Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century

It's the 22nd Century, and crime has been almost eradicated in "New London", thanks to a rehabilitation program known as "cripnotism." However, a new crime wave makes it appear that cripnotism is no longer working. Inspector LaStrade (great-great-however many greats -granddaughter of the Inspector LaStrade that worked with Sherlock Holmes over two hundred years ago) has a run in with the mastermind, who looks just like Professor Moriarity. Then she hears a news release about a scientific breakthrough that makes reanimating dead tissue possible. Mistakenly believing that the man she saw is a 'reanimated' Moriarity, she insists on trying the process on Sherlock Holmes. It works, and they, acommpanied by a robo-droid that she has nicknamed Watson, begin unraveling the mystery. Later on, Watson adopts a mask of the original Dr. John Watson, to make Holmes feel more comfortable with it. The series actually does a good job of capturing Arthur Conan Doyle's original character, although he does use Basil Rathbone's line, "Elementary, My dear Watson" quite a bit.

This series is interesting but can be confusing at times. It has a lot of potential but it hasn't come through yet. Holmes's wit and keen senses are displayed very well but you still get the feeling that that person isn't quite the real Sherlock Holmes. I'll continue to watch this show despite the occasional bewilderment it causes and just hope that it gets better. You don't have to like it but you should give it a chance.

My wife and I are very big Sherlock Holmes fans so we had to see this cartoon version.

Our impression is that it is a very suitable introduction to Sherlock Holmes for children who can handle minor cartoon violence. In this series, like Scooby Doo, the protagonists use reason and deduction to solve problems that are always human in origin.

Sherlock Holmes' catch phrase (repeated often enough to be annoying) is "eye and brains," which is a positive message to teach any kid. I hope my kids take this message to heart.

One person noted the great computer graphics. Given that the comment was in Jan 2000 (10+ years previous) they can be forgiven.

From a Sherlock Holmes perspective; the episodes bear little resemblance to the originals.

When I heard that there was gonna be a cartoon on about the master detective(though I didn't know it would be animated) I watched the first episode. When I heard the theme song, I thought at once this would be one of those stupid no-deduction cartoons were Moriarty is in everyone and they just run around, etc. But they actually used the final problem! That alone makes this "kids" show unique, and able to watch for adult Holmes fans too! I, having read the entire canon, love how they keep the original stories, add a bit more action (but not too much, you know what I mean), change murders into robberies, assaults, disappearances, temporary disablement, etc. etc. RealmMan couldn't be more wrong! (Oh, and one more thing. Now women have better rights, and Lestrade's descendant is strong and able.) Allow me one more thing. Holmes does deduce, and they aren't cheap ones with no foundation. Holmes can tell by the way a man walks he was once rich and proud, but by his clothes he has lost his fortune and tries to ignore it; when they are trapped in an empty train, instead of busting down the door, fires his gun, starting an alarm and opening the doors. See my point?

For the sake of completeness of my Holmes project, I watched a couple episodes of this.

The fancy is that Holmes is placed 200 years in his future. The future setting allows the animators to use all sorts of visual shorthand for sets and situations. The appropriation of Holmes allows the writers existing stories that can be reduced to skeletal plots. These two devices were likely important to the decision to go, as they would greatly reduce costs.

This was inspired by Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century (of the decade before), an even cheaper production with even more abstract notions of a future.

When characters and story structures reach this level of reuse, like Frankenstein, it is because they have such power that all one has to do is reference them by sketching, and the viewer fills in details.

The amazing thing is the ends of the thing. The production itself is the scantiest, cheapest thing possible and the external reference is one of the richest.