ENCRYPTION TECHNIQUE: MIXED ALPHABET CIPHER AND CAESAR CIPHER

Mixed Alphabet Cipher is an encryption technique in which the letters of the plain alphabet are substituted by the letters of a cipher alphabet.



The cipher alphabet is obtained by writing down the letters of a key in the order of their first appearance and then rest of the letters of the English alphabet following their usual order.



For example, if the key was the word “key”, the cipher alphabet would be:

KEYABCDFGHIJLMNOPQRSTUVWXZ



The cipher alphabet can be compared with the English alphabet or one of its rotations:



Cipher Alphabet: KEYABCDFGHIJLMNOPQRSTUVWXZ

ROT 0 Alphabet: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

In this example, if I wanted to encrypt the plaintext ABCDEF, the ciphertext would be KEYABC.



Rotating the alphabet is called the Caesar Cipher encryption technique, which can be used on its own or in conjunction with other methods, like the Mixed Alphabet Cipher.



Cipher Alphabet: KEYABCDFGHIJLMNOPQRSTUVWXZ

ROT 1 Alphabet: ZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY



In this example there has been a rotation of 1 place, so if I wanted to encrypt the plaintext ABCDEF, the ciphertext would be EYABCD.





ONE POSSIBLE SOLUTION

The ciphertext has been given to us both visually and vocally.

The key could be the name of the show.

We can create the cipher alphabet with the key SHERLOCK following the rules of the Mixed Alphabet Cipher.

We can compare the cipher alphabet with the plain alphabet or one of its rotations, in this case a rotation of one place gives us some results.

To each letter of the mixed alphabet corresponds a letter of the ROT 1 alphabet.

Which gives us a solution.





THE MEANINGS OF THE WORD

From Oxford English Dictionary



As far as Sherlock is concerned the relevant meanings are:

The traditional torch (fire);

The electric torch;



The victorian torch;



A source of light;

To feel (especially unrequited) love.





AN EXPLANATION OF THE PLAINTEXT

If this is the solution, UMQRA could be just a visual joke on the electric torch or have a double meaning regarding Sherlock and John’s feelings for each other.

Every scene in which UMQRA is discussed is connected with one or more of the above meanings.



John is holding a torch before, while and after writing UMQRA.



Also the signal itself comes from a source of light.

UMQRA is brought up again while Sherlock and John are in front of a fire (a source of light) upon which reigns a heart (feelings of love) and are surrounded by candles (other sources of light).

Soon after they have a conversation about John not being Sherlock’s friend (unrequited feelings), which upsets John.

Just after Sherlock declares that he doesn’t have friends, he’s holding a torch again before finding the UMQRA cars.



Again, we have the signal as a source of light.



The morning after Sherlock brings UMQRA up again and thanks to it deduces HOUND is not a word but individual letters. For this reason he says John is his “conductor of light”.



SHERLOCK: You’ve never been the most luminous of people, but as a conductor of light you are unbeatable.



During this scene Sherlock also admits that the friendship is requited.





TIES WITH THE BONFIRE NIGHT

In The Empty Hearse there is a situation which resembles the above exchange at the inn in The Hounds of Baskerville, but conceptually does the opposite in regards to feelings (“To carry a torch” means to be in love).

The Hounds of Baskerville:

John mentions UMQRA (=TORCH) in front of a fire;



Sherlock denies his feelings.



The Empty Hearse:

A torch starts a fire;



Sherlock exposes his feelings;



How fire exposes people is referred twice in the dialogue:



SHERLOCK: Amazing how fire exposes our priorities.

MAGNUSSEN: Very hard to find a pressure point on you, Mr Holmes.

SHERLOCK: Mm.

MAGNUSSEN: The drugs thing I never believed for a moment. Anyway, you wouldn’t care if it was exposed, would you? But look how you care about John Watson. Your damsel in distress.

So, the bonfire torch literally “makes light” on Sherlock’s feelings.

Plus, the dummy on top of the fire is dressed in the same colors as John in the UMQRA scenes:



Red shirt;



Black jacket;



Dark blue trousers.







