Sherlock Review: Series 1 Episode 0 “Unaired Pilot”

By: Steven Moffat

**Spoilers**

If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding. 

           

            If all shows had the opportunity to do a trial first episode like this one than I might spend more time watching television. Possibly. As anyone who knows anything about me can tell you, I am a huge fan of the BBC Sherlock miniseries so when my long-awaited Series 1 DVD set arrived, I was beyond thrilled to realize that there was an unforeseen special feature in the form of the unaired pilot. So, eager to see something new about Sherlock and John, I popped the disk into my laptop and sat down to watch.

            Was it raw? Yes! Did I enjoy it? YES! It is very obvious that this is a trial run – edited and used solely for the purpose of selling the show to BBC, but if you can get past the first-draftyness (yes, that is a word I just made up) then this pilot is definitely worth a watch. If for nothing else you can revel in the knowledge that it was not the finished product. 



Notes & Random Thoughts:

- They all say their lines quite flatly, particularly for about the first three fourths of the pilot. Everything is either fired too fast or with too many pauses, making the dialogue seem quite awkward where it really wasn’t. 

- One other thing I noticed was the lack of text on the screen; something that I found myself really missing.

- There also wasn’t quite the build-up to the introduction of Sherlock Holmes that we had in the finished episode. That was a shame.

- When Sherlock is first introduced, it is without the quirky music that made the beat-the-body scene seem cool and epic within the actual episode, though Molly is still as awkwardly sweet as ever. Maybe those extra stutters were brought on by the fact that Sherlock looks like a boy here – barely into his twenties, at the oldest – and is dressed in The Purple Shirt and a pair of rather skinny jeans.

*pauses to let the Cumberbabes squeal*

- Enough of that! I am glad that they ditched the casual for the more snobbish and formal, even if it means we don’t get the same effect. Sheesh. 

- Another thing I greatly enjoyed was the rather coldly formal email he sent to Mycroft and the way he deleted Lestrade’s comment. Little touches like this, if you’re looking for them, can tell you loads about characters and relationships without having to rely on clunky, mind-numbing exposition within the episode itself. 

- “Mrs. Hudson’s Snax ‘n Sarnies”? Seriously? Just who did they pay to come up with that name?

- What in the name of sanity is Mrs. Hudson wearing? It looks like something meant to be used to upholster a chair…a cheap chair...in a doctor’s office! And what’s with the wink when she asked about bedrooms? C’mon, Moffat, you can do better than that. Where’s the subtly? We know that the fabulous Una Stubbs can pull it off, so give her something juicy to work with.

- And the frankly alarming pink walls of the flat? They’re hideous!!!! Thank God that the team was given more money to update this poor set. I like the slightly more Victorian feel to the later version. It sort of helps bring Sherlock Holmes into modern day by giving us something slightly familiar to surround him with. I am glad that horrid cow-skull light-fixture survived the remake, though, as it perfectly sums up Sherlock’s rather eccentric tastes.

- When Lestrade comes to call, I picked up on an interesting vibe in that conversation. Not only is Sherlock showing more human emotion in this filming, but Sherlock comes off as much more obviously manipulative: from John and the phone to Lestrade and the assistants. If you watch his face, you can see that he calculates as John and Mike Stamford walk into the computer lab and then asks for a phone. The same thing happens here as he stresses the fact that he needs an assistant. Lestrade even looks at him like he’s not entirely sure he wants to know what Sherlock’s up to, but he knows something’s going on.

- While I do like the rather disjointed, intense score of the pilot, I think I like the quirky theme that would be used later even better. Somehow it just fits neater. It is catchy and if a piece of music can sound intelligent, that one certainly does. (I feel epic searching for my pen if I do so while listening to that later score.) 

- The lighting also is very different here from the dark and sometimes glaring tones of the finished episode. It is definitely warmer and softer, with more reds and less blues. It’s not a bad look and definitely doesn’t detract anything from the episode; it’s just noticeably different.

- Sherlock is also definitely more personable and…well…human here than in the finished episode. He’s not as cold or detached and not as analytical in the way he views the world around him. I also don’t really like the way he delivers the deduction monologues here. It’s not fast-paced enough so we don’t really get the feeling that his mind is racing through these facts and conclusions like Phantom of Assateague. Also, where’s Sherlock’s disgusted grimace when he hears about Harry being a girl and realizes that he had indeed gotten something wrong?

- I’m very glad that they got a new actress to play Sergeant Donovan in the actual episode. This Sally delivers her lines like a first-time drama kid and seems very uncomfortable and stilted. Either the actress is inexperienced or just not well-suited to this part. Seeing Anderson with that dorky beard and glasses more than made up for it, though.

- Yeah. Definitely glad they ditched the crime-scene suite for Sherlock in the episode. Even if it’s not really accurate, the suit just ruined any dignity he might have built up. If you’re going to do the gutsy thing and update an icon like Sherlock Holmes to the 21^st Century, then you’d better make sure that the audience can still take the character seriously. Putting him in a crinkly plastic suit that swallows him whole (and forces him to ditch the coat) is not a good move.

