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Pastiches
and Other Crossovers FAQ
Written and compiled by Diane N. Tran
© Tranimation Art & Entertainment, 05 January 2008
What are pastiches? How are pastiches different from typical fan-fictions?Pastiches are no stranger to the Sherlockian world. They are fiction that resemble and/or imitate the original author's writing style, namely mimicking styles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Eve Titus. They remain as loyal as possible to the original concepts, characters, and historical settings. Pastiches follow a set of rules as faithfully (as possible) to the original writings (or "canon"). Pastiches are, scholastically, considered literature.
Fan-fiction, on the other hand, can "twist" or "break" these usual rules. As I have experienced, they more than often involve the main character(s) in improbable situations, unlikely "amorous adventures," and/or off-the-mark personalities.
As a purist, I prefer pastiches intellectually over the "avid fan-fic."
Why do you lean more towards Conan Doyle than Titus with your characters?
Hands down, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Because it all started with Doyle! Eve Titus simply used the Doylean archetype and writings for her own work. As a Sherlockian purist and (self-proclaimed) scholar, the original writings always come first for me, as if they were my own literary bible. Sherlock Holmes shall always be the Master; all others are imitation of him!
A fictional crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story.
Why do your characters have such a variety of cultures, languages, and religions?
Why not? Rodents can live everywhere, in every possible continent, in every possible nation, in every possible habitat, and in every possible culture; they come from different varieties, different lands, and different shapes and sizes. There isn't a language on the map that doesn't have the word "mouse" and/or "rat" in its vocabulary.
The mouse-world is an allegory of our world, as humans, around us: The mouse-world hold discriminations against those of different species, social classes, genders, languages, cultures, lifestyles, practices, philosophies, and religions. The Disney film lived in its own "reality" away from humans and, like the film, my pastiches do, too, because diversity is necessary!
Why do you utilise astrological signs for your characters?
Astrology is one of my many, many hobbies and I use Western and Eastern (Chinese) astrology to assist in the character development — because it provides me with a "psychological structure" for each particular character, serving as a guide for me to create a realistic personality.
Which school(s) did Sherringford attend before Oxford?
He was tutored primarily at home, but it is believed that he may have been admitted into a boarding school, whose name remains unknown, at a very late age. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, he attended the illustrious Eton College in Berkshire, near Windsor. He sang in the chapel choir and was often accused for having histrionic tendencies. When his voice broke, he became something of a plodder at school. At the age of nineteen, he earned a scholarship to the University of Oxford.
Which college did Sherringford attend at Oxford? What was his major?
Christ Church. It is one of the largest constituent colleges of Oxford and has traditionally been seen as the most aristocratic college in the University. As well as being a college, it is also the cathedral church of the diocese of Oxford, which is world-famous for the men and boys' Cathedral Choir. Basil studied (originally) in medicine, but his life would lead him towards esoteric studies, where he graduated with a "double first" in sciences, namely inorganic chemistry.
(I have always been between Christ Church and Balliol College for the college of Sherlock Holmes; I chose the former because it is the one many Oxford-supporting Sherlockians have accepted as Holmes' college, and because it was a much more colourful college compared to Balliol. The name "Christ Church College" is generally considered bad form, partly because it ignores the cathedral, although it has been an historically accepted title.)
Who were his friends at the time?
As a loner, Sherringford Basil had few friends:
His greatest and closest friend was Oscar Milde — poet, writer, æsthete, wit, and fellow intellectual — from out of college, Magdalen College. Although they had heard of each other by reputation long before they met, their friendship began by accident, when Milde was snatched from his bed by a gang of ruffians and left to drown in the quadrangle fountain; Basil rescued him and would remain his best friend and companion for the next thirty years. Moreover, it was Milde who influenced Basil to become a detective.
Hermitage Trevor, Jr. was from the same college, Christ Church. While Basil went "down to chapel," Trevor's (illegally kept) pet beetle bit him in the ankle, Basil was lame for three days during which Basil was cared for by the apologetic Trevor. They became friends and, together, solved the affair of the Gloria Scott.
