Western Animation / Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century

200 years later, the game is afoot once again.

Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century is an animated television series. Produced by DiC Entertainment and Scottish Television, it originally aired in the UK on CITV from May 1999, and later on Fox Kids and on Syndication in the United States from September 1999 to July 2001 for a total of 26 episodes in two seasons. Hundreds of years after the Great Detective's time, Inspector Beth Lestrade of New London's Scotland Yard discovers that a Mad Scientist has created a clone of the infamous Professor James Moriarty from cells taken from his frozen corpse at Reichenbach Falls. Using the latest technology, she has the well-preserved body of Sherlock Holmes rejuvenated and reanimated to help her foil the plans of what they initially believe to simply be a Moriarty-obsessed madman.

After about half an episode of being disoriented and disadvantaged by being two hundred years out of his own time, Holmes settles down, moves into a Holmes museum recreation of his old apartment, and the game is, once again, afoot.

In addition to Lestrade, Holmes is ably assisted by a new Watson, Lestrade's robotic partner who adopts his predecessor's personality and mannerisms after downloading Watson's collected writings. He soon gains a Latex Perfection mask giving him Watson's superficial appearance. Holmes also adopts a new team of Irregulars (with no mention made of Wiggins' name coinciding with the original Irregular leader).

Each episode was Suggested by... a story from the canon, though the extent of the resemblance varies widely: some stories are translated closely, simply transposing the characters to a new setting ("Silver Blaze" with asteroid racing craft, rather than racehorses) while others take little more than names and some concepts ("The Hounds of the Baskervilles" is about "werewolves" on a lunar colony). Most of the stories were, however, rewritten to make Moriarty the ultimate culprit (usually as The Man Behind the Man).

See also Sherlock and Elementary for other modern-setting reinterpretations of the Sherlock Holmes mythos.

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This series provides examples of:

• Adaptational Heroism: Downplayed with Grimesby Roylott while he is still the culprit of a case, his actions are more noble and he cares for his daughter's future.
• Action Girl: Lestrade is frequently involved in shooting and action sequences. Holmes calls her a "force of nature unto herself."
• Affably Evil: Moriarty can be a gentleman and quite casually so. It's almost a little creepy, as befits the original character.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: From the Yard's computer core to the Moon to 10 Downing Street, this is part of Moriarty's modus operandi.
• Androids and Detectives: Takes place in a futuristic London where flying cars and bipedal robots are common, while also featuring the literary detective protagonist adjusting to this strange futuristic world.
• Arm Cannon: Watson, as well as various other robots. Watson is specifically a Scotland Yard droid, and so his cannon is supposed to be a less-lethal ionizer stun weapon.
• Artistic License – Pharmacology: In "The Red Headed League," Holmes and Watson notice a foul smell on some paintings, which is attributed to benzodiazepine, described as "a powerful sedative." In reality, benzodiazepines are a class of medications, including Xanax and Valium, not a single medication, and their main purpose is to treat anxiety, though some are used for the very short-term treatment of insomnia. Moreover, they are odorless. They are also administered orally (as pills) or intravenously (as liquid), not by inhalation, meaning that Moriarty's plan to sedate an entire crowd using benzos embedded in the paint is completely beyond science.
• Ascended Fangirl: Lestrade, from Sherlockian to Sherlock's professional partner.
• Asteroid Thicket: In "Silver Blaze," as part of a race course, no less. They imply it is artificially maintained, and that the occasional dramatic crash is actually desired for ratings.
• Automated Automobiles: Standard on the flying cars. Car chase scenes usually include a moment where Lestrade announces that she's switching to manual control because the autopilot isn't capable of handling chasing villains/getting shot at.
• Awesome by Analysis: Even Moriarty apparently thinks this of Holmes. In one episode, he tells Holmes to "amuse him" by explaining his deductions.
• Back from the Dead: While Moriarty actually did die at Reichenbach Falls as per the original Doyle timeline, Holmes died of old age and was preserved in a casket of honey and somehow was fresh enough to decant and resuscitate with futuristic technology. Meanwhile, the returned Moriarty is explicitly just a clone using the original's blood, but somehow inherits all of the original's memories of opposing Holmes.
