Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a writer best known for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes. Doyle fictionalised the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire) The Sherlock Holmes stories were published in the Strand magazine in the 1890s. Henry Gordon Jago believed that his escapades with Professor George Litefoot were their inspiration (AUDIO: Jago in Love), however, it would be revealed Vastra and Jenny Flint were the true inspiration for the stories.
Arthur Conan Doyle trained and received a degree from the same medical school as his friend James (John Watson). During this time James realised that literature was where Doyle would truly be distinguished. (DWM: Prelude to All-Consuming Fire)
In 1880, Doyle aided the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, though the Doctor suspected that they may have met before. (PROSE: Evolution) Indeed, the Second Doctor had had an earlier adventure with Doyle and referred to him as an 'old friend'. (PROSE: The Murder Game) In 1902, he met and aided the Tenth Doctor again. (PROSE: Revenge of the Judoon) In 1917, he examined the famous Cottingley fairy photos and pronounced them to be genuine. (TV: Small Worlds)
Minor references
As a doctor, he accompanied Redvers Fenn-Cooper on an expedition to observe giant reptiles which resembled dinosaurs, though at first he had trouble believing they existed. The implication is that this would be an inspiration for The Lost World. (TV: Ghost Light)
Behind the scenes
- Both All-Consuming Fire and Evolution correctly identify Doyle as his surname. Ghost Light and Small Worlds refer to him as Conan Doyle. Ripper's Curse uses the hyphenated Conan-Doyle.
- Though Jack Harkness implies in TV: Small World that such a hard-minded sceptic would have trouble accepting the Cottingley fairy photos, in reality, in his later years he accepted the existence of the supernatural, including the literal existence of fairies.
- PROSE: All-Consuming Fire begins with a famous quote from a cable from William Gillette, Sherlock Holmes actor and playwright during Doyle's time, to Doyle regarding the Sherlock Holmes play he was writing, followed by Doyle's response.
- Gillette: "May I marry Holmes?"
- Doyle: "You may marry or murder or do what you like with him."
