Thursday, September 27, 2012

Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville


I mentioned earlier that I had only read one of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books, and it just so happens that I read the Hounds of the Baskerville. I think it was also one of the first adaptations I saw with Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. I think that Rathbone may have been part of the reason that I didn't read anymore of the books - I enjoyed Rathbone far more as the famed detective than I did reading that book.
A couple of years later, I saw the story again, but this time adapted to be an episode of Doctor Who with Doctor number four, Tom Baker. There was lots of running around at night and maybe in the fog. It was all very dramatic, or should I say overly-dramatic, but it was a jolly good romp.
This take on the story has Baskerville as a top secret military base with Hound turning out to be an acronym and the cause of the mystery a gas used to render enemy soldiers immobile with fear. Though in the case of Holmes and Watson that doesn't mean the same thing as with other folk.
The leitmotif throughout the episode, and  actually brought up at least twice in the first episode, is that Holmes and Watson are gay and in a relationship. This seems to bother Watson a lot more than Holmes. We'll see what they do with this in the next episode when they bring back Moriarty (which I know they will based on the last scene of this episode).

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