The BBC’s Sherlock Holmes was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and made his debut in A Study in Scarlet in 1887, and was such a hit with readers that he went on to appear in a total of four novels and 56 short stories. His popularity has also made way for various adaptations of the character and his stories, and recent versions have reignited interest in the works of Conan Doyle.
Among those is the BBC’s Dr. John Watson (Martin Freeman), his brother Mycroft (Gatiss), and more characters from the books to the modern world, giving a fresh spin to them and their stories. Of course, the series couldn’t forget about Sherlock Holmes’ enemy James Moriarty, played by Andrew Scott, who is the villainous counterpart of the detective and the mastermind of many, many crimes.
In Sherlock, Moriarty played a big role as he turned out to be the one behind many of the cases solved by Sherlock, and he made his debut in the series in season 1’s finale, “The Great Game”, where he posed as Molly’s boyfriend before revealing himself at the end of the episode. Moriarty is a “consulting criminal” and develops an obsession with Sherlock, and even tried to force him into committing suicide, but as Moriarty was motivated by boredom, he ended up killing himself, as that also left Sherlock without another choice than to end his life. Sherlock’s Moriarty was a lot younger than the one in the books and featured prominently in the series, he was theatrical and enjoyed watching the chaos he created through others, as well as watching Sherlock’s reputation shatter thanks to his games.
In the books, however, it’s a different story. First off, Moriarty was introduced mostly so Conan Doyle could kill Sherlock Holmes, and only appeared in one story (“The Adventure of the Final Problem”), but as Conan Doyle was pressured to bring the detective back, Moriarty was mentioned in subsequent stories, but never appeared again. He was described as an extremely tall, thin, clean-shaven, and pale man, with exceptional talent to come up with plans to commit all types of atrocities to perfection, without him directly participating in them – meaning that the Moriarty from the books would have never broken into the Tower of London as part of a big heist. Just like Sherlock’s version, Moriarty was ruthless, but unlike him, who displayed a “mentally unstable” behavior, he was very focused and calm.
Sherlock’s Jim Moriarty stayed true to the essence of the original Moriarty in the sense of both being criminal masterminds who orchestrated all types of crimes, though one liked being an active participant of his own plans while the other just sat down and watched. Both versions work well within their contexts and worlds, so there’s no reason to not enjoy Jim Moriarty and Professor Moriarty.