Woman of the Month: Amelia Rojas

Pickings are slim when it comes to choosing a female character from the Sherlock Holmes canon – in fact, there are only three of any great note: Mary Morstan, Irene Adler and Mrs Hudson.

Yet that hasn’t stopped other writers from finding all sorts of ways to add more, whether it’s giving Sherlock a Lost Lenore (Elizabeth in Young Sherlock Holmes), a little sister (Enola Holmes, Beatrice in Young Sherlock) or a daughter (Amelia Rojas in Sherlock & Daughter). Some adaptations gender-flip preexisting characters (Joan Watson in Elementary) or expand the roles of minor characters (there are female Irregulars in both Netflix’s The Irregulars and Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars), while Irene Adler has been reimagined as anything from a master thief to a criminal mastermind. And sometimes they simply make up female characters wholesale (Jennifer Vandeleur in The Case of the Silk Stocking or Xiao Wei in Young Sherlock).

In a way it’s rather heartening that so many writers want to include more women, giving me plenty to choose from this month. Though the obvious pick would be Irene Adler, I’ve already discussed her extensively in the past, and a hot contender was the aforementioned Xiao Wei, who reminded me a lot of Sara Lance in just how cool she was. There are very few female characters out there who are allowed to simply luxuriate in how cool they are.

But I’m going with Amelia Rojas from Sherlock & Daughter, because who doesn’t love a Spirited Young Lady living in the Victorian Era? That time of restrictiveness and societal disapproval is the perfect setting for a headstrong girl to come along and upset the apple cart.

Sherlock & Daughter puts Amelia Rojas at its centre; a Native American girl who has travelled from California to London in search of Sherlock Holmes in a bid to solve her mother’s murder. She’s determined and resourceful, but also far more vulnerable than she’d like to admit and leery about the veracity of her mother’s final message to her: that Sherlock is her father.

He denies this revelation, but also sees an opportunity to use her as an investigative proxy in a particularly difficult case: and so her education in deduction begins.

I’d never seen actress Blu Hunt before this series, but she’s a real find. Equal parts cunning and naïve, Amelia takes to mystery-solving like a duck to water, driven not only by personal reasons but a growing sense of duty and justice. As she tentatively begins to form a relationship with her would-be father, she also becomes aware of the greater plots and schemes swirling around her, and rises to meet them – not without a few mistakes at first, but steadily improving as she goes. It was a great first season for her, and I’m glad a second has already been greenlit.

Reading/Watching Log #128

Well, no prizes for guessing what the theme of this month is. With the release of Enola Holmes 3 on the first of July, it pretty much chose itself, and way back in September 2024 I mentioned wanting to watch some of the other Sherlock Holmes adaptations that were floating around on YouTube.

The thing I found most interesting in watching so many in quick succession is the way they speak to each other across the years; how they’ve inspired and influenced each other. You can clearly see the shift from Watson as a doddering sidekick to a more respected partner, or the change in the treatment of subjects like colonialism and the British Empire, or even the use of the supernatural and its veracity.

For instance, it’s tempting to wonder if 1985’s Young Sherlock Holmes inspired the 2009 Robert Downey Jr film in its use of an occult-tinged mystery, and clearly the former’s use of colonization as a plot-point has markedly changed. Back then it was used to justify the existence of a creepy Egyptian cult and give the villains a sad backstory that was promptly ignored because they were sacrificing virgin girls. Fast-forward four decades and the British Empire’s treatment of its colonies makes for largely sympathetic “villains” in both Enola Holmes 3 and 2026’s Young Sherlock series.

It’s just fascinating the way these stories reach forward and back the way they do, providing a linked chain across the years.

Also, I saw a record three live performances this month, largely thanks to the fact it was the school holidays and I am determined to instill a love of theatre in my little nephew. As ever, two Babysitters Club books, the second instalment of trilogies from Philip Pullman, Scott Westerfeld and Philip Reeve, and a few Victorian-era Gaslamp period dramas. They went hand-in-glove with Sherlock Holmes.

Xena Warrior Princess: Back in the Bottle, Little Problems, Seeds of Faith

In these three very different episodes, we get the second sequel to “The Debt,” a comedy episode, and the next instalment of the seasonal arc, in which Eli returns and the Twilight of the Gods is teased. Highlights include the last episode set in Chin, a very young Rose McIver, Alex Tydings in a blooper so funny they left it in the episode, an answer to what’s going on with Xena’s pregnancy, and the swansong of both Eli and Callisto.

Let’s get to it…

Standing Tall #37

This giraffe featured a series of strange shapes by artist and graphic designer Ethan Attewell, described in the official souvenir booklet as “curious characters” that “wouldn’t look out of place in a children’s story book.” Because of how they’re painted on the slopes of the giraffe it’s a little hard to discern what they actually are: there are some small green leaves, a blue dolphin-shaped one, and… a few mandarin slices? And I’ve no idea what the red shape is meant to be. Furthermore, there’s also not a lot of them – most of the giraffe is solid white.

To my eyes, they look more alien than whimsical, or maybe a bit like fruit jubes you’d buy in a candy store. The name of the sculpture is Space Wild, so maybe that’s a clue as to what they’re supposed to be. Or perhaps the shapes weren’t made to signify anything at all. They’re just shapes. It’s a rather bemusing giraffe, and I’m not sure what to make of it.

