Yahoo Image Search (Two versions of Sherlock Holmes)
I recently watched the first season of BBC’s Sherlock, I love Elementary, and I loved the Sherlock movies. I also used to watch Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century when I was a kid. Oddly enough, I still haven’t gotten around reading the original stories even though I own an anthology. That might be the next thing I tackle after Ranger’s Apprentice.
Now, I know people are already skipping to the comments to declare who the greatest Sherlock Holmes is. That’s not the point of this post. My question is about how some characters jump from literature to other mediums and take on multiple incarnations. I am not talking about characters who change form in their series, but the character is the same and the actor/voice/depiction is different. Sherlock Holmes, Jack Ryan, James Bond, Conan, Batman, and so many other characters have been taken on by more than one person. Sometimes it’s even another book where the stories continue under a new author like all the people who contributed to Oz. I think I’m right on that one.
James Bond is probably the most infamous here because there’s a joke about how the villains never realize his face has changed. Still, I’m seeing a lot of Sherlock Holmes these days, so I’ll focus more on him. There are personality quirks that one sees in all of his incarnations. Sharp mind, kind of blunt, obsessive, and nearly self-destructive come to mind. There’s also the standard of him being terrible at social situations and Watson (with or without boobs) being the only person willing to deal with him. Though, I’m not always sure why he does this beyond assuming he’s a masochist. Now, everyone does bring in their own take on this. The movie version is a very selfish, yet loyal character whose mind goes on borderline precognition. The BBC version is a very quick mind who seems to be on the edge of snapping and no idea why people have a problem with him for most of the season. The Elementary version is rude, blunt, and borderline psychotic with a much bigger focus on obsession than the other two. I do love how the Elementary and BBC versions develop empathy and get rattled in certain situations. It shows great growth for a character that has been around for so long. This all personal opinion and I’ve only seen the first season of the BBC version, so I might be missing something that the real fans know.
Personally, I love seeing new takes on established characters as long as they’re respectful to the original source. There has to be something similar between the characters for me to acknowledge that they’re the same. Every character has a spark that makes them worth putting into another medium, so that should be held through all versions. The attitude of James Bond, the aggressiveness of Conan, and the sharp mind of Sherlock Holmes need to be there for me to believe the characters are worth comparing.
So, what do people think of characters with multiple incarnations? By the way, this is not a call to convince me one Holmes is better than another. And for anyone wondering about the animated one I mentioned, watch this intro that doesn’t stand the test of time:
I’ll apologize with this:
Legends of Windemere 
You forgot the most important face-changer of them all: Doctor Who! 😀
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That’s different though. It’s built into the character. I’m talking more about the character being the same one in each incarnation. Doctor Who is designed to change appearance to allow for new actors and writers.
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I suppose, when you put it that way, yeah I guess.
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Would you say he counts as a shape-shifter?
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Not really, no. Shape shifters have the ability to change shape at will, whenever they want. The Doctor regenerates into his new persona only when his life force is run out, and he needs a new life cycle.
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Maybe a limited or restricted shape-shifter then. I’m just thinking how some people put werewolves into shape-shifting categories. Also characters like Ranma who changes gender under certain conditions.
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Hmm… I dunno. Personally I wouldn’t, unless you wanna start a war with all the major whovians out there! haha
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Good point. It’s one of the more vocal fandoms, which is interesting. I see so much from Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Firefly fans on the Internet.
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Yes, very dangerous territory to treading in!
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I need one of those armies.
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As maddening as it can be when others want to play with your toys (in fanfic or some other media) and you feel like they maybe didn’t get what you were saying, or they only got the surface of it… We’re lucky if our work resonates to that extent, and we should try to be appreciative. (Also, we should have good contracts, so we can be paid as we’re due.)
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Contracts are very important. I’ve noticed that there’s always a difference in interpretation when a character jumps to a new medium. I think it’s inevitable.
