Popular culture references to Sherlock Holmes

Many writers make references to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous literary creation, the detective Sherlock Holmes, and these often become embedded within popular culture. While Holmes exists predominately in the context of Victorian-era London, he has been mentioned in such outre contexts as the 22nd century^[1] or hunting aliens or supernatural enemies.^[2] The versions of Holmes wearing the deerstalker hat appear only a few in the original Strand pictures, as opposed to the far more common top hat. Holmes frequently says, "Elementary, my dear" to other characters. These references are in addition to the innumerable passing references to Sherlock Holmes made in a very large percentage of all literary and cinematic works, such as the labeling of a person as a "Sherlock", whether in reference to their intelligence (or in jest or sarcasm).

Books

One of the first attempts was made in response to the "Great Hiatus" (when Arthur Conan Doyle decided not to write any more stories, to the dismay of his fans). Stepping into the breach, John Kendrick Bangs wrote Pursuit of the House-Boat (1897) [a sequel to his A House-Boat on the Styx(1895)], in which a deceased gentleman's clubhouse boat is stolen, whereupon Holmes arrives to help his fellow-deceased track down the boat by chartering a ship from Hades to London. Bangs' version of Holmes then comments to himself:

"For now," he said, with a chuckle, "I can get back to earth again free of cost on my own hook, whether my eminent inventor wants me there or not. I never approved of his killing me off as he did at the very height of my popularity."^[3]

However,in 1894, Conan Doyle decided to return to writing, bringing Holmes back from the dead by claiming he had faked his death in "The Empty House". While Bangs' attempt was reverential, Maurice Leblanc decided to write the short story "Sherlock Holmes arrive trop tard"^[4] ("Sherlock Holmes Arrives Too Late"). In it, Holmes meets the young thief Lupin for a brief time, unaware that he is, in fact, Lupin. After legal objections from Conan Doyle, the name was changed to "Herlock Sholmès" when the story was collected in bookform in Volume 1. Holmes returned in two more stories collected in Volume 2, Arsène Lupin contre Herlock Sholmès, having opened the floodgates to less flattering versions of Holmes. One of the more recent parodies in print is "The Lord Mike Saga", wherein Mycroft Miles (née Mills) is the Holmes figure, with the titles reflecting the styles: "A Study in Varlets", "The Strange Case of the Moth-Eater of Clapham Common", "Happy Times and Places", and "A Cameo Broached". Miles refuses to speak of Holmes, referring to him only as "the other chap".

Frequent speculation as to the "real" Holmes has existed since publication, and Mark Frost's novel The List of Seven (1993) and its sequel The Six Messiahs (1995) are not the first to put a spin on this. Frost has Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as its main character and tells the (fictional) story of how Doyle's Holmes was inspired by Johnathon Sparks, a mysterious man who saves Doyle's life from a mad occultist. The Wold Newton family series connects multiple famous fictional characters together to a mail coach that passed a radioactive asteroid in the eighteenth century - Holmes is a descendant of one of the travelers in that coach.

Cinema

Some of the earliest films use Holmes as a character, notably the early films of William Gillette, the American actor who played Holmes in various plays.

• The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929) is an early "talkie".

During the Second World War American producers linked Holmes with the Allied war effort, defeating Nazi villains, and Moriarty who sells his skills to the Germans, e.g.

• Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942).^[5]

Later films would blur the lines between canon and non-canon, however.

• In the sci-fi film Time After Time (1979), H.G. Wells uses a time machine to go to 1979 America; he tries to use Sherlock Holmes as a false name, thinking the literary character would be forgotten by then.
• From 1984 to 1985, Japan's Tokyo Movie Shinsha and the Italian TV station RAI released 26 episodes of Sherlock Hound, a show featuring anthropomorphic dogs in various roles in the Sherlock Holmes world.
• Walt Disney Pictures released The Great Mouse Detective (July 2, 1986), wherein the character of Holmes is borrowed by a mouse. The name "Basil" is no mere coincidence: one of Holmes's aliases in the original Conan Doyle stories is "Captain Basil". Also, the actor Basil Rathbone was one of the first to portray Holmes on film.
• Continuing the print tradition of goodnatured irreverence, the comedy film Without a Clue (1988) presents the premise that Holmes was a fictional creation of John Watson's, who was the true deductive genius. Once the character becomes popular, Watson is forced to hire an out-of-work actor to play Holmes.

