Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century

Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century
Opening titles
Genre	Action/Adventure Crime Science fiction Mystery
Created by	Sandy Ross
Written by	Eleanor Burian-Mohr Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Directed by	Paul Quinn
Starring	Jason Gray-Stanford John Payne Akiko Morison Viv Leacock Jennifer Copping Richard Newman Ian James Corlett William Samples Jo Bates
Country of origin	United States United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producer(s)	Andy Heyward Robby London Michael Maliani Elizabeth Partyka
Running time	30 minutes (with commercials)
Production company(s)	DIC Entertainment Les Studios Tex STV Productions
Distributor	DHX Media
Release
Original network	Fox Kids (US) Scottish Television (UK) UPN Qubo (2013-2018)
Original release	6 May 1999 – 21 July 2001

Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century is an animated television series in which Sherlock Holmes is brought back to life in the 22nd century. The series is a co–production by DiC Entertainment and Scottish Television and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Special Class Animated Program.^[1]

It was the last television series from DiC Entertainment to be produced by Disney before Andy Heyward purchased DiC back.

Overview

The concept series was created by Sandy Ross, a Scottish Television executive, who came up with the idea while skiing in Aspen, Colorado in 1996.^[2] DiC Entertainment and Scottish Television had previously worked together to create other series and this continued the trend. Some issues were raised about language carrying different connotations between cultures, but alternative action and dialogue were used to overcome this.^[2] There is an episode from the cartoon BraveStarr that aired in September 1987 that has a similar idea in it.

Story

Set in the 22nd century in New London, Inspector Beth Lestrade of New Scotland Yard is chasing the grotesquely deformed French rogue geneticist Martin Fenwick, when she realizes that his companion is none other than the 19th century criminal mastermind, Professor James Moriarty. They go on to discover that this is not the original Moriarty but is in fact a clone created from cells taken from his corpse, which Sherlock Holmes had buried in a Swiss ice cave. Lestrade knows that Holmes survived and actually lived to a ripe old age and further knows that his corpse is preserved in a glass-walled, honey-filled coffin in the basement of New Scotland Yard. She takes the body from the basement and delivers it to biologist Sir Evan Hargreaves (who looks just like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) who has just invented a process of cellular rejuvenation. The biologist then uses his cellular rejuvenation technique to return life and youth to Holmes's body so that the detective can combat Moriarty. Holmes also returns to his Baker Street rooms, which had been preserved as a museum. Lestrade's compudroid reads the original Watson's journals and assumes his name, face, voice and mannerisms in order to assist Holmes in both his crime-solving duties and his difficult assimilation to England in the 22nd century.

During the series, Holmes and Watson often work on retainer for New Scotland Yard, with Beth Lestrade as their supervising officer and Chief Inspector Charles Greyson as hers, but they also work for private citizens. They are often assisted by the new Baker Street Irregulars: soccer player Wiggins, the Cockney Deidre and the paraplegic Tennyson, who communicates through electronic beeps that only Holmes seems to be able to comprehend. The primary villains are Moriarty and his henchman Fenwick, appearing as they do in almost half of the produced episodes.

Each episode is inspired by one of the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle.^[3] Many of these are direct rewrites of the original stories, such as "The Empty House", "The Speckled Band", "The Five Orange Pips", "The Red-Headed League", and "The Engineer's Thumb" - while others are drastically different from the stories on which they are supposed to be based.

Visually, the series is a blend of traditional 2-D and 3-D CGI animation.

Voice cast

Episode list

The show premièred in the UK in late spring of 1999 and premièred in the USA in the autumn.The show was also the first DIC Entertainment series to use the "Kid in Bed" logo.

DVD releases

On 21 February 2012 Mill Creek Entertainment released Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century: The Complete 26-Episode Series and a "best-of" collection with 10 episodes called Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century...On the Case on DVD in Region 1.^[4] These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print.

On April 3, 2018, Mill Creek Entertainment re-released the complete series to DVD in Region 1.^[5]

Broadcast history

References

External links

• Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century on IMDb
• Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century at TV.com