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A Study in Pink

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"A Study in Pink"

"A Study in Pink" is the first episode of the television series Sherlock and first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 25 July 2010. It introduces the main characters and resolves a murder mystery. It is loosely based upon the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet.[1]

The episode was written by Steven Moffat, who co-created of the series. It was originally filmed as a 60-minute pilot for Sherlock, directed by Coky Giedroyc. However, the BBC decided not to transmit the pilot, but instead commissioned a series of three 90-minute episodes.[2] However, the British Board of Film Classification has rated the pilot as a 12 certificate for video and online exhibition, and it will be included as an additional feature on the DVD released on 30 August 2010.[3]

Synopsis

John Watson, an ex-army doctor injured in the war in Afghanistan is introduced to Sherlock Holmes as a possible flatmate by a mutual friend, sharing rooms at 221B Baker Street, owned by landlady Mrs Hudson.

There have been a strange series of deaths that Inspector Lestrade supposes to be serial suicides. Holmes is consulted by Lestrade to look into the latest crime scene which is of a woman wearing an "alarming shade of pink". Holmes deduces that the woman is an serial adulterer with an unhappy, decade long marriage. However, this victim, unlike others, left a note: she clawed the word "Rache" into the floor before dying. Holmes quickly ignores the suggestion of the forensic expert, Anderson, that it's the German word for revenge and settles on "Rachel", deeming that the victim died before finishing the scrawl.

Examining the woman's clothing and accessories, Holmes reveals that she's from out of town, intending to stay over for one night which he deduces from splashes of mud on only one leg, suggesting that she carries a small suitcase over the clean leg. However Lestrade explains that no suitcase was found in the premises. Holmes flies off, searching for the spot where the murderer might have ditched the case. It turns out that the murderer threw it into a nearby garbage container.

Meanwhile, Watson receives a call from a public phone. After the subsequent conversation, a black sedan arrives, taking Watson to an empty warehouse. There, he meets a man claiming to be Holmes' "arch-enemy" and proposes money in return of information about Holmes' activities. The man warns Watson to "choose a side" and walks off.

Watson finds Holmes in 221B, where he asks Watson to send a text message to a number which he reveals to be the fourth victim's. The two then go out for a dinner in a local Italian restaurant where it strikes Holmes that the murderer must be someone who can stalk and approach people without raising suspicion on the streets of London. That instant, Holmes perceives a cabbie across the street with a passenger. They give chase with Holmes using his profound knowledge of London's streets and alleys to run into the cab via various detours and backstreets. Eventually they catch up with the cab but the passenger turns out to be a newly arrived American; a perfect alibi.

At Baker Street, Holmes and Watson finds Scotland Yard executing a drug bust, in retaliation of the fact that Holmes withheld evidence by chasing after the suitcase himself. In a chain of deductions, he reasons that the last victim left her bag behind intentionally with her phone inside and clawed her mail address password upon the floor to expose her murderer. Tracing the GPS signal, Watson sees that the signal is coming from 221B at which point Mrs. Hudson tells that there's a cabbie waiting for him downstairs. Holmes, in a moment of epiphany, realizes the plot. It was the cabbie approaching people without suspicion and taking them to irrelevant locations where they're found dead.

Holmes leaves his apartment, facing off the cabbie who confesses his doings, but in a different view; he proclaims that he doesn't kill - instead, he speaks to his victims and they kill themselves. He challenges Holmes to solve his puzzle instead of arresting him then and there. They drive around London and finally arrive to a school building. There, the cabbie pulls out a gun and two bottles containing one harmless pill and one poisonous pill. Holmes and the cabbie have a dialogue about motives and consequences after which Holmes reads that the cabbie is dying. The murderer confesses that he has an aneurysm. To secure his children's future, he kills people and is paid by a "sponsor" in return. Refusing to play the pill game and calling off the cabbie's gun bluff (which in reality is a novelty cigarette lighter), Holmes walks off. However he's challenged once again to choose a pill to see if he'd read the play right.

Meanwhile, Watson traced the GPS signal from the victim's phone and followed Holmes, who is about to take one of the pills. The cabbie is shot by a bullet piercing through a nearby window. In his final moments, Holmes questions him about his sponsor. Upon his reluctance to tell, Holmes stomps on his bullet wound and manages to get a name: "Moriarty".

