Outside the Conventions and Humdrum Routine of Everyday Life
Being a Slight Monograph on Sherlock Holmes and the Doctor
Ingrained into the cultural consciousness of Britain are five fictional characters: King Arthur, Robin, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond and The Doctor. These are characters that have withstood not only the tests of time, but the impact of multiple and desperate being buffeted upon them. On the eve of Sherlock Holmes being brought back by Steve Moffat and Mark Gatiss, it is time to examine the Holmesian connection with Doctor Who.
There are many casting crossovers between Doctor Who and various Holmes productions. The most famous example of this is Tom Baker who has played both Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty in the play The Mask of Moriarty and played Holmes in Barry Letts’ production of “Hound of the Baskervilles”. Joining him in that production was Caroline John (Liz Shaw) playing Laura Lyons; she also played Mrs. Carnac in the Jeremy Brett-led “The Dying Detective”. Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan) has a bit part as Inspector Fereday in Brett’s version of “The Musgrave Ritual”. Two-time non-canonical Doctor Richard E. Grant played Mycroft Holmes and Stapleton in two separate Holmes films released in 2002. His Withnail and I costar Paul McGann played Arthur Wright in FairyTale: A True Story, a movie about Arthur Conan Doyle’s investigation of the Cottingley Fairies. And everyone’s third favorite Sherlock Holmes, Peter Cushing played the Doctor in the 60’s Dalek movies and Doyle himself in The Great Houdini.
While his influence is felt most strongly upon Jon Pertwee’s tenure as the Doctor, Holmes was in the show’s hopper from the beginning. Consider the false modesty of Holmes and the first Doctor. While both are very aware of their abilities, they will pass along credit or deny involvement in matters if they think it beneath them. They swing wildly from irritable complaining to wry humour in an instant. This should come as no surprise; after all, Sydney Newman did create Adam Adamant Lives!. Newman may not have read the classics, but he did know populist drama better than anyone.
It has often been said, by Barry Letts among others, that the master is Moriarty to the Doctor’s Holmes and while this cannot be disputed, it misses the larger picture. The whole of the UNIT era is an extended pastiche of Sherlock Holmes, with a fair amount of the aforementioned Mister Bond thrown in for good measure. Think about it: the hero is more than content to sit in his laboratory and perform his experiments in peace. He is accompanied by his companion who, although a fully capable person in their own right, is often reduced to asking superfluous questions. The hero is coaxed out of his rooms by a gruff official who drops tantalizing clues to an inexplicable occurrence. The hero and the official are frequently at odds, but have a deep respect for one another. Now where have we seen this before? Turning Sgt. Benton into Mrs. Hudson is however, tea making skills aside, a supposition too far.
And how can we forget “The Talons of Weng Chiang”? We are beaten over the head with the Holmesian imagery by, erm, Robert Holmes but it worth pointing out that the episode isn’t really a Doyle pastiche. At its heart “Talons” is a Yellow Peril story1. Most of the Sherlock Holmes stories that people are familiar with were written before the true rise of the Yellow Peril in fiction. The only story in the canon to deal with such matters is “The Man with the Twisted Lip” and even then only obliquely. Leaving aside the science fiction elements, the bare facts of the case would not have Holmes racing down to the theatre. He might have mentioned to Lestrade to keep an eye on Li H’sen Chang, but on its surface, it is an uninteresting matter that easily could have been handled by any half-observant detective sergeant. The only real mystery in “Talons” is how they have eluded the authorities for as long as they did. Finally, as every true aficionado knows, the deerstalker was a cap to be worn in the country. No-one would wear one about London like that. Well, no gentleman anyway…
Having now eliminated our improbable truths, we are left with the impossible. Our primary guide for this timeline shall be Doctor Who and its related media; were we to open the floodgates to every Holmes pastiche we would be here all evening. The traditional Holmesian canon will be observed2 with two notable additions: Nicholas Meyer’s The West End Horror, which is specifically referred to in The Gallifrey Chronicles; and William S. Baring Gould’s Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, which informs much of the background to All-Consuming Fire. Neither shall we enter into a discussion on the chronology of the Holmes canon, as debates over that make trying to date the UNIT stories a cakewalk by comparison. A quick word on the matter of existence; for the sake of the following, we shall assume that Sherlock Holmes was a real person in the Doctor Who universe. It is suggested in both All-Consuming Fire and Happy Endings that the names Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson were mere fabrications by Arthur Conan Doyle (who also exists) to protect the identities of the real men. It does not particularly matter for our purposes and for clarity they shall be referred to by those names with which we are familiar.
1843 All-Consuming Fire
The first Doctor and Susan met Siger Holmes (father, although not yet, of Sherlock) in India. It was a chance meeting, but Siger’s stories of mystic fakirs who could rip holes in the fabric of space intrigued the Doctor. The seventh Doctor, Ace and Benny were also present, observing the meeting at a distance.
