Aaaaand we’re back, finally, with the first part of our second Moran episode! We had to record three separate times over the better part of a month due to connectivity issues, and then in the process of editing the whole thing together, Dixie discovered that we’d recorded two hours’ worth of podcast! Well, we didn’t want to inflict a 2-hour-long episode on our audience, so we opted to break up an episode that was already labeled “part 2” into “a” and “b.”

We talked first about the results of a poll I’d put up on our Twitter account, where we asked people how they viewed Moran’s relationship with Moriarty. The results… made us sad, lol. We also kind of determined that “The Empty House” makes no sense if Moran doesn’t care about Moriarty, because there’s no good reason for him to try to murder Holmes otherwise. Also that Moran is a threat to be taken seriously, because Holmes certainly does.

Some quick links to more interesting and more coherent reading about the Colonel than this!

• ​​The Case of Neo-Victorian Demotions: Colonel Sebastian Moran on Screen, by Lucyna Krawczyk-Żywko on Academia.edu
• Villainy and Physiognomy: Identifying the Dangerous Foreigner in Sherlock Holmes, by Erica Foss on Academia.edu
• Some Thoughts on Character: Colonel Sebastian Moran on the Better Holmes and Gardens blog

So this 2-parter is about Colonel Sebastian Moran in adaptations, pastiche, fanworks, etc. Before all three of our recordings, we’d talked about what made a good portrayal of Moran, or a good story about him. We settled on a good portrayal having some depth, some interiority — in other words, he has an inner sense of self as opposed to being cardboard cutout.

And if you want a pretty thorough look at Moran on screen up to 2014, Out of the Abyss, the EMPT manuscript book by BSI Press, has an essay on that very topic! “Colonel Moran and Celluloid Air-Guns,” by Russell Merritt.

Moran in print

So we only got as far, in this first part, as getting to Moran in books and short stories, and next time we’re covering further media. Here’s a list of what we covered:

• Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles, by Kim Newman. This is a novel as a series of short stories written by Moran.
• The Empress of India: A Professor Moriarty Novel, by Michael Kurland. After a few books in his Moriarty series, Mr. Kurland finally writes an adventure with Moriarty and Moran working together.
• The Return of Moriarty, the first of the Moriarty trilogy, by John Gardiner. This is one I haven’t read, and going by all the reviews I’ve read, it’s probably not my cup of tea.
• Moriarty: A Novel, by Anthony Horowitz. I tried to read it, couldn’t finish it, might try to go back to it someday.
• Eve Titus’s Basil of Baker Street books do give Professor Rattigan a right-hand mouse, one Captain Doran.
• “A Study in Emerald,” by Neil Gaiman. Hugo Award-winning crossover between Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft. You can download a neat-looking pdf of the story for free from the link on Mr. Gaiman’s website.
• Children of Reichenbach: A Study in Regret, by Claire Daines. In this alternate universe, Reichenbach has gone horrifically wrong, and Moran proves himself to be a ruthless and formidable antagonist.
• “Yours in Grief,” by… me! Yeah, it’s the short story I talked about last time, a series of letters Moran writes to Moriarty… after Moriarty’s death, as Moran tries to cope with his grief. I included it on this list because it is valid, if as-of-this-posting unpublished, Moran content. You have to produce the fan content you want to see in the world, after all! (EDIT: The Kickstarter is finally live!)

And that wraps our coverage of Moran content for now! We will hopefully be back soon with a look at Moran in cartoons/comics, TV, animation, film, and radio. Until then, please do comment or tweet or send us an email! We’d love to hear from you!