Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes as Dr Watson, in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (2000), "The Royal Scandal" (2001), "The Sign of Four" (2001) and "The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire" (2002). 2002 saw a new version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" featuring Richard Roxburgh. Ian Hart played Dr. Watson then and also in the 2004 BBC airing of "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking", alternatively billed as "The Return of Sherlock Holmes". An original screenplay "based on the character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle", this film takes place in 1902, with Dr. Watson "saving a dear friend from narcotics
Sherlock Holmes in popular literature, making him (as of 2017) the only fictional character thus honoured. The popularity of Sherlock Holmes has meant that many writers other than Arthur Conan Doyle have created tales of the detective in a wide variety of different media, with varying degrees of fidelity to the original characters, stories, and setting. According to "The Alternative Sherlock Holmes: Pastiches, Parodies, and Copies" by Peter Ridgway Watt and Joseph Green, the first known period pastiche dates from 1893. Titled "The Late Sherlock Holmes", it came from the pen of Conan Doyle's close friend, J. M. Barrie. A common pastiche