Dear readers,

I.O.U. - a review of His Last Vow. But to be honest, that Sherlock season finale was filled with so many brilliant and funny and unexpected (and any combination of those) scenes that I'm still not quite sure what to think. Meaning, I need to watch it again and then I need to write about it, and that could take a while. I'm pretty busy with work at the moment, so I'll just try to get it done by the time the episode airs in the US...

In the meantime, have a dragon. No review of the Hobbit (reasons: see above), just the eye of Smaug amid his hoard of gold.



Stay safe and don't meddle in the affairs of dragons!

Captain Dragonnails

Hey there,

It seems my original blogiversary post got lost somewhere among all the Christmas stuff, or perhaps it was tl;dr, so here's a brief reminder. I decided to extend it to 31 January and added another prize.

Hallo meine Lieben,
mein ursprünglicher Gewinnspiel-Post scheint im ganzen Weihnachtstrubel etwas untergegangen zu sein, vielleicht war er auch zu lang zum Lesen, daher möchte ich es hier nochmals zusammenfassen. Ich habe außerdem das Einsendedatum bis zum 31. Jänner (bzw. Januar für euch Deutsche ;)) verlängert und eine zusätzliche Gewinnoption hinzugefügt.

There will be one winner who can choose one of these prizes:

PRIZE A: Books of your choice up to a value of €15 from The Book Depository as long as you live in a country where they deliver free of charge (check here) - international

PRIZE B: A $15 gift certificate to Ninja Polish - international

PRIZE C: A beauty package with nail polish, eyeshadow, perfume samples and other fun stuff and a few surprises. - EU residents only. Non-EU residents will get different things due to shipping restrictions. For details see this post.

Es wird eine/n GewinnerIn geben, die/der zwischen den folgenden Preisen wählen kann:

PREIS A: Bücher im Wert von bis zu 15 € von The Book Depository (ihr wählt aus, ich bestelle, solange ihr in einem dieser Länder wohnt) - international

PREIS B: Ein Gutschein zu US$ 15 für Ninja Polish - international

PREIS C: Ein Beautypaket mit Nagellack, Lidschatten, Duftsamples etc. sowie ein paar Überraschungen. Kann nur in EU-Länder verschickt werden - außerhalb der EU bekommt ihr ein etwas anderes Paket. Details dazu gibt's hier.

RULES:
Leave a comment on this post telling me about your favourite fandom, or - if you're not the fangirl/boy type - favourite book, TV show or movie. It doesn't have to be an essay, but I'd like to see more than just a word or two. Make an effort to write a couple of full sentences that aren't just "thanks for the giveaway".
You don't have to follow me but if you like my blog (or tumblr or twitter), I'd be delighted if you did.

Make sure I can contact you somehow (e-mail visible in Blogger profile, mail it to boldly_polish (!at) yahoo [dot] com or put it in the post but NOT IN PLAINTEXT.)

I reserve the right to delete and disqualify inappropriate comments. Anyone trying to cheat by posting multiple times will be disqualified completely.

If you win and are under 18, I will need your parents' permission for you to give me your postal address (if required for your prize of choice).

This giveaway will run until the end of 31 January 2014 (23:59 CET - that's GMT+1) I will contact the winner by e-mail and they will have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise I'll draw another winner.

Open internationally, but some prizes are limited to certain regions.
Once I order/send you the prize, it is out of my hands and I cannot accept any responsibility or liability for its safe delivery nor warranty for the items. All  prizes are paid for by me and are not sponsored in any way. Prizes cannot be redeemed for cash.
 

TEILNAHMEREGELN:

Hinterlasst mir hier einen Kommentar, in dem ihr mir von eurem liebsten Fandom erzählt – oder welches Buch, welche Fernsehsendung, welcher Film, Comic oder Schauspieler euch besonders gut gefällt. Es muss kein Aufsatz sein, aber ich wünsch mir einen Kommentar mit zumindest ein paar vollständigen Sätzen, die über „Super Gewinnspiel“ oder „Danke für die Auslosung“ hinausgehen.
Ihr müsst mir nicht folgen, aber falls euch mein Blog (oder tumblr oder twitter) gefällt, würd ich mich natürlich darüber freuen!