• In the movie The Phantom of Baker Street (2002), Conan goes into a virtual Victorian London a computer simulated Holmes and Watson don't appear due to working on another case (Hound of the Baskervilles), but Moriarty and Irene Adler do.

Comics

• The comic book series Five Ghosts includes a literary ghost with similarities to Sherlock Holmes.

• In the Italian comic book Martin Mystère and spin-off series Storie di Altrove/Stories from Elsewhere Holmes is a historical character.^[6] In late 1880s he worked on the case of Jack the Ripper and met professor Richard Van Helsing, a vampire who destroyed Count Dracula.^[7] Along with professor Challenger, Holmes visited a secret valley of dinosaurs in South America in 1896. The same year he worked with the American Secret Service "Elsewhere" to stop paranormal threats from another dimension.^[8] In 1910, he discovered a life extension serum.^[9] At the beginning of World War I he had a final confrontation with Professor Moriarty.^[10] After the war, he moved to Ukraine, giving Arthur Conan Doyle the task to convince everyone that he was just an imaginary character. With the help of his serum, Holmes prolonged his life for several decades. In 1990s he indirectly helped Martin Mystère to capture a villain who found a formula of his serum.^[11]

• In the Dark Horse Comics two-issue miniseries Predator: Nemesis, Sherlock Holmes is mentioned by his older brother, Mycroft Holmes, in a cameo appearance. The Diogenes Club also makes an appearance, a fictional investigative agency that is a fixture in the Sherlock Holmes mythos. It is hinted at that the Diogenes Club and (most likely) Sherlock Holmes himself is aware of the existence of the Predator race, as Mycroft says: "Besides, who else in the Empire has more experience of such creatures as the gallant Captain Soames?" Also, as the Predator's butchery is mistaken in the papers as Jack the Ripper's work, Mycroft states: "[the Ripper returning to his old haunts] is pure journalistic fancy", hinting that the Diogenes Club had dealt with the Ripper but did not elaborate on his identity.

Games

• Dai Gyakuten Saiban: The Adventures of Naruhodo Ryunosuke (2015), the spin-off title in the Ace Attorney video game series, stars Sherlock Holmes as a supporting character. Watson briefly appears as a supporting character, along with his relative Iris Watson, an 8-year-old M.D. genius.

• Lozenge and Hampshire, an online adventure game series by James Evans, spoofs Sherlock Holmes.

• The character Professor Hershel Layton of the eponymous Professor Layton video games series by Nintendo on DS and 3DS is partly modelled on Holmes.

• Wizard101's world Marleybone stars Sherlock Bones, and Dr. Meowiarty as a reference to Holmes and Moriarty.

Manhwa

• The Korean manhwa series, Lizzie Newton: Victorian Mysteries, is set in the Sherlock Holmes universe, but in an earlier period in history. Set in the year 1864, it features younger versions of characters in the series. These include Inspector Lestrade as a junior police officer^[12] and Professor Moriarty as a student.^[13]

Music

• Sherlock Holmes is the subject matter in the song "Sherlock Holmes" by American rock band Sparks, on their eleventh album Angst in My Pants.

• "Searchin'" (1957), a song recorded iby the R&B group The Coasters, makes reference to Holmes and other fictional detectives.

• The Kinks song "Village Green Preservation Society" name checks both Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty.

Spoken word

• The Firesign Theatre's comedy record, The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra (1974), parodies Holmes, featuring a character named Hemlock Stones.

Television

Sherlock Holmes, as he appears in The Real Ghostbusters

Television was invented later than Conan Doyle's original writing, but the strength of Holmes has ensured that he has been referenced, or appeared in on TV in new forms. The original books have also been dramatised, notably the Granada Television adaptation.

