Events

 Ship's Logs

All our online meetings  (starting 2021) are available on The Passengers YouTube channel.

Minutes of recent Passengers meetings:

                                                                                Sherlock Holmes: Memories of Murder

22nd September 2024 via Zoom

Ten Passengers gathered virtually for the September meeting. The Captain extended a particular welcome to those joining at unfriendly hours due to their time zones.

The Captain drew attention to the 2024 Baker Street Irregulars Trust lecture given early on the morning of the meeting (Sydney time) by Passenger Mattias Bostrom from Sweden. Mattias had looked at thousands of newspaper mentions of the Baker Street Irregulars to shed light on the impact of the BSI over its ninety year existence. One item he highlighted was from Sydney’s Daily Telegraph of 16^th November 1946 in which Jon Holiday sought out other enthusiasts to form what he called “a Holmes study circle”.  This led to the founding of The Red-Headed League, Australia’s first Sherlockian society, which Passengers may remember only lasted for one meeting.

Media News

·         The Watson TV series, starring American actor Morris Chestnut, continues its production with filming taking place in Vancouver, Canada and Pittsburgh, USA, where the show is set.  It’s currently planned to screen on the CBS network in the US in January 2025.

·         Sherlock & Daughter, with UK actor David Thewlis in the lead role, and Blu Hunt as the American daughter is an  eight episode TV series planned to screen sometime in 2025. It was filmed in Dublin and in the Irish countryside. Since our last meeting Dr Watson has been added to the cast and will be played by American actor Sean Duggan.  It is due to screen in Australia on SBS.

·         The status of the third Enola Holmes movie has been updated with news that filming is planned to get underway in early 2025.

·         Young Sherlock is an  eight episode TV series which commenced filming in the UK in July. Starring 26-year old Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Holmes, the cast also includes his uncle Joseph Fiennes, who play his father, and Colin Firth who plays an aristocrat. It is set to be shown on Amazon Prime, with no release date yet.

Anniversaries Around the Date of The Meeting

• In the first week of September 1902 Holmes’ investigation into ‘The Adventure of the Illustrious Client’ commenced.

• Early September 1903 was when the members of Professor Presbury’s family noticed him behaving strangely and Holmes & Watson soon became involved in ‘The Adventure of the Creeping Man’.
• It was late September 1887 that the case Dr Watson called ‘The Five Orange Pips’ took place.
• It was “a September evening” in an unnamed year that Holmes & Watson accompanied Miss Mary Morstan to the Lyceum Theatre to meet her “unknown friend” in The Sign of Four.
• 17 Sept 1920 – Arthur Conan Doyle arrived in Fremantle on the start of his Spiritualism tour of Australia & New Zealand.

The meeting continued with a presentation by Declan Seefield, the producer, director and one  of the cast of a new short film made in Brisbane: Sherlock Holmes: Memories of Murder. Available on YouTube, this twenty minute piece is shot in the film noir style and in the plot “Sherlock Holmes is forced to confront his age and health conditions as he struggles to solve the murder of a fellow detective.” It stars John McCaffrey at Sherlock Holmes, Blake Edgerton as Dr Watson, and David Fitton as Inspector Lestrade. Holmes & Watson are seen in traditional Victorian outfits but the story is set in the present day (Holmes drives a Mazda MX5 in case anyone was wondering…).

Declan took questions after the presentation and also told the group more about the making of the film, delving in particular into the themes of the film (health & legacy) and the inspiration of various feature films (e.g. Knives Out, Shutter Island, The Sixth Sense, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Thor: Love & Thunder). He also revealed the minimal equipment he used in production. It was filmed using cinematic mode on an iPhone, with a gimble and light set to achieve a better quality image. The total cost of production was $1,500 including cost of the existing phone (so more like $200 taking that into account). Declan also went into the writing process in detail including the conflicts he placed on the characters, the plot arc, and how he filled out the story with more details and dialogue. The production took Decland two years and four months to complete  from the idea through to its release on YouTube. The filming itself only took four days, the rest was writing, pre and post production. Six hours of video was whittled down to twenty minutes in the editing process. The film also had a small cinema release in Brisbane and it has been entered into several film festivals.

Anyone wanting to watch this short film can find it on YouTube  here

Author Stephen Herczeg: If I Can Write Holmes Adventures, Anyone Can
14th July 2024 via Zoom

The meeting began promptly at 2:00pm with the Captain welcoming attending Passengers including those in inhospitable time zones, plus guests attending their first meeting, and presenter Stephen Herczeg, who would be speaking about writing Sherlock Holmes stories.

