Sherlock’s webs : what the detective remembered from the Doctor about transmediality

One of the more prominent examples of transmediality associated with the Sherlock television program is the transmedial storytelling exhibited by the official tie-in web sites that complement and expand the series. In this regard Sherlock is emulating the approach of another long-running franchise, that of the science fiction and fantasy series Doctor Who, also produced by the BBC, and which similarly utilizes tie-in web sites to help deepen the story experience. As I will show in this essay, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who’s relationship is enduring, and often transmedial in myriad, unexpected ways. This relationship has often been manifested in the Sherlockian archetypes and iconography encountered by Doctor Who’s eponymous adventurer, even extending to storytelling strands that stretch from the Detective’s world to the Doctor’s universe, especially evident in terms of spinoff material. Sherlock is meanwhile replete with connections to Doctor Who’s past and present that operate on the levels of the intermedial and transmedial. Additionally, there exist structural similarities with regard to the two franchises’ formal approach to the implementation of transmedial content and in terms of production processes and personnel. Employing theoretical conceptions from the diverse field of memory studies and transmedial theory, I will examine these ongoing dynamics, specifically in terms of Sherlock’s web sites but also with regard to the manifold other transmedial exchanges that characterize the relationship between Holmes and Who. The resulting discussion should offer some broader, significant insights into the nature of contemporary transmedial relationships and the role memory plays in attenuating those relationships.