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Welcome! Like the book of the same name, this blog is an eclectic collection of Sherlockian scribblings based on more than a half-century of reading Sherlock Holmes. Please add your own thoughts. You can also follow me on Twitter @DanAndriacco and on my Facebook fan page at Dan Andriacco Mysteries. You might also be interested in my Amazon Author Page. My books are also available at Barnes & Noble and in all main electronic formats including Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iBooks for the iPad.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Quintessential Quote #32


"Data! Data! Data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay."
-- "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches."

This quote reminds me of Data the android and the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Elementary, My Dear Data" and "Ship in a Bottle." In my library I have a painting of Data as Holmes and Geordi LaForge as Dr. Watson.

What is it about Sherlock Holmes and science fiction, anyway? Many years ago I was looking through Holmes books at a department store and the elderly clerk asked me if I were also a Star Trek fan. The answer was yes, but I have no idea why she asked the question.

Many of the folks that I follow on Twitter are both Dr. Who and Holmes fans. I love the episode where Tom Baker wears a deerstalker. Perhaps there was more than one such. And didn't Tom Baker once play Holmes in live theater?

Of all the dozens of Holmes pastiches on my shelves, my favorites owe as much to Jules Verne and his descendants as to Arthur Conan Doyle. The collection called Sherlock Holmes in Orbit, 26 then-new stories edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg, springs to mind immediately. (Note that the cover of the edition I own boldly proclaims "Authorized by Dame Jean Conan Doyle.")

I don't know if Sherlock Holmes and science fiction could be called a natural combination, but it's certainly a very felicitious one.

Happy New Year! What's on your Sherlock Holmes agenda for the year ahead?

2 comments:

  1. I picked this little book up in the Dealers' Room at Gillette to Brett III. (The seller had me at "scarce.") I'm really looking forward to reading it, actually:
    http://www.amazon.com/East-Coming-Arthur-Byron-Cover/dp/0425044394

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  2. I saw that book and thought I already had it. I was wrong! Happy reading.

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