If Moffat's Sherlock Isn't Up To Date Enough For You... Sherlock Holmes In The 22nd Century

[Brendon Connelly]

Sherlock Holmes has proven a very resilient creation, not only surviving but even blossoming through a regular supply of strong and exciting adaptations over his one hundred and twenty some years. More lately there have even been several successful overhauls, complete reworkings that take the essential Holmes components and change pretty much everything else - names, setting, location - including Jake Kasdan's superb Zero Effect and the globally super-popular TV series, House.

Bleeding Cool is particularly fond of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss' Sherlock, which shows how many of the Conan Doyle essentials can stay while the context can be brought right up to date. They've brought Holmes all the way from the 19th Century into the 21st with very few hiccups.

But let's suppose the 21st Century isn't far enough into "the future" for you. How about... Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century.

I'd never even heard of this animated show until TV Shows on DVD revealed it was coming to stores in February. I'd certainly never seen any of it, so I did my due diligence on YouTube.

Here is the show's quite literally incredible opening sequence:



Not much imagination in the lyrics there. Or the music. Or the little spoken asides.

Or the animation. Or character design.

Or the original concept.

Still, Lestrade is a lady now, Beth Lestrade. That's something, right?

Though that "something" looks suspiciously like sexist tokenism. Is there anybody out there who remembers the show and can comment?

The US releases of the full series and also a single disc "Best Of" are set for February 21st. There's no Amazon page for either yet, but you can already get every episode last as a download.

Any fans of this out there? What have I been missing?

[Joe Kalicki]

I used to watch the show. The episodes are basically direct adaptations of Doyle's stories, only set in the future with superficial changes. I remember being okay, certainly worth watching an episode or two.

[Eldron]

Based on that title sequence alone, I'm going to be getting my bargepole, then sitting around refusing to touch it. Eeeee-yuk!

[JSZorg]

I remember watching it and enjoying it. Don't remember it being anything particularly special though. I was pretty young back then and I don't really trust my memory or my younger self.

[jshilpetski]

I remember the show pretty well; I especially remember getting the catchy theme in my head a few times. Well, it was catchy to child-me, so, yeah. Anyway, the show is exactly what you would expect it to be: reworkings of the original Conan Doyle stories, rejiggered with flashy 22nd century technology. Nothing special; I wouldn't even say it's particularly useful for getting kids into Sherlock.

[bewareofgeek]

Watson is a robot.

Let me just repeat that:

Watson. Is a ROBOT.

[ChrisMcFeely]

Yes, but a robot programmed with the personality of the real Watson, which it obtained by reading his journals!

[CraigMD]

Used to love this show as a kid, but I don't think it would appeal to me as much now.

[Jay Kay]

I remember watching it and enjoying it as a kid.

Then again, I remember watching a lot of things as a kid and enjoying them, and then trying them again as an adult and wonder "What the fuck was I thinking?"

So I guess it could turn out either way.

[CraigMD]

Oh, almost forgot. Did anyone watch Bravestarr as a kid? There was an episode where he met Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd century. Apparently, when Holmes fell off the cliff in Hound of the Baskervilles he ended up traveling through time. BraveStarr 1x15 Sherlock.Holmes In The 23rd Century 2 (Part 1-3) - YouTube