New Sherlock Trailer Released: ‘The Stage Is Set, The Curtain Rises, We Are Ready To Begin’


The new trailer for the BBC Sherlock Victorian-based Christmas special has been released, and it is, to say the very least, tantalizing. The much anticipated return of Sherlock promises to be a dark thriller set in dirty, drab London in the 1800’s, given the dramatic first 1 minute and 30-second trailer. And it all kicks off with Benedict Cumberbatch’s distinct Sherlock voice, which made him much more dramatic with a focused, concerned stare.

“The stage is set, the curtain rises, we are ready to begin.”

And begin it does. What we do see in the Sherlock trailer is Martin Freeman as John Watson sporting a massive mustache and dressed in a dashing period suit. We also see a suave, dashing Sherlock Holmes, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, using vague statements like “Every great cause has martyrs, every war has suicide missions, and make no mistake — this is war.” What? What does that mean? Well, for all the Sherlock trailer offers, it doesn’t suggest much of what the actual plot of the Sherlock special will be. So, it is anybody’s guess as to what that means.

Are Sherlock fans excited? Oh boy, yes they are.

To be clear, this episode of Sherlock is indeed a special – a one-off experience, placing Sherlock Holmes and John Watson in their traditional setting of Victorian London, the way original author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle intended.

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Martin Freeman as John Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Homes [Photo from BBC One]
The co-creator of BBC’s Sherlock, Steven Moffat, says this episode will not interfere with the cliff-hanger ending of Series 3 of Sherlock. But according to Celebuzz!, when Moffat and company showed up at San Diego Comic-Con where some of the first footage of Sherlock Series 4 was dangled in front of fan’s eager noses, he told the crowd that there is something particularly special about this Christmas episode.

“It’s still the same sense of humor, it’s still very much the show you know. But it’s in the ‘correct’ era, which was unbelievably thrilling.”

Moffat spoke more about the Victorian-based Sherlock in an interview with BBC earlier in the year.

“The Sherlock special is set in Victorian times, so it’s a different version of the show we’re used to. It’s like we checked the books and discovered we’d set it in the wrong time period by mistake and it’s like we’re correcting it for 90 minutes. We’re really proud of it, we think it’s a real cracker. But that’ll be it until series four.”

And when is series 4 of Sherlock expected? Much to the frustration of Sherlock fans, not until 2017. And this is why Sherlock lovers are celebrating this break in the otherwise drought filled space between the final episode of Series 3 in January 2014, and the so-far vague air-date of 2017 for Sherlock Series 4. In fact, shooting on the next series has not even begun, and won’t until somewhere around April 2015.

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Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat [Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]
But, the next series could be an interesting one for Sherlock fans and Doctor Who fans alike. Steven Moffat works on both of the shows and hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a cross-over episode, although it could be challenging, according to a quote in Realty Today.

“That’s a question that I get asked so often, and I can’t keep answering it. It’s all right for Doctor Who. That’s fine. But it would change Sherlock’s life, if he met the Doctor and knew that time travel was possible.”

The Sherlock special is slated to air, well, soon. Expectations are in December, but no date has been released, as seems to be the norm for the series. They seem to like to keep these things as a mystery that only Sherlock could figure out. According to the Verge, the Sherlock special will be shown on BBC, of course, as well as on PBS. It will also appear in select theaters, placing the normally TV bound Sherlock and Watson up on the big screen.

[Header photo screenshot from Sherlock BBC Trailer]

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