US/UK television series
Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century is an animated television series in which Sherlock Holmes is brought back to life in the 22nd century.[2] The series is a co-production by DIC Entertainment, L.P. and Scottish Television Enterprises and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Special Class Animated Program.[3]
Overview
The concept for the series was created by Sandy Ross, a Scottish Television executive, who came up with the idea while skiing in Aspen, Colorado in January 1996.[4] DIC Productions and Scottish Television had previously worked together to create other series and this continued the trend. Some issues were raised about language carrying different connotations between cultures, but alternative action and dialogue were used to overcome this. The series was originally planned to be called Sherlock Holmes in the 21st Century, but as the planned air date of September 1998 was near the new millennium, the show's name was changed.[4]
Les Studios Tex was also confirmed to be working on the series, although they are not credited in the final product.[5]
Plot
Set during 2103 in New London, Inspector Beth Lestrade of New Scotland Yard is chasing the grotesquely deformed French rogue geneticist Martin Fenwick, when she realizes that his companion is none other than the 19th century criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty. She then discovers that this is not the original Moriarty, but rather a clone created from cells taken from his corpse, which Sherlock Holmes had buried in a Swiss ice cave after Moriarty's death in 1891. Lestrade knows that Holmes died of natural causes many years later and that his corpse is preserved in a glass-walled, honey-filled coffin in the basement of New Scotland Yard. She takes the body from the basement and delivers it to biologist Sir Evan Hargreaves (who resembles Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), who has just invented a process of cellular rejuvenation. Hargreaves uses his process to return life and youth to Holmes's body so that the detective can again battle Moriarty. Holmes also returns to his old Baker Street rooms, which had been preserved as a museum. Lestrade's compudroid reads the original journals of Dr. John H. Watson and assumes his name, face, voice, and mannerisms in order to assist Holmes in both his crime-solving duties and his difficult assimilation to Great Britain in the 22nd century.
During the series, Holmes and Watson often work on retainer for New Scotland Yard, with Beth as their supervising officer and Chief Inspector Charles Grayson as hers, but they also work for private citizens. They are often assisted by the new Baker Street Irregulars: the football player Wiggins, the Cockney Deidre, and the paraplegic Tennyson, who communicates through electronic beeps (which Holmes understands after learning about 22nd century advances in technology and Morse code). The primary villains are Moriarty and Fenwick (whom Moriarty has manipulated into being his loyal henchman), appearing as they do in almost half of the produced episodes.
Each episode is inspired by one of the literary works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.[6] Many of these are direct rewrites of the original stories—such as "The Adventure of the Empty House", "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", "The Five Orange Pips", "The Red-Headed League", and "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb"—while others are drastically different from the stories on which they are based.
Visually, the series is a blend of traditional 2-D and 3-D CGI animation.
List of episodes
The show premiered in the United Kingdom in the late spring of 1999 on CITV and then premiered in the fall in the United States. In the U.S., the series was split into two seasons, with the first airing on Fox Kids, and the other which was planned to air on Kids' WB in 2001,[7] but instead aired on broadcast syndication. All 26 episodes were originally planned to air in the United States on PAX alongside fellow-DIC show Archie's Weird Mysteries as part of an hour-long block,[8] but was moved to air on Fox Kids.
Only the first 13 episodes were broadcast on ITV in 1999, ending with "The Musgrave Ritual" in August. In the U.S., 17 episodes were broadcast on Fox Kids starting in September 1999, in a different order, and ending with "The Man with the Twisted Lip". The remaining episodes aired in 2001 in the U.S.[9]
Home media releases
In September 1999, Vision Video and Universal Studios Home Video UK released a VHS tape of the series in the United Kingdom.[10] It contained the first six episodes of the series in their original production order.
In 2002, Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Trimark Home Video released Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century: The Fall and Rise of Sherlock Holmes, a VHS/DVD which, like the U.K. VHS, consisted of the first three episodes in a feature-length format. The episode "The Sign of Four" was also included on the DVD version.
In 2003, Sterling Entertainment released another VHS/DVD of the series titled Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century: Out of This World. The release contained the episodes "The Sign of Four", "The Adventures of the Dancing Men" and "Silver Blaze", with the episode "The Gloria Scott" as a bonus episode on the DVD.
In February 2012, Mill Creek Entertainment released Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century...On the Case on DVD, consisting of the first 10 episodes of the series in their original production order, and also containing an episode of Stargate Infinity. They also released a DVD box set called Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century: The Complete 26 Episode Series, containing all 26 episodes alongside five bonus episodes from other Cookie Jar owned series.[11] Mill Creek re-released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 as Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century: The Complete Series in April 2018. This version also came with a digital download code.[12]