• Bait-and-Switch: The Adventure of the Beryl Board has two characters that seem like a disguised Moriarty and Fenwick, including similar voices. They aren't.
• Baker Street Regular: The new Baker Street Irregulars: soccer player Wiggins, the Eliza Doolittleish Deidre, and the paraplegic Tennyson (who communicates through electronic beeps only Holmes seems to comprehend ironically).
• Battle of Wits: Considering that we're talking about Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty, this is a given. "The Adventure of the Mazarin Chip" is probably the best example of this.
• Beast and Beauty: The basic plot of both "The Crooked Man" and "The Creeping Man." The latter bears an additional resemblance to the Disney film due to the presence of a rival suitor seeking to ruin the beast and beauty's relationship.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Watson, as all good Watsons should be. Polite, well-spoken, deferential, and almost charmingly guileless, but this Watson is a 400-pound titanium-plated android, who is more than capable of punching holes through walls if needed.
• Big "NO!":
  • The "real" Watson in the prologue of the premiere.
  • Holmes and Watson together, watching Lestrade leap from a very high story.
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass:
  • In "The Adventure of the Mazarin Chip", Moriarty kidnaps the Prime Minister so he can use him to unlock various biometric safeguards protecting the nation's security (this being the kind of show it is, he drags the whole PM around instead of just taking the bits he needs).
  • In "The Engineer's Thumb" The Reveal is that Moriarty's organ ring cloned the thumb and eyes of the two inventors whose blood-type changing devices they stole in order to get past their safes' biometric locks.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Holmes does this a lot when in disguise, even mimicking people’s voices (Moriarty and Fenwick have this ability, as well). Holmes’s favorite accent incognito seems to be Southern.
• Britain Is Only London: Subverted in "The Sussex Vampire Lot," but the characters still never leave London.
• Camera Spoofing: Feeding a loop of footage into the security camera is part of how the theft is done in "The Adventure of the Beryl Board".
• Cane Fu: Sherlock Holmes is a master of this, using a collapsible walking stick as his primary weapon.
• Car Chase: Several times with hovercraft, but same basic principle and often when Lestrade is at the wheel in one of the vehicles.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: And it's not all Holmes and Moriarty, either. Lestrade and Fenwick can get into it, too.
• Catchphrase:
  • All the Holmes standards plus some others. "Eyes and brains!"
  • This is all the more hilarious when the actual so called catchphrases associated with Holmes were either a) only ever said by him once or b) never even said by him.
• Cat Scare: Invoked by Moriarty in "The Adventure of the Mazarin Chip"; the first police on the scene find a stray cat and think it tripped the alarm — which is exactly what Moriarty wanted them to think and why he brought the cat with him.
• Character Development:
  • Holmes and Lestrade demonstrate considerable character development in the show, Holmes throughout the first three episodes, and Lestrade throughout the series, regarding her relationships with Holmes and the Irregulars.
  • Moriarty's attitude towards Lestrade also develops throughout the series, from "Miss Lestrade" to "New Scotland Yard zealot". Ouch.
• Chekhov's Gun: In a discretional way. Holmes uses his Inverness to protect a mad scientist's modesty.
• Christmas Episode:
  • A retake of "The Blue Carbuncle," with amusing results.
  • Yes, Moriarty is well aware that it is Christmastime. This does not stop him.
• Child Prodigy: No fewer than three, all of them technology wizards: Tennyson, Amanda Wheelwright, and Helfin Paine III.
• Cloning Body Parts: In "The Engineer's Thumb", Moriarty's organ-legging turns out to be using cloned parts. Which are illegal due to Clone Degeneration.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Lestrade's idea to bring Holmes back to life to defeat a Moriarty-like Big Bad. Chief Inspector Grayson is obviously not on board with the notion.
• Cut the Juice: In "The Adventure of the Beryl Board", our heroes are attacked by robotic museum exhibits. The computer whiz of the week attempts to shut them with Rapid-Fire Typing, and fails. Then they suddenly stop; cut to Holmes, holding up a power cord and looking smug.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Or at least eat away at one character, who let the fact of his cyborg status bother him. To an extreme degree.
