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I recently asked a question about the Sherlock Holmes movie from 2008 on the site. It can be found here. However, I was told (look in the comments of it) that it wasn't appropriate for the site. Are the Sherlock Holmes cinematic works - as well as the books - appropriate to ask about on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Stack Exchange? Another user answered the question as if it was normal, everyday question or answer you'd find here, so I'm wondering if it's been discussed or not? Is it a difference of opinion?

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    Does this answer your question? Can I ask about Sherlock Holmes books? I haven't directly marked it as a duplicate since your question is about the film (which does have more supposedly supernatural elements than the original stories typically do), but I'd say you're generally better off taking Sherlock Holmes film/book questions to either Movies & TV or Literature.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 5:58
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    To people viewing/downvoting this question - I'm upvoting to encourage discussion on meta.
    – AncientSwordRage Mod
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 11:07
  • No, it doesn't answer my question. In addition, if necessary, how do I move my question(s) about Holmes to Movies and TV or Literature?
    – Peter Nielsen
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 13:19
  • Which cinematic works are you talking about, there seems to be quite a few of them...
    – Skooba
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 13:20
  • Any of them. What I'm really asking here is does any Sherlock Holmes title of any sort belong on Scifi??
    – Peter Nielsen
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 13:21
  • @PeterNielsen In general I think no, but is as many stories as there were and how many adaptations there are, some of them might venture into SFF territory. As the linked question points out the original stories were not SFF, so we need to be specific.
    – Skooba
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 13:26
  • Okay, I suppose that works
    – Peter Nielsen
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 13:33
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    goodreads.com/book/show/…
    – Valorum
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 13:58
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    Ten times Sci-fi reinvented Sherlock Holmes
    – Valorum
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 13:59
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    22 Cases of Sherlock Holmes in Sci-fi
    – Valorum
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 14:00
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    m.imdb.com/title/tt1522835
    – Valorum
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 14:03
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    @PeterNielsen Only a mod can migrate a question to a different stack. Considering you're asking about a film in the question then M&TV would be most appropriate. Let me know if you want your question migrating there (through a flag on the question or a comment replying here) and I'll ask the M&TV mods if they want it migrating to them.
    – TheLethalCarrot Mod
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 14:08

2 Answers 2

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No*.

There have been literally dozens of adaptations of the original works of Arthur Conan Doyle but none of these, as far as I am aware, have been set in a science fictional setting, and hence none of them would be appropriate for the site or on-topic.

*That being said, the character of Sherlock Holmes, and elements of the Conan Doyle stories have been adapted into other works that are on-topic, for example,

, etc. Feel free to ask about those.

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  • Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds by Manley Wade Wellman (and a coauthor) explores what Holmes did during the Martian Invasion; "The Adventure of the Extraterrestrial" by Harry Harrison shows an aging Holmes make contact with visitors from outer space. The Holmes-Dracula file by Saberhagen shows what happens when Holmes meets the count, and explains the "giant rat of Sumatra".
    – David Siegel
    Commented Nov 23, 2021 at 1:19
  • @DavidSiegel - All of which are firmly on topic. My list isn't intended to be exhaustive.
    – Valorum
    Commented Nov 23, 2021 at 7:23
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(Turning my comments into an answer.)

In general, no, but if you have a specific example it may be okay.

Referring back to the original question of whether the Doyle Holmes stories were on topic the consensus was that

pretty much none of the Sherlock Holmes have any science fiction or fantasy elements whatsoever, making them firmly off-topic for this site. (source)

Now as far as any film or television adaptations go there are:

  • Films

    • 9 silent films from 1900-1929
    • 5 film series in the UK from 1931-1937
    • 14 film series (Rathbone as Holmes) from 1939-1946
    • 2 film series (Downey Jr. as Holmes) from 2009-2011 with possibly more coming
    • 18 miscellaneous/one-off films

  • Television

    • 23 English language series
    • 4 Russian language series
    • 6 Japanese language series

Now I have only seen a select few of the modern adaptations and I would say those do not fall into SFF territory. However, if any of these other adaptations do, it would be perfectly acceptable to ask about them here.

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    The particular case of the 2009 film (Downey Jr.) is an interesting one, because it certainly seems SFF throughout most of the story, lots of supernatural stuff happening, and one of the big reveals at the end is that it was all scientific hocus-pocus and completely rationally explainable. So where does that leave it w.r.t. our scope? Maybe in the same ballpark as "it was all just a dream" stories?
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 16:40
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    @Randal'Thor I think that film would be treated the same way as those ones. The best example that I have seen used is Scooby-Doo, which is considered generally off-topic. Some good discussion here as well .
    – Skooba
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 17:29
  • @Randal'Thor previous question on Reveals. Which was closed as a dupe of Skooba's link.
    – Jontia
    Commented Nov 11, 2021 at 9:21

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