Canonical References in Sherlock, Series 2: A Scandal in Belgravia
Abbreviations:
SCAN = "A Scandal in Bohemia", the ACD short story
Episode 1: A Scandal in Belgravia (ASiB)
Irene's relationship with the unseen 'Your Highness' (offscreen before the opening credits). The mentions during the Buckingham Palace scene that a person of interest to the client (implied: to the Queen), was 'a young, female person'. (In SCAN, Irene Adler had had a relationship with the King of Bohemia, and according to him, had threatened to send an incriminating photograph to his bride-to-be once his engagement was announced.)
The case (and John's associated blog entry) 'The Geek Interpreter' corresponds to "The Greek Interpreter". The details from the blog entry correspond to the original story as follows:
- The blog reveals that the young man who did the talking during the episode was Chris Melas (the title character of "The Greek Interpreter").
- Chris's website was about a series of comic books based on the adventures of a superhero organization called 'KRATIDES' (the surname of the victim for whom Melas had to translate in the story).
- The character of 'Sophy' corresponds to Sophy Kratides in "The Greek Interpreter", the victim's sister.
- The character of Professor Davenport spotted in Beckenham corresponds to J. Davenport, who answered Mycroft Holmes' advertisement by saying that Sophy lived in Beckenham.
- Chris spotted one character on Wandsworth Common (where the original Melas was dropped off after his first kidnapping).
- The person called Kemp who contacted Chris through his website corresponds to one of the villains of the original piece, Wilson Kemp.
The case (and John's associated blog entry) 'The Speckled Blonde' corresponds to "The Speckled Band". The details from the blog entry correspond to the original story as follows:
- The sisters, Helen and Julia Stoner, as in the original story, lived with their stepfather, Dr Roylott; Julia was found dead some time after becoming engaged.
- In the BBC case, puncture marks are found on Julia's right ankle and traces of unidentfied poison in her bloodstream, leading to the obvious, but here wrong, conclusion that she had died of snakebite. Her fiance kept snakes, and was being framed for her death by her stepfather. (In the original story, the cause of death was not originally determined correctly and really *was* by snakebite; it was the stepfather who kept exotic pets, including a poisonous snake which he kept hidden.) In other words, the solution which Sherlock rejected in the case as written up by John was the original story's solution. :)
- Percy Armitage, the dead girl's fiancé in the blog entry, was actually the surviving girl's fiancé in the original story.
- In both cases, the stepfather was behind the death and died at the end of the story.
The entry on Sherlock's website about '243 different kinds of tobacco ash' corresponds to Holmes' 'little monograph on the ashes of 140 different varieties
of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco' mentioned in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery". (Clearly there are more kinds of tobacco products in the world today.)
John's suggested title of "The Navel Treatment" would correspond to the ACD story "The Naval Treaty".
At Buckingham Palace, we start to see elements of "The Illustrious Client" combined with SCAN. Harry, the equerry who doesn't smoke, corresponds to Sir James Damery (who also didn't smoke). He considered the man behind the problem in that story to be the most dangerous man in Europe - and Holmes promptly downplayed this in comparison to the late Professor Moriarty. In ASiB, Moriarty *is* involved.
Sherlock in ASiB initially refuses the case: "I don’t do anonymous clients. I’m used to mystery at one end of my cases. Both ends is too much work." In "The Illustrious Client", Holmes' words were 'I am accustomed to have mystery at one end of my cases, but to have it at both ends is too confusing.'
Sherlock's questions about the compromising photographs - in SCAN, he was indeed careful to verify with his client that both the client and Irene Adler appeared in the photograph.
In ASiB, Sherlock talks his way into Irene's house while disguised as a vicar, who had been attacked in the street; Holmes used the same tactic in SCAN, although with a more complicated staged fight involving more people. (In "The Illustrious Client", incidentally, Holmes was beaten up partway through the story, though not by Watson.) In ASiB and SCAN, John Watson raised a false fire alarm, which led to Irene inadvertently revealing the location of her hiding place.
In ASiB, there are two break-ins to try to obtain the camera phone - one at Irene Adler's place, the other at 221. In SCAN, both break-ins were at Irene Adler's place, arranged by Holmes' client before he engaged Holmes (they were mentioned by the client to Holmes during their first interview).
In ASiB, Sherlock mentions 'Vatican cameos'. This corresponds to a reference in The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 2, to the 'affair of the Vatican cameos', a case that had occupied Sherlock at the time the first death in the Baskerville story had been mentioned in the papers.
In both ASiB and SCAN, Irene follows Sherlock back to 221. (In the original story, this was how she verified his identity, and she wished him good night by name while in disguise.)
In both ASiB (at least, the first time) and SCAN, Irene turns out not to be interested in blackmail after getting away with her compromising information, but in protecting herself with it from Holmes' client. In both cases, Sherlock kept a memento of Irene - his customized text alert (and later, the camera phone) in ASiB, a photograph of her in the original story.
In ASiB, we learn that Sherlock, like the original Holmes, occasionally composes music.
The number '1895' corresponds to the year after the original Holmes returned to London after his supposed death at Reichenbach. Some of the cases in The Return of Sherlock Holmes were set during that year, e.g. 'The Solitary Cyclist'.
Moriarty's text message to Mycroft Holmes - 'Dear me Mr Holmes, dear me.' is the same, give or take punctuation, as the message Moriarty sent to Sherlock in the epilogue of The Valley of Fear after arranging for the murder of the man once known as Birdy Edwards.
In both ASiB and SCAN, Sherlock Holmes ends up referring to Irene Adler simply as 'The Woman'.
As in the original SCAN, by the end of the story, the suggestion is that John Watson believes Irene to be dead. Note that at the end of ASiB, Irene had supposedly gone *to* America, while in the original story, she was *from* America (specifically from New Jersey).