• Da Chief: Chief Inspector Grayson, head of Scotland Yard. He hits a lot of the classic chief notes: old and gray, large mustache and receding hairline, more lawful than good, bureaucratically inconvenient, and more than once demands for Lestrade to Turn in Your Badge.
• Defictionalization: In-universe. In the first episode, Holmes, Watson, and Moriarty are regarded as historical figures rather than literary ones.
• Do Androids Dream?:
  • Curiously ignored after the second episode, considering that Watson is a compudroid with the real Watson's journals uploaded into him.
  • But revisited one more time in "Five Orange Pips," with an anti-tech society and the necessity of Holmes's clients understanding that Watson is just as human as they are (in mind and heart, anyway, if not in body).
• Donut Mess with a Cop: When Lestrade gets the call to action at the beginning of "The Adventure of the Mazarin Chip", she's on a coffee break complete with pink-frosted donut.
• The Dragon: Fenwick acts as one to Moriarty. Though an in-universe subversion, as Fenwick had originally intended for Moriarty to be his dragon.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Moriarty and Holmes in separate episodes, with varying degrees of success but definite eye-candy results.
• Drives Like Crazy: Both Lestrade and Holmes, the former as a Cowboy Cop and the latter as a Fish out of Temporal Water. See also Car Chase and Establishing Character Moment.
• Dull Surprise: Holmes, right after being de-aged and reanimated, wakes up to find this unknown girl right in front of his face telling him he is two hundred years ahead of his time, had only this to say:
  Lestrade: Welcome to the 22th century, Holmes!
  Holmes: Huh?
• Elaborate Underground Base:Amanda Wheelwright's hideout kind of strains the willing suspension of disbelief.
• Empathic Environment: The opening of "The Five Orange Pips" takes place on a dark and stormy night.
• Establishing Character Moment: The opening scene of the first episode shows an irritated Lestrade tearing through the skyline after a runaway criminal. Easily irritated, reckless driving, and pursuit of justice. Yup, that's our Beth.
• Even Evil Has Standards: According to Moriarty in "Five Orange Pips," he doesn't want people getting hurt as he takes over the world. To be fair, he generally sticks to this rule, with the exception of "Baskerville" early on in the game.
• Evil Luddite: The tech saboteurs in "The Five Orange Pips" were opposed to 'unnatural' technology and didn't care how many lives were damaged by their quest to destroy it. You can tell they were hardcore because they used only natural plant-derived poisons to murder their opponents.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Moriarty, courtesy of Richard Newman. Moriarty plots evil schemes, wields giant laser cannons, and can still throw a kick with the best of them, all while having the deepest vocal register in the show.
• Exposed to the Elements: Lestrade, who wears nothing over her short-sleeved uniform in the Christmas episode.
  • Played straight in "The Sussex Vampire Lot," when Watson realizes that the bare-armed Wiggins is cold.
• Faking the Dead: Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Empty House".
• Family-Friendly Firearms: As usual for an animated series of this type, especially given the future setting, ray guns are more common than projectile weapons. "The Five Orange Pips" takes it further: when the bad guys are trying to shoot Lestrade's squad car out of the sky, she takes the time to exposit that their ray gun is designed to inhibit the car's operation, not to harm living things.
• Fantastic Racism: "The Five Orange Pips" revolves around "anti techs", people who oppose "unnatural" technology, especially artificial intelligences, which translates to treating Watson in what's effectively a racist manner. The episode includes a subplot about a child who starts out sharing his father's anti tech prejudices, but ends up considering Watson a person and a friend.
• Fair-Play Whodunnit: The mysteries are generally very well written with the clues Holmes picks up being visible to an observant viewer if they pay attention.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Holmes wakes up nearly 400 years in the future after his death at Reichenbach Falls, and finds the world is much different than he remembered it. He adjusts quickly, however, and it turns out that the more things change, the more crime remains the same.
