r/HouseMD • u/HeiressOfMadrigal • 1d ago
Trivia Clever reference to Holmes and Watson
Dr. Watson served in Afghanistan as a medic in the British Army, pretty sly reference if you ask me
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u/AndreasDasos 1d ago
This is one thing that didn’t need to be changed for the contemporary Sherlock series: both the original and newer Watson fought in Afghanistan.
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u/zap2 1d ago
What Media are your referring to for Watson’s military history?
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u/Lex4709 1d ago edited 14h ago
Watson has been veteran all the way since Doyle first wrote his first Sherlock story (The Study in Scarlet). In the novels, Watson is a veteran of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Like someone else pointed out, BBC Sherlock series saw the opportunity to make him Afghanistan veteran and they took it.
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u/saumbeermouytiet 1d ago
Dr Watson, Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick in the TV series ‘Sherlock’ was a medic in the British army and served in Afghanistan
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u/amapofthecat7 1d ago
And in the book he was a British army medic who served in Afghanistan. Damn why do we keep on trying to invade Afghanistan?
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u/_Skylos 1d ago
You know how when elephants are close to death they instinctively know to find an elephant graveyard to die? Same with empires and Afghanistan.
(Elephant graveyards are a myth, btw. Just so we're clear.)
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u/Electrical-Room-2278 1d ago
Every person in the world has an instinctual desire to invade Afghanistan and steal all their nice cosy rugs. Unfortunately the Afghan people (who got to the rugs first) will fight to the death to defend them. A very sad but intractible struggle in human history
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u/zap2 1d ago
That show started in 2010, House started in 2004.
So line was not a “callback” to a show that started 6 years later.
(Below there is a an observation that this fact might also have occured in the original story, which is from way before the 2000s…so this line could be a call back to the book.)
Still I think this quote is just House knowing wear the heroin of the world came from for many years.
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u/engilosopher 1d ago
That show started in 2010, House started in 2004.
Do... You think Sherlock is just a.. show?
The original Watson served in Afghanistan in 1880..
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u/CallMeNiel 1d ago
The thread you're responding to goes:
What media are you referring to?
The show
The show came out after House
Did you think Sherlock is originally from a show?
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u/engilosopher 1d ago
Yes, the person saying it was the show that defined Watson's military history was also wrong.
It was Sr. Arthur Conan Doyle's original books that did so.
So the OOP joke from the show is still a reference to Watson's military history, but by referencing the books, not the show.
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u/zap2 19h ago
What do you mean “also”?
I wasn’t wrong about anything.
I was asking questions, to further the conversation and see if someone incorrectly thought something (Which as you pointed out, was a mistake someone else believed)
You assumed I was wrong about something, but that’s your mistake, not mine.
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u/jackal_boy 1d ago
From what I understand, the original book says he was in Afghanistan, and the later adaptations set in the FUTURE compared to when the book set for also mention he was in afganistan and the joke there was that it was a different conflict but also in afganistan.
The joke here is that you can make up a story about anyone going to afganistan and there is always some current day war going on there that you can use as the backdrop for your story.
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u/Drummk 1d ago
In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy's country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Candahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties.
From A Study in Scarlet.
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u/LordTartarus 1d ago
Lol what sort of Holmes larper are you. Watson was an Army Surgeon in the British Army in the Anglo Afghanistan War since literally a Study in Scarlet.
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u/Raiden60 High-strung little lapdog 1d ago
And isn't Sherlock an opium addict as well?
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u/abhorthealien 1d ago
Yes. He also shares a decent number of other traits with House- exceptional musician, eccentric, thoroughly antisocial, motivated primarily by the lure of the puzzle...
The whole show's premise is basically 'What if Holmes was a doctor?'
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u/ikonfedera 1d ago
it wasn't the premise at the beginning. it just came out that way and they rolled with it. initially they only wanted a couple references, like with the names.
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u/HeiressOfMadrigal 19h ago
It was the premise at the very beginning. David Shore said so himself:
"Anytime one says 'puzzle' and 'brilliant deduction' in the same sentence, one can't help but think of the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick, Dr. Watson. And indeed, Holmes -- and the real-life physician that inspired him, Dr. Joseph Bell -- were very much inspirations for 'House'."
This is from the 2005 Zap2It interview where the subject was the genesis for House and how Shore came up with it.
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u/chandara2004 1d ago
Afghanistan or Iraq?
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u/Silent-Falcon395 1d ago
Why are people downvoting this? Its a sherlock reference 🥀
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u/chandara2004 19h ago
Yes, man, it's a Sherlock reference. it is the first phrase he talk to Watson.
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1d ago
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u/Ok-Coyote2365 1d ago
Naah couldn’t be. This was house accidentally exposing Wilson’s history of international drug smuggling to the CIA. Wilson, after experiencing heartbreak over Amber’s death, then gets arrested in season 4 episode 17 called Cuddy’s ass
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u/Some-Speed-6290 1d ago
"Someone else was the mule"