We here at Sherlocking are pleased to announce the first ever Sherlocking Fan Fiction Contest!

The fan base for Sherlock has grown by leaps and bounds, and will likely continue to grow, with the series’ transmission in Canadian, American, and other markets. We have been lucky enough to have received a great deal of fan traffic, and have found ourselves coming across a wide range of interesting Sherlock-themed art, comics, videos, and prose fiction. We’ve just today created a new Fan Creations subforum for this very topic, and now we’d like to go a step further and sponsor a short form fan fiction contest.

Please check out the page we’ve dedicated to the contest (also linked from every page on the blog via “The Contest” on the navigation bar). A few important notes about the contest: All stories must be less than 1000 words; all stories must be appropriate for a general audience (no explicit sexual content, please); and creative incorporation of elements from the Holmes Canon is encouraged. A crack team of four Sherlocking judges will whittle down the submissions to five top candidates, post them on the blog, and let all of you loyal Sherlocking readers be the judges on which is your favorite!

Oh, and as an added incentive, the winner of this contest will receive a shiny new Eschenbach Designo, the pocket magnifier used by Sherlock Holmes in the series (see above). This could come in quite handy if you ever need to identify that a someone was a serial adulterer, right?

Submissions are open from now and running until midnight, GMT on November 16, 2010 — again, check out the rules for more information. You have approximately two and a half months to think of a story set in the world of Sherlock and John, and craft a clever one thousand words full of adventure and intrigue (or whatever else you’d like). We’d love to have as many of you contribute as would like to, as well as read your thoughts on this venture in the comments.

The contest is on!

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Our most recent poll has now closed, with 373 votes on the topic of “What should we call the team of Steven Moffat & Mark Gatiss?” Now, as we knew when we created the poll, we gave short shrift to the excellent Sue Vertue, and regret that choice. As many have noted, she’s been an integral part of the production of the series, and in fact provided the initial impetus to get the ball rolling on the writing of the pilot. We apologize to Ms. Vertue for the omission of her name or parts of her name from this poll.

That said, “Moffiss” was the clear vote winner, even though I preferred and still prefer “Gatfat” for sheer ludicrous flair. But, as came out in the comment thread for the post announcing the poll, in terms of quality, the clear and obvious winner was “GaMoVer,” the best name to combine the first syllables of Gatiss, Moffat, and Vertue. This shocking revelation renders the entire poll invalid and we at Sherlocking declare by fiat that “GaMoVer” is the winner, due to cleverness (plus Liz and I enjoy video games).

And, while we’re at it, it dawned on us today that Sherlock the television series could benefit from being referred to in a standard way, as Sherlockians and Holmesians have done with the novels and stories in the Canon. These abbreviations are common, and have been used throughout Holmes fandom and scholarship — for example, the inestimably socially-networked Scott Monty, BSI, uses a Canonical quote and standard abbreviation for each of his posts on the excellent Baker Street Blog.

We suggest that fans of Sherlock literally adopt the format set by previous generations of the followers of Sherlock and John, and simply use the first four letters of an episode’s title as an abbreviation for each episode. Therefore:

“A Study In Pink” is abbreviated PINK
“The Blind Banker” is abbreviated BLIN
“The Great Game” is abbreviated GREA

… with perhaps “PILOT” or “PILO” in place of the pilot version of “A Study In Pink.” Update: Due to popular demand, I’ve switched the original “STUD” for “PINK” to avoid confusion with the Canonical abbreviation for A Study In Scarlet.

Yes, the capitalized, four-letter abbreviation seems archaic and odd, but definitely indicating that the episodes are about Sherlock Holmes, as it’s a literal continuation of the format used by Holmesians to refer to the original stories. This marks Sherlock as something that is tied to something bigger than just a television production schedule (so, the über-dull “s1e1,” etc. is out), as well as something more refined than just unpronouncable collections of consonants (“TBB” and “TGG” look particularly ugly, don’t they?)