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I love Sherlock Holmes and 007 regardless of the actor. Well, I concede that someone could louse it up enough to make me cringe, but so far I haven’t found one of either I didn’t like. Bet I’m in the minority. Maybe it shows that I really love the character, not the actor. 🙂
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I’m like that too. I might have a favorite, but I always find something to enjoy about them. To be fair, I never saw George Clooney as Batman, so that might be the exception.
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In an odd way Anne Rice’s immortal characters do that because they lived over centuries and they had to change to adapt and fit into society. I love her vampires and werewolves. Their own unique personalities shine through regardless of what century they are living in.
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She has a series on witches too, doesn’t she?
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She does, and that Mayfair Legacy is my most favorite.
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Lasher was a mutant pict that had lived for centuries, and was connected to Rowan, a contemporary witch who was a physician. In the past, he had had another physical form.
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My sister is a massive Anne Rice fan, but I don’t know if she went beyond the vampires. She hasn’t been able to do casual reading for years.
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That’s too bad. her witches are my favs. The powerful Mayfair clan, legacies the eldest female of each generation. Lasher, a mutant Pict, is trying to save his race, the Taltos, from extinction. The Taltos are tall descendants of the Picts with supernatural powers. Lasher is Mr. Ashler in contemporary society. He learns that he can mate with a powerful witch. Gets very bizarre, but plausible and interesting.
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Plausible bizarreness is always fun.
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I’ve never thought much about the muti-faced characters, though I guess it should have come to mind. Basically I read books and follow the films up to a certain point. I did like how Sherlock Holmes has been developing over the past couple of years. And I’ve seen many of the movies. I think another you’ve missed is Poirot and of course Miss Marple. I’m afraid that after Suchet it will be very difficult to find someone who wll be able to follow in his footsteps. I’ll agree with you, I don’t mind the modernization of characters, as long as there is respect for the original characteristics.
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I’m not familiar with Poirot and Miss Marple. I’ve heard the former in passing. Are they crime investigators like Sherlock Holmes?
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Oh my! Two characters invented by Agatha Chrisite. One is an official investigator the other a little old lady busy body who investigates.
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I wouldn’t be too surprised. I never got into the crime shows and books. Sherlock is only recently for me and the American crime shows (CSI, NCIS, L&O, and those others that can’t be broken down like that) have been boring me. Always been more of a comedy, magic, and high action fan.
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Well, I got into Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie when I was still in my teens. I also read a lot of Ellery Queen and Nero Wolfe.mysteries..and loved the TV series of those too. Fantasy and magic in my day was pretty rare…
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It wasn’t mainstream when I was younger as far as books went. TV had a lot though. Cartoons especially had magic and comic books had the powerful action stuff.
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Ah, yes, comic books…that stuff that warps children’s minds and turn them into idiots…or so said most of the adults in my age.
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They say that about video games now. There’s always going to be a scapegoat medium.
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Yep…if I remember correctly the first novels were also seen as an object of decadence.
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Makes one wonder what the next decadence is going to be.
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Hmmmm…internet social communities? 😉
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It’s definitely becoming an area of criticism.
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I don’t know how many people actually visit the internet…I’m not good at stats, but let’s say maybe a billion people? Since I’ve connected about 13 or so years ago, I’ve seen enough crap to fertalize the whole earth twice over…but then I watch TV and it makes me wonder…if there isn’t an intrinsic reason for so much silliness…perhaps people are basically infantile? I think wherever we look we’ll find, where there are people involved, areas of criticism. My husband who was very active in the student’s movement back in the 70s, and here in Europe the object was to pull down the establishment because it was too rigid, is one of those who’d close down every social community as decadent and stupid etc. He was also against our son watching TV, and would have given anythng to unplug his computer because he played video games when he was a teenager…Which is why I brought it up. Somewhere along the line, moralists will have something to object to some aspect of most of human endeavors. As they say on Facebook…just saying 😉
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Yeah. As for the infantile thing, it stems from the anonymity of the Internet. You can say what you want behind a fake name and face, so there’s no real world repercussions. It’s where Internet Trolls and some other messed up stuff comes from.
