bluetoothtoaster:

crowfoot:

bluetoothtoaster:

crowfoot:

bluetoothtoaster replied to your post: Why is Russian Holmes so wonderful?

all of which describe it to a T. Heck, I even likes their version of the Sign of Four. That is a mark of genius.

The one you were saying is racist? I don’t remember it - which is good? It’s been soooo long since Granada Holmes was on all the time. Did Granada Holmes do Sign of Four? Wait, did Benny!Sherlock do it? Do I know the story but not the name? [insert more rhetorical questions]

I think I shall watch Russian SoF first so as to not be spoilt by all the crap.

Do you really want all my feelings about the Sign of Four? Be warned, they are many.

I mean, in the novel the racism was just a result of the time; it wasn’t any worse or better than any Victorian anthropologist I’ve read and I can excuse ACD to some extent. The villain has a slave-ish “savage” on his side who has homocidal tendencies because he comes from a “brutal race”.

And then 25% of the book is just the villain talking about what happened, so I was really bored during the novel too. This is also the story where John Watson meets Mary Morstan and they get engaged by the end of it.

Oh, and no, BBC Sherlock hasn’t done it (yet…)

Granada Holmes did a feature-ish-length version of it that really played up the caricature of the “savage” and made me twitch a lot cause reading it is one thing and seeing it is even worse. And they cut out the romance, which made me sort of sad for Watson.

Russian Holmes (beware, spoilers, you can skip if you want) had Holmes figure out some of the stuff beforehand so we cut out 75% of the villains speech and they also apparently couldn’t find a black actor, so the part about the “savage” was cut almost to the point of it just being a passing mention. Then they stuck Scandal in Bohemia in the middle which broke it up and then I actually liked it.

tl;dr - The Russians cut 80% of what I hated from the Sign of Four, stuck in the funniest scene I have ever witnessed on television and actually made it enjoyable.

Ah! Yeah, that’s pretty frakking teeth-grindy. Bleh. I may have missed the Granada one then, it’s not ringing a bell. And I did skip the spoiler section, just FYI, so thanks for the heads-up! I may even skip the Granada version, especially if Watson loses out. Poor Watson. But then I’m enough of a complete-ist that I’ll probably end up watching it anyways when I re-watch the Granada series.

So is the Sign of Four kind of the Talons of the Sherlock range?

Never seen Talons, I can’t judge :/ But it’s definitely the one that makes me the most uncomfortable.

Ah, oh, er. Well. It’s generally considered one of the best stories in Doctor Who, coming in very close to the top in those Best of All the Stories Ever polls, but it’s as racist as fuck. I was like obsessed with Tom Baker when I tried to watch it, but I got just 2 eps into the 6 and had to turn it off. It’s the only Doctor Who story I had to make myself finish.

Basically, think of all the east asian racist stereotypes (apart from the driving one), stick it in Victorian England with Four and Leela, and throw in some yellow face. Bleh.