Discussion Post: The Gloria Scott

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Welcome back everyone to sherlock60 for the first discussion of Round 2: The Gloria Scott. What did you think of it? As always, here are a few of my random thoughts and questions. Please add your own!

- Although this is the first case chronologically, we're peeking into Holmes and Watson set up nicely together further in the future. They're cozy together, at Baker Street on either side of the fire. And for the first time after much prodding, Holmes is in a "communicative humour" and tells Watson the story of the the start of his career. It's an intimate moment in a way, Holmes revealing at last a long hidden piece of his past to his friend. And of course, being a showman at heart, he does it with an elaborate introduction and surprise reveal via the encoded message to Victor Trevor's father.

- Poor Victor Trevor. He and Holmes made an interesting pair of friends, with an adorable story of how they met. It's a shame that their friendship coincides with such tragedy. It's no wonder Victor and Holmes seem no longer to be friends. Do you see any similarities between Victor Trevor then and Watson now?

- The story of the sailing of the Gloria Scott is harrowing and horrifying. It is the most brutal sequence in the canon, and it stuns me again every time I read it.

- If Holmes never thought of being a detective before talking to Mr. Trevor, what was his plan? What else might he have succeeded at with his particular skill set? Or failed at, for that matter? Perhaps he's lucky Victor Trevor's dog decided to take a bite out of his ankle that morning. Victor Trevor might not feel the same way.

Comment away, and join us next week for The Musgrave Ritual, our first week with a Granada episode to watch!

Comments

[hisietari.livejournal.com]

I might be a bit late this time, didn't get around to finish preparations in my blog for a new story arc, and just returned from the beach/got hit with a full load of Alice in Wonderland syndrome (hardly see what I type, in case this is full of mistakes ^^"). Hope the resulting sun stroke/migraine won't keep me too long. Can't wait to see all the new things coming up here!

[hisietari.livejournal.com]

Okay, back from the dead.

I think Trevor and Watson are quite different, otherwise Victor would have stuck with Holmes. He rather comes across as a good-natured, straightforward fellow who goes the way he's always been supposed to go. Befriending Holmes was a matter of time though. Watson, on the other hand, has seen his way destroyed before his eyes, and just then Holmes walks in and they find a new one together. I think Watson is more flexible in his habits and more hungry for the unusual, the adventure, while Trevor comes off as someone who likes the simple and quiet (at least his final move suggests that).

Do you think Holmes ever had a plan? *lol* I think he pretty much followed his interest and let them find an occupation for him instead of the other way round. Pets can be very helpful in this, I've found. ;P

[trillsabells.livejournal.com]

As much as it inspired Holmes to get into detective work he doesn't actually do much detecting in this story, does he? I mean he does his deducing thing and nearly gives the guy a heart attack and then he manages to decode a message but it's all summed up by the letter with very little input from him at all.

I love that this story gives us some background to Holmes and his old friends but it's not really a case, is it?


Also does anyone know if Holmes only going to university for two years was usual at the time or does that indicate he dropped out?

[hisietari.livejournal.com]

Concerning dropping out of college, I haven't found anything about a standard duration of studies during Victorian times. I'm not quite sure, however, if Holmes would even spare a thought for titles and certificates. The way he presents his "singular" line of studies, he probably picked very specifically what he was interested in, and ignored everything else. What is graduation to him if he has learned everything he needs to get started on his own?

He's certainly brainy enough to pull off a diploma in record time, too. The question is rather if his professors were willing and able to give it to him, and if he cared enough about it to go that way.

Sunday, 19 August 2012

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User thisprettywren referenced to your post from Sunday, 19 August 2012 (http://holmesian-news.livejournal.com/229704.html) saying: [...] by (BBC) + Misc Discussion Post: The Gloria Scott [...]

[bwblack.livejournal.com]

I was really very struck by how sad Victor was. I'm not sure we get enough of him and it is during such personally trying circumstances as opposed to our introduction to Watson, but I kept going back to this young man who has planned this nice summer at home with his father and his friend, a man who has already lost a mother and sister, and all of a sudden in a night his friend is gone, his father is different and this man is causing upheaval in the house and it feels like it might all get better that Hudson is going but instead his father dies and he is rocked farther.

I just really, really felt for Victor.

[debriswoman]

This is quite a grim story all round. Victor Trevor seems such a sad victim of birth and circumstance. I like to think he made a positive future for himself in the Terai.And perhaps kept in touch with Holmes, now and then.