Baker Street Irregulars discussion

I'm reading it again and realize that in someone' else's hands, the story could read like a horror story, but in Doyle's hands it's a mystery for Holmes to solve.

I saw a televised version I thought focused more on the crime than Holmes abilities.

I think there are a couple stories in the canon - The Creeping Man and the Sussex Vampire are two - that could be slanted to come off as horror instead of straight detective stories.
I thought the Granada version of The Cardboard Box was well done - it was the last episode of the series and I think Jeremy Brett died not long after it aired (maybe before) - but that final scene was almost his goodbye.

yes i had the entire collection and remembered

Demetrius wrote: "I'm reading it again and realize that in someone' else's hands, the story could read like a horror story, but in Doyle's hands it's a mystery for Holmes to solve.

I agree that there are some monstrous characters in the Canon that could be exaggerated to a point where the story has horrific elements. I have always thought that the Rucastle boy and Jackie in The Sussex Vampire were budding serial criminals.
Yes, the Granada episode focused more on the crime, but as mentioned, it was the last episode - I think Brett's health was in decline (though he looked somewhat better than in other episodes that season) and the final scenes could be taken as the series finale because the producers probably didn't have confidence that he would be able to continue.

Barbara wrote: "I think there are a couple stories in the canon - The Creeping Man and the Sussex Vampire are two - that could be slanted to come off as horror instead of straight detective stories.
I thought the..."
The Granada series started out with all the participants striving to produce the canon, changes in each season due to the usual interference from bean counters diminished the artistic values of the endeavour.

The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Creeping Man and The Sussex Vampire, are all considered to be the Gothic tales from the canon as they have elements of the supernatural, which is what a Gothic tale is. The episode of The Cardboard Box was more horror than Gothic (IMHO) and was aired in 1994. That final scene was from the canon and delivered by Jeremy perfectly, as always. I love the rose speech delivered by Jeremy from The Naval Treaty.

Jeremy had rheumatic fever as a child which weakened his heart, the medication changed his appearance. If you have watched the whole Granada series you will see how he changed throughout the series in each season. He looked very ill and a little puffy due to water retention caused by his medication towards the end of the 1994 season. He sadly passed away in September 1995 from heart failure.

It's true that Brett had rheumatic fever as a kid and that the medication he took for his bipolar caused water retention that put a strain on his heart.
But I think the one factor that impacted his health most was his 3 pack a day cigarette habit. The damage that does to heart, lungs - and appearance - can't be eliminated from the factors that affected his health. When I watched that long Q&A he did in the 90s, it was pretty sad to see how many cigarettes he lit up in the course of the interview.

I agree that the cigarettes were a contributing factor, and that that addiction didn't help, but he was always a heavy smoker. I am sure you will agree that Jeremy looked well during the first season, but thereafter deterioration was evident. When he was on medication, he looked ill and was bloated.

To the OP's point, you can shift the POV in some stories to highlight the elements of horror or eeriness. Certainly there is potential in The Creeping Man.
Two of the MX anthologies - "Consider The Impossible" and "Whatever Remains" have stories that had to begin by appearing to be supernatural but end with a real world solution. I've got a story in each, The Return of the Noble Bachelor with Lord St. S appealing to Holmes when his mother claims she's seen his dead father's ghost, and The Case of the Deity's Disappearance, where a large stone statue of the god Loki vanishes from a locked railway carriage.

J. wrote: "To the OP's point, you can shift the POV in some stories to highlight the elements of horror or eeriness. Certainly there is potential in The Creeping Man.
Two of the MX anthologies - "Consider Th..."
It's a bit difficult to define Gothic from horror definitively, but many mysteries do begin with the potential for either having a supernatural explanation - soon sorted out by SH in his "no ghosts need apply" attitude to logic. Other than the Granada TV Jeremy Brett version of the Cardboard Box (which I loved, even although it was not true to the Canon) The other version with Sir Ian Richardson as Dr Joseph Bell from the TV pilot of The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes was (interestingly) added to the dark deeds of Dr Neil Cream (aka Thomas Neill in the TV pilot) - in itself it was a great show that was sadly canned due to in house conflicts within the BBC.