My own open letter to our main Moffat

Dear Steven,

A friend of mine from not too far away from here wrote you a little note yesterday, and even though I doubt you have time to follow every little internet bit, I wanted to pass on a few other thoughts from the land we call downstate Illinois, U.S.A.

First off, Jekyll. Thanks for that. It was the first time I decided to look up who the writer was on one of your projects, and, wow. That was one mind-blowing riff on Dr. Jekyll, and I loved it through and through. You had a great story and you told it. Wish there was more, but that's how we kill great ideas here sometimes, running them into the ground.

Secondly, Doctor Who. Thanks again. There were some real moments there, along that long road, and again, some real wows.

And, to the main point of this, Sherlock.

Thanks for everything.

I've been a Sherlock Holmes fan as long as I've been an adult, with a few glimmers before that, and after decades of following all sorts of iterations of the guy, things were, I will admit, getting a mite dull. You and Mark pulled off a trick that I thought couldn't be pulled off. Did it with style, talent, and actually raised a bar that Conan Doyle set high in the Victorian era.

You didn't play it safe, play to expectations, or play it by the book . . . exactly the way Sherlock Holmes himself stood out from every other detective, official or unofficial, of his time. You thought long and hard about this creature we call Sherlock Holmes and extrapolated some very fun possibilities. And, as you probably know quite well by now, got some extreme reactions . . . which is always a sign you've pushed your art past the boundaries of what is and gone somewhere fresh. And we need people who do that, now more than ever.

I'm really looking forward to your take on Dracula, but do hope you and the boys get back to Sherlock one day. You've been a great team. And anyone who says "Stoooopppp! Dooonnn'tt!" . . . well, there's plenty of other things they can watch. Gnomes, NYC heroin addicts, old 1980s reruns. There's enough other Sherlock Holmes out there for those people. But those of us that love seeing the BBC Sherlock team out there, working magic? We would love to see you do some more.

One thing though: Start on the big screen for the next go-round if you can swing it. You've wound up with big screen actors, and I've seen episodes in a movie theater. They look good there. A full-on Sherlock movie at the right moment could make some major money.  And the haters?

Just remember Star Wars. Things got really nasty during that second trilogy. I was a complete fan-turned-hater for those Anakin stories. But more movies eventually came out, and I wasn't a hater any more. Good Star Wars was still good Star Wars. If you had folks in seasons, one and two, you can have them again . . . just by defying their latest set of expectations and being better than anything else out there, which Sherlock has always been. And . . . still . . . is.

In the meantime, get that Dracula thing in the works. After Jekyll and Sherlock, I have . . . dare I say that ominous phrase . . . high expectations.

Most sincerely, and appreciatively,
Brad