Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes
A.K.A.	The Great Detective
Character Information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Residence	221B Baker Street, London
Behind the Scenes
First seen in	COMIC: Journey Into Misery (mentioned)
Also seen in	See list
Copyright	Public Domain
Index	See category

In many realities, Sherlock Holmes, known as the Great Detective, was a notorious sleuth who lived in Victorian England. He lived in 221B Baker Street in London with Doctor Watson and Mrs Hudson.

Description

Physical appearance

In the Prime Universe, Sherlock Holmes was “domineeringly tall, thin without being lanky”. He had a thin, pale face and receding, short, dark brown hair. He wore a brown jacket over a cream-coloured shirt, with a blue tie. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)

Personality

Sherlock Holmes was best-known as a brilliant analytical mind. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker, COMIC: Journey Into Misery) He was extremely focused on his work, having to be laboriously persuaded by Doctor Watson every time Watson wanted him to take part in some “frivolous” leisure activities such as a Christmas dinner. Pythagoras-858 thought of Holmes as having a fairly large ego, and a demeanour some might describe as “arch” or “superior”. However, and contrary to popular belief, he was rarely silent and stoic. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)

Powers & abilities

Holmes was best-known for his propensity for “implacable logical deduction”. He was startlingly observant and used principles of logical deduction to draw conclusions about events and people based on a variety of clues. On the physical end of things, he was also a master of the martial art baritsu. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)

Biography

In the Prime Universe

In the “Prime Universe”, Sherlock Holmes was a real man who resided in the late 19th century at 221B Baker Street with Mrs Hudson and Doctor Watson. They kept a written correspondence with a Mr Doyle who often irritated them by trying to convince them of the truth of the supernatural. By 1895, he had met Professor Moriarty, whom he understood to be dead. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)

Christmas 1895

On Christmas that year, he was persuaded to participate in a Christmas dinner with Watson, Mrs Hudson, Sherlock's brother, Inspector Lestrade, Sexton Blake and more. Even on the morning of the 24th, however, he was still working on a monograph, “concerning the differences between the analysis of footprints left in snow, and that of those imprinted on dirt or clay”.

At three in the afternoon, however, he was interrupted by a strange visitor who initially used the name “Moriarty” to get his attention, then more properly introduced himself as Pythagoras. Pythagoras was a Clockwork Cherub and had travelled back in time to meet Sherlock; from Pythe's perspective, this was not his first meeting with the British detective, but their prior encounters had taken place later in Holmes's timeline. He convinced Holmes that he was not mad by telling him about a typographical error in a memo whose only draft was still in Holmes's office, not having been published yet.

Pythe transported Sherlock to the Workshop, where he had the British detective examine the crime scene. Holmes pointed out that Madame Tarsa's cane had been stolen, and helped Pythe arrive at an additional hypothesis: that one of Tarsa's own living toys, one she'd just created, was responsible. After obtaining Baron Frankenstein's insight on these kinds of situation, the two guessed that the toy might have ended up at the Interdimensional Black Market. Indeed, they found a living toy clown there, engaged in a duel with the Queen of the Black Market. Holmes stepped in and managed to trip up the Clown, giving the Queen the advantage. However, the Clown teleported away before they could any information out of him. Holmes and Pythe subsequently shared a meal with the Queen, which was interrupted by a Wellsian, Skollops ag-Warka, who tried to force them to give him an Artefact of Power; instead, thanks to the timely intervention of Wendy VII, they ended up making an even trade with the Wellsian, giving him the Whistle of the Witch Varganax in exchange for him telling them where the Clown had gone.

Arriving on Shenanig in the Jynx Dimension, they made their way to the Imperial Castle, bumping into Doctor Curious. Getting themselves arrested on purpose, they were taken before the Clown, who had overthrown Sebastian Steer and made himself Emperor. Learning the truth about where the Clown had come from, they convinced him to give up on being a villain and return to his “mother”, Tarsa. The Clown instantly teleported himself, Pythe, Holmes and Wendy VII back to the Workshop. From there, after further explanations and thanks, Sherlock was carried back to his home by Jenny Everywhere, who invited herself to the Christmas party. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)

Later life

Eventually, Holmes retired. A younger Pythagoras-858 first met Sherlock at this stage in his life, with the two becoming friends, before Pythe ended up meeting the younger version of Holmes. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)

In Reality Z-25 31-H

In Reality Z-25 31-H, Sherlock was a well-known fictional character noted for his above-average intelligence and observation skills, prompting Kelly to once sarcastically call Jenkins “Sherlock” when he made a remark she considered trivially obvious. (COMIC: Journey Into Misery)

In Frankenstein's World

In one world where Baron Frankenstein was real, Sherlock, on the other hand, was not. When Pythagoras-858 introduced them to one another, Frankenstein was as stunned to meet the Prime Universe's Holmes as he was to meet Frankenstein. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)

In Aziraphale's world

In one universe which was also home to the angel Aziraphale, Holmes was a celebrated fictional character, invented by Arthur Conan Doyle. Aziraphale owned a complete collection of first edition Sherlock Holmes books in his bookshop, such as A Study in Scarlet, being of the opinion that “no library would be complete if it did not make room for the Great Detective”. (PROSE: You've Been To Eden, I Perceive)

As a Librarian

A version of Sherlock Holmes existed in the Interdimensional Library as one of its Librarians, autonomous, sentient projections of popular fictional characters. Like all Librarians, he had the qualities of his literary self, but was aware that he was fictional, and had an encyclopedic knowledge of his own publication history. Jenny Everywhere once “borrowed” this version of Holmes and brought him to Aziraphale's universe, where he agreed to stay at the bookshop and help Aziraphale with bibliophilic investigations for as long as the angel wished. (PROSE: You've Been To Eden, I Perceive)

Behind the scenes

Notes & References

Sherlock Holmes-related concepts in Jenny Everywhere media
Individuals Irene Adler • Sexton Blake • Mycroft Holmes • Sherlock Holmes • Inspector Lestrade • Professor Moriarty • Doctor Watson Locations 221B Baker Street