James Moriarty (played by Andrew Scott)
Every Fairy Tale Needs a Good Villain
Andrew-Scott, who plays the villain, said, "What's scary about Moriarty is we don't know his backstory." - HotPress of Dublin
On what Conan Doyle / Dr. John Watson wrote about Professor James Moriarty:
  • Anthony Boucher had something to do with a pamhlet by Edwin B. Hill (1941, limited to 25 copies) titled, On the Nomenclature of the Brothers Moriarty (reprinted in 1966 which was published by Dean and Shirley Dickensheet at the Beaune Press (limited to 225 numbered copies) which discusses "A plausible theory as to the circumstances which may have led Dr. Watson to believe that both (or all three)" of the Moriarty brothers "were named James.".
  • In the Conan Doyle story, The Valley of Fear, Sherlock Holmes describes him as, "the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticizing it".
  • In the Conan Doyle story, "The Final Problem", Sherlock Holmes describes Moriarty, "He is a man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by nature with a phenomenal mathematical faculty. At the age of twenty-one he wrote a treatise upon the binomial theorem which has had a European vogue. On the strength of it, he won the mathematical chair at one of our smaller universities, and had, to all appearances, a most brilliant career before him."
  • "The man had hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran in his blood, which, instead of being modified, was increased and rendered infinitely more dangerous by his extraordinary mental powers. Dark rumours gathered round him in the University town, and eventually he was compelled to resign his chair and come down to London. He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organiser of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city.he man had hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran in his blood, which, instead of being modified, was increased and rendered infinitely more dangerous by his extraordinary mental powers. Dark rumours gathered round him in the University town, and eventually he was compelled to resign his chair and come down to London. He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organiser of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city." (Ibid)
Characters: Sherlock Holmes || Dr. John H. Watson || The Friendship between Sherlock & John || Mycroft Holmes || Sherlock & Mycroft || Mrs. Hudson
Irene Adler || Mary Watson (nee Morstan) ||  DI Greg Lestrade || The Holmes Family Dynamics || 221 Baker St. || St. Bartholomew's Hospital || Sherlock's Coat


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