14 DAY TRIAL // If you were hoping for spoilers or clues for season 4 of “Sherlock” from BBC One / PBS Masterpiece, to be included on the 2015 Christmas special, I’m sorry to have to break your heart because there will be none.
In fact, the special was shot as a separate production from the series and will, as such, take place in the Victorian London, series co-creator Steven Moffat confirms for Entertainment Weekly.
Then again, if you saw the on-set leaked photos of the two leading men, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, looking dashing in period costumes, you probably saw this coming.
Well, in case you were still thinking it was some kind of flashback or dream sequence, Moffat says he saw no other way possible to make the special its own thing without separating it from the story in the series by at least 100 years.
“We wouldn’t have done the story we’re doing, and the way we’re doing it, if we didn’t have this special. It’s not part of the run of three episodes. So we had this to do it - as we could hardly conceal - it’s Victorian. [Co-creator Mark Gatiss] and me, we wanted to do this, but it had to be a special, it had to be separate entity on its own. It’s kind of in its own little bubble,” Moffat adds.
He doesn’t say anything about the plotline of the special, but he’s already promised us a “devastating” fourth season, one that will top everything we got with season 3. This and confirmation that the special will be set in Victorian England should keep us, the fans, going for another while.