Does this really matter? Probably not, but it’s fun to think about in the absence of new episodes. This is the convention that we’ll be using on this site from now on — we have already made note of this on the Episode Guide page — and we encourage you, dear readers/commenters/forumites to do the same!

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The North American DVD and Blu-Ray sets for the first season of Sherlock have been announced, according to blu-ray.com.

It appears that the DVD and Blu-Ray will both be released in North America on November 9th, two days after the airing of “The Great Game” on PBS Masterpiece Mystery! And, it also appears that the extras will be the same as the UK release.

Many are reporting that they have already received their Region 2 DVDs and Blu-Rays — what’s the verdict, Sherlocking readers?

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Hunt also confirmed the recommissions of Sherlock Holmes and Luther for BBC One. Following a highly successful launch with over 7.5m viewers watching the first episode in July 2010, Sherlock returns for three new 90-minute episodes in Autumn 2011, while Luther comes back with two, two-hour specials

Hunt says: “Sherlock was the hit of the Summer. Luther the most memorable new detective on the block. I am delighted they will both be returning to BBC One.”

Talking of the Sherlock recommission, co-creators, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, say: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the warmth of response to our new Sherlock Holmes and John Watson and can’t wait to take them on three new adventures next year. There’ll be baffling new puzzles, old friends and new enemies – whether on two, or four legs. And we might well be seeing the cold master of logic and reason unexpectedly falling. But in love? Or over a precipice? Who can tell?”

This is exciting news — however, “Sherlock Holmes”? And only three episodes? Well, we’ll take whatever we can get, and regardless of if the BBC knows the proper titles of its own commissioned series.

From the sounds of it, we might be getting an appearance by Irene Adler, the Reichenbach Falls, or both. And, a four-legged adversary can only mean The Hound, can’t it? Still, I would love to see a modern interpretation of “Silver Blaze.”

Who can tell? What do you think?

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So, what do we call them? Mark and Steven? Moffat and Gatiss? Oh, how boring. For a laugh, we’ve listed a few of the more common (and amusing) portmanteaus of their last names, as well as their first names. What do you, Sherlocking readers, prefer? If none of the four options we’ve listed strike your fancy, choose “Other” and let us know your idea in the comments to this post!

As per usual, the current poll is listed in the sidebar, and is available on every page. We’ll leave this one up a few weeks or until we come up with a better poll!

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A few days ago, the Los Angeles Times ran a sad, in-depth piece on the efforts to save Undershaw, Arthur Conan Doyle’s home during the writing of The Hound of the Baskervilles and the stories within The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Undershaw is currently very close to being radically renovated, much to the glee of developers who boast that they have “outwitted Sherlock Holmes.” There are, however, continued efforts to save Undershaw, focusing on John Gibson:

The campaign to rescue the house has drawn the support of a raft of authors, actors and descendants of the Conan Doyle family. Gibson, a retired surveyor, is also aided by his own Watson-like figure, a devout spiritualist (as was Conan Doyle) who says she saw the author and his family in a vision last year.

But the forces arrayed against them are a formidable lot whose ranks include, according to Gibson, a profit-driven developer, unsympathetic local officials and an incorrigible gang of cultural snobs. Since the local authority has already decided that the developer’s proposed overhaul is perfectly reasonable — and it is his property, after all — time is running out to foil the dastardly plans: The hammers start raining blows on Undershaw as early as next month.

Well, I won’t comment on the spiritualist “vision” of Doyle here, but suffice it to say that we at Sherlocking are very sympathetic to Mr. Gibson’s efforts and find this story to be quite a sad tale. There have been efforts to put the house on the list of protected historical buildings, but those with the power to save Doyle’s home are frustratingly disinclined to do so:

“He cannot be said to be an author of the standing of, for example, Charles Dickens or Jane Austen,” the report said.

