# The Hounds of Baskerville
**"The Hounds of Baskerville"** is the second episode of the second series of the BBC television series *[Sherlock](https://www.edgepedia.org/sherlock-tv-series)*, first broadcast on 13 May 2012. Written by [Mark Gatiss](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-gatiss) and directed by Paul McGuigan, it adapts [Arthur Conan Doyle](https://www.edgepedia.org/arthur-conan-doyle)'s 1901–1902 novel *The Hound of the Baskervilles* to a present-day setting, replacing the Victorian tale of a supernatural hound on the Devon moors with a modern mystery involving a military research facility.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942613) • [2](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-case-of-the-amazing-reinvention-on-set-with-the-stars-of-tv-s-sherlock-6274034.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Series and position | Series 2, episode 2 of BBC *Sherlock*; first aired 13 May 2012[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942613) |
| Writer and director | Written by Mark Gatiss; directed by Paul McGuigan[3](https://moviesandmania.com/2014/01/02/the-hounds-of-the-baskervilles-holmesian-horror-in-film-and-tv/) |
| Runtime | Approximately 1 hour 28 minutes[4](https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/the-hounds-of-baskerville/umc.cmc.xwolxcyspor1xg3yisapaars?playableId=tvs.sbd.1000294%3Ab019h2f9&showId=umc.cmc.558pb9coo99m8vsy3k83lmmxv) |
| Source | Doyle's novel *The Hound of the Baskervilles*, serialized in *The Strand Magazine* from 1901 to 1902[5](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/there-nothing-elementary-about-a-sherlock-holmes-adaptation-180953895/) |
| Premise | Sherlock and John travel to Dartmoor after a young man reports sightings of a monstrous hound on the moor where his father died[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942613) |
| Modern premise | A Porton Down-style chemical weapons and research facility and an escaped mutant animal replace the novel's supernatural hound[2](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-case-of-the-amazing-reinvention-on-set-with-the-stars-of-tv-s-sherlock-6274034.html) |
| Lead cast | Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Watson, with Russell Tovey in a guest role[2](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-case-of-the-amazing-reinvention-on-set-with-the-stars-of-tv-s-sherlock-6274034.html) |
## Premise and plot
The episode opens with a young man's report of sightings of a monstrous hound on Dartmoor, on the moor where his father died, and [Sherlock Holmes](https://www.edgepedia.org/sherlock-holmes) and Dr. John Watson travel there to investigate.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942613) An episode guide describes the local setup: Sherlock and John travel to the moor, where a local lad named Fletcher organizes tourist walks cashing in on the legend of Dartmoor's spectral hound.[6](https://www.orfmax.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Sherlock-Episode-Guide.pdf)
In place of Conan Doyle's demon dog, the mystery leads to a secret military research establishment. A behind-the-scenes feature published while the episode was in production described its ingredients as [Russell Tovey](https://www.edgepedia.org/russell-tovey), a [Porton Down](https://www.edgepedia.org/porton-down)-style chemical weapons and research facility, and an escaped mutant animal.[2](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-case-of-the-amazing-reinvention-on-set-with-the-stars-of-tv-s-sherlock-6274034.html) A retrospective survey of screen versions of the story put it the same way: the episode "throws out Conan Doyle almost entirely, to tell a story of secret military research into mind-altering drugs."[3](https://moviesandmania.com/2014/01/02/the-hounds-of-the-baskervilles-holmesian-horror-in-film-and-tv/)
## Adaptation approach
Doyle's novel, serialized in *The Strand Magazine* from 1901 to 1902, is a gothic detective story in which Holmes and Watson roam the desolate Devonshire moors in pursuit of a huge, phosphorescent hound, and in which the [Baskerville](https://www.edgepedia.org/baskerville) family legacy is haunted by an apparent curse dating to the [English Civil War](https://www.edgepedia.org/english-civil-war), when Hugo Baskerville kidnapped a local maiden and both he and the monstrous hound were found dead on the moor.[5](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/there-nothing-elementary-about-a-sherlock-holmes-adaptation-180953895/) The television episode keeps the name Baskerville, the Dartmoor setting, and the idea of a hound, but transposes the fear into a contemporary register. A genre comparison of the two works notes that the adaptation engages viewers with fears about scientific misuse, unlike the novel's classic gothic and detective story.[7](https://www.enotes.com/topics/hound-baskervilles/questions/what-are-the-genre-differences-in-the-bbc-show-1854522)
**Gatiss's own account** of the adaptation is more generous than most viewers'. Asked how he and co-creator [Steven Moffat](https://www.edgepedia.org/steven-moffat) chose which Conan Doyle stories to adapt, he said that "The Hounds of Baskerville," based on Doyle's 1902 novel, is "probably the [most faithful], because it's one of the most famous stories, and is a full novel so there's a lot of incident," adding that otherwise the stories tend to be jumping-off points because adapting them directly would last only about 20 minutes.[8](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/sherlock-co-creator-mark-gatiss-previews-season-4-the-show-is-back-and-we-think-its-very-good-142837683.html) In a separate interview about writing the episode, he framed the source's appeal in genre terms: "At its heart, though, it's a horror story and horror is a big part of the appeal of Sherlock Holmes."[9](https://www.spoilertv.com/2011/12/sherlock-series-2-cast-and-producer.html)
The hound itself was a known production worry. "The big problem is that the dog is always disappointing," Gatiss told *The Independent* during production.[2](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-case-of-the-amazing-reinvention-on-set-with-the-stars-of-tv-s-sherlock-6274034.html) The same difficulty runs through the story's screen history: the 1988 Granada television version, for example, was criticized for a treatment of the hellhound legend that, as [Jeremy Brett](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeremy-brett) thought, drained the terrifying mystery, and its makers conceded that before computer-generated imagery it was nearly impossible to create a monster worthy of the novelist's description.[10](https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Hound_of_the_Baskervilles_%28TV_episode_1988%29)
