The lights are on
Previously on Sherlock Season 2 Episode 1 "A Scandal in Belgravia", Mycroft convinces Sherlock to recover compromising photographs taken by a dominatrix, Irene Adler. However, Sherlock soon discovers that Irene is his intellectual equal and a battle of wits ensues as he attempts to decipher the code to the camera phone containing the blackmail material. On this week's Episode title "The Hounds of Baskerville", A Hound from Hell. A terrified young man. Sherlock's most famous case. But is a monster really stalking Dartmoor? Something terrible has happened to Henry Knight. Sherlock and John investigate the truth about the monstrous creature which apparently killed their client's father. But what seems like fantasy in Baker Street is a very different prospect in the ultra-secret army base that looms over Dartmoor...Based on the books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this updated version of the Sherlock Holmes stories is modern, edgy, and dangerous. Set in present day London, Holmes is as brilliant and arrogant as ever. His loyal friend Watson served in the Afghanistan war as an army doctor. Together, they embark on thrilling, funny, and outrageous adventures.Sherlock is a British television series that presents a contemporary update of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories. It was created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Doctor John Watson. After an unbroadcast pilot was produced in 2009, the first series of three 90-minute episodes was transmitted on BBC One and BBC HD in July and August 2010. A second series of three episodes premiered on BBC One on 1 January 2012.The series was produced by Hartswood Films for the BBC, and co-produced with WGBH Boston for its Masterpiece anthology series. Filming took place at various locations, including London and Cardiff.Critical reception has been positive and the first series won the 2011 BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series. The first series, along with the unaired pilot and audio commentaries, was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 30 August 2010. The second series, also with commentaries, is to be released on Region 2 DVD on the 23rd January 2012.The series is a collaboration between Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, who both had experience adapting or using Victorian literature for television. Moffat had previously adapted the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for the 2007 series Jekyll, while Gatiss had written the Dickensian Doctor Who episode "The Unquiet Dead". Moffat and Gatiss, who are both Doctor Who writers, discussed plans for a Holmes adaptation during their numerous train journeys to Cardiff where Doctor Who production is based. The two writers are both big Sherlock Holmes fans; Gatiss has said of the Holmes stories that "Whenever I meet someone who hasn't read them, I always think they have got so much fun to come." The theme of 'friendship' appealed to both Gatiss and Moffat. The writers realised that someone else would have the same idea to produce a modern-day version. While they were in Monte Carlo for an awards ceremony, Moffat's wife, producer Sue Vertue, sat them down and they started to work out how they might do it themselves.Gatiss has criticised recent television adaptations of the Conan Doyle stories as "too reverential and too slow", aiming to be as irreverent to the canon as the 1930s and '40s films starring Basil Rathbone. In the DVD audio commentary, Moffat and Gatiss say they decided that everything that had previously been done about Sherlock Holmes was canonical: not just the Conan Doyle stories but the Rathbone and Granada Television versions. Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock uses modern technology, such as texting, the internet, and GPS, to solve crimes. Paul McGuigan, who directed two episodes of Sherlock, says that this is in keeping with Conan Doyle's character, pointing out that "In the books he would use any device possible and he was always in the lab doing experiments. It's just a modern-day version of it. He will use the tools that are available to him today in order to find things out."The update maintains some traditional elements of the stories, such as the Baker Street address and Holmes' archenemy Moriarty. Although the events of the books are transferred to the present day, canonical elements are incorporated into the story. For example, Martin Freeman's Watson has returned from military service in Afghanistan. While discussing the fact that the original Watson was invalided home after serving in the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1880), Gatiss realised that "It is the same war now, I thought. The same unwinnable war."Sherlock was announced as a single 60-minute drama production at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August 2008, with broadcast set for mid- to late 2009. The intention was to produce a full series should the pilot prove to be successful. However, the first version of the pilot – reported to have cost £800,000 – led to rumours within the BBC and wider media that Sherlock was a potential disaster. The BBC decided not to transmit the pilot, requesting a reshoot and a total of three 90-minute episodes. The original pilot was included as part of the series on DVD. During the audio commentary, the creative team say that the BBC were "very happy" with the pilot, but asked them to change the format. The pilot, says journalist Mark Lawson, was "substantially expanded and rewritten, and completely reimagined in look, pace and sound."