Sherlock Holmes and Land Wars in Asia

[andraste]

I watched the first episode of Sherlock with friends today, and enjoyed it.

However, one thing that bemused me is that Sherlock has never seen The Princess Bride! This in itself is entirely plausible, since his interest in eighties fantasy romances strikes me as limited. However, I was surprised that he at no point suggested the solution to the pill problem that is blindingly obvious to anyone who has watched it. Possibly that scene is more tense if you don't spend the whole time thinking of the Dread Pirate Roberts.

What surprised me even more is that the friend I watched it with said she hadn't seen anyone in Sherlock fandom discussing the parallel!

Comments

[calapine]

I've seen it mentioned a lot, usually followed by someone pointing out it's also the answer in A Study in Scarlett, the book the first episode's based on.

[andraste]

I've seen it mentioned a lot, usually followed by someone pointing out it's also the answer in A Study in Scarlett, the book the first episode's based on.

Good point! It's been fifteen years since I read A Study in Scarlett (give me Hound of the Baskervilles or The Sign of Four any day) so the movie comparison was fresher in my mind. (And as far as I remember Book!Holmes does not spend ten minutes sitting across the table from the murderer debating which pill to take.) That just makes it weirder that the show doesn't bring it up!

Unless it's meant to be a possibility that's obvious to the audience, but not to Holmes because he's obsessed with finding the right answer and here there are only two wrong ones available.

[lizvogel]

because he's obsessed with finding the right answer

That was my assumption. Not that the housemate & I didn't turn to each other and chorus "Princess Bride!" as soon as the scenario appeared -- but for Sherlock, exclaming "Look over there!" and switching the pills and then watching the bad guy's reactions would have been too easy.

[darchildre]

Okay, it is possible that I am missing your point, but the thing with the iocane is that both glasses are poisoned, right, and Wesley has an immunity to iocane powder? Because that is definitely not what happens in Study. One of the pills is totally harmless, as Mr Hope says: I was a fairly good dispenser, so I worked this alkaloid into small, soluble pills, and each pill I put in a box with a similar pill made without the poison. I determined at the time that when I had my chance, my gentlemen should each have a draw out of one of these boxes, while I ate the pill that remained.

So if the show is playing true to that aspect of the original story, then it's true that only one of the pills is poisoned.

[calapine]

That's what seems to happen in Sherlock, yes, but I think a lot of people assume they're both poisoned as they're more familiar with Princess Bride than Study in Scarlett.