Hinterlasst mir eine Kontaktmöglichkeit! (E-Mail im Bloggerprofil sichtbar, per mail an boldly_polish (klammeraffe) yahoo (punkt) com oder im Kommentar - dort aber nicht ausgeschrieben, sondern so "verschlüsselt" wie meine hier.)

Ich behalte mir vor, unangebrachte Kommentare zu löschen und vom Gewinn auszuschließen. Bei Mehrfachteilnahme wird die Person disqualifiziert. 

Bei Personen unter 18 benötige ich im Gewinnfall eine schriftliche Zustimmung der Eltern zur Übermittlung eurer Wohnadresse an mich. 

Die Teilnahme ist bis 31. Jänner 2014 um 23:59 (MEZ) möglich. Die GewinnerIn wird von mir per Mail kontaktiert und hat dann 72 Stunden, um zu antworten, sonst wird neu ausgelost.

Die Auslosung ist international, allerdings gibt es einigen Gewinnen regionale Einschränkungen.

Nach dem Versand bzw. der Bestellung des Gewinns kann ich keine Verantwortung für die Lieferung übernehmen. Alle Preise wurden/werden von mir bezahlt und sind in keiner Weise gesponsert. Keine Barauszahlung und keine Gewähr.

Spoiler warning: This post contains spoilers for episodes 1 and 2 of Sherlock Season 3 (The Empty Hearse and The Sign of Three) and a minor spoiler for Doctor Who Series 1 Ep. 10 (The Doctor Dances). The nail art and screenshot contain very mild spoilers. Also, this isn't a proper review but more of a reaction post.

First of all, dear fellow BBC Sherlock fans, I’d like to apologise for punching you right in the feels. Don’t think the nail art is sad? Stay away from this post until you’ve watched the episode or you’ll be majorly spoiled. Seen the episode but still don’t have enough feels about that scene? Listen to this, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

 I don’t know about you, but I had to take this off at the earliest opportunity because I couldn’t deal with the sadness every time I looked at my hand. 

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

"The Sign of Three" ©BBC One*

But wait, it’s a happy and funny episode, right? In fact, it’s the funniest Sherlock episode ever.  Best man speech! Drunk deductions! “Am I a pretty lady?”

Half a year has passed since Sherlock’s sudden reappearance, filled with cases (check out John’s blog!) and, more importantly, wedding preparations. Sherlock is the best wedding planner and maid of honour anyone could ask form throwing himself into the wedding preparations with a fervour usually only reserved for particularly interesting cases. He vets the wedding guests (Sherlock’s mini-me is just the best thing ever! Everybody’s parent!lock fics just came true). He even comes up with several napkin folding suggestions and tries to tell Mary he learned it for a case.  "I’m not John, I can tell when you’re fibbing." – "Learned it on youtube."

Yeah, Mary’s totally running her boys.

Poor Sherlock. The disbelief in his eyes as he realised John considered him his best friend was heart-wrenching. Oh Sherlock, you didn’t know?

He may not be the best best man ever, but he’s definitely the best wing man ever (at least for weeding out the bad ones).

For once, my nail art actually looked better with a glossy coat. Here's the  matte version for comparison.

Sherlock’s definitely off his game though. Twice during the wedding he makes “one more deduction than I was expecting”. The emotions he discovered during his absence and after his return are making things harder. Alone used to be what he had, “alone protects me”. But he didn’t realise he was lonely until he had had John’s companionship and then had to leave for two years (see his comment to Mycroft in the previous episode, when Mycroft says he’s not lonely: "How would you know?")

So now he deduces the sign of three (turned that title around completely, furthest departure from any A.C. Doyle titles so far, content-wise) and realises it is indeed the end of an era. But he vows to protect them, to always stick by them. It is as touching a scene as I’ve seen with the three of them. And then he sends them to dance.

Mary: "But what about you?"– John: "We can’t all three dance. There are limits." – Sherlock:  "Yes, there are."

