BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » Find the original & post other nods to the canon (merged topic)

kazza474 · March 25, 2012 3:31 am

A problem without a solution may interest the student, but can hardly fail to annoy the casual reader. Among these unfinished tales is that of Mr. James Phillimore, who, stepping back into his own house to get his umbrella, was never more seen in this world.

This came from "The Problem of Thor Bridge", right at the start. It's one of his unsolved mysteries.

In BBC Sherlock, we see a young guy going back for his umbrella in 'The Great Game'.

Sherlock Holmes · March 25, 2012 9:27 am

Wasn't that in Study in Pink when the two lads are walking in the rain and one of them says he's going back for a brolly?

kazza474 · March 25, 2012 9:39 am

*DOH!*
Some days I get so confused, lol!
Yes I stand corrected.

Wholocked · March 27, 2012 8:22 am

Just found one (because I'm reading the stories now). I can't remember which episode has Sherlock arrive back at the flat with a harpoon and covered with blood but in the canon it's in The Adventure of Black Peter:

He had gone out before breakfast, and I had sat down to mine when he strode into the room, his hat upon his head and a huge barbed-headed spear tucked like an umbrella under his arm.

Then there's some dialogue...

"If you could have looked into Allerdyce's back shop, you would have seen a dead pig swung from a hook in the ceilling, and a gentleman in his shirt sleeves furiously stabbing at it with this weapon. I was that energetic person, and I have satisfied myself that by no exertion of my strength can I transfix the pig with a single blow."

kazza474 · March 27, 2012 8:33 am

Excellent work! Glad you are reading the originals now!
That was at the start of HOUND on the TV show.

Wholocked · March 27, 2012 8:39 am

Yeah I started reading them just after I'd finished watching Sherlock. Always intended to, never got around to it. I've found others but I happened to be at a computer when I came across that one.

I do think we could have an ACD drinking game of every time he makes some comment along the lines of "even though this doesn't demonstrate my friend's talents, it's an interesting story nonetheless" lol

DrSherlock · April 19, 2012 1:53 am

Although I very much enjoy the new Sherlock series, the one character I think I prefer from the original stories is Irene Adler. The American Adventuress (I think Americans are kind of fascinating), she is a mental equal to Sherlock Holmes, but she is so polite about it. And then she goes off with her husband whom she is totally in love with, and she doesn't bother the King, and even promises not to expose him to the public. Now that's classy! I've always admired her character for that. I can see why Sherlock Holmes calls her THE woman.
I've really enjoyed posting on this fan site, but I think I may be taking a Hiatus. You never know, I may return, it's been Great.

Davina · April 19, 2012 6:45 am

I really enjoyed Scandal in Belgravia but I actually agree with you on this, Scandal in Bohemia and the character of Irene in it is really unusual compared with the women generally found in the ACD originals. She is much more proactive, whereas a majority of the others are very passive.

tobeornot221b · April 22, 2012 5:01 pm

Lestrade: "Peter Ricoletti, number one on Interpol's Most Wanted list since 1982. But we got him and there’s one person we have to thank for giving us the decisive leads ... with all his customary diplomacy and tact…"

"Ricoletti of the club foot and his abominable wife" are mentioned in "The Musgrave Ritual".
I find it quite clever to name a criminal after Doyle's Ricoletti in Reichenbach of all episodes, because Spanish "rico" in German is "reich".

thegameison · May 22, 2012 12:40 pm

apparently, a Rabbi took a Sherlock short story and replaced the main character with the legendary character the Maharal who was allegedly responsible for the creation of the Golem

Smoggy_London_Air · May 25, 2012 2:48 pm

1. Sherlock shooting the wall in The Great Game is also a nod to a story (The Gloria Scott? I have the canon sitting about ten feet from me and I'm too lazy to go get it) where Watson gripes about Sherlock's odd habits around the flat, including where he shoots "V.R." into the wall.

2. Also in The Gloria Scott, Watson mentions that Sherlock keeps his tobacco in a Persian slipper. When he's searching for his "secret supply" in The Hounds of Baskerville he briefly searches in a slipper.

