Sunday links

[selenak]

As I won't get to watch the new Fringe until the 21st or thereabouts, have some links collected over the last week referring to other interests instead:

Sherlock and Doctor Who:
A Scandal in Fandom: Stephen Moffat, Irene Adler and the fannish gaze: probably the best post on the matter I've read so far, blessedly unpolemical, and great with

Comments

[ponygirl2000]

I liked the Moffat link. I had problems with the ending, but they were along the lines of I didn't think Sherlock made his case in demonstrating Irene's emotions with a jokey password and pulse rate, and really if Irene had given him a look along the lines of "if that's what you need to believe, fine," I would have been satisfied as she had played her motives as mixed throughout. I wasn't bothered by the final rescue narratively, it's just the visuals seemed so over the top - and this is where I think Moffat really opened himself up to the sexism charges as it was staged very much as a damsel in distress moment (also it called back to the Blind Banker and that is never good). Fandom's reaction has been... interesting. Especially when I've seen a couple reviews of Hounds which start off by slamming Scandal in comparison. I'm all for subjective experience and all that but really? Really? Leaving aside some major writing issues, people are finding more shippiness in an episode where Sherlock unrepentantly drugged John just because at one point he says they're friends? I found Scandal's explorations of love so interesting because it dealt with love in so many forms - it wasn't just Irene and John, there were Sherlock's relationships with Mycroft, Mrs. Hudson and yes, finally Molly, which was key because it demonstrated Sherlock grasping that feelings can be respected even if not returned.

The one thing I haven't seen anyone go into is how much Scandal is a tribute not to the original ACD story but to the Billy Wilder movie The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Both Moffat and Gatiss are very open in their admiration of it, and so many elements are there: the naked woman wandering about to try and flummox Holmes, her use of him to spy on Mycroft's plans, her mixed emotions towards Sherlock, the revelation months later that she's been executed as a spy.

[selenak]

I suspect fandom at large either only watched or only remembers the first twenty minutes of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes with its running "is Holmes gay?" gag and completely ignores the rest of the film and the woman who is its central character. :(

And yes, Hound by comparison is... I'm all "really?" as well. I still stand by my claim Scandal is better than anything the Moff wrote in s6 of New Who.