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Tue 17 Jan, 2012 04:46 pm
I mean the one starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson respectively... it's a "modernised" version of the Sherlock Holmes stories - set in the present day.
I can't help wondering... what does Dr Watson do for a living? I mean, Sherlock is a "consulting detective" - gets paid to solve cases... as far as I can tell, though, Dr Watson, despite supposedly being a doctor, doesn't actually seem to do much aside from helping Sherlock solve his cases, simply because they happen to be flatmates... but does that mean he is a paid colleague of Sherlock's?
@RajKoothrappali,
I can't watch anyone but Jeremy Brett play Sherlock.
@RajKoothrappali,
He seems to be an injured war vet, so maybe he's getting some type of veterans compensation package or something.
He's been doing some sessions in his local general practice (family medicine)
Central London rents are high. In order to be able to afford to live in London on an army pension, he becomes the flatmate of Sherlock Holmes (that is, he only has to pay 50% of the rent of a flat in Baker Street).
@RajKoothrappali,
Absolutely, it's awesome.
Dr Watson is a Doctor. The medical kind. Employed by the British military, is currently on medical leave or medical pension after being injured during conflict.
Now he's just Sherlock's "friend"... hilarity ensues.
Dr. Watson meets Mr. Holmes at the beginning of the novel A Study in Scarlet (Doyle wrote four novels and more than 50 stories about the pair). This is the opening of that novel:
In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the Army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as assistant surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy's country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Candahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties.
The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a packhorse, and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines.
Worn with pain, and weak from the prolonged hardships which I had undergone, I was removed, with a great train of wounded sufferers, to the base hospital at Peshawar. Here I rallied, and had already improved so far as to be able to walk about the wards, and even to bask a little upon the veranda when I was struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions. For months my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent, I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was despatched accordingly, in the troopship Orontes, and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it.
I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air -- or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought. So alarming did the state of my finances become, that I soon realized that I must either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my style of living. Choosing the latter alternative, I began by making up my mind to leave the hotel, and take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile.
Watson has a pension which pays -/11/6 per day. That's just short of 220 pounds sterling per annum. While certainly not a sum to make him wealthy, nor even particularly comfortable were he living alone, it is sufficient to meet his expenses living in lodgings if he can find someone else to live with. He is introduced to Holmes precisely because he is looking for such a situation.
@MonaLeeza,
I agree completely. They did a marvelous job with that series. If you are familiar with the Sidney Paget illustrations which were used in the original versions of the stories, you will have seen many of them converted directly into filmed scenes. Best Sherlock ever.
@Setanta,
Have you seen the latest (2nd) series? 3 part series just gone to air in the UK?
@Eorl,
No, i only use the television to watch DVDs. There is a BBC Canada channel, i might check it out . . . if i remember . . . if it's on at a conventient time . . . if i'm not playing on the computer . . . if the dogs don't distract me . . . i don't watch much television . . .
Being the anal type, I noticed that in an episode of the latest series, Holmes and Watson were attempting to infiltrate a sinister secret government research establishment, guarded by the army, and Watson passes himself off as a serving officer, showing a military ID and calling himself something like "Captain John Watson, Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers" getting himself a prompt salute. Well, since 1898 British Army doctors have been members, not of any particular regiment, but of the Royal Army Medical Corps.
Hehe... Watching the show, I thought I'd quite like to live in an apartment like that myself... and a flatmate like Sherlock would be cool too! I found myself trying to work out how much it would cost, whether I could afford it - a small but comfortable apartment - in a city like London, with a convenient coffee shop nearby... Of course, the other question is, would I ever find a flatmate like Sherlock, who, despite his eccentricities, and his penchant for landing himself and his friends in some pretty sticky situations, seems like a likeable kind of guy!
@RajKoothrappali,
Haven't caught up with the Sherlock series yet, but I really like our BBC network. I even like their commercials.
@Setanta,
The Cumberpatch series is more of a reimagining than an adaptation of Holmes. It is very good, but it's bang up to date, the deerstalker hat is used as a bit of a joke.
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