The first set photos from Elementary, CBS' modern update of Sherlock Holmes may not do much to dispel the impression that the show is attempting to piggyback on the success of the BBC's Sherlock.

Jonny Lee Miller, who plays Holmes, was spotted walking with Lucy Liu's Dr. Joan Watson, and the outfit he was wearing had quite a bit in common with Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock wardrobe -- particularly in the scarf department.

Of course, the BBC can't copyright the idea of wearing a scarf -- they can't even copyright Sherlock Holmes, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories and characters are now in the public domain -- but that doesn't make Sherlock showrunner Steven Moffat any less peeved at CBS.

"It isn't a version of our show," he said. "They've just decided to go off and do one of their own, having been turned down by us to do an adaptation of our version. So how do you think I feel about it? Annoyed is in there."

Moffat admitted that "we don't own Sherlock Holmes" and that updating the legendary detective has "been done before," but he's still on the lookout for anything in Elementary that copies the new elements he and Mark Gatiss have introduced to the Holmes story.

"I hope they know their Sherlock Holmes very, very well indeed because we know what's in our show and wasn't in the original. So if we did discover our material had made it into somebody else's show we would have a problem with that," he said.

On a more positive note, Moffat said that Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch is keen to continue playing the lead role, which bodes well for a fourth series of the BBC show.

[blastr / ontd]