## Production
The episode was made under the time pressures typical of the series. Mark Gatiss, the show's co-creator and the author of this episode, explained that the production's standing sets act as a base that becomes a location in its own right: "we had to relocate a couple of scenes to Baker Street, just because we ran out of time. You think: 'With a little bit of jiggery-pokery we can move that there'."[11](https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/18164/3/Performing%20Sherlock%20%283rd%20draft%29.pdf) The series' stars and co-creators discussed the modern reinterpretation of the Hound story in a PBS *Masterpiece* feature, "Making a Modern Hound," released around the episode's US broadcast.[12](https://www.pbs.org/video/masterpiece-sherlock-season-2-making-a-modern-hound/)
## Place in the story's adaptation history
*The Hound of the Baskervilles* is the most widely known and most often filmed Holmes story, and the 2012 episode sits in a long line of versions that includes the 1939 film starring [Basil Rathbone](https://www.edgepedia.org/basil-rathbone), the 1988 Granada television film starring Jeremy Brett, and earlier BBC productions.[5](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/there-nothing-elementary-about-a-sherlock-holmes-adaptation-180953895/) • [3](https://moviesandmania.com/2014/01/02/the-hounds-of-the-baskervilles-holmesian-horror-in-film-and-tv/) Within that line, the *Sherlock* episode is the loosest kind of treatment: a comparative academic analysis of the novel and the episode found the 2012 version completely different from earlier adaptations in almost every aspect of the story, except for a few slight common plot points, with the characters updated to modern times and a technologically complex mystery replacing the original.[13](https://www.iscap.pt/cei/e-rei/n3/artigos/Jorge-Sequeira_Sherlock-Holmes-From-Paper-to-the-Screen.pdf) A Swedish degree thesis likewise takes the pairing of Doyle's 1902 novel and the 2012 episode as a study in how far a television adaptation can move from its source.[14](https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A726093/FULLTEXT01.pdf)
The episode's title itself marks the departure: the book is *The Hound of the Baskervilles*, while the episode pluralizes it as "The Hounds of Baskerville," a tweaked title in the series' pattern of reworking Conan Doyle story names.[15](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/335/sherlock/episodes)
## References
1. ["Sherlock" The Hounds of Baskerville (TV Episode 2012), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942613)
2. [The case of the amazing reinvention: On set with the stars of TV's Sherlock, The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-case-of-the-amazing-reinvention-on-set-with-the-stars-of-tv-s-sherlock-6274034.html)
3. [The Hounds of the Baskervilles: Holmesian Horror in Film and TV, Movies & Mania](https://moviesandmania.com/2014/01/02/the-hounds-of-the-baskervilles-holmesian-horror-in-film-and-tv/)
4. [The Hounds of Baskerville – Sherlock (Season 2, Episode 2), Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/the-hounds-of-baskerville/umc.cmc.xwolxcyspor1xg3yisapaars?playableId=tvs.sbd.1000294%3Ab019h2f9&showId=umc.cmc.558pb9coo99m8vsy3k83lmmxv)
5. [There is Nothing Elementary About a New Sherlock Holmes Adaptation, Smithsonian Magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/there-nothing-elementary-about-a-sherlock-holmes-adaptation-180953895/)
6. [Sherlock Episode Guide (PDF)](https://www.orfmax.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Sherlock-Episode-Guide.pdf)
7. [How does the genre in BBC's Sherlock's "Hounds of Baskerville" differ from Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles?, eNotes](https://www.enotes.com/topics/hound-baskervilles/questions/what-are-the-genre-differences-in-the-bbc-show-1854522)
8. ['Sherlock' Co-Creator Mark Gatiss Previews Season 4, Yahoo Entertainment](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/sherlock-co-creator-mark-gatiss-previews-season-4-the-show-is-back-and-we-think-its-very-good-142837683.html)
9. [Sherlock – Series 2 – Cast and Producer Interviews, SpoilerTV](https://www.spoilertv.com/2011/12/sherlock-series-2-cast-and-producer.html)
10. [The Hound of the Baskervilles (TV episode 1988), The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia](https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Hound_of_the_Baskervilles_%28TV_episode_1988%29)
11. [Performing Sherlock: A Study in Studio and Location Realism, University of the Arts London research online](https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/18164/3/Performing%20Sherlock%20%283rd%20draft%29.pdf)
12. [Sherlock | Making a Modern Hound | Season 2, PBS](https://www.pbs.org/video/masterpiece-sherlock-season-2-making-a-modern-hound/)
13. [Sherlock Holmes: From Paper to the Screen – An Analysis of Adaptations, E-Revista de Estudos Interculturais do CEI – ISCAP](https://www.iscap.pt/cei/e-rei/n3/artigos/Jorge-Sequeira_Sherlock-Holmes-From-Paper-to-the-Screen.pdf)
14. [Comparative analysis of the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) and the adaptation "The Hounds of Baskerville" (2012), DiVA portal](https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A726093/FULLTEXT01.pdf)
15. [Sherlock – Episode List, TVmaze](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/335/sherlock/episodes)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Creative written works and worlds › Adaptations, tie-ins, and fictional worlds › Works adapted from novels › TV series and shows based on novels*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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