Son of one of the oldest families in all Mousedom, Sir Reginald Musgrave, a wealthy country squire and heir apparent to Hurlstone Manor of West Sussex, "had been in the same college as myself, and I had some slight acquaintance with him. He was not generally popular among the undergraduates, though it always seemed to me that what was set down as pride was really an attempt to cover extreme natural diffidence." During the summer holiday from Oxford, Musgrave invited Basil and Milde to his estate, where they later learned of the strange disappearance of the butler, Brunton.
The Maharajah of Bengistan (Maharajadhiraj Sri Sir Singhji), the young ruler of a small kingdom in the Orient, attended Christ Church. Basil helped restore Maharajah to his throne after a coup d'état.
The reptilian Sonneillon Meresin, a newspaper columnist, attended Magdalen College and is London's pre-eminent gossip-monger whom Basil consults (when Milde is unavailable). He is a spectator of society, a voyeur of sin, who made a handsome living by trading "tittle" for "tattle," and yet he withholds much more than he reveals. Despite his self-serving behaviour and seeming amorality, Meresin treats Basil as a good friend and occasionally shows signs of decency in his heart.
Joseph "Joe" Bell (of Blackethouse), M.D, J.P, D.L, F.R.C.S. Ed, was a distinguished Scottish scientific surgeon of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and lecturer at the medical school of Edinburgh University. He held the office of Justice of the Peace, Deputy Lieutenant, and President and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and also served as personal surgeon to Queen Moustoria whenever she visited Scotland. In his instruction, he emphasised the importance of close observation in making a diagnosis, illustrating this by picking a stranger and, by observing him, deducing his occupation and recent activities. He was considered a pioneer in forensic science (forensic pathology, in particular) in a time when science was not often used in the investigations of crimes. (He was the real-life professor of Arthur Conan Doyle and he became the inspiration for his creation, Sherlock Holmes.)
Dr. Bell visited Oxford University to give a lecture and meets the acquaintance of an undergraduate named Sherringford Basil. Bell, recently widowed, brought his three children — Jeanine, Ceilia, and Benjamin.
What is Æstheticism? What does "art for art's sake" mean?
Æstheticism was a loosely-defined movement in literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design in the late Victorian (and/or Moustorian) era, from about 1868 to 1901, primarily influenced by the Oxford don, Walter Pater. The phrase "art for art's sake" (or l'art pour l'art) was a slogan for the Æsthetic Movement, coined by the French philosopher, Victor Cousin, and promoted by French poet and dramatist, Théophile Gautier, which affirmed one's artistic pursuits are their own justification and one's art needs no moral justification — and, indeed, is allowed to be morally subversive.
Æstheticism was in full swing at Oxford University during the time Sherringford Basil and Oscar Milde were there. Oscar Milde taught Sherringford Basil the importance of "art for art's sake," which advocated him to pursue a career to continue his "art" as a detective. Sherlock Holmes has said this famous maxim in REDC and, again, in RETI. (In fact, the best and most well-known representative of Æstheticism was the real-life Oscar Wilde; the movement is generally considered to have ended with the trial and imprisonment of Wilde in 1895.)
How does Life and Times relate to the Sacred Writings and the Titus Canon?
The Life and Times of Sherringford Basil, just as the title suggests, is a biography, private to professional, about the Great Mouse Detective, spanning over eighty years. While several characters from the Titus Canon do make occasional appearances, I lean heavily towards the Sacred Writings, reflecting the life of Sherlock Holmes akin to Sherringford Basil, yet still keeping to the tradition of the Disney film.
How does Star Trek: Titus and Metropolis interrelate to each other and to Life and Times?
The Life and Times of Sherringford Basil is a biographical continuation of the life of Sherringford Basil, remaining faithful (as possible) to the Sacred Writings, the Titus Canon, the Disney film, etc. Star Trek: Titus and Dark Metropolis, on the other hand, are completely different universes, remaining "uncanonical" to Life and Times:
Metropolis is considered more of a "spin-off," where the events of Life and Times are true, and the stories are merely an extension of them — it's science-fiction at its best!
