Sherlock: Pilot’s Progress

By RosieNo Comments
Previously on this blog, I discussed why I thought watching both Sherlock pilots was an excellent exercise for film-makers. A couple of weeks ago, I was afforded the opportunity to test this theory. My good friends at Realm Pictures had yet to see any of the Sherlock series and were therefore in an ideal position: they could watch the unaired pilot first, consider improvements, and then watch the aired version. ***As before, extensive episode content discussed beyond this point. WATCH FIRST.*** I shouldn't try to predict my friends' reactions. Also, seeing through fresh eyes and undergoing that experience with them gave me new perspective. The first thing was that they felt the cab connection was obvious early (I watched it with friends the first time and nobody got it, but I've always been terrible at murder mysteries). They also preferred the first Sherlock meeting scene in the computer lab, but they may be down to taste. They were not fond of the little text labels...
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Sherlock: A Study in Pilots

By Rosie4 Comments
Today, I watched the original Sherlock pilot. It comes on the DVDs as an extra, the 60-minute version of A Study in Pink. *WARNING - EXTENSIVE DISCUSSION OF EPISODE CONTENT. WATCH FIRST.* My friends told me that it was pretty much the same as the aired pilot, with similar scenes and dialogue, and barely worth watching. When I saw Steven Moffat speak about Sherlock, he said that the unaired pilot suffers badly in comparison to the remake - but that, at the time, execs and distributors were wild about it and couldn't understand why the creative team wanted to remake it. My friends are right: the dialogue is exactly the same in places and the set pieces - the meeting at Barts, the pink murder scene, the "date" at the restaurant - are pretty much transferable between the two. And, then again, they're not. The entire look and feel of the two pilots is completely different, something that I believe I must attribute...
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