just been checking Sherlock from BBC1 (dspcwznv t lx hlenstyr jzf)
Monday, July 26th, 2010 30 Comments
I’ve just been looking at the hype around Sherlock on BBC1 last night (in the UK), and then went into the websites (The Science of Deduction, Dr John Watson’s blog) that have been built around the show for additional viewer interaction.
On Dr John Watson’s blog, there is a code requiring deciphering. It is:
DSPCWZNV T LX HLENSTYR JZF
and the clue provided is :
A Roman Emperor will help you work out what this means.
Putting my thinking cap on, I deduced a correlation with Caesar, and did a quick google for the Caesar cipher. Found an excellent site which deciphers these for you, so I whacked in the code and discovered that the key was the letter ‘L’ (a shift of 11 characters) resulting in a message which reads:
SHERLOCK I AM WATCHING YOU
I think Anonymous must be Moriarty!!
About Cameron
whileloop 
Or It could be his brother, Mycroft…..
Remember, he upped survailence (Sp) on both Holmes and Watson
And that is a very Good Caesar Cipher.
Actually, just read the rest of the forum entries on the BBC website.
It shows another ‘conversation’ between anonymous and Holmes.
Anonymous
One day we will meet.
SH
Oh, that’s lame
Anonymous
You don’t know who I am.
SH
No but you’re using phrases like ‘one day we will meet’. If you’re going to stalk me or threaten me or whatever it is, at least use your imagination.
This obviously implies that either the two have never met before, strentghening the likelyhood of it being Moriarty.
But, Anonymous could just be saying this to distract Holmes, and take his attention away from the real person. So If Homes was to look into this, having believed never to have met him, he would not suspect anyone he actually knew…..
Or it could just be Moriarty….
I admit to just assuming it would be Moriarty due to the implied plot from the sites. The sign off to the cipher is ‘XX’, which translates as ‘MM’, which is still no help but could be Moriarty still.
Or maybe Moriarty in this Holmes version is female with the hots for Sherlock.
XX two Kisses??
What about the Name at the end of the episode? I have forgotten it, have you googled it?
And what is with the number? While he was laying on the sofa he said he could not use his phone as the number was on the website, but it is not there. Was thinking of watching in iplayer and getting the number from that. I’m sure they showed a mobile phone number.
Have you noticed the Cat theme and the word iron? I googles cat iron and iron cat, but could not see a obvious link. Any clues?
Jim
The Caeser Cypher is obviously correct… SHERLOCK I AM WATCHING YOU.
The sign off ‘XX’ translating to MM does this signature mean Mycroft Moriarty? Is Sherlock’s brother Mycroft also the Arch-Enemy Moriarty? Are they one and the same??? Cue the spooky music.
Professor James Moriarty is also Mycroft Holmes? Are the modern day writers adding a modern twist to this old story?
Maybe we are all looking too deeply into a simple cypher quiz and the decyphering is all the website expects us to do. I wouldn’t stretch your IQ’s too much with this I really think it will turn out that way.
Ugggh…and to think I was about to start trying to decipher it manually. Thank god I put it through google first.
i got that to and im only twelve
I can’t believe it! I’ve been trying to decipher it all day! I wanted to try and do it logically without putting it through google but my freiend told me in the end. The closest I got to was this thing called the number of the beast which is related to the roman emperor Nero. I thought that might have been some sort of code.
By the way, I think it’s professor Moriaty. Its just got to be hasn’t it?
I don’t recall that it was signed, XX or just signed off as XX but just XX.
which could be two kisses.
xx translated to MM means
Mycroft Morriarty
I think the clue was pointing at more than just the cypher type, as the 11 letter offset means that C’s R. Or did I just get lucky?
I like that. It may be a chance occurrence, but equally the writers may have been extremely clever and witty.
Good spotting there Kazua.
on john watsons blog, anonymous also left a comment asking how sherlock solved the suicides case-could it be the same person?
They wouldn’t make Mycroft and Moriarty the same person because:
A) Moffat and Gatiss are both self-confessed huge Sherlock Holmes fans, even they wouldn’t change the canon THAT drastically.
