Sunday, August 20, 2006

Being a multi-fandom geek, from time to time I notice connections between certain universes that may or may not have been done intentionally. Usually, I think these things are just coincidence. But I've got a little pet observation that, to my mind at least, makes too much sense not to be an elaborate web weaved over the years by several clever but unrelated creators.

It's all about analytical types and starts, unsurprisingly, with Dick Grayson. The former Robin and current Nightwing is my favorite comic book character, so anytime I see anything that could be even tangentially connected to him, it sticks with me.

We move on to Star Trek, and Spock. As we all know, Spock is half-human and his mother's name is Amanda. Most people don't know that her last name is Grayson. Don't believe me? Check it out.

Pretty cool, huh? We can entertain the idea that Dick Grayson is an ancestor of Spock. But wait, it gets better.

In Star Trek VI Spock says, "An ancestor of mine maintained that whenever you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be true."

Does that line sound familiar? It should. It's the guiding principle upon which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's immortal character, Sherlock Holmes, bases his detective work.

Now, when I first heard Spock speak that line, I thought the screenwriters were hinting that Conan Doyle was Spock's progenitor. But as I thought more about it, my opinion shifted. It makes more sense, and is frankly much more fun, if we take the line to mean that Sherlock Holmes is part of Spock's family tree. [I'm not the first one to make this connection - for instance, here's a guy who takes the same idea and runs with it in a slightly different direction.]

So, at least in the fannish universe of my own mind, Sherlock Holmes, Nightwing, and Spock are all members of the same genealogical line. There's a rich vein of fanfic for somebody to tap.

Posted @ 5:05 PM

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