In media news, there are a number of new television programs currently in various stages of preparation:

·   Watson from CBS, being made ready for an early 2025 release. Canonical characters include Watson himself, his ex-wife Mary Morstan and Shinwell Johnson. Set in the modern day, Watson is a doctor in a clinic treating rare and unusual diseases.

·   Sherlock and Daughter is currently being filmed in Ireland and is also set to air in 2025. It will be shown on SBS in Australia.

·   A French animated series, The Baker Street Four is based on comic books featuring characters inspired by the Baker Street Irregulars (and an alley cat called Watson).

·   The 3^rd telemovie in the Enola Holmes series remains in development with Netflix but no official confirmation.

Anniversaries in the current period include:

·   ‘The Adventure of Black Peter’ commenced in the first week of July 1895.

·   Anniversary of the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on 7^th July.

·   According to W.S. Baring Gould, the ‘Adventure of the Gloria Scott’ occurred 150 years ago, thus also marking the first suggestion to Holmes that he should become a detective.

·   The Battle of Maiward, in which Watson was wounded, occurred on 27^th July 1880.

The Captain announced the results of the 2023 Carole Dukes Montpellier Award for the best article published in The Passengers’ Log in the past year, as voted for by members. The nominees were Robert Veld, Gary Nolan, Matthew Hall, and Michael Duke & Ross Philpot. The winning article was Gary Nolan for his piece ‘The Curious Incident Of the Gun’. 

In addition there was a worthy winner of the occasionally presented Admirable Cobber Award. This is presented to writers of articles with a strong Australian connection ant was awarded to Matthew D Hall for his article ‘The Passing Acquaintances of Arthur Conan Doyle Part 1: Victor Eugene Kroemer’.

Congratulations to both contributors.

In Show & Tell, Captain Bill Barnes showed a copy of the anthology of short stories written by the meeting’s presenter: The Curious Cases of Sherlock Holmes, and Joe Eckrich showed the short story collection edited by himself and Rob Nunn, Holmes in the Heartland. Both are available on Amazon.

With the regular meeting business completed, Steve Herczeg presented his talk about the writing of Sherlock Holmes stories. Following some background about how he got into writing, including various excursions into short stories and drafting screenplays, Steve spoke about his approach to anthology writing, his association with Bellanger Books and MX Publishing, the editing process and how strict his editors are in regard to Sherlockian canon. He also talked about where he gets inspiration for his stories, how much research he does and tools he uses for both plotting and keeping track of characters. Steve also touched on how he fits writing around a full time job and family commitments, and his process of drafting and re-writing.

 The meeting closed at 3:20pm. Those unable to attend are able to watch the video on You Tube.

Fran Zilio: Arthur Conant Doyle, Champion of Spiritualism, Adelaide 1920
28th April 2024 via Zoom

The first meeting of The Sydney Passengers for 2024 was attended by fifteen people including those Zooming in from New Zealand, the USA and the Czech Republic.

The meeting began with an interesting talk by Fran Zilio, Manager Archives, Library & Australian Polar at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide. Together with a colleague Fran had researched Arthur Conan Doyle’s ten day stay in Adelaide in September 1920 as part of his Spiritualism tour, and she also subsequently curated an exhibition at the Museum on the subject. Fran’s talk covered all aspects of Doyle’s South Australian trip, including his visit to  T.P. Bellchambers’ nature sanctuary which was recently detailed by Matt Hall in an article for the Log on the same topic. Fran was able to illustrate her talk with images of primary documents and photos from the time.

Following the talk the traditional pre-amble part of the meeting took place in a reversal of the usual format. The Captain reminded Passengers that he had requested local members let him know their preferences for in-person vs online meetings. There’s also a poll about this on the members only Facebook group. The Captain thanked those who had responded so far.

In media news:

•         Sherlock & Daughter is a new TV series scheduled to launch in September. The premise is that a young American woman, seeking answers for her mother’s mysterious death, travels to England to get Holmes’ help, believing he is her father.  Holmes is played by English actor David Thewlis. The cast list includes Professor Moriarty but it appears that Dr Watson has been omitted.
•          The Watson TV series is set one year after Reichenbach. Dr Watson resumes his medical career at a clinic for the treatment of rare diseases. The only cast announcement so far is that Dr Watson will be played by black American actor Morris Chestnut.
•          The third Enola Holmes movie from Netflix remains “in development”. 

Anniversaries:

•        22 April – birthday of Arthur Conan Doyle.
•       23 April 1895 – ‘The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist’ commenced.
•     24 April 1891 – Holmes visited Dr Watson in his consulting room to ask him to come away on a trip to the Continent for a week – a case that Dr Watson subsequently recorded as ‘The Final Problem’.
•    27 April 1890 – a notice appeared in The Morning Chronicle newspaper advising that there was a vacancy in The Red-Headed League, which had brought Mr Jabez Wilson around to consult Holmes.

