Kilts in new Sherlock Holmes

[McClef]

It can be indeed hard to recognise the plots as being Conan-Doyle at all.

A name is used and made something entirely different (Baskerville is not a hall but a top secret testing establishment for example) and the massacre of the plot continues with the hound being some drug induced hallucination. Cringeworthy stuff IMHO and I wonder how many Holmesians would be that enthusiastic.

Perhaps I am just too big a fan of period dramas being kept in the period in which they were set.

[Paul Henry]

It can be indeed hard to recognise the plots as being Conan-Doyle at all.

A name is used and made something entirely different (Baskerville is not a hall but a top secret testing establishment for example) and the massacre of the plot continues with the hound being some drug induced hallucination. Cringeworthy stuff IMHO and I wonder how many Holmesians would be that enthusiastic.

Perhaps I am just too big a fan of period dramas being kept in the period in which they were set.

Well at least some in The "Sherlock Holmes Society " seem to have rather enjoyed it The District Messenger - sherlock holmes society Newsletter
And as to the plots, I would suggest they are indeed very much in the spirit of Doyle, sometimes it is good to see a period piece replayed in a different setting, it brings all sorts of new insights, you only have to think of the Shakespeare plays for example with Patrick Stewart to see how powerful and moving they still are

[Father Bill]

It can be indeed hard to recognise the plots as being Conan-Doyle at all.

A name is used and made something entirely different (Baskerville is not a hall but a top secret testing establishment for example) and the massacre of the plot continues with the hound being some drug induced hallucination. Cringeworthy stuff IMHO and I wonder how many Holmesians would be that enthusiastic.

Perhaps I am just too big a fan of period dramas being kept in the period in which they were set.

I confess - while not one of those who remembers every intimate detail of the canon (for which reason I have not allied myself with the new group of Holmes-lovers here at XMarks) I do like things left the way they were by original authors.

As a child and teen, I read the original Holmes canon many times, as much for the geographical and historical settings as for the characters, so I get a bit huffy when those are abandoned in the name of originality. In the mind of this former teacher of English in general and literature in particular, if one wishes to be original, then one should be able to write a new script without kidnapping unwilling characters. To do otherwise seems to me a lack of creative ability.

My tuppence!

[McClef]

With Shakespeare it is not the plot nor the characters not the wording that is changed, it is simply the costume and the surroundings.

I agree with Fr Bill - it is the kidnapping of unwilling characters. Whilst it is in the nature of things that adaptations of novels can have certain changes, it is another when the connection is somewhat more tenuous and the names seem out of context with their new surroundings and what actually happens. The cited newsletter refers to episodes in 2011 and was nearly 12 months late from when the episode(s) it refers to were broadcast. The episode to which I have taken such great exception (The Hounds of Baskerville) was broadcast only this January. They massacred the title and the massacre only got worse with the plot.