Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series) "Rathbone "was" Sherlock Holmes". The choice of Nigel Bruce as Watson was more contentious, with Davies pointing out that "Bruce's characterisation bore little relation" to the written Watson, even though the portrayal eventually produced "an endearingly avuncular figure". The historian David Parkinson agrees, and wrote that Bruce's "avuncular presence provided the perfect counterbalance to Rathbone's briskly omniscient sleuth". Barnes notes that, despite the criticisms against him, Bruce rehabilitated Watson, who had been a marginal figure in the cinematic Holmes canon to that point: "after Bruce, it would be a near-unthinkable heresy to show Holmes without him". With the combination of
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes Watson". William Rushton played Watson. In 1988, the animated series "Alvin and the Chipmunks" aired an episode entitled "Elementary, My Dear Simon", which stars Simon as Holmes, Theodore as Watson, Alvin as Professor Moriarty, and Dave as Inspector Seville. Also in 1988, in the animated series "BraveStarr", the two-part episode ""Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century"" had Holmes transported from Reichenbach Falls in 1893, to London in 2249. Holmes is joined by an alien, Dr. W't'sn (the 23rd century counterpart of Watson) & Inpsector Mycroft Holmes of Scotland Yard (a direct descendant & namesake of Holmes' brother Mycroft); the trio