4. The Yellow Face
Another story, like The Blue Carbuncle, that isn't remotely weak or forgettable, The Yellow Face nonetheless has a central premise that is extremely of its time and just wouldn't sit well in a modern setting. The story concerns a past interracial marriage and a hidden infant, whose mother fears her new husband will abandon her if he learns of her mothering a child of mixed race. As it pans out, concerned mother Effie's new husband embraces the child and the problem ceases to be. Doyle is extremely sympathetic to the issue at hand and he treats the racially-charged denouement of the story with a liberal delicacy, but the problem with The Yellow Face is that it would be baffling in a 21st century setting. To have modern day characters so overwrought with worries regarding race would be truly unbecoming: Mixed race relationships are commonplace in cosmopolitan London and while portions of the aristocracy may still hold concerns similar to those of 19th Century Britain generally a modern version of this story would either illicit a mass shrug from the target audience or fuel the absurd rumours of racism in Moffat's writing. Best to give this one a wide berth.