BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / The Pilot

**Posted by Chrissi** July 25, 2012 10:26 pm

Oh I totally agree with you about the Music! Proper background music can totally change the atmosphere oh a scene.

**Posted by saturnR** September 15, 2012 12:45 am

Finally got around to watching the Pilot. I stayed away from it until the memory of the first episode was not so fresh in my mind & wouldn't influence my judgement of it too much.

It's really good. In many ways it's actually better than Study in Pink, I think mainly because of the shorter time frame - the plot was much sharper. Even with the original stories, they worked best as short stories - not as full length novels. & Doyles best works have come out of the short stories. Six 1 hour episodes would have been interesting to watch because the stories would cover a longer period of time & you would be able to see much more subtle character development across several episodes.

Last edited by saturnR (September 15, 2012 12:47 am)

**Posted by Caroll** September 15, 2012 11:34 pm

I'm saving money to buy the DVD's. They're something I want to (need to) have and keep. And I watching extras, I can't do that on youtube because I need subtitle. I've seen when Sherlock is drunk from the pilot on Youtube, the "brigde" between the dinner scene and the end, it seemed ro run, as if it had to be longer, but I can't tell much.

**Posted by NW16XE** September 16, 2012 2:13 am

I read through this thread last night, which is why this morning I fidgeted and twitched around the house like Sherlock with no case and no ciggies until Barnes & Noble opened.
I liked the pilot, but ASiP is an improvement. I noticed the camerawork is much closer in many of the scenes: for instance, when they do the riding crop in the mortuary bit they put the camera more on Sherlock's face in ASiP rather than the wide shot used in the pilot, and it works much better to focus on the characters rather than what they are doing. I did like the line, 'there's a dead serial killer on the first floor: good for England, bad for your carpet'. Shame that had to go.

**Posted by veecee** September 16, 2012 3:46 am

In Pink, I did miss the Sherlock playing drunk bit. I also liked in the pilot where he says he'll be alright for a while without eating -- a very definite nod to the canon. Finally, I kind of liked his hair. Other than that, Pink has it all over the pilot, in my opinion. (That line you mention wasn't bad, though.)

**Posted by NW16XE** September 16, 2012 11:25 am

veecee wrote:
In Pink, I did miss the Sherlock playing drunk bit.

Yes, both funny and another nod at the canon; in 'Scarlet', Jeff Hope pretends to be a random drunk outside Lauriston Gardens when the police show up.

Last edited by NW16XE (September 16, 2012 11:42 am)

**Posted by Davina** September 16, 2012 11:32 am

He does indeed. Just one (pernickety) point. Canon refers to the works of ACD, cannon is what you shoot balls with (cheap, childish laugh).

**Posted by NW16XE** September 16, 2012 11:43 am

Davina wrote:
He does indeed. Just one (pernickety) point. Canon refers to the works of ACD, cannon is what you shoot balls with (cheap, childish laugh).

Oops! Duly noted and edited. Thank you, I loathe spelling errors, it's why nearly all of my posts are edited.

**Posted by ancientsgate** September 16, 2012 12:56 pm

NW16XE wrote:
Davina wrote:
He does indeed. Just one (pernickety) point. Canon refers to the works of ACD, cannon is what you shoot balls with (cheap, childish laugh).

Oops! Duly noted and edited. Thank you, I loathe spelling errors, it's why nearly all of my posts are edited.

Stupid English and all its homonyms. It's a wonder any of us can spell anything.

Canon/cannon is not something that a spellchecker will pick out either. Spellchecker is no help for rooting out such a mistake.

My pet peeve is lose/loose, which I see used incorrectly all the time, everywhere. Those two words don't even sound the same, but almost never are spelled right.

**Posted by Davina** September 16, 2012 1:19 pm

The loose/ lose thing is , I think, because people confuse the long O sound and think it must belong to the work that it looks like it should belong to I.e. loose. English is such a peculiar language when it comes to spelling.

**Posted by NW16XE** September 16, 2012 2:13 pm

ancientsgate wrote:
Canon/cannon is not something that a spellchecker will pick out either. Spellchecker is no help for rooting out such a mistake.