Star Trek: Titus is different kind of crossover. The stories of Sherringford Basil, like Sherlock Holmes, are considered literary fiction; they are characters that never existed in real life. Instead, I play Star Trek: Titus like a televised series, where I cast "actors" into a "role" (who just happen to be "characters"...)
There, I've said it; I feel better.
Where and when was Basil of Baker Street born?
To solve Basil of Baker Street's birthdate and birthplace, we must consult with the Sacred Writings:
In BOSC, Sherlock Holmes described himself as "middle-aged" in 1889 and, in LAST, specific places his age as "sixty" in 1914. Simple arithmetic dates his birthdate circa 1854. As they are the same individual of different worlds, we can safely confirm that Basil born that same year, which would have made him forty-three in 1897 and he would have been fifty in 1904, when he retired. (Techincally, Holmes retired a year earlier in 1903, but I felt that it wouldn't hurt for the Great Mouse Detective to be active in crime for an extra year.)
To locate his birthplace, there is little doubt that Holmes hails from Sussex and we can deduce from his poor geography skills: He thought the Peak district as North England (which it is not), so we many safely assume that he was a southerner. And yet he was unfamiliar with Dartmoor and described Herefordshire as "the West Country" (which no Westcountryman would), so we can deduce that he was not from the west. This becomes evident when he describes Sussex as "the south-west" at the outset of the case of FIVE; no one from west of Hampshire would ever do so. Moreover, he instantly recognised Sussex clay and chalk on John Openshaw's toe-cap abd his retirement to Sussex suggests a return to his home country. Therefore, Basil, too, was born in Sussex!
See the essay, Why "Sherringford"?
Sherlock Holmes had an older (arguably, smarter) brother named Mycroft Holmes, in turn I created Sherringford a brother named Myerricroft Basil who, like Mycroft, is seven years his senior, and possesses a far greater facility of observation and deduction than Sherringford himself does. He is the founding member of the Diogenes Club, a mysterious London club where the members are not allowed to speak; he holds an equally mysterious occupation in the British Government. However, Sherringford reveals precious little about his brother that we are left with yet another mystery!
Myerricroft Basil is one of the founding members of the "oddest club in London," the prodigious but mysterious Diogenes Club. Located in Pall Mall, a homestead to a great number of London societies, it was house "the most unsociable and unclubable men in town," having no wish for the company of their fellows. Talking is not permitted, under any circumstances, except in the Stranger's Room, where three offences, if brought to notice of the Committee, would render the talker liable to expulsion — this rule may have been derived under Myerricroft's influence.
The peculiarities of the Diogenes Club could be explained by means of its own title. The club is named after the Greek philosopher, Diogenes of Sinope (404-323 BCE), the founder of Cynicism. Originally founded by the Athenian philosopher, Antisthenes (445-365 BCE), a follower of Socrates (470 BC-399 BCE), and then matured by Diogenes of Sinope, the Cynics was one of the minor Socratic schools. Cynicism was more a way of life than a philosophical system, which believed in living a virtuous, simple life, according to nature, is necessary and sufficient for attaining happiness and self-realisation, not adhering to societal conventions, such as wealth, social status, rewards, and silly notions of propriety.
Who is Brynna? What happened to her?
Brynna Basil was Myerricroft's and Sherringford's younger sister, whom was mentioned once, in passing, in Eve Titus' WILD, died of diphtheria at the age of eight. One of the few individuals whom know of Brynna outside the family is Oscar Milde; Sherringford never reveals this to Dawson. Oscar Milde, like Sherringford, is the second child and second son of three children, with an older brother, Willie, and a younger sister, Isola, who died mysteriously of fever just short of her tenth birthday. (The lost of both of their sisters could have been one of the many reasons that brought the two closer together.)
Oscar Milde is Sherringford Basil's dearest and closest friend. They went to Oxford University together, although from different colleges — Milde was at Magdalen and Basil at Christ Church — they would grow up together. They first met when Sherringford rescued him from quadrangle fountain where a gang of bullies attempted to drown him. Milde was the one whom persuaded him to become a detective and he was his first "Boswell," helping him in many of his early cases. Poet, playwright, editor, critic, aesthete, socialite, wit, and genius, he remains one of the most important individuals in the Great Mouse Detective's life.