B) That would be more than slightly lame.
C) … did I mention it would be lame?
The x’s at the end aren’t written in capitals like the other letters in the clue, so let’s assume they’re kisses. So it’s reasonable guess that they may have made Moriarty a woman (Let’s not forget Harriet aka “Harry” Watson) As Sherlock says “Three kisses indicate a romanic attachment” so what about two kisses?? I guess we’ll find out….
MM could stand for moriaty Mycroft, but yeah I’m not so sure, if it were mycroft he would have just sent a text, and if sherlock is as smart as he is (if you get that) he would already know he was being watched by Mycroft, so I deduce that the writers are indicating at Moriaty, but they have changed some things from the original text so they could quite easily change Professor James Moriaty to Professor Mathew Moriaty, this would be easily done seeing as they are trying a complete revamp, keeping certain things in, leaving others out. Man, I’ve taken this so seriously… Oh well beats being boring.
Also I forgot to note that it may be Moriaty watching through Mycroft’s security details, and that Mycroft generally seems to want to protect Sherlock…
2nd Puzzle posted on Sherlocks mock site.
The Caeser cipher used for the previous puzzle doesn’t work for this one, for any different number shifting.
“You’ll never find out who I am. I live off the grid.
cheers
xx'”
This time the ‘clue’ is, I think, less formal but more confusing
I live off the grid must be the main point
Sherlock I am coming. Take every fifth letter till you get to the end then start from the next unused letter
Ooops! Forgot the rest of the message!
The whole thing is “Sherlock I am coming to get you”
Who is the Mysterious M, seen last having the Chinese General killed???
It seems pretty obvious that its either Mycroft or Moriarty…..
But would a (presumably) high ranking member of the British such as Mycroft be a part of a Chinese Smuggling Ring???
I suppose that could explain why it was very unknown of until pointed out to the police.
When trying to solve the first one it is usefull to look at the T ans it is a single word its either going to be I or A so then looking at how to get from t to i and t to a and applying that to the rest of the letters was how i worked it out i looked it up after and he was refering to julius ceaser who would send battle plans in code where all the letters have been shifted allong and The second uses a keyword to solve it, that word being cheers a word out of place in the email that does not fit with the previous sentance this suggests the use of every sixth letter counting from the previous letter used so s….h h….e e….r r….l l….o leading to sherlock i am comeing to get you however not sure if my meathod is quite right as i had to overlap to get it just noticed that it worked that way after i tried without an overlap, anyone know of a different solution? also although xx might become mm with the ceaser shift but then would he use the same code for a second time when he used a different code in his second message? it could just be irony with kiss kiss or it could be a signature however it is possible that his brother is mm as why else would a government official use all those tricks and secret places to talk to jhon and why would he have an assistant who always lies.
Hi Emi, if you look through the solution I provided and the other comments here, you will see that you are correct with your answer of “SHERLOCK I AM WATCHING YOU”.
Thanks for coming past my blog.
sorry i meant coming* oh and just to finnish the new series is rather awsome isnt it sherlocks a little truer to the character the novel depicts than in older versions.
Proof, it seems that Mycroft and Moriarty are indeed two seporate characters
Now, Hidden Message No.3
I believe that the message is a diagrammatic cipher, but haven’t figured it out yet, and as for the message, Where do pigs live, I am not so sure yet.
Hi Josh
I’ve posted about Hidden Message No.3 recently (http://wp.me/pxhh2-g1).
In general, the reference is to a pigpen cipher, which I’ve explained in detail.
Cheers, Cameron
The Message Stands for:
“SHERLOCK
I HAVE FOUND YOU”
This website has a very good description for the cipher:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/secret/secret.html
i have followed these cases and have come to the reasoning to belive that one person would have the means, motiaves and oppertunites to stalk Sherlock. “He is the Napolen of crime, he is the organizer of nearly half that is evil and of nearly that is all undetectied in this great city.” none other than holmes arch enemy Moriarty. All the facts could possibly add up to point at him, but, i have that same felling Sherlock Holmes did in The Final Problem that there is something more to this than just this one perpatratior.