sherlock60 | Canon Discussion Post: The Greek Interpreter (Reply)

It's canon discussion time, everybody! What did you think about The Greek Interpreter? As always, I've written up a few of my own random thoughts and questions, which are behind the jump. Add your own in the comments!

Granada TV adaptation discussion is available in the Granada discussion post.

Special note: Next week is the first half of The Sign of Four (chapters 1-6) here at sherlock60, so get reading, everybody!

- The opening segment of this story involves one of the harshest assessments of Sherlock Holmes by his biographer, when Watson calls him "a brain without a heart". It's perhaps informative to note that this story is set in 1888 and was published in 1893. Holmes and Watson had been friends for seven years by 1888, which truly is a long time for Watson not to have met his friend's brother. 1893, on the other hand, is while Holmes was dead -- to Watson, at least. Perhaps thinking back on how reticent and secretive Holmes was about his life when he was alive, even to his closest/only friend makes Watson a bit bitter, leading to the rough treatment here.

- We have to talk about Mycroft, of course, who is fabulously Holmesian in his way. He and Sherlock are very brotherly in their similarities and differences. They're both excellent at thinking through clues logically, but Mycroft never feels like gallivanting about on some adventure, and he doesn't particularly care whether other people know he's right or not. His brother loves for people to know he's right. That's the best part, after all.

- Does Holmes consult his brother regularly on cases? He seems to, as Mycroft expresses surprise that he did not receive a visit over the Manor House case. But if Holmes is using his brother as a resource for both cases and help, he's doing so completely secretly, because Watson, his usual partner, did not even know Mycroft even existed until today. More things hidden from poor Watson, apparently.

- No one is careful enough about the safety of poor Mr. Melas. His situation is no minor matter. These criminals are holding a man hostage, starving him to death, and they kidnapped Melas earlier, threatening a hideous fate if he talked to anyone. Now they know he betrayed them, because Mycroft blasted that information out in every paper in the city. Shouldn't he be kept somewhere safe, with someone to keep an eye on him until the danger has passed? They find him alive in the end, albeit barely, and he survives only with the benefit of Watson's quick doctoring skill. But the ending of this story could have been much darker very easily, with Melas suffering the fate of John Openshaw from The Five Orange Pips.