Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes became the most famous detective of the 19th century through the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle. In the 20th century, his existence as a real person was a matter of debate.

Life and career
Holmes had several notable relatives: Siger, Sherringford, Mycroft and Genevieve. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)

In 1887, Holmes and Watson helped the Seventh Doctor battle the creature posing as the Great Old One known as Azathoth. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire) Later in 1887, Holmes and Watson travelled to Cheldon Bonniface, 2010 to attend the wedding of Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane, uncovering the schemes of during the festivities. (PROSE: Happy Endings)

In 1888, Holmes and Watson met up with Iris Wildthyme and her companion Panda. (PROSE: The Shape of Things)

In 1894, Holmes investigated The West End Horror (novel by Nicholas Meyer) and may or may not have encountered the Eighth Doctor at the time. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)

Having completed a second run of Holmes stories for publication in The Strand, Conan Doyle got tired of writing stories about the detective, and wrote a story in which a villain, Moriarty, caused Holmes' death. This failed to stick. (COMIC: Character Assassin)

Minor references

 * Perhaps in tribute to Holmes, the Fourth Doctor adopted the detective's trademark style of dress during a visit to 1883 London. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
 * The Sixth Doctor and Frobisher came across an illusion of Sherlock Holmes in his study. The Doctor described Holmes as fictional. (COMIC: Funhouse)
 * The Seventh Doctor quoted a saying of Holmes', to which his companion Ace described him as a fictional character. The Doctor asserted that he could still have spoken with him. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation)
 * The Doctor lived for a year as practically a neighbour of Holmes as he lived in a house at 107 Baker Street in Victorian London. (AUDIO: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster)
 * Dyslexic child Elliot Northover often listened to audiobooks. It is implied he had an interest in Sherlock Holmes when he quotes, "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." (TV: The Hungry Earth)
 * The Fifth Doctor claimed to be an old friend of Sherlock's. (PROSE: Warmonger)
 * The Second Doctor claimed to have met Sherlock. (PROSE: Heart of TARDIS)
 * The Eighth Doctor had read The Hound of the Baskervilles and quoted the book after being chased by a dog in Dartmoor. (PROSE: Camera Obscura)
 * General Alexander Bruce told John Matthews that Sherlock Holmes was not a fictional character. (AUDIO: The Roof of the World)
 * The Ninth Doctor referred to Ali as a "regular Sherlock Holmes," but as a Karkinian, she didn't understand the reference. (PROSE: The Beast of Babylon)

Holmes' status as fiction
Different accounts attributed disparate levels of "reality" to Holmes, variously suggesting that he existed as a real person named Sherlock Holmes, some that he never existed, and others that Holmes and Watson were authentic historical figures under different names, whose identities Watson's literary agent Arthur Conan Doyle concealed. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire) To further disguise the identity of his clients, Conan Doyle instructed his illustrators to dress 'Holmes' in the deerstalker and cape the Fourth Doctor had been wearing when the writer met him in 1880 (PROSE: Evolution).

Adding confusion to the matter was the fact that the most substantial evidence for Holmes' encounters with the Doctor and his companions was found in diary entries written by Bernice Summerfield and "John Watson". (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire, Happy Endings) These definitionally subjective entries made it hard to assert with certainty anything about their contents.

Other, more minor references, also seemed to hinge on individual opinion about the matter, rather than some sort of objective truth. Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart, who met Holmes, seemed to regard him as not quite real (AUDIO: The Final Amendment). For his part, the Doctor, when talking about Holmes in his seventh and eighth incarnations, cryptically hinted at some kind of permeability between "fiction" and "reality". (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation, The Gallifrey Chronicles)

In the 1890s, Holmes and Watson's adventures were serialised in The Strand magazine. Henry Gordon Jago came to believe that he and Professor George Litefoot were the inspiration for the characters. (AUDIO: Jago in Love)

In 1892, Dr. Walter Simeon opined that Conan Doyle was basing his stories on the adventures of Vastra and Jenny Flint. The Eleventh Doctor gained entrance to Dr. Simeon's Institute by pretending to be Holmes; though Dr. Simeon angrily pointed out that Holmes was a fictional character in The Strand, his assistant appeared to believe that Holmes was real. Strax was also familiar with Holmes. (TV: The Snowmen)

During the reign of King Edward VII, Martha Jones met Doyle, who discussed having "killed off" Holmes. (PROSE: Revenge of the Judoon)

By the age of nine, Melanie Bush had read the entire Sherlock Holmes canon. (AUDIO: Unregenerate!)

General information
Many commentators, including Colin Baker, have noted a similarity between the characters of the Doctor and Holmes. Both character have enjoyed rare levels of popularity and longevity as British fictional characters in multiple media. Tom Baker played Holmes in a 1982 television serial adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The version of Sherlock Holmes depicted on the cover of All-Consuming Fire is based upon arguably the most famous cinematic portrayer of the role, Basil Rathbone.

Crossovers in other works
The Kim Newman short story collection Secret Files of the Diogenes Club, a work which mixes the Sherlock Holmes and other continuities, features Newman's creation the Cold from his Time and Relative, set in the Doctor Who universe.

The Doctor, the TARDIS and Holmes (as well as his brother Mycroft and archnemesis Moriarty) all co-exist in Alan Moore's universe.

Big Finish's Sherlock Holmes
Beginning in 2009, Big Finish Productions began releasing a range of Sherlock Holmes audio dramas. In the first two episodes played an older Holmes reflecting on his past adventures, with Nicholas Briggs playing the detective in more traditional Holmes adventures from episode three onward. Many cast and crew from the Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories have contributed to the range.

Steven Moffat's Sherlock
In 2010, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss created the BBC Wales series Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and also featuring Gatiss and Russell Tovey in supporting roles. As of 2012, it consists of six 90 minute episodes written by Moffat, Gatiss and Steve Thompson.

Matt Smith had auditioned for the role of Watson, but was turned down before Steven Moffat cast him as the Eleventh Doctor.

Benedict Cumberbatch was rumoured to have been offered the role of the Eleventh Doctor and turned it down. He denied the rumour, claiming never to have been offered the role. He has expressed his interest in appearing in Doctor Who, but said that he doesn't want a one-off part.

Several reviews of The Snowmen have pointed out that a refrain from the theme music for Sherlock is heard when the Doctor visits Simeon while impersonating Holmes.

Doctor Who actors who have played Sherlock Holmes

 * Tom Baker
 * Nicholas Briggs
 * John Cleese
 * Peter Cushing
 * Roy Hudd
 * Jonathan Pryce

Cleese, Rupert Everett, Matt Frewer and Christopher Lee, all of whom have played Sherlock Holmes, were all considered for the role of the Eighth Doctor in the TV movie.

Non-narrative info

 * According to The Brilliant Book 2012, a book that contains non-narrative based information; in an alternate universe where all history occured at once, Holmes hosted a reality TV show called Detects Factor. The book also states that the Eleventh Doctor feared that wearing a deerstalker hat may make people confuse him for Sherlock.