Outside, Scotland Yard has surrounded the perimeter and Holmes is taken care of for shock. Lestrade questions Holmes about the shooter but Holmes feigns shock to cover for Watson. Holmes and Watson leave the scene but run into the man whom abducted Watson earlier in the episode. He turns out to be Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's elder brother, with whom he has a grudge.

Allusions

There are similarities and allusions to Conan Doyle's original work, especially A Study in Scarlet from whence this episode takes its title. Tom Sutcliffe of The Independent points out, "Fans will recognise at once that the close-reading Holmes applies to Watson's mobile phone is drawn from an almost identical analysis of a pocket watch [albeit this analysis is actually found in The Sign of the Four]. More slyly oblique is the conversion of the lost ring that Holmes uses to lure the killer in A Study in Scarlet into a lost "ring", a mobile phone that can be used to contact the killer directly."[4]

Watson's reference in the final scene to having been shot in the shoulder (but developing a psychosomatic limp in the leg) refers to the fact that in the original A Study in Scarlet Watson's injury is said to be in his shoulder, but in Conan Doyle's later Holmes stories, it is said to be in his leg.

Production

The story was originally filmed as a 60-minute pilot for Sherlock, directed by Coky Giedroyc. However, when the BBC commissioned a three-part series, it ordered several changes and decided not to transmit the pilot. The Sun reported an unnamed source as saying, "The crew couldn't just re-use footage because the series is now totally different. The stories are now more intricate and detailed, so they basically had to start again." [2]

The episode was set in 2010 rather than the Victorian period and so used modern devices such as mobile phones, TX1 London cabs and nicotine patches rather than the traditional Meerschaum pipe and other period props.[5]

Cast

Broadcast

The first broadcast was on BBC1 at 21:00 on 25 July 2010. Viewing figures were up to 7.4 million viewers and averaged a 28.5% share of the UK audience with a high AI rating of 87.[6][7]

Reception

The episode received critical acclaim. The Guardian's Dan Martin said, "It's early days, but the first of three 90-minute movies, "A Study In Pink", is brilliantly promising. It has the finesse of Spooks but is indisputably Sherlock Holmes. The deduction sequences are ingenious, and the plot is classic Moffat intricacy. Purists will take umbrage, as purists always do."[8] However, Sam Wollaston, also for The Guardian, was concerned that some elements of the story were unexplained.[9] Tom Sutcliffe for The Independent also suggests that Holmes was "a bit slow" to connect the attributes of the killer to a London taxicab driver, but his review is otherwise positive. He wrote, "Sherlock is a triumph, witty and knowing, without ever undercutting the flair and dazzle of the original. It understands that Holmes isn't really about plot but about charisma ... Flagrantly unfaithful to the original in some respects, Sherlock is wonderfully loyal to it in every way that matters.[4]

References

  1. ^ Tim Oglethorpe (23 July 2010), "Sherlock's got sexy! With nicotine papers instead of a pipe and taxis replacing hansom cabs, the new TV Holmes is a very 21st century hero", Daily Mail
  2. ^ a b Wightman, Catriona (27 May 2010). "BBC drops Sherlock Holmes pilot". Digital Spy. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
  3. ^ "SHERLOCK - A STUDY IN PINK". BBFC. 23 July 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  4. ^ a b Sutcliffe, Tom (26 July 2010). "The Weekend's TV: Sherlock, Sun, BBC1 Amish: World's Squarest Teenagers, Sun, Channel 4". The Independent. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  5. ^ Sam Wollaston (26 July 2010), "Sherlock has a great new take on the characters - but what happened to the plot", The Guardian
  6. ^ Mark Sweney (26 July 2010), "Sherlock Holmes more popular than Tom Cruise", The Guardian
  7. ^ Paul Millar (28 July 2010), "'Sherlock' well-received by critics", Digital Spy
  8. ^ Martin, Dan (23 July 2010). "Sherlock makes Sunday night TV sexy". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
  9. ^ Wollaston, Sam (26 July 2010). "TV Review: Sherlock and Orchestra United". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
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