The Adventure of Transmedia Sherlock-Part Two

Talking about BBC’s Sherlock: while contemporising Sherlock Holmes in the age of informationalization, the series foregrounds the digitized new media expressions. This is infused in this series not only visually, but also into its form. Thus Sherlock Holmes’ famous “brain attic” becomes “digital cloud” memory. The internal perfection and monumental memory that was well respected and prized by 19^th century intellectuals is, in this series, replaced by the ability to navigate through the rapidity of access and networking of knowledge in 21^st century’s digitized platform.

Not only updating characters, the series adapts the digital paradigm in its televisuality as well. Contemporised Sherlock, is thus, necessarily saturated by the presence of digital display. The first encounter with Sherlock Holmes in series took place through text layered on images. These text messages, authored and signed by Sherlock Holmes, give the audience an intimation of his existence.

Not just text  messages, this series, by its technique of layering text over images makes Sherlock Holmes’ thought process perceptible to the audience. The audience can see the event and experience Sherlock’s thoughts about the event simultaneously and directly. For example, in Study in Pink while studying the woman in pink, these texts layered over images guide the audience through Holmes’ thought process even when Watson remains oblivious of it. Holmes approaches the body and notices the message “Rache” scratched by the dying woman’s fingernails. The text layer on image show him translating it first into “Revenge” in German, then completing the word into “Rachel”. He notices the coat and the text states it is wet, even the inside of the collar, but the pocket umbrella is dry. While noticing her jewellery, texts declare they are clean except for the well worn wedding ring which is polished on the inside. Holmes deduction of unhappy marriage for 10+ years and that of serial adulterer from the fact the ring was frequently removed is made known to the audience through text layering even before he explains himself. The police doctor Anderson appears and tries to show off by pointing out that the victim must be German. Holmes closes the door on his nose while browsing on his Smartphone and says that she is not German but from Cardiff and was in town for one night. This he does by a quick search through the current weather report from few kilometres around London.

Arthur Conan Doyle framed Sherlock Holmes’ voice through John Watson’s writing. A reader comes to know about the event and their meaning as they unfold to Dr. Watson’s understanding. Film and television adaptation of Conan Doyle stories provided a chance to witness Sherlock Holmes himself explaining his reasoning and deduction through his own articulation in conversation with Watson. But BBC Sherlock makes Holmes thought process visible through multilayered images and texts. Thus it can be said that for the first time the narrative in this series is structured by Sherlock’s thoughts.