besleybean wrote:

Well, it is as it is...we can't change the episodes we have.
I will take any new episodes...

Yes, and it would be really awesome if those episodes contained some back story on John. 

I would be happy with that, just not convinced we'll get it.

Well, that's easy enough for Moffat and Gatiss to do, if they'll only decide to do it; I've sent an email to Hartswood West, with a request for those two producers.  All they have to do is create a plot in which John's own past comes back to haunt him.  Perhaps someone he previously knew either as a child or as a doctor/soldier (or both) is plotting to kill him; as a result, just as Sherlock has done on 2 episodes, he ends up in the hospital fighting for his life.  (Having a strong moral principle can cause one to have enemies, as we all know.)  Sherlock can't be the only one with demons underneath the road he walks; it's a good bet that John does, too.  And in the process, ghosts from his own boyhood and army years could rise to torment him, so that he has to deal with them even as he and Sherlock are seeking to get this would-be killer before he succeeds in murdering John.  If it's going to be many years before they can ever produce a 5th season, they could produce this scenario as a one-shot, as they did with TAB; it would be much easier for everybody connected with the show to get back together for a one-shot episode than it would be for a whole season.  (Hopefully, John'll appear in that episode without a beard or mustache! =))
 

Last edited by kgreen20 (June 8, 2017 11:08 pm)

I trust the talents of both Mark and Steven to give us whatever they choose and I am fairly certain they don't need help from others.
Other people are always free to make their own shows, of course and again: that is why we have fan art/fics/vids.

Oh, I would love more backstory on John! If there ever is a S5, it would be awesome if we had some of that. As Liberty mentioned, rolled up into a case for Sherlock and John.

I've been pondering this and thinking that although they are very much a duo, Sherlock is still the central character, and everything relates back to him.   For instance, although Mary was John's wife, her story affected him personally, partly through John and partly through his own relationship with her (and how much he cared for her and his vow to her).  Obviously losing Mary was John's story, but it was also very much a story of Sherlock's loss (of Mary and John) and reconciliation too.   In contrast, for instance, Sherlock's relationship with Irene was key to ASIB, but John didn't really have much relationship with her at all.   The same with Moriarty, to some extent.  Eurus, obviously.    Even characters like Jeff Hope and Culverton Smith, I suppose - they have a particular relationship with Sherlock and not so much a relationship with John.

Sorry, this is kind of OT, but the whole "how much backstory do we want" idea got me thinking about it, and I suppose I hadn't noticed before how much the show is Sherlock-centric.  Of course, it's called "Sherlock", and Sherlock is the detective!   But I hadn't really noticed in terms of relationships - the relationships of the clients and the villains to Sherlock are important, but their relationship to John is secondary.   Even (to get back OT) with Mary whose major relationship by far is with John, the writers created a relationship between her and Sherlock, with him going as far as vowing to protect her (when they could have still have had a "Mary" case without that relationship).