The Hound of the Baskervilles was a Sherlock Holmes novel by Arthur Conan Doyle. It was the first Holmes novel Doyle had written since the character's death in The Final Problem.
The real reason why Doyle chose to write the novel was to save himself, Professor George Litefoot, Henry Gordon Jago, and Laura Lyons from the mercy of Roger Baskerville. Lyons and Baskerville were time travellers from the 63rd century that had become stranded in the distant past when the latter purposely killed the other scientists on the mission after falling in love with Lyons. Not realising Holmes was a work of fiction, Laura wrote to him and arranged a meeting at 221B Baker Street after escaping from Baskerville. After a brief meeting, Laura was recaptured by Baskerville with Jago, Litefoot, and Doyle soon following through the temporal barrier. Faced with immediate mortal peril from Baskerville's dogs, Litefoot made Doyle promise to write one more Holmes novel with a character called Laura Lyons and an antagonist called Baskerville to send a message of their namesake's whereabouts to the 63rd century. The plan worked and a rescue party came to rescue Laura and arrest Baskerville. (AUDIO: The Monstrous Menagerie)
The Doctor had read the novel by his eighth incarnation. The Eighth Doctor quoted the book after being chased by a dog in Dartmoor. (PROSE: Camera Obscura)
Ian Chesterton read the novel prior to 1963. (AUDIO: The Revenants)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Tom Baker played Holmes in a 1982 television adaptation of the book. This version also featured Caroline John, was produced by Barry Letts and was script-edited by Terrance Dicks.
- Peter Cushing played Holmes in Hammer's 1959 film version which also featured André Morell as Watson, Ewen Solon as Stapleton and Francis De Wolff as Dr Mortimer.
- Cushing again played Holmes in a 1968 BBC adaptation; this time, Nigel Stock played Watson. It also featured Philip Bond as Stapleton, Christopher Burgess as Barrymore and Gerald Flood as Sir Hugo Baskerville.
- A 1988 Granada TV movie adaptation featured Ronald Pickup, Bernard Horsfall, Don McKillop William Ilkley and Donald Bisset.
- Big Finish made an audio adaptation in 2011 starring Nicholas Briggs as Sherlock Holmes and Richard Earl as Dr. John Watson.