Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century

Did You Know?

• Les Studios Tex worked on the series but is not credited in the final product.
• The show was conceptualized by Scottish Television executive Sandy Ross while skiing in Aspen, Colorado in January 1996.

Plot

The series is set in 2103 in New London. Inspector Beth Lestrade of New Scotland Yard pursues the deformed French rogue geneticist Martin Fenwick and realizes his companion is a clone of Professor James Moriarty, created from cells taken from his corpse after Holmes buried it in a Swiss ice cave in 1891. Holmes returns to his preserved Baker Street rooms, now a museum. Holmes and Watson work on retainer for New Scotland Yard, with Lestrade as their supervising officer and Chief Inspector Charles Grayson as hers, and also take private cases. They are aided by the new Baker Street Irregulars: former football player Wiggins, Cockney Deidre, and paraplegic Tennyson, who communicates via electronic beeps. Moriarty and Fenwick appear in nearly half the episodes. Each episode is inspired by a Conan Doyle story, some being direct rewrites and others differing significantly. The animation blends traditional 2D and 3D CGI.

Characters

Sherlock Holmes, voiced by Jason Gray-Stanford, is revived in the 22nd century to combat a memory clone of Moriarty. He initially struggles with the era but adapts, using his knowledge of the future to escape death traps and playing a hand-sized keytar instead of a violin. He often says "eyes and brain" to encourage thinking. Watson, voiced by John Payne, is a compudroid who worked as Lestrade's assistant. After reading Watson's journals, he emulates the doctor's persona, using a prosthetic mask to resemble him. Though unable to feel emotions initially, he learns to react realistically and dons a cloak in public. He lives at 221B Baker Street with Holmes. Inspector Beth Lestrade, voiced by Akiko Morison, is a descendant of Inspector G. Lestrade. She is often annoyed by Holmes's disregard for protocol but values his help, and Holmes respects her competence. The Baker Street Irregulars include Wiggins (voiced by Viv Leacock), a retired football player with sharp reasoning skills; Deidre (voiced by Jennifer Copping), a fashionable Cockney woman; and Tennyson, a mute and partially paralyzed genius who uses a hoverchair and communicates via computer.

Episodes

The series premiered in the UK in late spring 1999 on CITV and in the US that fall on Fox Kids. The US run was split into two seasons, with the second planned for Kids' WB in 2001 but airing in broadcast syndication. All 26 episodes were originally slated for PAX alongside Archie's Weird Mysteries but moved to Fox Kids. Only the first 13 episodes aired on ITV in 1999, ending with "The Musgrave Ritual". In the US, 17 episodes aired on Fox Kids starting September 1999, ending with "The Man with the Twisted Lip"; the remaining episodes aired in 2001. The series was pre-sold internationally through Buena Vista International Television.

Home media releases

The first six episodes of the series were released on VHS in the United Kingdom on September 24, 1999, by Universal Pictures Video under its Vision Video Ltd. division. As of now, no DVD version has been issued in the UK. In 2002, Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Trimark Home Video put out a VHS and DVD titled "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century: The Fall and Rise of Sherlock Holmes," which compiled the first three episodes into a feature-length presentation; the DVD also included the episode "The Sign of Four." The following year, Sterling Entertainment released "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century: Out of This World" on both VHS and DVD, featuring "The Sign of Four," "The Adventures of the Dancing Men," and "Silver Blaze," with "The Gloria Scott" as an extra. Mill Creek Entertainment issued a US DVD titled "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century... On the Case" in February 2012, containing the first ten episodes plus an episode of "Stargate Infinity," and also released a complete 26-episode box set that included five bonus episodes from other Cookie Jar series. In April 2018, Mill Creek re-released the full series on Region 1 DVD as "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century: The Complete Series," which came with a digital download code. A 25th Anniversary Edition DVD set was released by Topaz Distribution on March 7, 2025.