I always disable spellcheck on my devices, it annoys me. At least this way my mistakes are my own.
The 'Sherlock vs. Autocorrect' fanfic? Hilarious and true.

**Posted by ancientsgate** September 16, 2012 7:07 pm

NW16XE wrote:
ancientsgate wrote:
Canon/cannon is not something that a spellchecker will pick out either. Spellchecker is no help for rooting out such a mistake.
I always disable spellcheck on my devices, it annoys me. At least this way my mistakes are my own.
The 'Sherlock vs. Autocorrect' fanfic? Hilarious and true.

I depend greatly on spellchecker. It's so quick to right click on a word and choose the real spelling, whenever I see those wavy red underlines. Love my spellchecker. OTOH, I don't depend on it-- I can spell just fine, most of the time. But it's quicker to let spellchecker fix it when I know I've stuck in extra letters or left something out. Autocorrect is a whole different issue, and IMO that's for the birds.

**Posted by Carol the Dabbler** September 18, 2012 2:09 am

saturnR wrote:
Finally got around to watching the Pilot. ... In many ways it's actually better than Study in Pink....

One bit where I definitely prefer the pilot is Sherlock's "Who do we trust?" monologue, which leads (in true Sherlockian fashion) directly to a deduction in the pilot -- but in SiP he "hasn't the faintest idea." What a letdown!

Caroll wrote:
I'm saving money to buy the DVD's. ... And I watching extras, I can't do that on youtube because I need subtitle....

Unfortunately, not all of the DVD extras have subtitles. I'm not sure about the "making of" featurettes, but the commentaries definitely do not (and boy, do I wish they did -- a bunch of people all talking at once -- in British!) Fortunately, a fan who goes by the name of Ariene DeVere has transcribed and/or extensively quoted the great majority of DVD items -- here's her index page.

ancientsgate wrote:
My pet peeve is lose/loose, which I see used incorrectly all the time, everywhere. Those two words don't even sound the same, but almost never are spelled right.

My current "favorite" is "free reign" as a substitute for "free rein." I suspect there are two reasons -- one, "reign" kind of makes sense -- and two, not many people these days have ever laid the reins loosely across old Dobbin's neck and trusted him to head for home.

Last edited by Carol the Dabbler (November 8, 2012 11:36 pm)

**Posted by Wholocked** September 18, 2012 4:32 am

I think we need a spelling Pet Peeve thread! Gonna go make one....

**Posted by harleyq** November 3, 2012 2:39 am

saturnR wrote:
Finally got around to watching the Pilot. I stayed away from it until the memory of the first episode was not so fresh in my mind & wouldn't influence my judgement of it too much.

It's really good. In many ways it's actually better than Study in Pink, I think mainly because of the shorter time frame - the plot was much sharper. Even with the original stories, they worked best as short stories - not as full length novels. & Doyles best works have come out of the short stories. Six 1 hour episodes would have been interesting to watch because the stories would cover a longer period of time & you would be able to see much more subtle character development across several episodes.

I held off on watching the Pilot for a long while too. I think I may have even started it at one point, but it just immediately felt wrong, so I turned it off. I went back to it later and now I've come to love it. It has a different tone and feel to it, which took a couple of viewings to get accustomed to, but once I did, I really loved it. I can appreciate it for what it is and the 90 minute version for all the things it added to it. There a little things I would like to have seen transferred over to the 90 minute, but I would have loved the show either way. I do agree too that a shorter episode might have given us some more character development over a slightly longer period of time, which would have been nice. As great as the three are, it just seems like sometimes it's trying for too much in too short a time.

**Posted by Ronny Dax** November 8, 2012 5:03 pm

@harleyq:
I totally agree! I would have loved these episodes, too. But, yes, it's also almost perfect as it is now. But what about a compromise? How about 6 90-minutes episodes per season? ;)

**Posted by harleyq** November 8, 2012 7:30 pm

Now, that's a compromise I could happily live with!

**Posted by besleybean** November 8, 2012 7:38 pm

Sadly I don't think anybody would sign up to that.

**Posted by Carol the Dabbler** November 8, 2012 11:30 pm

Including Moftiss!

**Posted by besleybean** November 9, 2012 6:57 am

I believe none of the main actors/writers would.