Tag Archives: sherlock

I have been watching season one of Sherlock, a modern version of Sherlock Holmes.  I must admit to a bit of a Sherlock Holmes addiction.  I have read the complete works, watched the horrible old films, watched the great Jeremy Brett series twice, watched the cool new movies, watch Elementary regularly, have seen Young Sherlock Holmes, read the 7 percent solution and watched the movie – now Sherlock!  I still love the Jeremy Brett series best, even better than the original books.

However, I had the strangest moment in watching Sherlock.  First, the lead, Benedict Cumberpatch, who plays Sherlock is now the one who plays Khan in Star Trek: Into Darkness.  He does a pretty awesome job acting in both.  The strangest part is that Dr. Watson is played by Martin Freeman, who also plays Bilbo Baggins in the new Hobbit movie series.  Again, he does an awesome job in both.  Now I loved Star Trek: Into Darkness without any reservations, but The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey was an overlong indulgence in making one third of a book into the length of two movies.  It should have been called The Hobbit: No scenes were deleted or cut even though they should have been.

One can debate whether Cumberpatch or Freeman got the better parts to play.  Khan is a cooler character but Bilbo gets at least a three movie deal.  The funniest part was watching Sherlock, and I kid you not, Freeman has to fight a Golem.  Now a golem is a mythical enforcer type, originally created in Jewish stories about a rabbi that makes a giant clay creature come to life to avenge his people.  In the TV show Sherlock, the Golem is a very scary hitman, played I believe, by the same person that played the creepy chained up monster in 300 that cuts Leonidas helmet.  But Golem and Gollum are pronounced the same.

Dr. Watson fights Golem – Sherlock

Imagine my wonder and delight at seeing Bilbo (as Watson) yelling at Golem, “Hey Golem, stop or I’ll shoot you!” Then duking it out.  I really want to know if at the time of this first season in 2010, they all knew that Freeman would be playing Bilbo and put this whole thing is as an hilarious insider gag.  Does anyone know?  I would love to find out for sure.  Kudos in any event, it was very funny.

Bilbo Baggins and Gollum