Mademoiselle Irene Relda is the famous opera singer, actress, and adventuress; she was one of only four persons to have ever outwitted Holmes and the only female to have done so! Because of her beauty and cunning, Sherringford Basil developed a reverence for her that he did for no other woman, keeping her photograph standing proudly upon the mantelpiece above the fireplace. He refers to her always under the honourable title of "the Woman." Relda re-appears into Basil's life a number of times in the next fifteen years.
Who is (Doctor) Prometheus Verner?
Prometheus Jean-Honoré Verner, M.D, is the second cousin of Sherringford Basil via Émile Jean-Horace Vernet, the French artist — who is specifically Verner's (paternal) grandfather and Basil's (maternal) great-uncle. He attended Lincoln College, Oxford, and St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College; he became a well-known physician in London who later bought Dawson's Kensington practice in 1902. He was one of the first supporters of his cousin's detective career. He is friends with Oscar Milde, but has a great dislike for Dawson, as his writings, he feels, portrayed his cousin in an unflattering light.
When does Return take place?
Directly after the 1986 Disney film, The Great Mouse Detective, which was re-titled The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective in 1992.
Does Ratigan resurrect in Return? Does Fidget survive?
No. Ratigan does not resurrect; he is dead! The Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster, better known as "Big Ben," is 96.3 metres (315.9 ft) high; the clock faces themselves are 55 metres (180 ft) above ground. A human being would not survive the fall — and neither would a rat! The only way Ratigan would be alive is that the pastiche would take place before the events of the film. (He appears frequently in the Case-Book of the Great Mouse Detective, which takes place before the events of the film.)
Fidget, in contrast, could have survived his fall, as "the peg-legged bat with a broken wing" was thrown off the dirigible and splashed in the Thames River. The height of his fall, which was nowhere as high as Ratigan's, may have not killed him. However, I strongly believe that Fidget did die, not due to falling, but drowning.
Taking place after the film, the sudden "death" of Professor Ratigan, the Napoleon of Crime who instigated half that is evil and nearly all that is undetected in Greater London, had hurled the criminal underworld into an uproar with the outbreak of what came to be called the "Underworld Wars" — a conflict between several organised crime syndicates to claim succession to Ratigan's throne: the Irish Mob (led by the Doddington twins), the Sicilian Mafia (led by the Venucci family), the all-women Forty Thieves, and the remains of Ratigan's ring (led by Ratigan's second-in-command, the infamous Captain Sebastian Doran).
In the Sherlock Holmes story ILLU, the ruined Kitty Winter is brought to 221B Baker Street by his underworld connection, 'Porky' Shinwell Johnson, because she had information concerning Baron Adelbert Gruner, the Austrian Murderer. She tells Holmes that "I'm easy to find. Hell, London gets me every time." The address, "Hell, London," represents (of course) the filthy, impoverished, crime-ridden London streets, namely the East End.
The pastiche itself is a blending of the infamous murders of Jack the Ripper and the unrecorded tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra. A number of violent "serial" murders of prostitutes have been discovered in the East End, namely the Whitechapel district. The police are at a dead-end and send in the services of the detective, Sherringford Basil, to help solve the case. Because of the graphic content and violence, this pastiche is recommended (unsurprisingly) for mature audiences.
Who is Jack the Ripper? What is the Giant Rat of Sumatra?
"Jack the Ripper" was an alias given to an unidentified serial killer (or killers) who murdered (officially) five women in London, between 31 August and 09 November 1888, although the actual number may have been higher. He perpetrated in public or semi-public places; the victim was strangled, the throat cut, after which the body was mutilated. After two hundred years, the murders and the identity of the Ripper are still a mystery! While Sherlock Holmes never went against Jack the Ripper canonically, there are numerous pastiches about it that have circulated about.
Disappointingly, Holmes never revealed his adventure with the Giant Rat of Sumatra. He makes a tantalising reference to it in the SUSS, associated with the ship Matilda Briggs, as "a story for which the world is not yet prepared." (Being an avid Sherlockian and Ripperologist, I wanted to make my own pastiche where I endeavoured to fill in the blanks to two mysteries — with an interesting twist!)