• Flying Car: Common in the 22nd century, having almost completely overtaken ground vehicles. Interestingly, they are noted to be of little use in adventures set in space, due to lacking the necessary atmosphere to operate in normal fashion.
• Forgotten Phlebotinum:
  • In the first episode, it's a plot point that New Scotland Yard has the technology and database to match any human DNA to its owner; it's treated as an unprecedented event when Moriarty's DNA scan comes up as unknown. This never comes up again, and there's more than one later episode with a plot that implicitly assumes no such technology is available.
  • Rather more importantly, in the first episode, they've cured death.
• Gender Flip: Lestrade, thanks to The Smurfette Principle coming into larger existence after the source material. Here, the role is played by Beth Lestrade, a descendant of the original Inspector G. Lestrade.
• Good Is Not Nice: Lestrade can indeed be a Fair Cop, but she can also be a downright scary one. Consider: she is the only Yarder we ever see overseeing someone in the cryptnosis chair, and her method of handling arrested people leaves something to be desired.
• Good Old Ways:
  • Holmes and Moriarty are still Victorians-at-heart in the 22nd century.
  • To her credit, Lestrade keeps genuine paper-printed books at home.
  • The Oppenshaws' disapproval of modern technology in "The Five Orange Pips" apparently obliges them to live in a 19th-century house and follow period fashions in clothing and hairstyles.
• Human Popsicle: Holmes is preserved for about 200 years to awaken in the future, though unusually for this trope, he's not encased in a block of ice, but a block of honey. Moriarty was encased in ice, but he wasn't thawed out. Instead his DNA was taken to make a clone.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Moriarty uses one to escape from Lestrade in the first episode.
• Hey, Catch!: At the end of "The Five Orange Pips", Moriarty throws the antidote (in a fragile glass container) at Holmes, then escapes while Holmes, Watson and Lestrade are concentrating on catching it before it hits the ground and breaks.
• Hollywood Police Driving Academy: Zed, Lestrade! A Drives Like Crazy Cowboy Cop in a flying car? It's a wonder complaints against her haven't involved more vehicular damage accusations.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: Moriarty tries this with Lestrade as the hostage in "The Five Orange Pips". Lestrade tells Holmes point blank not to go for it, and Holmes, in defiance of cartoon-hero tradition, actually listens to her. (Probably the writers only let him because it turns out Moriarty has another more persuasive bargaining chip and so doesn't really need Lestrade.)
• I Always Wanted to Say That: Deidre, an Irregular, tails a suspect and says "Follow that hovercab!", followed by the trope name.
• I Kiss Your Hand: Moriarty kisses Lestrade's hand when they meet as part of his Faux Affably Evil stylings. As a fan of Holmes stories who knows the depths to which the original Moriarty could sink, Lestrade is less than pleased with the clone's false genteel image.
• Insistent Terminology: Grayson never stops referring to Holmes as the "dead detective," never mind that Holmes has been resurrected and is legitimately alive.
• Inspector Lestrade: Of course. However, in this case, Lestrade it's a woman.
• Insufferable Genius: Again, this is the Great Detective we're dealing with. Though he doesn't trumpet his own genius as much as some other interpretations of Holmes, Lestrade is still visibly frustrated when Holmes runs off to investigate his next deductive leap without explaining himself, or otherwise taking wild risks to pay off a hunch.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: Though Tennyson is unintelligible to most people (and the audience), Holmes and the other Irregulars have no trouble understanding him.
• Jumped at the Call: Let's put this in perspective: Lestrade could not make Holmes help her. He chose to, and he threw himself into her investigation.
• Kick Chick: Lestrade delivers some pretty mean kicks, including a Call-Back to the third episode when she disarms Moriarty in "The Sussex Vampire Lot".
• Lame Pun Reaction: At the end of "The Scales of Justice", Holmes drops the title of the episode when he says "Even an eminent herpetologist should not attempt to tip the scales of justice in favor of evil." Lestrade responds by groaning in disgust.
• Large Ham: Lestrade is actually more over-the-top with just about all her emotions.
• Laser Blade: Three punk criminals attack Lestrade with lightsabers, she beats the living daylights out of them, and we never see anybody wielding lightsabers again.
