Sherlock special 2016: Viewers confused after time-travelling episode

The episode was a one-off special

(BBC)

Beware: Contains spoilers.

The much-anticipated return of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Sherlock and Doctor Watson happened on New Years Day, when 8.4 million Brits watched Sherlock: The Abominable Bride.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, 34.7 per cent of all television viewers in the UK on Friday evening watched the special episode of the hit series. The episode also premiered in the USA.

The reception on Twitter was mostly positive, particularly among its strong fanbase who were thrilled to see the return of the programme after the end of season 3 left us wondering how on earth the detective's nemisis Moriarty could possibly come back from the dead way back in January 2014.

However, there were a few viewers that didn’t so much as criticise the episode but just failed to understand what exactly was going on.

The BBC series made waves when it landed on screens in 2010 and presented the fictional character Sherlock in the modern day.

Hence when last night’s episode returned to the Victorian era (the original novels were set between 1880 to 1914) with not much explanation, viewers were a tad confused.

The episode began with flashbacks to previous episodes followed by a simple message on screen which said: “Alternatively...” and showed the years rolling back to the 1800s.

About an hour in, the programme fast-forwarded to the present day where we're thrust back to where we left off at the end of series 3, with a modern-day Sherlock waking up from a drug-addled reverie. And so the age-old ‘Was it all a dream (or hallucination)?’ assertion is presented.

The episode then continued to time-travel between the Victorian-era and the present day.

Even Cumberbatch admitted the premise behind the special episode was “madness”.

“I thought it was madness. I thought they had finally lost the plot, jumped the shark, all the other clichés of television gone mad.

“Then they explained the idea and pitched it to me properly, and I think it is fantastic — absolutely brilliant,” the Press Association news agency reports.

The next series of Sherlock is expected to return in 2017.