Favourite references to the original series?

[Red McFace]

Just started watching Sherlock recently but I immediately loved how well it was done with regards modernising it but only where it was necessary, ie Sherlock having mobile phones and getting into a black cab as opposed to a hansom.  

My favourite ref to the original series was the first episode when he talked about the phone Watson had, specifically the way there were scratches around where the charger would have been plugged in at night.  He deduces that the original owner had drinking problems from that.  That is the exact same as the first Sherlock Holmes story except replace phone with watch.  I thought it was perfect.

Anyone else have favourite references?

[Devina]

I have to first admit that I have yet to get my hands on copies of the original books, though this has made me want to whereas I just didn't care before. However, I enjoy the blogging/journal parallels that exist. From what I've gathered, the original books were meant to be John's journals, and they've recreated it in the modern setting with the blogging John does. I thought that was a beautiful touch. 

[Red McFace]

That's so cool that this post has made you want to read the originals.  They're brilliant, the use of language is fantastic, especially if you're nerdy and into old ways of saying things.  It's cool, because as you read the originals you'll just keep finding so many things that the new series is referencing.  I'll stop rambling now.

[Neha Rahman]

I love how the titles of some of the episodes are playoffs of the books. Like for example how A Study in Scarlet becomes A Study in Pink, or A Scandal in Bohemia becomes A Scandal in Belgravia. 

[Red McFace]

I love those ones too.  I like the episode where Watson's talking about his blog titles and then there are loads of ref's, but my fave was "the spekled blonde!"  I LOL'd so hard!

[Ella McLoughlin]

I loved the way the counter on the blog gets stuck at 1895, the year that Arthur Conan Doyle tried to kill off Sherlock at Reichenbach.

[Jane]

I never knew that! Thanks for mentioning that, because that was one aspect of that episode that I was a bit confused by. Now I can blow the minds of all my Sherlock-watching friends!

[Red McFace]

Man, I didn't get that reference either.  Thanks for that!

[Luckeeskeff]

Oh my gosh! Did not catch that one... but you're right!

[Amy TG]

I just loved it in A Study in Pink when Sherlock described it as a "three patch problem" - in the books he once described a case as a "three pipe problem". That was the moment when any doubts I had about modernising Sherlock Holmes vanished.

[Sara Turner]

That has to be one of my favorite references, too!

[Sammy Newman]

It's awesome how Sherlock says, "I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high functioning sociopath. Do your research," just like in the original series! It always makes me laugh :) And in The Hounds of Baskerville Sherlock comes into 221b covered in blood with a harpoon, just like in "The Black Peter" ... "You took the tube?" "None of the cabs would let me in." ROFL!!!!

[Sarah Cowan]

I love the "drugs bust" scene in A Study in Pink, seeing as in the original stories Holmes had a cocaine problem.

Also, when he beats the corpse with a riding crop. I remember the first time I read A Study in Scarlet and coming to that part. I'll admit, the eccentricities are what attract me to the character, and the show has done such a marvelous job at retaining that!