This is adorable and sad at the same time all by itself, but if you’d like to add some subtext, remember how Moffat used "dancing" as a euphemism for sex in Doctor Who? Yeah. Also, want some more crazy talk about nebulous hidden references? That episode, The Doctor Dances, is the one in which “just this once, everybody lives“. As does everybody in this episode. (Though to be fair, nobody died in The Empty Hearse either. Told you it was nebulous. It’s most likely just a coincidence (even if the universe rarely is that lazy), but it’s a pretty one.)

But Sherlock doesn’t get to dance, does he. Not even with head bridesmaid 'it’s a shame you’re...whatever you are' Janine. Even though he loves to dance so much...

Instead, he leaves the wedding early. Alone used to be what protected him. But it doesn’t anymore. If ever there was a danger night, this is it.

Poor Sherlock...

I was going to add a lot of gratuitous speculation on His Last Vow, which airs tomorrow, but I’m so nervous about it that it’s taken me this long to even get a coherent post about The Sign of Three written. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I haven’t been able to think about anything else all week. I don’t remember a TV show ever getting into my head like this. It’s a testament to the writing skills of Moffat, Gatiss and team and the acting skills of the entire cast that they have managed to captivate me like this. Whatever the ending, I know it will be brilliant. I’ve already heard it’s unexpected, which gives me hope, as all the endings I’m imagining are devastating. So perhaps, just this once, everybody lives.

Captain Spacenails, full of admiration for Moffat & team

*Disclaimer: To the best of my understanding, the BBC Terms of Use (for personal use) permit me to use BBC content on this blog when correctly credited. Should this not be the case, I will be happy to take the screenshot down, just please let me know by mailing me at boldly_polish (!ät) yahoo[dot]com or contacting me via one of my social media accounts in the right sidebar.

6 January is generally assumed to be Sherlock Holmes' birthday, so let's wish the immortal sleuth a happy birthday! Not that he would have cared much for such a thing, I believe, but sometimes birthdays are more of an opportunity for other people to celebrate the life (even if it's fictional) of someone they love. 

Considering his was the first fandom, with people mourning him in public, wearing black armbands and accosting Arthur Conan Doyle on the streets when he killed off Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls in The Final Problem, I'd say he's pretty well loved. (I can only imagine the mobs of London shaking their fists and screaming "Doooooooyle!" in much the same way that our current generation of Sherlock fans screams "Moffaaaaaat!")

But he doesn't die, does he? He comes back. He always comes back. #Sherlocklives. And that is why we're here today (well, I am, I don't know about the rest of you), to celebrate his life. 

Let me close with a lovely poem by Vincent Starrett, journalist, writer and Sherlockian (learn more about him at this great blog).

221b

Here dwell together still two men of note
Who never lived and so can never die:
How very near they seem, yet how remote
That age before the world went all awry.

But still the game’s afoot for those with ears
Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:
England is England yet, for all our fears—
Only those things the heart believes are true.

A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane
As night descends upon this fabled street:
A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,
The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.

Here, though the world explode, these two survive,
And it is always eighteen ninety-five.

-- Vincent Starrett (1886-1974)

1895 began about 7 months after Holmes' return from the dead. BBC Sherlock has returned and is now celebrating his best friend's wedding nine months later. For Sherlock and John, right now, it is their 1895.

I love those closing lines. Starrett wrote this poem in 1942, during World War 2. But it is just as true today: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson are still alive, 126 years after A Study in Scarlet was first published. They have lived on in countless incarnations, on radio, in movies and on TV, in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books and in the thousands of stories written by Holmes aficionados (the Sherlock Holmes fandom: Producing fanfic since 1893.)
Their faces may change, but somewhere, those two will always sit in their chairs by the fire, smoking their pipes (or applying nicotine patches or experimenting with eyeballs to deal with quitting smoking), reading the papers, and Sherlock Holmes will explain his deductions to his adoring John Watson.

Happy birthday, Mr Holmes.

Captain Spacenails Sherlocked

Well, I say spoilers, but if you've read any Reichenfall theories or Sherlock fanfic in the last two years, there's nothing in here that you haven't read before. Because that's essentially what this is: All the speculation condensed into a fan-fic-tastic episode.