• Last-Name Basis: Subverted twice with Lestrade using "Sherlock"; once with Holmes using "Beth" (but only to Watson). Played straight otherwise.
• Latex Perfection: As mentioned, elasto-masks allow people to accurately copy the faces of other individuals. Most remarkably, it is a complex enough piece of technology to grant a robot with a flat, featureless face a functional (that is, mobile and expressive) set of eyes, eyebrows, mouth, tongue and teeth.
• Limited Wardrobe: Discounting Holmes's and Moriarty's various disguises, none of the characters ever change their clothes - Lestrade won't even take off her uniform for a wedding!
• Living in a Furniture Store: Does the 22nd century version of 221B ever get messy?
• Machine Monotone: Watson in the pilot, until the Sherlock Holmes Archive Binge causes the original doctor's personality to take over.
• Made of Iron: Lampshaded by Watson to a shocked Holmes as he cheerfully shrugs off a gunshot to the leg.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Averted in “Scales of Justice,” in which the Mad Scientist has a daughter, but she is not beautiful.
• Magic Countdown: At the climax of "The Hounds of the Baskervilles". Holmes stops it with one second left on the clock, too.
• The Man Behind the Man: Most episode are retellings of Holmes cases taken from literature. However, in most of them, Moriarty was introduced as the secret mastermind behind the mystery.
• Master of Disguise: Holmes. Even in a future where Latex Perfection is possible and one can 'gene-wash' their genetic code and alter their fingerprints, Holmes still manages to up the ante by virtue of his classical acting and impersonation chops—which, in turn, lets him see through attempts by others to deceive in a similar fashion.
• May–December Romance: One episode features Beth's old classmates Alice and Edith. When Alice gets engaged to Edith's father, Edith objects and accuses her of only marrying him for his money.
• Mirrors Reflect Everything: Including, as seen in "The Secret Safe", Scotland Yard's ray-that-turns-into-a-glowing-rope-and-wraps-itself-around-the-target guns.
• Monster of the Week: The series has no fewer than three genetically-modified/mutated people – averted with two in that they were victims rather than the Villain of the Week.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Moriarty’s impressive build never stops the sleeker Holmes from mopping the floor with him.
• Never Found the Body: During one fight, Moriarty tells Holmes that the Yard won't be able to find any trace of him if he falls into a laser field below. True enough, Watson witnessed both men fall, and no bodies were recovered... But that would be too simple for a second Reichenbach, wouldn't it?
• New Neo City: New London. It's never explained what happened to the old one. The new one has a lot of the same landmarks (see page image), but is full of Americans.
• Newspaper-Thin Disguise: Holmes uses one while watching Moriarty's goons at the beginning of "The Red-Headed League". Later in the episode, an item in the same newspaper gives him a clue as to the central mystery of the episode.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Lestrade royally messes up Holmes's plans once (see Mugged for Disguise).
• No Ending: The last time we see Moriarty (second-to-last episode aired, but probably intended to be the finale), he's gotten away. Neither this issue nor Holmes's relationship with Lestrade (see Will They or Won't They?) is ever resolved.
• No Name Given: The Prime Minister in "Mazarin Chip".
• Not So Stoic: When there's a possibility of having lost Watson or Lestrade, watch Holmes's composure crumble.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Chief Inspector Grayson, as head of New Scotland Yard. His dedication to procedure over results means that he often lets his lawfulness get in the way of doing good.
• Older Than They Look: Holmes, of course. Around 260 by the start of the series, yet only looks around 40 due to spending over 200 of those years preserved in death.
• Our Doors Are Different: Some have knobs and hinges; others are distinctly sci-fi.
• Play-Along Prisoner: In "The Secret Safe", Holmes and Watson are captured by the burglar and tied up; Watson is strong enough to break free, but Holmes asks him to wait until they've seen what they can learn by being captives.
• Polar Penguins: The zoo in "The Scales of Justice" has a penguin exhibit, which plays a role in the episode's climax, as Holmes uses the low temperature to incapacitate his cold-blooded attacker.