Anime

• Hidan no Aria is a Japanese anime (which premiered on 15 April 2011) based on a light novel of the same title. The story is about a girl named Kanzaki Holmes Aria, also known as Holmes. She collaborates with Kinji Toyama to solve mysterious attacks led by the Butei Killer, Riko Mine, later revealed to be Lupin. Additionally, Holmes appears as the primary antagonist of the fifth volume of the said series.

• Tantei Opera Milky Holmes is a Japanese anime (which premiered on 7 October 2010) about a girl named Sherlock "Sherly" Holmes and her three friends, who are based on other famous detectives. They retrieve their toys, or special powers, as they attend a detective academy. The anime has spawned a video game, trading card game, and a manga.

Cartoons

Cartoons were quick to pick up on the potential, so Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty appear in

• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series episode "Elementary, My Dear Turtle" (1987)
• The Real Ghostbusters episode "Elementary, My Dear Winston", in which Holmes, Watson, and Moriarty are literally brought to life by a strong belief held in them by the world's population. Though not ghosts, they do not have physical bodies.

The timing of both episodes may have been a factor in the brand war in which the two series were engaged, and alludes to the cultural power of Holmes as a character.

Series episodes

• In the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode, "Who Shot Sherlock?", the crime scene investigators solve the murder case of a man who plays Holmes in a re-enactment club devoted to the character.

• On the Doctor Who Christmas episode, "The Snowmen" (2012), the Eleventh Doctor dresses up as Sherlock Holmes and claims to be him.
  • In an earlier instance, the Fourth Doctor dresses up in a stereotypical Holmes costume in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" while visiting Victorian London, where he attempts to solve the disappearance of many young women.

• In the Prison Break season 4 episode, "Eagles & Angels", Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell pretends to be Cole Pfeiffer, a top salesman for a corporation called GATE. He is assigned a corner office, in room 122B. The numbers 122 are the reverse of 221, a sly reference by the episode's screenwriters to T-Bag's Holmesian powers of reasoning and deduction, yet whose powers have been twisted and corrupted toward evil ends. Ultimately, T-Bag is a cleverly created anti-Sherlock Holmes, a stock character whose personality is shaped (in certain key facets) to be the polar opposite of Holmes'. Indeed, T-Bag is a modern-day descendant not of Holmes, but of Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty.

• The medical drama House, M.D. makes much of the fact that the protagonist, a brilliant doctor solving medical mysteries of his patients, has a drug addiction, a man named Moriarty shoots Dr. House in the second season, the name Adler appears frequently through the series, House has a similar name to Holmes, and he lives at apartment 221B.

• Sherlock Holmes is the focal point of two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In season two, episode three, "Elementary, Dear Data", the holodeck is being used for crew members to engage in Sherlock Holmes mysteries. The ship gets into trouble when a Professor Moriarty villain is created to rival Data not Sherlock Holmes. This storyline is revisited in the sixth season, episode twelve, "Ship in a Bottle", wherein Moriarty returns and takes control of the Enterprise but is eventually outsmarted by the crew.

Further reading

• Cawelti, John G. (1976). Adventure, mystery, and romance : formula stories as art and popular culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-09866-4. 

• Saler, Michael (2003). "ABSTRACT: Clap if you believe in Sherlock Holmes. Mass Culture and the re-enchantment of modernity c. 1890–c. 1940". The Historical Journal (46): 599–622 url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=176773. 

References

Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Canon Adaptations Popular culture Novels A Study in Scarlet (1887) The Sign of the Four (1890) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) The Valley of Fear (1915) Story collections The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894) The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905) His Last Bow (1917) The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927) Characters Sherlock Holmes Dr. Watson Professor Moriarty Sebastian Moran Irene Adler Inspector Lestrade Mycroft Holmes Baker Street Irregulars Other characters Uncollected stories "The Lost Special" "How Watson Learned the Trick" Lists List of cases List of investigators Universe 221B Baker Street Baritsu Diogenes Club The Dynamics of an Asteroid A Treatise on the Binomial Theorem Related topics Sherlock fandom Sherlockian game Sherlockiana Sherlock Holmes Museum The Sherlock Holmes Holmesian studies Naked Is the Best Disguise Undershaw Category Portal