Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes was a male Human detective from 19th century England often partnered with John Watson. As a fictional character, he passed into folklore and legend. He was on several occasions involved in the adventures of the Doctor, Bernice Summerfield and the affairs of Faction Paradox.

Profile

Holmes had several relatives: Siger, Mycroft and Sherringford.

Early in his career, a murder investigation led Holmes to become involved with the intrigues of Faction Paradox and the Celestis (FP: Erasing Sherlock).

The Doctor lived for a year as practically a neighbor of Holmes as he abided in a house at 107 Baker Street in Victorian London (BFA: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster).

In 1887, Holmes and Watson assisted the Doctor in battling Azathoth (NA: All-Consuming Fire). At least in the Doctor's only timeline, the Doctor had met Holmes before (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation). Later that year, Holmes and Watson travelled to Cheldon Bonniface 2010 to attend the wedding of Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane, uncovering the schemes of the Master during the festivities (NA: Happy Endings). Bernice's further adventures would eventually reaquaint her with Holmes's family (BFBS: The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel).

Afterlife

Like all humanoid life forms, Human included, Holmes was reborn into the City of the Saved but, thanks to the Remembrance Tank technology of The Remote, multiple versions of him were created by the populace, most based on film and television versions of the character rather than on the historical figure himself. Many of these Holmes iterations joined together to establish the Great Detective Agency (FP: Of the City of the Saved...).

Other information

Holmes' status as fiction

Different accounts give varying accounts of Holmes' "reality".

• A real person named Sherlock Holmes.

• A fictionalized version of a real person, not named Sherlock Holmes. A common explanation for this was that, while Holmes and his friend John Watson were indeed authentic historical figures, Holmes and Watson were not their real names, Watson rendering his experiences with the great detective into fiction and publishing them through his literary agent Arthur Conan Doyle (NA: All-Consuming Fire). To further disguise the identity of his clients, Conan Doyle instructed his illustrators to dress 'Holmes' in the deerstalker and cape the Doctor had been wearing when the writer met him in 1880 (MA: Evolution). In accordance with this, the most substantial information regarding Holmes' encounters with the Doctor and his companions has been provided in the subjective form of diary entries written by Bernice Summerfield and 'Watson' (NA: All-Consuming Fire, Happy Endings).

• A wholly fictional character. The Doctor himself once said so (DWM: Funhouse) or, in a a later incarnation implied as much (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation).

• Indeterminate. Those who've made his acquaintance, such as Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart still seem to regard him as not-quite real (BFBS: The Final Amendment).

The Dotor has hinted (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation, EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles, fiction, no clear boundary between "fiction" and "reality" really exists. It may be that Holmes' presence in the Doctor's universe reveals something fundamental about its nature.

Behind the Scenes

A further connection between the Doctor Who Universe and Holmesian fiction exists in that the Cold (TN: Time and Relative) reappears in one of Kim Newman's Diogenes Club short stories.

See also

• Moriarty
• Hudson