(Originally posted on February 17, 2014.)

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 to reading the original stories even though I own an anthology.

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:

This cartoon intro still works though: