Note: This episode's full title is "The Rise and Fall of Sherlock Holmes" — however, the original URL was too long to be a viable webpage. Thus, the URL of this episode and several others have been cut down to size.
May 4th, 1891. Dr. John Watson is recounting for us his journey with Sherlock Holmes through Switzerland. While sightseeing at the Reichenbach Falls, an old man runs up to them and asks for Watson's help in the village they'd just left. Watson acquiesces, leaving Holmes alone with the old man. Holmes dryly reveals the man to be none other than Professor James Moriarty, his archenemy. Moriarty promptly attacks Holmes, and Watson turns just in time to watch both men plunge over the side of the rocky path into the falls below. Back in voice over, Watson says that he's lost his dearest friend... or has he?
May 2103. Inspector Beth Lestrade is on a high-speed hovercar chase through New London, ignoring the results of her reckless driving. That is, except when her compudroid, Watson (an affectionate nickname... maybe), points it out to her. She catches up to her escaped convict, Dr. Martin Fenwick, and is laying the cuffs on him when his hovercar takes off. Lestrade catches a glimpse of the driver's face, a horribly familiar face... Fenwick calls the mystery man "My master. Your worst nightmare."
Fenwick is returned to New Scotland Yard for cryptnotization, a mindwipe process used by the police to turn criminals into harmless citizens. Lestrade's not convinced that Fenwick has been cryptnotized successfully, however, and starts investigating. The Yard's database confirms her incredulous fear: her mystery man is the spitting image of Professor Moriarty. Chief Inspector Grayson, however, is not convinced, pointing out how easy it is to impersonate someone these days with an elastomask. It doesn't help, either, that the reckless young Lestrade is on very rocky ground with her boss, who seems as prone to temper tantrums as she is. But a new break-in reveals a very interesting fact: the genetic data left behind is not recognizable by the Yard's database. Lestrade points out that it's possible if your perp is older than the system - say, two hundred years older?
Well, that does it. Only one thing to do now: return to life the one man who ever stopped Professor Moriarty. That's right — Sherlock Holmes. Good thing Holmes was preserved in his own honey, too, because it makes the job that much easier on Sir Evan Hargreaves, a scientist Lestrade wanted to check out earlier to see if he had anything to do with Moriarty's apparent resurrection. As it turns out, he didn't, and he's more than happy to help out, even if he's never done this before. Holmes's previously 80s-something body is returned to the physical age of 25 years old.
And, apparently, waking up in the 22nd century isn't such a big shock. Apparently. He deduces that the very-much-female Beth is not only a Lestrade but an inspector, as well, and even goes so far as to deduce that there's a crime wave she needs his help in solving. Yes, Holmes, Lestrade really did bring you back for more than your sparkling wit and good looks. Thank you for taking the first step towards Ship Tease.
All the history Holmes has to catch up on is quite a bit for him to handle, but it's the revelation of Moriarty's return to life that is his first major shock. Lestrade manages to blackmail Grayson into allowing Holmes to investigate their mystery man and heads back to her flat to pick up a culture-shocked Great Detective. She casually tells robo!Watson to scan the real Watson's journals and pick up some useful knowledge, then takes off with Holmes, who asks her about the journals. "Family heirlooms," she replies. "Do you miss him?"
"More than I care to think about."
For the first time in nearly two centuries, Sherlock Holmes is back on a case. Grayson is, in his own words, "underwhelmed," and Lestrade tells him to give Holmes a chance. Holmes ends up saving Lestrade's car from crashing, so, yeah, better listen to the man when he says that the NSY computer is being messed with. They return to the Yard and the computer core to find a masked intruder in the process of hacking it. Cue a bit of ionizer-play and robo!Watson rescuing Lestrade and Holmes, while the intruder escapes with an Evil Laugh.
Now cut to Grayson's office, where he, Lestrade, and Holmes are discussing the case. Holmes's snarky relationship with Grayson is firmly established, while a frustrated Lestrade protests that their theories are wrong: she saw Moriarty. He's out there. Holmes is unwilling to believe this, but does concede that whoever is behind all this ought to be a worthy adversary. Then he asks compudroid!Watson why the robot was there to save them. Simple! The compudroid scanned the real Watson's journals so thoroughly that he has now taken on the persona of Dr. John H. Watson. An astonished Holmes asks Lestrade, "What have you done?"
"El-ementary, my dear Holmes," Lestrade deadpans in the one time we'll hear an obviously-fake British accent from her throughout the entire series. Holmes simply rolls his eyes.
Tropes Include:
- Badass Boast: Fenwick regarding his boss: "My master. Your worst nightmare."
- Catching Up on History: The newly resurrected Holmes is given a VR headset of some kind to help him catch up on the last two hundred years.
- Character Catchphrase: "Eyes and brains!" First used by Holmes to Moriarty in the Action Prologue.
- Crazy Enough to Work: What else do you call Lestrade's plan to bring Sherlock Holmes back to life in order to defeat a Moriarty-like criminal?
- Dull Surprise: Holmes doesn't seem all that astonished at waking up over a century and a half after his death.
- Establishing Character Moment: A very concise one for Lestrade in her first scene — irritated, tearing through the skyline after a runaway criminal. Easily irritated, reckless driving, and pursuit of justice. Yep, that's our Beth.
- Grayson also gets established in his first scene as loud-mouthed, angry, and dismissive of Lestrade.
- Good Is Not Nice:
- Lestrade, unfortunately. She's pretty abusive of her poor compudroid.
- New Scotland Yard itself. The way they deal with criminals? Cryptnosis. Whether you see it as an abomination or a kindness, the fact is that they wipe and REPROGRAM people's minds.
- Hollywood Police Driving Academy: Lampshaded by Grayson, who chews Lestrade out for her destructive driving. "We're here to protect New London, not destroy it!"
- Large Ham: Lestrade and Grayson, most notably the latter as he chews chunks out of the scenery in most of his scenes.
- Rapid Aging: Inverted as Holmes is de-aged during the rejuvenation process.