1870
The Doctor finished taking a medical degree at the University of Edinburgh, studying under Joseph Bell3. The same year Watson began his studies at the same university. He took both his bachelor of medicine and his baccalaureate of surgery there, graduating in 1876. In his final year he was impressed with the tenacity of freshman Arthur Conan Doyle. He sensed in Doyle a shared spirit and encouraged his writings. Watson left for London, spending time at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and finishing his doctorate through the University of London in 18784.
1880 Evolution
The bogs of Dartmoor were plagued by a genetically engineered ‘werewolf’ constructed from a Rutan healing salve. Arthur Conan Doyle, in port from the whaler Hope, assisted the fourth Doctor in tracking down the werewolf and prevented its creator from turning more children into ‘mermaids.’ Doyle took inspiration from these events to embellish stories later given to him by Watson and Edward Malone. At some point during these proceedings the Doctor takes Doyle’s stethoscope, which he used in a later incarnation aboard the R1015.
At some point prior to 1883 Doyle met with Redvers Fenn-Cooper, who told his tale of a lost world on the African plain full of prehistoric creatures. Doyle laughed at the story and soon afterward Fenn-Cooper disappeared. Feeling some sort of guilt, when Edward Malone later came to him with a similar story of Professor Challenger’s exploits in Argentina, Doyle helped him publish6.
1882-1883 Erasing Sherlock
A young Sherlock Holmes has solved the mystery of The Study in Scarlet, but is still struggling to make ends meet. Into this precarious position is thrust Rose Donnelley aka Maria Tory aka Gillian Rose Petra, a time traveler sent to study Holmes by posing as a maid for Mrs. Hudson. Though Holmes quickly determined that all is not as it appeared with their new maid, he was distracted not only by a rash of disappearance in the burgeoning London gay scene, but by his own growing feelings towards Gillian. The whole affair was masterminded by a 21st century professor, Jimmy Moriarty, and his associate in the 19th, Thomas Corkle, a psychopath who was responsible for the disappearances. Using technology and ritual practices given to them by the Celestis7, or possibly Faction Paradox8, Moriarty torments Holmes for no other reason than to see what would happen to the timestream. Holmes and Gillian defeat Corkle and she returns to her native time using a ritual powered in part by the eruption at Krakatoa on August 26th, 1883.
Holmes and Gillian travel to Krakatoa on a ship called the Hope. This is not the same Hope that Doyle traveled on, as that was a whaling vessel that would have never traveled south of the 49th parallel. There are at least three incarnations of the Doctor that were also present at Krakatoa, the ninth, the tenth, and another earlier incarnation9. The crystalline entity eventually known as Mr. Smith was freed during the explosion. It would later come to be integrated into a computer used by Sarah Jane Smith10.
We are given several elements incongruous with what we know of Holmes, not only from the canon but from other Who books as well. Holmes’ siblings are elder brother Mycroft and a younger, developmentally impaired sister Genevieve. We meet Shinwell Johnson, an informant, twenty years early. In “The Illustrious Client”, he is introduced by Watson thusly, ‘I have not had occasion to mention Shinwell Johnson in these memoirs because I have seldom drawn my cases from the latter phases of my friend’s career. During the first years of the century he became a valuable assistant.’ And there is the matter of Grimsley Roylott. Grimesby“The Adventure of the Speckled Band”. The back cover of Erasing Sherlock states ‘Dr Grimsley Roylott of Stoke Moran arrested in connection with suspicious deaths of his stepdaughters, Julia and Helen Stoner.’ In the story with which we are familiar, Julia does not die, nor is there any evidence against Roylott until Holmes investigates. If we are to assume that Julia dies because Holmes was otherwise occupied on route to Krakatoa, Roylott would still not have been arrested. Nor does this address his bizarre name change. The answers to these conundrums are answered simply, if not satisfactorily. These events take place during a time war. This more than likely isn’t the Great Time War, although the two probably followed in quick succession. It is uncertain how the events have reflected themselves in the main timeline, if at all. The entirety could be contained in a bubble or been wiped out by later incursions into the timeline. Roylott is the antagonist of
1887 All-Consuming Fire
Following the theft of several sensitive books from the Library of St John the Beheaded, Holmes and Watson were called upon by Pope Leo XIII to investigate. Chief among Holmes’ suspects is the seventh Doctor, who quickly attached himself to the investigation. However it was soon apparent that Baron Maupertuis, already suspected by Mycroft Holmes and the Diogenes Club of shady business transactions, was the true malefactor. Before following Maupertuis to India, Holmes learned from his eldest brother Sherringford that the stolen books were their father’s journals, which contain instructions on how fakirs could chant open a gateway to another world. Once in India, Holmes, Watson and the Doctor meet up with Benny who confirms that Maupertuis is building an army to conquer the alien world Ry’leh. Hearing the chant, the Doctor is alarmed to discover that they are actually fighting the Great Old One Azathoth. On Ry’leh Maupertuis’ army are revealed not as conquerors but as a distraction to free Azathoth and her disciples, including Sherringford. The Doctor redirected the chant on the return trip to Earth to land during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, killing Azathoth and Sherringford. Watson chronicled the adventure and shared it with Doyle, but it is never published. Doyle refused to talk directly about his own experience with the Doctor11.
