A Study in Pink
The Title
In the books, Holmes complains about the “romanticism” Watson adds to their first adventure when he publishes it “in a small brochure with the somewhat fantastic title of ‘A Study in Scarlet’” (presumably referring to the violent murders and the message written in blood above the undamaged body).
“A Study in Pink” subverts and modernizes the story – pink is a cheerful, feminine color, and the garish look of the woman in pink from head to toe adds a lighter touch to the murder. Above all, it emphasizes that this story is a loose adaptation, not a retelling of the original tale.
The Story
The episode and “A Study in Scarlet” are notably similar, though with details often flipped or twisted. In both, Watson has just returned from war in Afghanistan as an army surgeon. He’s looking for lodging, so his friend Stamford from St. Barts introduces him to Sherlock Holmes, seeking a roommate. Much of the dialogue is identical. Holmes of the books is a bit friendlier, but his priorities are much the same.
“Dr. Watson, Mr. Sherlock Holmes,” said Stamford, introducing us.
“How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
“How on earth did you know that?” I asked in astonishment.
“Never mind,” said he, chuckling to himself. “The question now is about hœmoglobin. No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine?”
Modern Sherlock asks a quick “Afghanistan or Iraq?” then returns to his case. Later, both detectives explain their reasoning:
The train of reasoning ran, ‘Here is a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man. Clearly an army doctor, then. He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tint of his skin, for his wrists are fair. He has undergone hardship and sickness, as his haggard face says clearly. His left arm has been injured. He holds it in a stiff and unnatural manner. Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen much hardship and got his arm wounded? Clearly in Afghanistan.’ The whole train of thought did not occupy a second. I then remarked that you came from Afghanistan, and you were astonished.
On the show, Sherlock notes:
I didn’t know, I saw. Your haircut, the way you hold yourself says military. But your conversation as you entered the room...said trained at Bart’s, so Army doctor – obvious. Your face is tanned but no tan above the wrists. You’ve been abroad, but not sunbathing. Your limp’s really bad when you walk but you don’t ask for a chair when you stand, like you’ve forgotten about it, so it’s at least partly psychosomatic. That says the original circumstances of the injury were traumatic. Wounded in action, then. Wounded in action, suntan – Afghanistan or Iraq.
In both stories, Holmes is pleased to hear there’s been a murder in Lauriston Gardens. Both times, he invites Watson to come and tells him about being a consulting detective – when the police are out of their depth, they call him. “Naturally, being the arrogant so-and-so he is, he’d had to give himself his own unique job title,” Watson adds in his blog entries, available online for those seeking supplemental insights to the episodes (Watson’s Blog, “A Study in Pink”)