In news from attendees, Stuart McMartin noted that the Arthur Conan Doyle estate had endorsed author Gareth Rubin to write a Sherlock Holmes pastiche about Holmes and Moriarty, and also planned further books involving Sebastian Moran. Stuart had also managed to lay his hands on a good quality copy of The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr.

The Captain noted that 2023 Montpellier Awards nominations were now being finalised and would be coming out shortly for Passengers to vote.

The meeting was recorded and is available on the Passengers’ YouTube channel (there is very little introduction when the meeting starts due to the presenter having communications issues)

Author Margaret Walsh: “What Interests Me As a Writer In the World of Sherlock Holmes”

15th October 2023 via Zoom

The October 2023 meeting of The Sydney Passengers opened 2:05pm with nine virtual attendees. In addition to local members, people Zoomed in from New Zealand, USA, and the Czech Republic, along with guest speaker, author Margaret Walsh.

 In latest Sherlockian news:

·         There has been no information from Netflix regarding the possibility of a third Enola Holmes telemovie.

·         Similarly, there has been nothing concrete regarding Sherlock Holmes 3 with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law.

·         A new production from the UK is on the cards, variously reported as being titled Sherlock's Daughter or Sherlock & Daughter, to potentially star English comedian Eddie Izzard as Holmes. The premise of the series is that after witnessing her mother’s mysterious murder, a young American woman discovers that her missing father may be Sherlock Holmes and travels to London to find him, but he is not what she expected. 

 
Anniversaries:

·         8th October 1855 – the ship Gloria Scott left Falmouth in the UK, carrying some people who would eventually make it to Sydney aboard the Hotspur with the rest of the original Sydney passengers.

·         9th October 1890 – Jabez Wilson turned up for work to continue copying the Encyclopaedia Britannica and found a notice on the door saying “The Red Headed League is dissolved”.

·         October 1886, 1888, 1889, 1897, 1899 or 1900 (depending upon which chronology you prefer) – the case recorded by Dr Watson as The Hound of the Baskervilles took place.

·         October (dates and year unspecified) – ‘The Adventure of the Resident Patient’ and ‘The Problem of Thor Bridge’ occurred.

 For the ‘show and tell’ portion of the meeting, Captain Bill Barnes showed the assembled company a book by guest presenter Margaret Walsh – The Adventure of the Bloody Duck and Other Tales of Sherlock Holmes - and Margaret herself showed her latest work, The Adventure Of the Hellfire Heir. Navigator Erin O’Neill proudly showed her latest acquisition (a birthday gift from her husband) which was a first (British) edition of The Return Of Sherlock Holmes to add to her existing collection.

 The main part of the meeting was an interesting talk by author Margaret Walsh. Margaret lives in Melbourne and has a love of the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. She has written both pastiche novels and short stories about Sherlock Holmes, mostly released through MX Publishing from the UK.

 Margaret spoke about Sherlock Holmes from an author’s point of view, how he might mean different things to a writer and a reader, and how Holmes is an immortal character with an existence beyond his original Conan Doyle creation. She also pointed out how Holmes is a product of the Victorian era when the mass media was first becoming prominent in keeping people informed, and how it was a period of change or flux where people both looked forward to a better future but also backward in a somewhat conservative way.

 Margaret went on to speak about how Sherlock Holmes can be a challenge to write due to the level of observation used by the character, and how to retain his humanity rather than turning him into just a deductive reasoning machine. She also observed that Holmes has become iconic of the 19^th century.

 The question and answer session at the end of Margaret’s presentation covered a number of topics, including Margaret’s writing regime, how she came to start writing via fan fiction [Editor: I need to go through my collection of Blake’s 7 fanzines to see if I have any of her juvenilia] through to professional publication, how she was told there was no market for Sherlock Holmes in a bricks & mortar bookstore, and how Sherlock Holmes as the oldest fandom has increasingly moved online to become truly worldwide. She also explained how she had ended up publishing through MX, and the editing process that her books undergo. Margaret also answered a question on how real life crime might sometimes inspire her work but was not used to completely form her plots, particularly due to the effect this might have on any descendants of real people. Her tips for new writers were to know what you are writing about, to do research to find out about the era, and learn how to stretch an existing character like Holmes without making them into a caricature. When asked about the use of AI (e.g. ChatGPT) she explained that she doesn’t think it will replace real writers as AI cannot by definition have any imagination.

 Anyone interested in the full talk can find it on the Passengers' channel on You Tube.