- The woman’s body looks better in this than in the episode, IMHO. Here she looks more like she actually fell and scrabbled at the floor and less like she was laid out in effigy. We were missing the ‘Rache’ plot point, though. Drat! I liked that reference.

- They should have kept the point about her ‘fat’ fingers in the episode as it takes away the question of how did Sherlock know that she was married 10+ years? That is something that has always bothered me about that particular deduction and it was great fun to read this and find an explanation for my own personal little pet peeve. Sherlock’s reaction to the suitcase being missing is rather…flat. He needs to be more condescending to the police and more ecstatic when he makes the realization. They should have kept the news blackout in the episode too and it would have closed yet another nit-picky potential plot hole.   

- We’re missing Mycroft too! Drat, I always enjoyed that scene (especially since most people, myself included, think he’s Moriarty the first time you meet him). I guess we’ll just have to rely on Sherlock’s email from the beginning to introduce him. 

- Does anyone else find it kind of humorous that Sherlock is getting high off of nicotine patches – the very thing others use to wean themselves off of the drug? Still, better that than cocaine, I guess. John’s concern is touching to see as well, though I miss his righteous indignation at being tugged across town just to send a text and the extremely amusing conversation about archenemies. On the bright side, the shots of Sherlock up to his waist in a dumpster are something worth watching more than once. The look on John’s face when he first spots the pink case is priceless too (I should design a T-shirt with that face on it – it’s that hilarious).

- I don’t like the fact that here Sherlock realizes right away that the murdered woman planted the mobile phone on the murderer…simply because there is no explanation for that deduction. For a leap of logic like that, we the audience do need help following along.

- The comment about arrests vs. coming-out parties Sherlock makes as they walk to dinner should have been kept. It’s too great!

- In fact, everything about the dinner scene is better here. From the restaurant atmosphere, to Sherlock using a mirror to watch for the killer, to Angelo. I feel that this Angelo is more animated and interesting than the one in the actual episode. I would even go so far as to say that this one is a character where the other one is more than a bit flat. I love the way he comes and grabs Sherlock in a hug as he babbles on about how Sherlock got him off a murder charge. Sherlock’s face! Shy away from contact or endure it?  See, I think they got the new version of this scene and the old version mixed up (as far as line delivery goes). This feels more natural and comfortable than the new version and would still fit nicely with the dehumanized Sherlock. Cumberbatch and Joseph Long play off each other beautifully with Freeman joining in with humorous interjections at appropriate points. The HUGE candle Angelo brings over and John’s face is something no one should miss out on. You can practically see him thinking. “Oh no – this is getting serious! Better find out which way this new flatmate swings before it gets even more awkward.” I also like the fact that they addressed Sherlock’s rather extreme approach to the ‘mind over body’ principle. Not only is it a cute scene with John stretching his doctor muscles and more of a reference than a simple “digestion slows me down” but it also leads into the ‘girlfriend/boyfriend’ conversation much more naturally than the way the finished scene is written. 

- We needed both the cab monologue and the little-old-lady-security-camera comment in the new version! There was nothing wrong with that line and we could have put the cab monologue later in the episode to make it fit. But, sadly, there was no way to make the drunk!Sherlock work in the new episode.

- The comment about the drugs is a nice reference too, although I understand that it wouldn’t really have fitted in the actual episode any more than the drunk scene would have. Shame, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. 

- Gosh; the cabbie is twice as creepy here as in the revised version. (And maybe, if you read into subtext, a little bit perverted). 

- Somehow, though, no matter how cute he looks, Sherlock’s lines lack the snap when he’s sprawled out on the table. I like the newer version where he coldly deduces the cabbie much better.  

- The poison pills themselves look rather boring (I’ve got vitamins that looks more intriguing) and I’m not sure whether or not I like the lack of Moriarty in the confrontation.

- Okay, so how didn’t that bullet hit Sherlock? It hit the shorter cabbie far too low for it to lodge in the wall without first going through Sherlock’s chest. 

- Another thing we need to see more of is Sherlock wrapped up in an orange shock blanket. I love the moment when he realizes what John did.

- I like the fact that here he was looking over Lestrade’s shoulder rather than off to the side where Lestrade could follow his gaze. This way just made Lestrade seem like less of a bumbler. (Not that the finished episode did that in comparison to past interpretations, but I just like this way better.) Speaking of the Detective Inspector, why is Lestrade asking about the pills and goading Sherlock as to whether or not he got the right one. Somehow I doubt Sherlock would have confided in him like that (or cooperated at all) and I also don’t think Lestrade really cares who won the game when he’s got a body and a mysterious gunman to deal with.

- The fate of John’s gun should have been addressed in the episode,  even if he didn’t chuck it into the Thames. And I like John’s reassurance better here than the brush-off joke he used in the episode. Here they addressed it, in the episode it just felt like John was burying his emotions again.

         

So to sum it all up, this pilot is definitely worth a watch even if you don’t consider yourself a hard-core Sherlockian. It has some genuinely touching and funny moments and a few scenes are even better than the original. And if you must – if truly nothing else will convince you – watch it for those darn jeans!

What did you think? Do you agree with my thoughts and musings? If not - what would you say differently?