Three Cheers for Sherlock

Also sprach Dr. Watson…

(Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four)

This short passage - the one which introduces us to Mary Morstan, Watson’s only individually known wife - is what has given cause to the wildest speculations, amongst holmesian scholars of any time, about Watson’s romantic adventures and/or marriage(s), as well as about his place of birth and/or travels.

This passage, coupled with the one, in STUD, where Watson says that he had no living relatives in England, is what mainly propelled various theories according to which Watson was actually born in America, Australia or one of the Colonies.

As I’ve partly addressed this issue in a previous post, this is not the topic upon which I’m going to speculate here.

Nor I’m going to try and debate the question of how many wives John Watson collected in his life: again, I’ve already partly addressed the subject elsewhere, and I’m not interested in it right now.

No, what intrigues me today is the question: "Which are the three continents that Watson visited prior to him meeting Sherlock Holmes?"

Dr Watson has definitely been to Australia. I was reading 'The Sign of Four' today and I noticed that he says, 'I have seen something of the sort on the side of a hill near Ballarat, where the prospectors had been at work'. Ballarat was world-famous as one of the biggest mining towns here in Australia during the gold rush of the 1850s.

I Googled other towns around the world named Ballarat and found one in California, but it's highly unlikely that Watson was referring to that one. It was tiny, with a population of 400-500 in its heyday (it's a ghost town now) and was named after Australia's Ballarat. Oh, and one crucial fact: the town was founded in 1897, seven years after 'The Sign of Four' was written.

So we can safely assume that our dashing doctor has been to Australia. And was presumably quite a hit with the ladies while here.

Also, Watson may have visited more than 3 continents. He didn't necessarily have to date women on every single continent that he visited, right?

This probably has already been talked about, but I was going through John’s blog the other day and this bit caught my attention. Why is John assuming there was just one sniper, when we were shown clearly that there were multiple laser dots, both on Sherlock and on John? It is such a weird thing to assume, because Moriarty never says anything about this in the episode…  And that bit about ‘his John Watson’? What’s up with that? I know that it’s a nod to canon about Moran but it’s such a weird thing for John to assume…

Mofftiss said in one of the post-s3 interviews that the whole Moriarty plot was planned ‘a long time ago’. What if this is supposed to be a clue for the Mary is Moran theory? It’s no secret that Moriarty is a mirror to Sherlock and that if you look at Mary she’s a mirror to John (blond, medical background, serving the country in the CIA, but now gone rogue). They never say this in the show itself, granted, but the blog contains so many other clues about Johnlock that I don’t think it’s a far-fetched to assume it contains clues about other plot points as well (and it’s teamwork as Joe Lidster said). Coupled with the way Mary signs some of her comments on the blog (all these are pre-Sherlock’s return, incidentally…):

which is reminiscent of the way someone ELSE signs their text messages:

OLD WOMAN: He sounded so … soft.

SHERLOCK: Nice stationery. Bohemian. LESTRADE: What? SHERLOCK: From the Czech Republic. No fingerprints? LESTRADE: No. SHERLOCK (looking closely at the writing): She used a fountain pen. A Parker Duofold – iridium nib. JOHN: “She”? SHERLOCK: Obviously.. (x)

Let’s Dress Irene Adler.

Shakespearean insults, with cats.

Me: Episode 4.

Them: What season though?

Me:

Me:

It’s pretty likely that it’s a four digit number, and as there are four digits chosen there, that means that there cannot be any repetition. This mean that there are:

No, no, no. Don’t base your deductions of psychology. Let’s talk chemistry. When you first press a button, there’s more of the natural oils on your skin, and therefore it wears down the numbers on the keys faster. Obviously 0 is the first one, then. Try 0791 first.

The light is green.