3. The Diogenes Club from The Reichenbach Fall is also featured in The Greek Interpreter.

4. The taxicab driver being the murderer in Pink is a feature from a Study In Scarlet . (Sorry, someone already said this, I'll read more carefully next time.) Also the murderer having an aneursym, although in Scarlet it is aortal instead of in the brain.

5. The victim's name is Henry in The Hounds of Baskerville, just like it is in The Hound of the Baskervilles although his last name is changed.

I think I'd better limit myself or else I'd be here all day. XD

Last edited by Smoggy_London_Air (May 27, 2012 3:21 am)

Smoggy_London_Air · May 27, 2012 3:26 am

6. Almost the entire Buckingham Palace consultation is a reference to The Illustrious Client, from Sherlock's sheet (he had been taking a Turkish bath when he told Watson about the case) to Sherlock refuses to take the case on the basis that there was mystery at both ends.

7. Sherlock's use of the riding crop is a reference to what I think is The Speckled Band, where Watson mentions Sherlock's favorite weapon: a "loaded hunting crop".

8. The "243 types of tobacco ash" that Sherlock can identify in Scandal is a reference to a monograph that canon Holmes wrote on the subject, mentioned in Study.

9. "Mrs. Turner next-door has got married ones," is a gibe at Conan Doyle's apparent amnesia in A Scandal In Bohemia. For some reason their landlady has mysteriously morphed into a "Mrs. Turner".

kazza474 · May 27, 2012 9:57 am

Smoggy_London_Air wrote:
5. The victim's name is Henry in The Hounds of Baskerville, just like it is in The Hound of the Baskervilles although his last name is changed.

Yes in fact the original character was Sir Henry Baskerville; in the BBC version he is Henry Knight.

They used the " Sir " & decided a Knight was usually 'Sir something' and that is how they chose the surname of Knight.

Smoggy_London_Air · May 28, 2012 1:36 am

@kazza474 I didn't even think about that, but it does make sense!

kazza474 · May 28, 2012 3:54 am

I can't think of others at the moment but there are ones similar to that where the 'difference' isn't all that different when you work out 'how did they interpret it like that?'

Tantalus · May 29, 2012 7:28 pm

Benedict's reference to "a three-patch problem" in ASiP is from "The Red-Headed League". When Watson asks what Holmes is going to do about Jabez Wilson's case, Holmes replies, "To smoke....It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes."

sherlockskitty · May 29, 2012 7:48 pm

In BBC's The Great Game, John is writing upon his laptop about the Geek Interpreter (about the comic book guys) The one reference to the Title is, ACD actually wrote a SH story called THE GREEK INTERPRETER.

Tantalus · May 29, 2012 8:16 pm

"Three patch problem" from ASiP is a play on "three pipe problem" in Red-Headed League.

rob k · June 5, 2012 7:05 pm

Tantalus wrote:
"Three patch problem" from ASiP is a play on "three pipe problem" in Red-Headed League.

Also from The Man with the Twisted Lip.

Sherlock reference.

Dr. John Watson: What are you doing?
Sherlock Holmes: Nicotine patch. Helps me think. It's impossible to sustain a smoking habit in London these days.
Dr. John Watson: That's good news for breathing.
Sherlock Holmes: Ah, breathing. Breathing's boring.
Dr. John Watson: Is that three patches?
Sherlock Holmes: It's a three-patch problem.

And from The Man with the Twisted Lip

He took off his coat and waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered about the room collecting pillows from his bed, and cusions from the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an old brier pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set aquiline features.

“I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your results.�
“I reached this one,� said my friend, “by sitting upon five pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast.�
—
Kudos to kazza474 for bring up this topic!

Last edited by rob k (June 5, 2012 7:08 pm)

Sherli Bakerst · June 12, 2012 2:32 am

Do these count:

In The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, which I just finished reading, there is mention of a prison called "Pentonville;" the thief is relating to Holmes how he stole the item and mentions a friend who was incarcerated there. And in Hound of the Baskervilles, there was a prisoner who escaped from Pentonville Prison, if I remember correctly. Pentonville, as we all know, is the prison that Moriarty unlocked in [b]The Reichenbach Fall/b].