Diksha Sundriyal
Prime Video’s ‘Young Sherlock’ reimagines the story of the iconic detective, taking the audience back to his younger days, when he is yet to become the infamous figure everyone knows and admires. The show not only rewrites the character’s origin story but also holds space for other iconic characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, particularly James Moriarty, and paints them in a different light. Interestingly, the show has one of the most notable characters missing: John Watson. In Doyle’s stories, he is Sherlock Holmes‘ best friend and a partner in solving crimes. He is also the bridge between the audience and Sherlock. He is established as such an invaluable character that not seeing him in the TV show makes one wonder where he is when young Sherlock is out gallivanting with Moriarty. SPOILERS AHEAD.
John Watson is Not Supposed to be a Part of Young Sherlock’s Storyline
‘Young Sherlock’ is inspired by the book series of the same name by Andrew Lane. While the first season of the show follows a fresh storyline, the thread and tone of the story are borrowed from Lane’s books, which also feature a mix of well-known and new characters to give an origin story to the character. While creating a new world for Sherlock, the author wanted to honor the creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and one of the conditions that he set for himself was not to tinker with the timeline presented in Doyle’s works. In the original works, the character of John Watson is introduced to Sherlock Holmes and his unmatchable skills of deduction in ‘A Study in Scarlet.’
Watson is supposed to meet Sherlock at the height of his career. By this time, he has made a name for himself as a detective, and his eccentricities are well-known to his acquaintances. He has also polished and disciplined himself and his skills, which means that the Sherlock that Watson meets all those years later is nothing like the one we see in ‘Young Sherlock.’ This meant that Lane couldn’t bring Watson’s character into his own book series since it would contradict the events set down by Doyle’s work. The creators of the show seem to have adopted a similar approach. Moreover, they were more interested in exploring other relationships that are not as elaborated in Doyle’s work, one of them being the rivalry between Sherlock and Moriarty.
John Watson’s Presence Would Complicate Sherlock and Moriarty’s Dynamics
The creators of ‘Young Sherlock’ noted that in the original books, Doyle introduces James Moriarty through Sherlock Holmes’ eyes. Even though the character appears in just one story, his name is mentioned several times by Sherlock. So, while we hear a lot about who Moriarty is and how evil he is, we never really get to know the origin of the connection he has with Sherlock and why they have this strong sense of animosity between them. The fact that there is no mention of a particular point when Sherlock and Moriarty first met also allowed the show’s writers to create such a premise for themselves, which is why we see Moriarty as Sherlock’s sidekick rather than Watson.
The show is supposed to focus on how their friendship eventually falls apart, leading them to become each other’s archenemies. With already such a strong relationship at the focus of the storyline, the show’s creators felt that bringing Watson into the mix would have created a love triangle that would make things more complicated. It would also divert Sherlock’s attention and would beat the point of bringing Moriarty into the mix in the first place. So, rather than crowding the story for the sake of including popular characters from Doyle’s books, the writers decided to leave out Watson in order to do justice to other storylines and characters.
Given how important Watson is to Sherlock’s story, there will eventually be a time down the line where he is finally introduced, but it will likely be after Sherlock and Moriarty have already fallen off and have become the archenemies that we know them to be. By sticking to the original version of events, the show not only gets to chart its own path while honoring Doyle’s work, but it also gets to stay canon and eventually end in a way that merges its ending with the book’s beginning, making it a truly deserving prequel that it has set out to be. Considering this path, Watson doesn’t seem to fit into the picture, at least not for now.
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