This one was situated in Malvern Park, and unfortunately it was taken down after being vandalized. Luckily, we got to see it before that occurred, and it was repaired later for the auction.

Woman of the Month: Zatanna

Zatanna Zatara from the DCU

Yes, she might be a third-tier superhero that the casual fan has never heard of, but no matter when or where Zatanna pops up, she’s always a delight. I’ve seen her in DC Superhero Girls, Justice League Dark, Young Justice, the graphic novel Zatanna and the House of Secrets – there was even talk of a feature film for a few hot minutes (though Emerald Fennell would have been at the helm so perhaps a bullet was dodged). She was apparently in a few episodes of Smallville as well, though I had checked out of that show way before then.

I’ll admit, I don’t know a lot about this character as she exists in the comics, but I like her style. And sure, we probably shouldn’t fangirl a character for their aesthetic alone, but what’s not to love about a stage magician in a form-fitting tuxedo and fishnet stockings who actually performs real magic for an unknowing audience when she’s not fighting crime? It’s a bit like the vampires pretending to be actors pretending to be vampires on Interview with the Vampire.

Perusing through her Wikipedia page, a few constants emerge: the House of Mystery, dealing with Doctor Fate, a relationship with John Constantine, and the nickname “Zee.” What I think I enjoy most about her is what’s often the case with superheroines: she is permitted to unabashedly wield hard power. And for her specifically, it’s magical power, which means she can go toe-to-toe with the likes of Wonder Woman and Superman without too much trouble (there’s a great scene in Justice League Dark where she does precisely this).

I mean, I’m a Merlin survivor, the show in which all women with magic were evil and/or dead, so for a young woman to be self-assured, proficient at her craft, and respected by her peers across all the different variations of her character is a profound relief. Long may she continue.

(Also, find and read Zatanna and the House of Secrets by Matthew Cody. It’s great!)

Reading/Watching Log #127

I’m swallowing my superhero fatigue in a desperate bid to clean out my hard-drive and make room for all the stuff I want to watch in the not-too-distant future – which means that June is superhero month!

Either way, it’s long past time for me to wrap up the Arrowverse, of which there are still half-a-dozen shows I haven’t finished yet. By my reckoning I have one season of Supergirl, one of Black Lightning, two of Batwoman, three of Legends of Tomorrow and three of The Flash left to go. Oh, and the entirety of Superman and Lois. And was Stargirl ever part of this continuity?

When things end before you’re given the chance to catch up with them, you inevitably lose a degree of investment, but I’m nothing if not a completist.

I also tackled the DC Animated Movie Universe, which is quite a mouthful, so we’ll go with DCAMU henceforth. Thankfully there were only four more films to watch before their conclusion.

And yet while watching Superman getting killed by Doomsday for the third time, and Clark admit his true identity to Lois for what felt like the millionth, and watch Nightwing come out of the Lazarus Pit not once but twice (if I had a nickel, weird that it happened twice and all that) I realized that these types of stories are most akin to the King Arthur and Robin Hood legends in how they’ve been retold and reshaped over the years. The origins of superhero stories are obviously not as ambiguous as those of Robin and Arthur, but we’re still dealing with characters who have set personalities and familiar stories that are adapted, readapted, rebooted and changed around until certain elements feel set in stone.

Any Robin Hood retelling will almost certainly involve an archery contest, the quarterstaff fight on the bridge, saving the poacher from losing a hand, and rescuing someone from the gallows in the same way that an X-Men adaptation will have Wolverine struggle to remember his past, Jean Grey becoming the Phoenix, a time traveller returning to the past from a dystopian future, and Xavier’s School for Gifted Children getting blown up.

The Holy Grail was nowhere to be seen in the earliest King Arthur stories, yet is now an essential part of any retelling. But is Percival the knight who finds it? Or Galahad? Or Bors? Different writers told different versions, and later versions handle the discrepancies by having all of them go on the Grail Quest.

This is type of storytelling is unique only to legends and comic book adaptations, and it’s quite fascinating to witness. It’s the same story with the same characters every time… only not.

On an unrelated note, this month made me realize I’m not hugely emotionally attached to superheroes. They were present in my childhood, but like The Wizard of Oz, were so American in nature that I never really felt a deep kinship. This meant I wasn’t that phased about Zack Snyder’s dark-n-edgy take on the material, as they were just another variation on the old stories – though I could understand why those closer to the material were upset. But as I said about Peter Pan in April, at some point you have to do something different, or else we’re just going to end up with twenty thousand identical adaptations.

(Though having said that, I watched Justice League Dark: Apokolips this month and was not ready for how grim that was gonna get. Watching iconic superheroes get slaughtered was more disconcerting than I thought it would be).

Xena Warrior Princess: Animal Attraction, Them Bones Them Bones, Purity

Oh dear, it’s been almost a whole year since my last post on Xena Warrior Princess, so I’ll understand if you’ve forgotten I was even doing this. And looking back, I can see that I started these posts way back in 2018!

But hey, that’s what tags are for. Just press a single button and you can see all my posts on this subject as though I wrote them over the course of a single weekend instead of a number of years.

We’re still at the beginning of season five, in which Xena and Gabrielle have just been resurrected for what feels like the dozenth time – although this time around, Xena has come back from the dead with a little something extra in the oven…