[/caption]I'm no stranger to fandoms. In fact my main username "Phantoms Siren" originated during my involvement with my first fandom, or rather phandom, that surrounds The Phantom of the Opera. Which was way way back in the mid 1990s, long before the Gerard Butler movie, back when we were still protesting the case of Antonio Banderas in the lead role.Anyway, there are some fandoms that take you over sudden like, without warning or reason (Tin Man would be my main example of that), and others take a while to develop. For example, I adored the Eighth Doctor Who but I wasn't bothered about the franchise as whole until midway through Ten's first season, at which point I became a devoted fan of Doctor Who. Somehow this devotion has survived an entire season of Catherine Tate as probably the most obnoxious character in the history of television, though I'm pretty sure that the fanbase it's self is a major reason for that.
Sherlock Holmes is super fashionable at the moment, thanks to the action packed bromance of the Guy Ritchie movie franchise and the more cerebral BBC version featuring The Cumbermountain and DentArthurDent. An awful lot of people seem to be totally polarised by the two productions and I've seen a lot of nastiness aimed at the Ritchie movies that wasn't nearly so bad when the first one came out.
Neither of those versions are my first Sherlock love, which has to be the wonderful Jeremy Brett who started in the role from 1984 to 1994. Sadly I was only 12 when he passed away and I have no real memory of seeing the show during its original run. The detectives I grew up with were the gloriously egotistical Hercule Poirot and the sweetly placid Brother Cadfael. I first discovered the ITV series starring Jeremy Brett via the endless daytime repeats on cable whilst I was at university.
I hadn't really paid any attention to the Holmes story before I saw those shows, I'd always pictured the main character as someone dully Victorian in a silly hat doing things that were rather dull, in black and white. So Brett's drug-fuelled manic depressive Holmes came as a rather wonderful surprise. His characterisation of the mood swings, the sulks and the manic energy was often much more interesting that the solving of the crime itself. And the fact that these were often based on real life experiences made them that much more compelling. The only real problem I ever had with the Granada series was Watson, specifically as played by Edward Hardwicke in the later episodes. He never really struck me as military man and seemed a bit too close to Hastings (Poirot's sidekick) in terms of bumbling incompetence. Then again it might also be his striking similarity to one of my relatives that makes him off putting.
The next time I really paid attention to the Sherlock Holmes universe was the release of the Guy Ritchie film version in 2009. I was always confident that Robert Downey Jr would do an amazing job, for exactly the same reason I loved the Jeremy Brett portrayal, and I was glad that Holmes would be put back into a more realistic age bracket. Remember, At his earliest possible date, Holmes was born in 1854 and Watson married in 1887, he'd only be 33 in the time period covered by the Guy Ritchie movies, and only 27 when Watson moved in (though the age could go as low as 21). In contrast Jeremy Brett was 51 when he first took over the Sherlock Holmes role. I was less sure of Jude Law but I find his frustrated but caring portrayal of Watson to be very charming and believable. The fact that the movie is in the action adventure genre rather than the mystery that most people expect of Holmes seems to be one of the major points of contention. Personally, I think that if they'd had action films back in Doyles days I'm sure he'd have had Holmes get up to even more insanity than he did to begin with, honestly I don't see any reason why Holmes on a bender wouldn't end up in those ridiculous situations, I mean, shooting holes in the walls is canon, as is the coke addiction, so I don't see why everyone insists that the rest doesn't fit.
Game of Shadows was almost as much fun the first movie, though I preferred the completely original story over the rewrite of several existing ones. Moriarty was excellent and their treatment of Reichenbach was clever but blessedly brief, they didn't keep the viewer waiting too long for confirmation of Holmes condition. The only issue (and it isn't really an issue) was Mycroft, a character that I've always rather liked, being played by one of the great human beings of all time, the irreplaceable Stephen Fry. I've always thought Mr Fry was quite dishy (though Hugh Laurie has vastly improved with age) and the role of Mycroft is one that I've always wanted to see him in. But I never thought I'd see... quite that much of him. Seriously that scene is burned onto my neural pathways such that I can't think about the movie without that vision of Mr Fry looming up in the background all the time. I'm almost afraid to buy the DVD in case this phenomenon infiltrates my everyday life, like Mol in Inception.
And then we come to the cause of full blown fandom - the BBC modern version of Sherlock. I've been a fan of Mark Gatiss since the League of Gentlemen days (though not season 3, I've never forgiven them for the death of Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen) and I love his Lucifer Box spy series. My liking of The Grand Moff (Steven Moffat) is less secure, since he's written some amazing and some rubbish Doctor Who scripts, and the quality of the latest series really hasn't been up to scratch. I'm not sure why we completely missed the first broadcast of season one back in 2010, I think I was busy working insane hours, and we tend not to watch the BBC any more so won't have seen the adverts. We got the DVD of the season one over Christmas and pretty much watched it all in one go, this was probably for the best as I hate cliffhangers and would probably have spoilered the whole of season two if I couldn't have watched it straight away.
I have to admit that I have no issues of any kind with the castings in this- I adore Martin Freeman's tiny, stressed out but loved up Watson, Mark Gatiss is brilliantly creepy as Mycroft, Moriarty is fooking terrifying and Una Stubbs is a delight as Mrs Hudson. Whilst Benedict Terriblylongname seems to play his Holmes closer to the autistic spectrum than the traditional drugs element, but he manages to make him fascinating, irritating, cold and yet still emotionally compelling, something that wasn't ever quite as necessary in the other performances. That's especially clear in the portrayal of the Reichenbach situation, where Holmes being forced to say goodbye to Watson face-to-face even reduce the manliest of men to almost-tears. I have never read The Final Case, and I've always seen the film versions of the story secure in the knowledge that Holmes comes out at the other end. Since I've never really cared about Watson the scenario has never really bothered me, beyond seeing how Holmes wiggles his way out of it. But, whilst I think I can easily see how it was done this time around, I'm actually concerned for the characters- Martin Freeman gave us a Watson who is alone and vulnerable and that we just want to hug until it's all alright again. And that's impressive considering that we've know he's alright for over a century.
But as much as I adore the new TV version, I still see no reason to choose one version over any of the others. In some ways the various Sherlock's are like the many regenerations of Doctor Who- they're all different, they're all valid and whilst you can have your favorites they're all one and the same. I'd quite happily watch Brett, RDJ and the Cumbermountain back-to-back because they all add to the experience.
Right now, Sherlock and John (and, for some disturbing reason, Mycroft and Lestrade, I do not know what is going on there) are wandering about in my brain trying to compete with other, longer standing fandoms. I don't know it'll last until the next season in 2013, but I might as well give in and let them wreck up the place, cos I can't see any way to get them to leave.
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