There are numerous references to Holmes’ prior cases which need not concern us here, but the overall date of 1887 is a puzzle. It is implied that the story takes place after “Talons of Weng Chiang”, i.e. the Doctor staying with Professor Litefoot and Holmes’ investigation of The Affair of the Walking Ventriloquist’s Dummy. And yet Talons is dated 1889, or certainly after the Ripper murders. There is nothing to prevent the Doctor from staying with his friend without revealing his true identity, but Holmes’s investigation is still troubling. However, it is never stated in the episode how long Greel was in London nor is there any indication in the novel where Holmes’ case took place.
There are a few other matters of interest as well. The Library of St John the Beheaded contains a copy of Love’s Labours Wonne, which cannot be the precise play that we see in “The Shakespeare Code” as all the copies there were destroyed. It is possible that Shakespeare wrote another play with the same title or another playwright could have written one and it was attributed to the Bard. Obviously some version of the events at the Globe got out and the Catholic Church decided that no matter the actual contents of the play, it would be suppressed. At the beginning of the book, Holmes and Watson share a train with Robert Baden-Powell, whom the Doctor later would meet as part of another adventure with Doyle12. The Doctor spins a ghastly tale of spontaneous human combustion in front of a bar full of policemen, including Inspector Abberline. The following year, Abberline was put in charge of investigating the Ripper murders of which the seventh Doctor was briefly suspect of and turned out to be committed by the Valeyard13. Lord Roxton assists Holmes in India, while Professor Challenger is named as a visitor to The Library. Both these men would later share an adventure with Edward Malone, who published their exploits with Doyle’s help14. And there is mention made of a Diogenes Club agent, Charles Beauregard. In a parallel universe Beauregard is a key agent for the Diogenes Club, who later battled an entity known as the Cold15, fought in this universe by the first Doctor16.
Happy Endings
In autumn of the same year, Holmes and Watson again meet the seventh Doctor and travel to the future to attend the wedding of Bernice Summerfield.
At some point after this time the Doctor first meets Sherlock Holmes from his perspective17.
1893 The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel
Many years later for Benny, she landed in London bereft of an operational time ring. She turned to her friend Watson only to fid him unavailable and as Holmes was ‘dead’ at the time, she turned to his brother Mycroft. Together they worked to solve a baffling series of crimes revolving around the number seven. It was revealed that the crimes were committed by a deranged clone of Benny’s old traveling companion, Christopher Cwej to attract the attention of the seventh Doctor. Benny, Mycroft and Lord Straxus, a similarly stranded Time Lord, were able to stop him from killing Oscar Wilde. With Straxus’ assistance, Benny was able to return to her native time.
Mycroft is not quite as Doyle describes him, instead being taller, thinner and fully willing to travel further than his usual orbit. Mycroft explains that Doyle had exaggerated his attributes for dramatic effect to highlight the differences between the Holmes brothers.
1895 The West End Horror
An amnesic eighth Doctor investigated a series of murders connected with the London theatrical scene. It is unclear how far the Doctor came in his investigation as the case was swiftly solved by Holmes and Watson. The case brought Holmes in contact with Oscar Wilde, long time friend of the Doctor and Gilbert and Sullivan, from whom the first Doctor obtained an opera cloak18.
Inspector Lestrade was assisted by the tenth Doctor and Rose in The Case of the Unsuitable Suitor. The details of the case remain undisclosed, save for the identity of the aforementioned suitor, the quite literally two faced Professor Janus. Immediately following this, the Doctor and Rose become entangled in an adventure with Bram Stoker (investigated by Holmes during The West End Horror) and a vampiric version of Oscar Wilde.
1902 Revenge of the Judoon
King Edward VII was abducted by a squad of Judoon looking for an anachronistic plasma coil at Balmoral Castle. The Doctor and Martha arrived just in time to meet the King’s aide, Captain Carruthers, who showed them the plasma coil which was given to him by Arthur Conan Doyle. Martha and Carruthers visited Doyle back in London while the Doctor traced the King. Doyle told them the coil was given to him by a group called the Cosmic Peacekeepers, eventually revealed to be the spearhead of an alien invasion. The Doctor rescued the King, convinced the Judoon to withdraw and destroyed the Peacekeepers’ weapon, but did not re-meet Doyle.
