It’s kind of started in the two separate threads anyway, but now The Guardian has created a much larger discussion around this article:
Of course it’s not just the two shows, it’s the two lead writers - where they are going with the new Who and the still deveoping Sherlock.This passage is interesting:
And some of the comments below are are also interesting, for example this on the fourth wall and Sherlock (though Dr Who is no stranger to the fourth wall either):
Anyway, I thought I put this up as an opportunity for a discussion in one thread about the “merging”/crossover issue, as well for as any Gatiss / Moffat stuff.
There have been plenty of (original recipe) Sherlock references in “Doctor Who” (“The Talons of Weng-Chiang”, for example, a Tom Baker/Leela episode).
And we see a Doctor Who shout-out now and then in the contemporary “Sherlock” (such as in the ending sequence of “A Scandal in Belgravia”, when Sherlock instructs Irene Adler, ‘When I say "Run!’ – RUN!!!").
The critic is nostalgic for the good old days, when the family would watch telly & wait for the newspaper critic to explain it all. Now a million folks watch & a thousand post their opinions immediately. Wise, funny opinions. Or very silly ones. Then they begin arguing!
He’s offended by fans who are “obsessed.” He gets paid for having superior knowledge–how dare mere peasants study up & express their opinions where others can read them?
Haven’t seen the latest Sherlock but have gleefully spoiled myself. Yes, Gatiss was having fun with the fans–the folks who have made the show a giant hit. Some of them are upset–and others think the episode was great fun. The critic seems to think there are common folk who couldn’t “get” it. Where are they?
Basically, he gets paid to submit articles. That’s all he could come up with…
Some of the face-morphs to match the mouth movements on the Doctor are solidly into creepy “uncanny valley” territory for me, and Sherlock isn’t ever quite looking in the right direction.
Not saying it isn’t amazing, and really talented work, but the little niggly oddities kept making the hairs on my arms stand up.
shudder Super-creepy. Awesome concept, and really cool work, but yeesh - weird!
I had this weird idea a long time ago. I can’t remember if I made it up or I read a fanfiction somewhere. Anyway the idea was that Sherlock was actually the Doctor which had gotten trapped in the late 1800’s and forgotten who he was.
I don’t think that one show/universe could really carry both characters. They work at least in part due to their uniqueness, and having another character from the same mold (more or less) would significantly weaken that. Plus, there’s the danger that it would just deteriorate into an intellectual pissing contest—both characters love to be in the position of being the only one around with a clue what’s going on, of outclassing everybody around, and moreover, both series’ writers love to show that off (while I liked the first episode of the new season of Sherlock, sometimes it seemed like half of it was spent in ‘Sherlock scan’-mode). Playing that against one another would get tiresome quickly.
The link in the OP doesn’t seem to work for me: I can’t get the actual article – after a few seconds, it jumps to the “readers’ comments” section. However, the bit of the article quoted in the OP does give me the feeling that the critic is indeed an up-himself, supercilious, aesthetic-snobbish, conceited twat (rather a lot of such types seem to show up in the “Guardian”).
My unfavourable reaction is intensified by the guy’s using the word “Whovian”. Influenced perhaps by my not being a Dr. Who fan anyway; but I loathe that word, as used by some over-the-top Dr. W. devotees. It just strikes me as so fucking precious. As bad, for me, as a kindred pet hate of mine: those fanatical enthusiasts for the works of Terry Pratchett (which I also dislike), who refer to their adored author as “Pterry”. Both words make me see red, and want to go out and KILL.
Sorry to be a miserable, negative sod, disproportionately upset by terms which are, objectively, harmless…