. That is one of the reasons the show recommendation remained untouched in my Netflix queue for so long. I never really had much interest in the Victorian era detective. I appreciated his intellect, but to me the stories seemed dry and old.
This new rendition of Sherlock is exactly what was needed to bring Sherlock Holmes to the next generation. My son loves BBC's Sherlock. He loves the character, the insanely fast manner in which he speaks, and he loves how this guy can just look at something or someone and just know all sorts of cool stuff about them/it.

Moffit and Gattis (?sp) were genius' to update this character for the younger audience. It is bringing this well loved character to the next generation of literary lovers. When he gets a little older and can grasp the older verbiage he may very well want to read Doyle's books.