Goodbye, John.

The Fall.

For those who don’t know, Buffy the vampire slayer sacrificed her life in The Gift and this song played (The Sacrifice, Christophe Beck).

Now, Sherlock sacrifices his own life.

A little Sherlock unaired pilot rant. 

That was really interesting! I love watching unaired pilots, because they are usually very similar to the first episode they chose to actually air in the script but all the directing and camera angles and artistic decisions are completely different.

Obviously A Study In Pink was much better than the unaired pilot because all the little parts that they decided needed fixing or changing were amended but I actually did like some of aspects of the original that they didn’t keep (meaning things in the script though, not the direction) and it’s really interesting because although the unaired pilot was still awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed it (despite the over-analysing) the little changes that they did make were clearly those things that kick a program up a notch from being really good to outstanding.

A few things I’m glad they changed or added:
- A lot of the line delivery, particularly the subtle jokes.
The scenes/side story with Mycroft, this definitely added another layer that was important.
- A lot of the direction, or particularly artistic decisions about things like camera angles. All of the scenes with Sherlock and John in the taxi were just shot much nicer in the episode they chose to air I think, or maybe I just have a thing for the pretty lights you get when you shoot from outside the cab window in.
- The running/chasing scene.
- Showing/indicating the thought patterns Sherlock was going through and putting the text in the shot for things like clean, dirty, wet. I realise those words together now sound really dirty, but I meant in the scene where Sherlock is examining the woman in pink’s body.

A few things I thought were awesome from the pilot:
- The candle. Seriously that candle. I’m referring to the candle gag in the restaurant scene where John keeps insisting that he’s not Sherlock’s date. When the guy said he was going to get a candle and then came back with it a couple minutes later and you saw John’s face, it just completely cracked me up. I was laughing so much, I don’t even know…(Edit: OH! Sorry, he does indeed put the candle there in the final version but it’s much less obviously, it’s only a little jar candle and he doesn’t light it and John just says ‘thanks’. I think the candle bit was awesomer in the unaired pilot, not that I’m obsessed with this candle bit or anything.)
- The drunk Sherlock act, I thought that was quite amusing. Also the way it went into him being drugged which I also found amusing, but this also caused John to go extra worried about his boyfriend with the whole ‘something’s gone wrong with Sherlock’s plan’.
- Also the different dynamic in the scene with Sherlock and the serial killer, even though it wasn’t as intense as the one they aired I liked it better for some reason - the serial killer irritated me less. Which I guess is stupid ‘cause as the villain he should irritate me, but I don’t know.
- There were a few more moments (or maybe just some different ones) where Sherlock and John had a nice little smile/exchange/connection thing happening, for all those shippers out there.
- Oh! Also that moment at the end where John goes “I’m his Doctor” that bit was awesome, that line, I liked that line. Established the instant ‘friendship’ sort of bond that they made well.

Side note that I feel is important: Benedict Cumberbatch looked noticeably more attractive than usual in the unaired pilot version of the scene where John is texting the murderer/Sherlock is discussing the suitcase.
Might have been the tight shirt tucked into the jeans with a lack of the usual blazer or coat - because that definitely looked fiiine - or it might also have been his hair in that scene. I’d been looking at his hair the whole time going “It’s different and offputting because I’m not used to it.” but never thinking it looked bad, just that I couldn’t decide which haircut/style I liked better because I wasn’t used to seeing it different. Then in this scene in the close up shots of Sherlock sitting on the chair by the suitcase I decided it definitely looked really good, and I probably like that hairstyle better too.
Man, what I’m really saying is he looked really hot in this scene. Somehow it turned into a paragraph though.

Edit: Ohhhh, I’m re-watching that scene now and his sleeves are also rolled up. I have a thing for shirt sleeves being rolled up so that definitely would have added to the hotness factor.