Yeah, sorry, but many of us would beg to differ. In a year in which Doyle’s creations have spurred on popular new adaptations such as the Guy Ritchie film, the West End play, and, oh yes, Sherlock, it seems extraordinarily poor timing at best, downright cruel at worst.

Please tweet this post up, reblog it, whatever you have to do — Doyle and his works matter, and this building is an important piece of history that looks to be very close to being lost. Visit the Help to Save Undershaw blog for current news on the fight to save Undershaw, or The Undershaw Preservation Trust for more information on this historic building.

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Again, a great deal of love for “The Great Game,” with around 80% indicating that they thought it was amazing, and over 97% of the voters having a favorable impression of the episode. There were a few more “haters” this time, with more votes for “Horrible” than in any other poll we’ve run for any other episode of the series, but those few were still clearly overshadowed by the hundreds who enjoyed it.

As you can tell, my vote was (just after airing) right down the middle — it was a very good episode up until the last five minutes, in my opinion. Subsequent viewings have both taken the edge off of my disappointment in the big reveal, as well as helped me to realize more depth in Gatiss’s script than I’d initially realized (thanks also to Matt for his excellent insights, which have helped raise my impression of the episode). If I were voting today, I’d probably vote “Quite good”; pre-order the DVDs or Blu-Rays and give it another view, haterz!

Now that the episodes have ended for the time being, we’ll be using the polls a bit more frivolously and will reveal the first of our next series of polls within a few days.

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Recently, the Kaleidoscopic Fest announced its program for the adaptations festival, to be held on September 9-11 in Wrexham. Of special note for Sherlock fans is an event featuring producers Steven Moffat and Sue Vertue, entitled BAFTA Cymru Presents: Sherlock The Story of a Modern Day Adaptation. Their appearance will be September 9th at 8pm. Tickets are £4.50 and can be purchased by following this link, by telephone (01978-293293), and in person from Glyndwr University.

The Twitter account for the festival appears to be soliciting questions for the session:

… so, if you’re looking for a reason to join Twitter, here’s another! I’m assuming they’d like it if you tweeted @Kaleidoscopfest for your questions.

One more notable item about the festival for Sherlock Holmes fans — there will also be a session entitled Sherlock Holmes – the Graphic Novels, featuring Ian Edginton and I. N. J. Culbard, creators of such Doyle adaptations as A Study In Scarlet, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and The Sign of the Four.

Looks like a great festival, and we’ll hopefully be able to post a report sometime in early September!

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Much has been written about the style of Sherlock, and its updating for a twenty-first century TV audience. I want to focus on something slightly different: the way the series engages with questions of knowledge. There is a major shift from the Canon’s initial view of detection – exemplified by John Watson’s humorous summary of Holmes’s areas of expertise in ‘A Study in Scarlet’ – to depictions of know-how in Sherlock. This can be glossed as follows: Conan Doyle depicts a world in which Holmes knows what he needs to know. By contrast – and it announces this most strenuously in ‘The Great Game’ – Sherlock challenges any omniscient hierarchy of ‘useful’ and ‘useless’ knowledge. Always a matter of context, no form of knowledge can ever be consigned to the waste bin (or the Trash icon of Holmes’s mind-as-computer). Trivia saves lives; gossip can be as valuable as a professorship, and indeed both modes of knowing – the untutored and the schooled – are instrumental to cracking the mystery of the Lost Vermeer. And so, too, is networked knowledge, as Sherlock scrolls through menu options on his smartphone, or goes online to learn from Connie Prince’s fandom: “fan sites. Indispensable for gossip.”

