In a church in Whitechapel, a monk knelt before the statue of a saint and prayed. Suddenly, a dark figure appeared and attacked him. When others arrived, the monk was dead with two holes in his neck, like a vampire's bite! In the wake of this death, Brother Marstoke (Shawn Lawrence) called upon Sherlock Holmes (Matt Frewer) at 221 Baker St. Between the concerned clerisy and the panicked parishioners, something needed to be done. Holmes accepted the case. He and Dr. Watson (Kenneth Welsh) soon arrived at the church to investigate. Immediately, there are suspects. Brother Caulder held Marstoke responsible, largely because of his collection of pagan artefacts from their time in Guyana. Indeed, many of the brothers and sisters had spent time in Guyana where a deadly disease had been spread by vampire bats. Holmes learned that two servants - natives of Guyana - had been brought to London: Signora de la Rosa and her son, Hector. Most interesting of all was Dr. Chagas (Neville Edwards), an expert on bats who had quarreled with Marstoke about exterminating bats in Guyana to stem the disease. After Holmes began his investigation, yet another brother was slain by the vampire.
This was the fourth and final Hallmark Channel production of Sherlock Holmes with Matt Frewer. It does not give high hopes for its predecessors. Frewer is a flat Holmes, almost Vulcan-like in his delivery. He is entirely pleasant and gets along well with others. Inspector Jones - an intentionally contentious stand-in for Inspector Lestrade - treats Holmes as the enemy from the moment they meet. Then, at the height of his fury and the climax of the mystery, he suddenly changed his tune. What? Why? Well, Holmes was still his entirely reasonable self. There's no fire in Holmes. The mystery is little more than a distraction to him, hardly more interesting than a crossword puzzle. On the other hand, Watson is good. Welsh has followed the model of Edward Hardwicke, a competent aide to Holmes rather than a clueless bumpkin to show how brilliant Holmes is. The rest of the cast is unremarkable.
The script does no favors. The Brother who is killed in the alley was alarmingly stupid. Gee, I can't see a thing in this alley, someone is killing monks, and a spooky voice is calling for help. I'll just abandon the blind nun who I am guiding to check on this mysterious voice in the alley. Face palm! It was hard to feel sorry for him when he was killed. Many of Holmes deductions are made off-screen, so the viewer doesn't have an opportunity to follow the logic. It's just revealed at the end. As for the defeat of the villain, good grief.
Mediocre and disappointing. Skip.
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