Shortly after this, Doyle’s friend and sometimes collaborator J.M. Barrie was given the idea for Peter Pan by an alien who told him a universally popular fairy tale19. Whether or not Barrie shared this experience with his friend is a matter of conjecture. Around the same time Doyle’s future friend Harry Houdini taught the Doctor the basics of escapism20.
1920
In the grip of deep depression due to a series of tragedies befalling his family, Doyle was called upon to verify the photos of the Cottingley Fairies. While he believed them to be genuine, they were not verified until 2007 when Captain Jack Harkness and Torchwood came into contact with the same group of fairies21.
2010 Happy Endings
Holmes and Watson were brought forward from the past to attend the wedding of Bernice Summerfield. While initially overwhelmed by the unfamiliar settings, Holmes recovered and after catching up with modern affairs, he was able to assist Roz Forrester with the Adventure of the Curious Landowner. On the surface, the case was a trifling one; Roz found evidence of an illegal pesticide/genetic agent called Bloom, which in Roz’s future was used as part of the Kilbracken cloning technique. Holmes quickly determined the likely owner of the Bloom as the only farmer in the area with the means to obtain it, Lord Tasham. Confronted, Tasham admitted to buying 30 barrels but only to prevent its use by others. When Tasham went to show his accusers the barrels, they all discovered that they had been stolen. As it transpired, the barrels were taken by the Master in a desperate attempt to clone himself a new body. Neither Holmes not Watson played a major role in the Master’s downfall, that honour going to Ishtar Hutchings, the Brigadier and four copies of the seventh Doctor.
From this point, the Doctor has no more direct contact with Holmes, but there are a few more tantalizing references to Holmes’ ultimate fate. In the 33rd century, across the former continent, Europa is home to a dark, twisted world of historical and fictional celebrity reconstructions22. While Holmes is not mentioned, it seems inconceivable that he is not among those revived. And along similar lines, Holmes exists in the City of the Saved, a bubble set between the end of this universe and the beginning of the next that contains every human being that ever existed. Not only has the historical Holmes been resurrected, many filmic representations were brought to life using ‘remembrance tanks.’ All these versions of Holmes have gathered together and formed The Great Detective Agency, solving any problem that might arise when you have the entirety of human history in one place at the same time23.
No other fictional concept has been covered in so much depth in Doctor Who as Holmes. Perhaps that is that is because few other concepts have as much depth themselves. We like Holmes for the same reasons we like the Doctor; at their best they are strong, well defined characters that prefer to use their intellects rather than their fists. They’re smart, they’re clever, and although appreciated by the masses, for their true fans, they are adored. It is no wonder that Holmes and his associates keep reoccurring in the Doctor’s life; the Doctor is peerless in his universe, so he to import one from another.
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1 A Yellow Peril story is one in which Asian antagonists are intent on destroying the West. For more information I urge you to check out the work of Jess Nevins. One such article can be found here: http://www.violetbooks.com/yellowperil.html
2 The traditional Sherlock Holmes canon consists of the 56 short stories and the 4 novels written by Doyle. There are perhaps a dozen other works that are sometimes included, but none of them have any bearing on this discussion.
3 Bell was the Royal Physician whenever Queen Victoria was in Scotland. His unusual observational methods were noted by many, including Doyle, who became his assistant and used the experience as background for his stories.
4 “Tooth and Claw”, All-Consuming Fire, Annotated Sherlock Holmes
5 “Storm Warning”
6 “Ghost Light”, The Lost World
7 The Celestis were an offshoot of the Celestial Intervention Agency, who removed themselves from the universe in order to escape a time war.
8 Faction Paradox were an independent organization devoted to wrecking havoc in the timeline during the aforementioned time war.
9 “Rose”, “Under the Volcano”, “Inferno”. The first Doctor is the most likely candidate as he seemed more intent on seeing big events in earth’s history, but we cannot be certain.
10 “The Lost Boy”
11 All Consuming Fire: Prologue
12 Revenge of the Judoon
13 Matrix
14 The Lost World
15 “Cold Snap”
16 Time and Relative
17 Timewyrm: Revelation. The seventh Doctor tells Ace that he’s met Holmes, but precisely when this happens is a matter for speculation. We know from All-Consuming Fire that the third Doctor is a member of the Diogenes Club. It is a reasonable surmise that he and Holmes met while Holmes visited the club. Indeed, as we have seen, given their similarities they might have gotten on like a house on fire.
18 “Keys of Marinus”
19 “The Tomorrow Windows”
20 “Planet of the Spiders”
21 “Small Worlds”
22 Managra
23 Of the City of the Saved
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