Oh, I think he has been on the front lines.  Yes, he'd have had to do separate GP training, and that what recently changed my mind over the setup - I was worrying far too much about the hows and whys and whens.   Either you have to believe in a John who chose GP training when it clearly wasn't for him, or a John perhaps harbouring resentment because he was forced down that path (and then changed course, and then went back to it) - that Moftiss were making a character point, complete with this backstory, by making John a GP.   I was worrying far too much about that backstory!  

I think that actually, most people don't know the training routes for doctors/army doctors, don't know about officer ranks, etc. and would not pick up on that backstory (and did not question why he was able to work as a GP).   And there's nothing in the series which clearly shows it - John doesn't go into any detail.  (And, of course, John's work is very odd and not realistic - I took that to be symbolic of how he was feeling at the time, but I think it also shows that they weren't aiming for complete realism.  His CV is a bit odd too, and I believe the exhibition at the Sherlocked convention wasn't terribly enlightening).  So personally, I don't think we're meant to infer a particular clear history and I don't think the times of John doing GP training, joining the army, etc., are canon.  We're meant to know he was a doctor in the army, he was on the front lines, and he's now a GP - of course we're going to fill in the gaps and see how that worked out, but I don't think any longer that it's important for an understanding of the character.   

Maybe there will be more detail on John's background later - I'd kind of like that.   At the moment, I do think the main reasoning for showing John as he is (army doctor, front lines, GP) is because of Watson, and everything else just has to fit around that (including Sholto!).   It feels to me that we need those key points and the rest is free for us to create head canon about - I just feel now that I'm not sure I should let the head canon influence the character, if you know what I mean.  Not that I don't think we should speculate - of course we will, and I really like reading about people's theories.  But I don't think the point (of making him a GP and an army doctor and in the front line) is to show John's problems with career routes and choices - I honestly think that's irrelevant at the moment (but could be expanded on later!).

Last edited by Liberty (May 23, 2016 9:50 am)