My presentation on "Re-imagining Moriarty for the Modern Age" for the "New Directions in Sherlock" Conference held on Friday 11 April 2014 in London. The presentation compares Conan Doyle's Canon Professor Moriarty with BBC Sherlock's Jim Moriarty, played by Andrew Scott. #NDSherlock. copyright © Rakshita Patel 2014

1. Re-imagining Moriarty
by Rakshita (Raks) Patel

2. Re-imagining Moriarty
for the Modern Age
Conan Doyle Canon Moriarty
vs
BBC Sherlock Jim Moriarty

3. Villain
 Essential – Crime or Detective Drama
 Inspire Fear – Chills up and down your spine
 Worthy Opponent
 Jim: “Every fairytale needs a good old-fashioned villain”
 Series highlights – Sherlock and Jim meetings

4. Sherlock and Jim Set Pieces
Swimming Pool, Tea Party, St Barts Rooftop

5. Moriarty:
Canon vs BBC Sherlock

6. Conan Doyle
Canon Moriarty
• Age? - Paget
• Extremely tall and thin
• Good birth, excellent education
• Professor Moriarty – Maths
Professor
• Looks and acts like a professor
• Extraordinary mental powers
• Genius, Philosopher, Abstract
Thinker
• Brain of the first order

7. Conan Doyle
Canon Moriarty
• Hereditary tendencies of the
most diabolical kind
• Criminal strain ran in his blood
• “Napoleon of Crime”
• Central organizing power
• Numerous agents
• Pervades London
• Most dangerous criminal in
Europe

8. BBC Sherlock
Jim Moriarty
• Young
• Stylish “Westwood”
• Handsome (dates Molly!)
• IT wizard/geek, tech savvy
• Psycho / Mad
• Funny
• Irish
• Consulting criminal:
“specialist” arranging crimes

9. Reptilian
“His face protrudes forward, and is for ever slowly oscillating from
side to side in a curiously reptilian fashion”

10. Jim Moriarty, Consulting Criminal
Mad, bad and dangerous to know

11. Psycho “Mad”
Terrifying, Risk-taker, Unpredictable, Exciting, Evil
Sherlock “You’re insane”

12. The Devil
• Temptation
• Eve, Serpent, Garden of Eden, The Fall
• Sherlock “on the side of the Angels”
• Jim “I owe you a Fall, Sherlock”
• Apple inscribed with I O U

13. Humour /
Light relief
• I gave you my number
I thought you might call
• Is that a British Army Browning L9A1 in your
pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?
• The flirting’s over Sherlock, Daddy’s had
enough now
• Westwood!
• Staying Alive ringtone

14. Jim is fun!
“Honey, you should see me in a Crown”

15. Spider and its Web

16. Moriarty the Spider
Conan Doyle Canon
“He sits motionless, like a spider
in the centre of its web, but that
web has a thousand
radiations, and he knows well
every quiver of each of them”.
BBC Sherlock
Jim Moriarty is a “Spider”
“A spider at the centre of a
web, criminal web, with a
thousand threads, and he knows
precisely how each and every
single one of them dances”.

17. Moriarty’s Web
Moriarty “pervades” London and is behind all the crime in London
Canon: Moriarty’s first appearance is in “The Final Problem”
In BBC Sherlock:
 A Study in Pink: Taxi driver’s dying scream of “Moriarty”
 The Blind Banker: M is behind the Chinese gang and Shan (gang leader) is
assassinated by a sniper sent by M at the end of the episode
 We (the audience) learn to fear the name of Moriarty way before he makes his
first on-screen appearance – builds suspense “who is he?” and rachets up tension
 The Great Game: Jim Moriarty only appears in closing scene (final 10 mins of
Series 1) – Moriarty always used sparingly

18. Modern Day “Evil”
• 9/11 New York, US
• 7/7 London, UK
• Most horrifying crime
today = terrorist bomb /
suicide bombers
• The Great Game

19. Yin and Yang
Holmes and Moriarty
Opposite/contrary forces are
interconnected and
interdependent in natural
world
Physical manifestations - natural
dualities: light & dark, hot &
cold, fire & water, life &
death, sun & moon, male &
female

20. Yin and Yang: Sherlock and Jim
Consulting Detective – Consulting Criminal

21. Intellectual equals:
Using brain for good or bad?
Holmes - Fights crime
Deduction and Detection
Consulting Detective
Moriarty - Perpetrates crime
Criminal Mastermind
Consulting Criminal

22. Interconnected & Interdependent
 The Great Game: Sherlock is “bored, bored, bored”. Without
work, his brain rots
 The Hounds of Baskerville: Sherlock sees Jim in the fog – Sherlock’s
“Hound” is Jim
 The Hounds of Baskerville: “Sherlock” inscribed on Jim’s cell walls
 The Reichenbach Fall: “Get Sherlock”, Cat and mouse game
 His Last Vow: Jim is in Sherlock’s mind palace and brings him back
from the dead by telling him John Watson is in danger
 His Last Vow: “Miss Me?” Jim’s “return” saves Sherlock from certain
death as he is recalled to UK

23. Sherlock’s “Hound”: Jim

24. Jim’s Cell

25. “Get Sherlock”

26. Gay kiss
Onscreen chemistry between Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Scott
Shared scenes electric

27. Jim’s Return?
“Did you miss me?”
BBC Sherlock needs Villain, Sherlock needs Jim