thenitsthebomb asked: I’m going to make a suggestion you won’t like. The reason for using the switched body on the trolley is because of the filming weather. That could have been a rehearsal shot, hence no blood et c, to get the timing and all, and since it clearly started pissing with rain, they had to truncate the shooting and figured they could pass it off. You won’t like it, but I also don’t like someone jumping off a trolley to hide in a phone booth with a crowd of witnesses and too many accomplices. :)

finalproblem:

I don’t dislike that suggestion so much as disagree with it. It’s not as if I didn’t consider the possibility that the shot was due to a production error. (And I do include knowingly using a shot full of mistakes in the “production error” category.) I didn’t even reblog the first mention of the body swap before I’d checked it out myself because the possibility of a production error seemed so high.

I’m guessing the reason you’re saying I won’t like the suggestion is that you’ve already read the post in which I explained why I don’t think the body swap is a production error, so I don’t know how much of that you want me to regurgitate right now…

I think the suggestion that they would be filming final-quality “rehearsal shots” is questionable in general, but doubly so when they were on location and pressed for time. (Yes, rehearsal might be done for various reasons, but that doesn’t mean you tie up your camera people doing final-quality filming of it.)

But setting that aside and just focusing on that particular shot and the possibility that they filmed it earlier then used it because they were forced to once it started raining… For one thing, we know they kept working right through the rain. For another, that shot was clearly filmed after it had already started raining.

The ground was quite wet. So did they wait for a break in the rain, and then decide to use that time to film a rehearsal shot instead of taking advantage of the lucky opportunity to do something that was actually important?

Because that’s another issue with your suggestion. It means they knowingly introduced several errors in a key sequence of the episode when there’s nothing important about the shot. If all they had was a rehearsal shot with a bunch of errors and they knew it, why include it in the final cut of the episode at all? If they were never trying to show that Sherlock had switched places with someone, the shot was completely unnecessary. It’s way too short to matter for the runtime of the program, and it conveys nothing needed to understand what’s happening. So instead of including a shot with a mistake in it, why not just leave it out?

Yes, there are other little production slips and oddities in the fall sequence—like the white shirt and the earpiece. It’s easy to see why those shots were considered necessary, though. You can’t leave out Sherlock falling or John’s reaction. You absolutely can leave out two seconds of extras’ backs and a stunt double on a trolley when all of that’s already been clearly established, though. (And as a bonus, we can even tell they didn’t need to cut away to the trolley as an editing convenience because they were using jump cuts to show John’s reaction before and after.)

And then on top of all that, there’s still the guy who runs to put his hand in front of fake!Sherlock’s face and continues to block it as they turn. Rehearsal shot or not, why would the actor do that if the man on the trolley was really meant to be Sherlock? The only reason to do that is to keep fake!Sherlock’s face from being seen, and they wouldn’t have cared if it was a rehearsal shot they thought they were never going to use. If they thought there was a chance they would use the shot, then it would’ve been much, much simpler to have fake!Sherlock turn his head away to begin with.

Maybe you don’t like the implications of the body swap. Okay. Don’t believe it. I’ve never argued in favor of the body swap because I “like” it—only because I think that’s what makes sense based on what we can observe. I will argue my points and present evidence, but at the end of the day I am genuinely not upset if someone doesn’t want to believe the same things I do about a television show. By all means, do what makes you happiest for the year we have to wait.

(via lacuna1024)