‘The Great Game’ is, in fact, structured around a very specific rewriting of ‘A Study in Scarlet’. Whilst it is fair to say that Gatiss’s script draws on a range of texts from the Canon, unlike Moffat’s more singular reworking, this third TV episode is nevertheless premised on critiquing ‘Scarlet’. Its running gag, that Sherlock doesn’t realise the Earth goes round the Sun, is meant to refer to events from ‘A Study in Pink’, though it actually cites ‘Scarlet’, where Holmes announces of the Copernican Theory: “What the deuce is it to me?… if we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or my work.” Holmes even tells Watson, “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it”, in order not to clutter the attic of his mind with pointless “lumber.” Conan Doyle has John list Holmes’s knowledge of Literature, Philosophy and Astronomy as “nil,” whilst the detective displays an “immense” knowledge of Sensational Literature. This enumeration of Sherlock’s limits is playful, perhaps aimed at eliciting a wry smile from the reader, but it is nonetheless set out as a Holmesian approach to knowledge.

‘The Great Game’ doesn’t just joke about Holmes’s limits. It goes a step further and exposes them, making astronomy crucial to solving its key mystery and buying Sherlock a poolside meeting with Jim. Luckily, the “Van Buren” phenomenon is mentioned during the Planetarium presentation, enabling Holmes to make the link via empirical observation of detail and an exercise in memory. Freeman’s Watson drives the point home, though, for us and for him – Holmes can’t know in advance what will be relevant to his detective work. A world of fixed value, of ‘useful’ furniture of the mind versus ‘lumber,’ no longer holds up in the media culture of the twenty-first century. Holmes even has to be introduced “to crap telly” when daytime TV forms a part of the investigation. No forms of know-how are off-limits, or to be ultimately derided as valueless. Important forms of knowledge are all around, embedded in academia, astronomy, trashy TV… and fandom.

Literary theorist Franco Moretti has observed of the Canon that:

All Holmes’s investigations are accompanied and supported by the new and perfect mechanisms of transportation and communication. Carriages, trains, letters, telegrams, in Conan Doyle’s world, are all crucial and always live up to expectations. They are the tacit and indispensable support of the arrest. Society expands and becomes more complicated: but it creates a framework of control, a network of relationships, that holds it more firmly together than ever before (from the essay ‘Clues’, in Signs Taken for Wonders, 1988:143).

And communications are ever more “indispensable” to Sherlock‘s ratiocinations in 2010, whether these are the texts of fan postings, or searchable weather data. The “network of relationships” engaged with by Sherlock is a wiki world, one where required expertise can be called up at the tap of a touch-screen. Embodied knowledge remains in the mix, to be sure, this time in the shape of the ‘Homeless Network’ invested in by Holmes, but media are repeatedly central – a recording in the Planetarium, a news piece on the Vermeer glimpsed by Watson prior to the main story of Baker Street’s explosion, or a moment drawn from Connie’s TV show.

In ‘The Great Game,’ media texts are always meaningful: every bit of apparent background is actually the plot’s foreground. Gatiss may be following a screenwriters’ rule of narrative non-redundancy, but the impression that’s fostered is one of a media culture permeated with clues and vital knowledge. As such, Sherlock exaggerates and intensifies the Canon’s logic where, as Moretti notes, communications and technology always deliver the goods. Through this intensification, the Gatfat series ultimately becomes a critique of Conan Doyle’s “radiant empiricism,” that world of detail awaiting Holmes’s expert decoding (Michael Atkinson, The Secret Marriage of Sherlock Holmes and Other Eccentric Readings, 1998:109). Because in a world where all forms of knowledge can be archived and accessed via cloud computing, Conan Doyle’s provocative hierarchies of knowledge melt into air. This Holmes doesn’t need to know in advance what he needs to know, because he’s networked – he can consult digitally at the scene of the crime.

Cumberbatch’s Holmes requires access to all forms of knowledge, all of the time, since anything and everything might furnish the contemporary detective’s revelation. Even Copernicus. In today’s narratives, Holmes really would be lost without his blogger… and without those “indispensable” fan sites.

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For now, though, we’ll be promoting up the links to Amazon’s pages to pre-order both the DVD and Blu-Ray for series one of our favorite detection- and Belstaff-filled series of the summer. If you haven’t pre-ordered, there’s still time left — both are scheduled to be released on August 30. So, move your eyeballs over a little bit to the right and check out those links right now!

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