(In all seriousness though, there's detailed discussion of E1 and obscure minor spoilers for the rest of the season - and the trailer linked below is okay for E1 as long as you don't click on the interactive stuff, that has E2 (edit: and now also E3) content, which I'm avoiding. Also, this post contains gifs. Spoilery gifs.)

We know Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss are aware of what goes on on tumblr, so they probably just decided to do a nice little "best of" medley for the episode. (Heck, I wouldn’t be awfully surprised if they came out on Sunday with the actual first episode of the season and went "haha, just messing with you, that one doesn’t count!")

Sherlock fans, in turn, have been inspired by the episode (or rather the trailer), too:

© geothebio (tumblr, Twitter, Redbubble)

© @vereentjong (tumblr)

So yes. After two years‘ wait, he's finally back. For readers of George R. R. Martin’s books, two years is a blink of an eye, but I'm still glad to finally see Series 3 of Sherlock. I watched the first episode and it was one giant festival of poking fun at fans and still managing to be a brilliant Sherlock episode (and then I watched it again because I was laughing so hard in some places I missed some of the subtler things).

Sherlock is back, thankfully with a haircut (the Jesus hair didn’t really suit him) and a possibly new but still dramatic coat ("I have lots of coats."). He’s ready to have it out with Mycroft over a game of chess – no, wait, Operation (bahaha) and to pick up with John where he left it, because what life could he have had while Sherlock was gone. So naturally he goes to surprise him at a restaurant, only to find him perusing the wine menu (not the dessert menu, like I assumed) and wondering how to propose to Mary (called that one, but it was rather obvious).

I didn’t particularly expect to like Mary’s character (though I didn’t set out to hate her, and certainly not Amanda Abbington, as some crazies have done - I just couldn't picture the dynamic), but I LOVE HER. She is cool, she is funny, and she totally ships it. (As does Mrs Hudson, loved that scene! "So soon after Sherlock? What’s his name?" – "It’s a woman." – "A woman?! My, you really have moved on!") 

I love how at first she’s all 'you bastard, you have no idea what you’ve put him through' but then as he’s explaining it at Speedy’s and the kebab place, she starts to come round and by the next morning she’s reading the stories on the blog and totally fangirling for them to get together again (in a crime-fighting way, of course). 

And can we take a moment to remark how SMART she is? She recognised the text message cipher right away. (Okay, maybe that’s because she’s a clever linguist, as Sherlock deduced.  But he also deduced she’s a liar. I’m not quite sure whether to interpret his expression as she gets into the cab as worried or simply confused by this woman.) Is she just awesome or is there something sinister about it? Is she in cahoots with Mystery Man? God, I hope not, she’s just way too cool. I hope she lives a much longer and happier life than in Conan Doyle’s books.

John’s moustache: Loved Sherlock’s "we’ll have to get rid of that". Thank God John did, that thing was really awful. "Does yours come off too?" was also a pretty good one. But oh Sherlock, did you really have no idea how inappropriate your appearance at the restaurant was? Grinning like a child with a particularly good trick, emphasising the "old friend" and "familiar face" and despairing when John doesn’t react, so pleased with himself when John finally recognises him... John’s reaction was spot on. Having him pretty much lose his voice from being overwhelmed and shocked and furious was a nice touch.

Content ©BBC One*, gif from Olga

Content ©BBC One*, gif from Olga

Sherlock’s either changed during the time he was away and come to realise he misses John and gotten better at showing emotions - or he’s gotten better at faking them. You see it a lot in this episode: The discussion about friends and loneliness with Mycroft (could just be to rile him though, since Mycroft obviously has even worse issues than Sherlock), his conversation with Molly at the end of their day together (and the little kiss), the way he wants to surprise John. Of course in the train he’s obviously faking (and probably faking the mind palace exploration as well), but did he have this sort of humour before? And John’s commentary in his head while he’s trying to use Molly as a substitute sidekick (engaged Molly, who very, very obviously has a type, and it’s not 'sociopath'), not enjoying the showing off without John there. "Forgot to turn up your collar", "jealous?". The other emotions he displays in the episode may be faked, but this is real. He feels incomplete without John. Overall, he seems more emotionally invested in the world around him.