• Poorly Disguised Pilot: The idea first materialized as "Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century," a two-part episode of Bravestarr, which was made more than a decade before the series was finally produced.
• Power Trio: Holmes, Watson, and Lestrade... who could well be The Spock, The McCoy, and The Kirk, respectively.
• Ramming Always Works: At least, it works for Holmes when he's behind the wheel. He's not exactly the most experienced driver.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: When you get right down to it, Grayson listens to the Power Trio sooner or later.
• Recycled In Space: In this case, Recycled IN THE FUTURE.
  • To be fair, this entailed quite a lot of adventures that were, in fact, IN SPACE.
• Recycled Premise: A 2-part episode of Bravestarr used the same idea of Sherlock Holmes ending up in the future after his duel to the death with Moriarty.
• Refuge in Audacity: Lestrade resorts to this with her boss when she threatens to blackmail him.
• Renaissance Man: Seriously, is there anything Holmes and Moriarty can't do?
• Replacement Goldfish: Watson to Holmes, a stand-in for the long-gone Dr. John Watson of his time. Lestrade actually encourages it to help Holmes adapt to the 22nd century, and goes as far as to stuff Watson's memory banks with the collected writings of the original Dr. Watson, giving him much of the original's personality by reference.
• Retail Riot: "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" opens with two people fighting over a shop's last Carbuncle doll (the latest must-have Christmas toy).
• Retcon: Of the canon, actually, regarding what happened at Reichenbach. Of course, the retconning only works in-universe.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Watson. The human head is an elasto-mask, a Latex Perfection disguise kit, put on top of a featureless robotic head. In spite of not having any of the necessary structures underneath, Watson can still emote in an extremely dramatic fashion, and at one point had to cough to clear his imaginary mouth and lungs.
• Running Gag: In-universe. Lestrade loves to make cracks at Fenwick's rather deformed appearance.
• Saved for the Sequel: The first two episodes - the first three make up the show's only story arc.
• Say My Name: The "real" Watson in the prologue of the premiere. He uses Holmes's given name.
• Scaled Up: The Evilutionary Biologist Grimsby Roylott turns himself into a giant snake-creature in order to slip into buildings through the air vents in "Scales of Justice" (Holmes aficionados will recognise this plot as being just barely Suggested by... "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"). It also helps in his fight with Holmes, but not as much as he'd hoped.
• Scenery Porn: The cityscape sequences may be CG, but you have to give them credit for detail (even if the stock shot of one distinctive double-tower appears a few times too many).
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax:
  • In "The Hounds of the Baskervilles", Moriarty stages one of these on the moon; using holographic and robotic wolves to force an evacuation of Galileo City so he can put his evil scheme into operation.
  • The Playful Hacker antagonist of "The Sussex Vampire Lot" fakes being a vampire to confuse victims of her hacking.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Not just Holmes, surprisingly, but Lestrade, as well.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Holmes in his unique coffin.
• Sherlock Scan: As per usual, given the protagonist. Considering how much has changed since he was last in action, Holmes takes to identifying the stranger and more futuristic aspects of 22nd century London very quickly, such as identifying a nervous tic of one client as a specific quirk of people raised on the Moon.
• Shout-Out:
  • "My name is... Dr. Arthur Doyle. And this is Dr. Conan."
    • The scientist who brings Sherlock back to life looks like Arthur Conan Doyle.
    • The episode that Holmes uses that pseudonym implies he wrote about himself and Arthur Doyle was his penname.
  • A Dr. Cushing references noted Holmes actor Peter Cushing.
  • Sherlock makes reference to dogs owned by his neighbors, the Harnages. Phil Harnage created the show and wrote many episodes.
  • And this little gem:
  Moriarty: "I'll merely use the Mazarin chip to turn this room into a transporter and beam us out."
  Fenwick: (gasp) "Brilliant!"
  Moriarty: "I was kidding. Idiot. You obviously haven't watched the classics."
  • The Scales of Justice featured a python named Monty.
• Slipped the Ropes:
  Lestrade: Never cuff a cop with her own cuffs. She might know how to get out of them.
