Posted by Maureen on 4/18/2008, 10:05 pm
65.185.185.22
Once upon a time, right before Filmation kicked the bucket, they produced a pilot for a show named Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century, as a spinoff of Marshal Bravestarr. Now that I've seen it, I highly recommend it -- both as Sherlockiana, and as a strong influence on our own show.
Filmation hired a lot of young writers who went on to long animation careers. This particular pilot was written by Bob Forward, who would later be responsible for the strong story arcs of shows like Beast Wars and Roswell Conspiracies. Martha Moran, who would later write eps of SH22 for DiC, was also a writer for Marshal Bravestarr. But of course, in Hollywood it's very common for people to pass around scripts and watch each others' shows. So the influence carrying over is not surprising.
Anyway... SH23 opens at Reichenbach. (Almost from the same camera angle. But Reichenbach Falls is a real place, many available pictures of it were taken from the same vantage points, and besides, lots of people saw the Granada live action Holmes episode filmed there. Moriarty looks like Lon Chaney Sr. Holmes and Moriarty struggle, and Holmes falls -- into a freak time warp. Moriarty is rightly fascinated. Watson doesn't see the time warp, but he does see that this is a good time to use his service revolver on Moriarty. (Alas, he doesn't hit the jerk.)
We cut to the 23rd century -- to New London, in fact. This New London is a modern city built in a sort of neo-Victorian steampunk style. Holmes is saved by an alien doctor named W!tsin (voice acted very charmingly). He quickly begins to integrate into future society. Alas, tobacco is illegal.
However, he does have at least one relative -- one Mycroft (aka "Mike" or "Mikey") Holmes, a Scotland Yard "agent" working under the redheaded Chief Inspector Kitty Lestrade. Holmes instantly "deduces" who Mycroft is because Mycroft wears a nametag.
Holmes also encounters and recruits some Irregulars. Early in the ep there are three boys busily pickpocketing and conning money out of passersby. The third boy disappears and is replaced by some kind of Shar-Pei/bulldog mix named Baskerville, who has Toby's olfactory powers.
Did I mention the visit to the Sherlock Holmes Museum? Or the newscaster who keeps breaking in - but on a hologram TV built into the lampposts??
There really are a lot of similarities, but not in a plagiarism sort of way. It's clear that our show was designed not to do things the same way as SH23 did, but they do seem to have been interested in many of the same things. I'm also not mentioning some of the biggest features of SH23 because they're spoilers!
All in all, a very interesting look at how things might have been. Those of you who have Netflix will definitely want to rent the Bravestarr Season 1 Part 1 DVD set. As for me, I thought the pilot was worth the price of the DVDs all by itself, although I do intend to watch Marshal Bravestarr. (It seems like a very nifty little cartoon.)
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