The Sherlock Holmes Connection
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| Title: | The Sherlock Holmes Connection |
| Creator: | Michael Simpson |
| Date(s): | 1991 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek |
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| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Sherlock Holmes Connection is an essay by Michael Simpson printed in IDIC #15 in 1991.
In it, the author compares Sherlock Holmes to two characters in Star Trek: Spock and Data. He concludes the article with a list of Star Trek actors and their appearances in a variety of Sherlock Holmes productions: film, television, and on the stage.
For more on this topic, see Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek.
Excerpt
What a pity that the injunction against Paramount has prevented The Next Generation from further forays into the world of Conan Doyle's 'great detective'. It has always seemed to me somehow fitting that the two popular institutions should become intertwined. Prior to TNG quite a number of fans of both, (and there appear to be quite a few), had been putting forward the comparisons between Spock and Holmes, not knowing that with the advent of the 'new' series any contrived connection there may have been previously would be substantiated by something quite deliberate. It is in a sense ironic, though, that it should be Spock's successor who has been accorded the task of forging that greater link, not least because he possibly has fewer similarities to the character than the scientist who preceded him.Spock's most obvious similarity is his rejection of emotion in favour of logic. "Abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind" was how Holmes apparently regarded emotions, (love particularly), and Spock might try to have us believe that there would be no better description of himself, But, just as Conan Doyle would later reveal of his creation, there are hidden depths to Spock's character that only those unfamiliar with Star Trek lore fail to appreciate.
"It was worth a wound - it was worth many wounds - to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask."
The words are Watson's from the short story The Three Garridebs. But they might just as easily be James T. Kirk's following the events of Amok Time, or McCoy's upon reflecting on his exchange with Spock in the Roman cell in Bread and Circuses. Where Spock's character compares and his successor, Data's, contrasts is in the appreciation of those emotions. Though literally a 'well oiled machine', the experiencing of emotion would not be regarded as 'grit' in his works by the Enterprise's newest Science Officer, persistent as he is in his attempts to discover for sure if there are any 'depths' behind his 'cold mask'. Sherlock Holmes surely will not help him to find them. It is Data, though, who probably epitomises how Holmes would have wanted himself to be seen. Indeed, if there is one thing that perhaps makes Data's emulation most appropriate, it is that, had he had the chance to meet him, Holmes would probably have found Data the ultimate role model upon which to fashion himself. Supposedly totally unhindered by emotion, Data's logical, ordered mind and unswerving concentration would perhaps have represented the ultimate level of professional competence to which Holmes could have ascended.
Where Data's fascination for the character appears to lie is in Holmes' methods, which match his own so completely, dominated as they are by facts and logical thinking. Though he was never seen to express any such 'fascination' in this matter, it is a Holmes characteristic of which Spock, too, would surely approve. Unlike Data, who could find no encouragement in the persona of Holmes for his ambition to experience and appreciate the many and varied consequences of a Human psyche, a half-Human half-Vulcan, seeking guidance in times of personal doubt, might see a Human's commitment to emotional deprivation in the cause of his fellow man, and a Human universally admired for that, as a fine, if not wholly honest, example to hold up to those who seek to convince him that this is no way to live. So, though the two Starfleet officers' reasons for such appreciation may differ, it is the most obvious Holmsian trait they do both share.