• Sssssnake Talk: The genetically-modified snake-person in "The Scales of Justice", hissing when addressing the protagonists. Also Fenwick, thanks to his horrible Neo-Parisian accent.
• Sonic Stunner: Ionizers, which are typically used as stun weapons.
• Space Is Noisy: Subverted as a plot point in "The Hounds of the Baskervilles": Holmes quickly points that the beast is on the outside of the lunar colony they're in, so they shouldn't be capable of hearing it roar, something pointed out again when the group are outside in space suits. Sure enough Moriarty is hijacking the broadcast signals to broadcast its roars to scare people off so he can continue his plan without issue.
• Spoiler Opening: The title sequence is composed of dramatic moments from various episodes, including the moment in "The Adventure of the Empty House" where Holmes reveals to Watson that he's not dead — which is not so much a surprise in itself, granted, but it also gives away which of the characters in the episode is really the not-dead Holmes in disguise.
• Status Quo Is God: After the third episode, except for some character development that does nothing to change the end results of each episode.
• Stock Footage:
  • CG establishing shots and cityscapes reappear in multiple episodes.
  • "The Secret Safe" uses the same CG establishing shot of Von Bork's yacht three times.
  • Played with in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire Lot": The security camera footage of each of the vampire's first two attacks includes identical sequences of the vampire crushing a data disk. What seems at first to be another example of the show's makers recycling footage turns out to be an in-universe example of recycled footage and one of the clues that allows Holmes to figure out the vampire's true nature.
• Strapped to an Operating Table: With invisible restraints. Considering that Holmes is the one strapped down, it's a bit scary.
• Summon Bigger Fish: Essentially the entire plot: Moriarty is simply too smart for anyone but Holmes to contend with, so Holmes is resurrected to deal with him.
• Suspect Existence Failure: In "The Five Orange Pips", things seem to point toward to poisoning victim's shifty-looking brother; moments after Watson becomes the first to voice the suspicion, the brother is poisoned too.
• Take Over the World: Being an adventure cartoon, this trope is a given. However, with Moriarty as the would-be conqueror, the schemes tend to be rather more complex than your average villain.
• Take That!: The Blue Carbuncle is reworked as a Take That! against Tickle-Me-Elmo, Furby, and other Christmas fads of the late '90s.
• Title Theme Tune: The lyrics of the theme song consist entirely of several repetitions of the title.
• Took a Level in Badass: Moriarty gets very tough and hands-on in his schemes.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Holmes is noticeably softer in the show, when compared to his younger self in the Sherlockian canon.
• Traffic Wardens: A robot meter maid features in "The Adventure of the Mazarin Chip". It's Holmes in an especially cunning disguise.
• Turn in Your Badge: Lestrade turns in her badge in the first episode, when Grayson balks at letting a two-hundred-year dead detective join the investigation. Grayson immediately hands it back and tells her to get on with it, admitting that the situation has reached the point where he's willing to try anything.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Holmes, Watson (as a male-presenting android), and Lestrade respectively. Also true of the Baker Street Irregulars: Wiggins, Tennyson, and Deidre.
• Underestimating Badassery: Grayson underestimates Holmes' competence when he's resurrected. Holmes quickly proves just how much smarter he is.
• The Unintelligible: Tennyson, who only speaks in musical chirps, warbles, and beeps. Despite this, he is understood perfectly fine by his friends. We never see his face, so it's possible that he's got some kind of throat damage.
• Vehicular Sabotage: In "The Scales of Justice", the villain attempts to dispose of Holmes and Watson by sabotaging their Flying Car so its engine shorts out while they are in the air.
• We Will Meet Again: Moriarty always comes back, no matter how hard Holmes pounds him.
• Will They or Won't They?: For all the amusing chemistry between Holmes and Lestrade, the question of their relationship is left as open-ended as the matter of Moriarty still at large.
• Would Hit a Girl: Criminals, especially Moriarty and Fenwick, don't hesitate to attack Lestrade. Her belligerence probably encourages them.
• Zeerust: Although some characters are clothed in more contemporary-looking apparel, not everyone is, and the architecture and some of the technology definitely fits the trope.

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