production - Why did the writers choose this development for Moriarty? - Movies & TV

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Professor Moriarty is
generally known as the greatest villain Sherlock Holmes has ever faced. I know that
Sherlock was planned to end after the second season, concluding
with the death of Sherlock, but plans were changed and it was decided to not kill off
Sherlock. However, after everything was changed they still kept with the story line of
Moriarty being killed in order to force Sherlock to commit suicide to save his friends.
Why was the decision made to go ahead with this storyline instead of preserving Moriarty
for further plot lines?

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class="normal">Answer

+1 for
this very good question.

I will try to answer
this question from the storyline of the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Conan Doyle
and my first guess would be on the fact that the creators of the show are so faithfully
ardent to the original source material written by Doyle. The first reference to Moriarty
in the novel comes on one of the 4 long stories of Sherlock Holmes namely href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Valley_of_Fear">The Valley of Fear.

If you look at the time line specified in this
href="http://www.sherlockpeoria.net/Who_is_Sherlock/SherlockTimeline.html">website
( I have read all the short and long stories of the author I think this timeline looks
approximate if not precisely accurate). and then reference to Moriarty is made again in
the Final Problem. As a reader we can assume that they had their intellectual duel in
these 2 years. The creators already put a thorough illustration of this duel in the
first 2 seasons. if you look at the list there are still plenty of notable adventures
which remains after Moriarty's death such as the Empty House, World War stories etc. (An
ardent reader might argue that the best of the stories happened only either before or
during the href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoirs_of_Sherlock_Holmes">Memoirs of Sherlock
Holmes, that's a different topic
altogether)

THe creators only made 2/4 Long
stories (A Study in Pink and Hound of Baskervilles) so far in the series and from
Moriarty's death we can safely assume that Valley of Fear won't be adapted which still
leaves room for The
Sign of Four (A significant story where Watson meets Mary Morstan who becomes
his wife) and if you read Moffat's comments href="http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/sherlock-creator-moriarty-wont-return/261748">here
we can safely assume that creators want to focus on other villains created by
Doyle.

Either that or the creators
are playing coy and bring Moriarty back alive to settle the Final duel once and for all.
We never know, but I think Moriarty is gone and from his comments the next Season might
start with loose adaptation of The Adventure of the Empty House which is the first of
the Return of
the Sherlock Holmes series so they stay in tune with Doyle's timeline and to
possibly focus on Other Villains in the story.