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Now that sounds pretty valid to me. I haven’t had much to do with trolls actually, but on the other hand, I’ve had my privacy pretty high, so no one got through without my looking for them. I’ve heard they’ve taken the privacy choices down though. Believe it or not, the only time I had a “troll” problem was with one of my sisters…she’s a little fanatical about religion and didn’t like my views. I eventually blocked her until she started acting civilized, but well, ain’t been the same.
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Family can be an odd pain on Facebook. One says things around friends that they don’t say around family, so if you forget they’re on FB, you get in trouble.
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You can say that again..but then she’s always known my opinions, what bother her is that I stated them in reply to one of her fundmentalist friends on my own page…guess she had to show that she was true to the faith or something. I was ften on Facebook during the last elections and I discovered that there really is a lot of strange points of views politically in the U.S. which had nothing to do with how I thought about things. I’m afraid to say that about 10 people unfriended me when I blasted the gun laws after one of the big shoot ups in a movie theatre. Oh well…after that I just more or less drifted off of Facebook.
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I stay out of religion and politics. It’s always messy and people overreact to an opposing opinion.
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Too true…which is why I rarely get into anything serious over here now. It is a shame though that adults can’t exchange ideas without going goofy!
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It’s always going to be Basil Rathbone in crackly old black and white BBC2 programmes for me. They were so eerie.
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Never saw those, but the description reminds me of Marx Brothers films.
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It was more Hammer Horror to be honest. I should think they were 30s and 40s and really scary. I remember The Oxted Creeper and the Hound of the Baskervilles had me gibbering behind the sofa. I was about 11 but even so. 😉
Cheers
MTM
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Around that age I was getting freaked out by wandering into a room while Predator was killing Carl Weathers.
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Oooo blimey, you’re a braver man than I gunga din. I do remember being scared stupid by Jaws.
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Not a lick of bravery. I had no idea what people were watching and ran screaming out upstairs. Took a while before I didn’t get nervous when I saw heat haze.
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I like characters who end up being played by different actors as time goes on. If you love the character (and each actor is able to stay fairly true to the book character) everything should go good. Of course, I’m sure you’ll have a favorite or lest-favorite one, too.
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There’s always a hierarchy of favoritism. 🙂
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LOL! Yep!
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I never could understand the reasoning behind bringing in new actors to fulfill roles that are currently filled with other actors. James Bond for instance goes from debonair to an action hero. Now, I have no problem with roles being remade for a new generation, I wonder though about a currently running franchise that replaces actors. In Las Vegas Vacation, Chevy Chase made light of it by saying how different the kids looked–yeah, because the franchise had four sets of different kids to deal with and it was all in fun. I’d like for that to happen in a current franchise. Even in the new Bond series, they make fun of the “shaken not stirred” bit–and really, that makes acceptance of the new actor much easier, I think!
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Many times it’s contracts. An actor only signs up for a certain number of films and might not want to go any further. Other times, a new director comes in and wants to change things. There’s the classic ‘I want more money’ event. Hollywood is such a strange place.
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I have no problems with the same character, different face scenario – I love what each actor brings to the role. That said, I do have a favorite Bond, and a favorite Sherlock/Watson, etc, but it’s fun to compare and even sometimes, build the “ultimate” character.
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I agree. People will always have a personal favorite. Makes us individuals. 🙂
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well written and good question. One of my favourite series is the Dragonlance books, their characters (and indeed, the very world they live in) has changed a great deal over the years with many, many authors contributing to the series over the last thirty years. Something that started as a suggested D&D supplement now has over a hundred novels and impressive catalogue of gaming products, comics and more. I think creating anything that so many want to emulate or contribute to is an achievement beyond all hopes.
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That reminds me of The Forgotten Realms, which is what I read. I heard that the entire world was changed with one of the newer versions of the game including a big god death.
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