I always like it when a show pokes a bit of fun at the fans. This episode definitely hits all the buttons. All the different crazy Fall theories... I felt pretty let down at the beginning when I thought that this was actually how it happened... and then I fell for it again with the last version, going "seriously? They got it right? Even the ball? Wow!"  – I really should have gotten suspicious when I thought I recognised the phrasing of the ball explanation from a theory I’d read). My favourite has to be the Sheriarty one though, and I’m glad to say I didn’t fall for that one. Their giggling and the faces they pull – priceless. And of course the kiss. 

Content ©BBC One*, gif from Zap2it

Why does Sherlock know Anderson’s first name but not Lestrade’s? Also, I really expected Lestrade to punch him in the face. But aww, how happy he is to see him!

The terrorist plot is pretty decent but, as in any Sherlock episode, far from complete because there’s layers there (in this case it was mostly the backdrop against which all the important stuff happened). I had an issue with the missing train car (not carriage) though: Wouldn’t Train Guy have spotted the train being too short for the platform? Pretty sure they have the same amount of cars on those trains. Should’ve looked different on the footage, assuming both cameras were at the end of their platforms. Unless they use shorter trains at night and it therefore didn’t strike Train Guy as odd?  By the way, I totally called the "underground network". Yay me.

 

Oh, Sherlock. I thought you were crying and was slightly disturbed and quite moved, but then I see you pointing and laughing at John and you’re just a bloody bastard aren’t you? I would’ve killed you. (It was pretty funny though, I’ll give you that. Do bombs really have an off switch? Seems like a useful thing to have, but really?)

Content ©BBC One*, gif from Luciawestwick

I’m a bit upset that I already know who the Mystery Man at the end is. Did you really have to give his identity away in advance, BBC? I would have enjoyed the mystery of not having any idea who this ominous man was who seems to be behind the bonfire incident, possibly even the bombing... he could have been a remnant of Moriarty’s network, perhaps even the man himself. I feel cheated out of the thrill of speculation.

But let's not forget that it's not all about fandom references, there's also the usual brilliant play with A.C. Doyle canon references. I thought it was a nice nod to The Empty House to have an old book porn collector (British Birds was a genius touch!) whom Watson suspects of being Holmes in disguise but who' really just some old guy (instead of Watson suspecting nothing in the original when Holmes in disguise shows him books with the same titles as the porn here, then fainting when Holmes takes off the disguise). Then of course there's the striking fact that The Empty Hearse only referred to Anderson's little fanclub and there's no Adair in sight, and Moran is someone completely different. There's A Case of Identity (and look at how angry Sherlock is at the stepfather!), and I realised I had been both right and wrong about the rat hint (yes, Sumatra, but not the way I imagined it). I'm sure I missed a few more.
All in all a thoroughly enjoyable episode. Mr Gatiss, Mr Moffat, you’ve outdone yourselves.

It won't have escaped your attention that this post contains gifs for the first time in my blogging career. Well, an image says more than a thousand words, and sometimes you need a gif to relive the best moments of a show. And let's not forget the people of tumblr said nearly everything I said except briefer and funnier. And they spotted a TARDIS. Whoa. But they're also crying, which I'm not.
Still, in celebration of this episode and because we all know tumblr is where the real fangirling happens, I've joined tumblr. Nothing much going on there yet, but I'll be linking my fandom-related blog posts there and partaking in some real fangirling, gifs and all, if that's your thing.

Happy weekend! Oh yes, and speaking of cakes and surprises: don't forget to enter my blogiversary giveaway for books or beauty items.
Captain Spacenails Fangirl

*Disclaimer: To the best of my understanding, the BBC Terms of Use (for personal use) permit me to use BBC content on this blog when correctly credited. Should this not be the case, I will be happy to take the relevant gifs down, just please let me know by mailing me at boldly_polish (ät) yahoo[dot]com or contacting me via one of my social media accounts in the right sidebar.