Mark Gatiss is the writer of both episodes.







TIES WITH SOLAR SYSTEM METAPHORS

John being called Sherlock’s conductor of light in The Hounds of Baskerville makes it possible to interpretate other scenes as a metaphor for John being Sherlock’s light. Some examples:

The Blind Banker has Sherlock and John rotating around each other, akin a body rotating around a star;

In The Great Game, Sherlock is initially unaware of the functioning of the solar system and argues with John who insists he should know such things. He later expresses interest in the night sky and there is a fight in a planetarium. Eventually he solves the case thanks to astronomical knowledge.

Their friendship also develops.

He learned something from John emotionally and work-related.

Visually, John has a rotating motion with a light behind him.





The UMQRA = TORCH solution fits with this theme.









TIES WITH THE SEXUAL METAPHORS

A torch is featured in The Blind Banker and The Great Game as a visual sexual innuendo for fellatio.









TIES WITH CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY

The torch is the signature item of Hymen, the Greek good of marriage ceremonies.



He’s often depicted in the company of the god of Love, which makes some appearances himself:

Under the title in the Unaired Pilot;

As the namesake of “The Blind Banker”, inspired by Doyle’s poem “The Blind Archer”;

Possibly inside Appledoor (see here).







TIES WITH LIBERTY

The torch is a source of light in the figurative sense.

For this reason the Statue of Liberty, formally known as “Liberty Enlightening the World”, carries a torch.





“Liberty” is also a word that is relevant in the plot of “The Hounds of Baskerville”, as it’s the city where project H.O.U.N.D. was developed and Henry keeps seeing the word in his head without understanding its meanings



Also there are references to burning fire and love (possibly the first as a metaphor for the latter) in the poem where the following line is from:

SHERLOCK: “Liberty in death”, isn’t that the expression?



THE TOMB

By Thomas Stanley (1625–1678)

When, cruel fair one, I am slain

By thy disdain,

And, as a trophy of thy scorn,

To some old tomb am borne,

Thy fetters must their pow'r bequeath

To those of Death;

Nor can thy flame immortal burn

Like monumental fires within an urn;

Thus freed from thy proud empire, I shall prove

There is more liberty in Death than Love.



And when forsaken lovers come

To see my tomb,

Take heed thou mix not with the crowd,

And, as a victor, proud

To view the spoils thy beauty made,

Press near my shade,

Lest thy too cruel breath or name

Should fan my ashes back into a flame.

And thou, devour’d by this revengeful fire,

His sacrifice, who died as thine expire.

Or should my dust thy pity move

That could not, love,

Thy sighs might wake me, and thy tears

Renew my life and years;

Or should thy proud insulting scorn

Laugh at my urn,

Kindly deceiv’d by thy disdain,

I might be smil’d into new life again.

Then come not near: since both thy love and hate

Have equal power to kill or animate.



But if cold earth or marble must

Conceal my dust,

Whilst hid in some dark ruins, I

Dumb and forgotten lie,

The pride of all thy victory

Will sleep with me;

And they, who should attest thy glory,

Will, or forget, or not believe this story.

Then to increase thy triumph, let me rest,

Since by thine eye slain, buried in thy breast.





TIES WITH PROPS

John and Sherlock use torches on a couple of occasion and torches are heavily featured in The Hounds of Baskerville.



In Series 2 Mycroft, Gatiss’ character, uses a Blackberry Torch 9800, which also appears in The Hounds of Baskerville.







In Series 2, during A Scandal In Belgravia, a blow torch makes an appearance.

Another blow torch appears in The Sign of Three.





A Victorian torch is carried by Holmes in The Abominable Bride.





A medical pen torch is being used by John in The Abominable Bride.





TIES WITH LOCATIONS

In The Hounds of Baskerville Sherlock has climbed on a tor, specifically Hound Tor. The first three letters of the word are shared with TORCH.











TIES WITH MAJOR BARRYMORE’S PASSWORD AND OFFICE

While Sherlock’s looking for Major Barrymore’s password he browses his office for information.

The actual password ends up being Maggie, from Margaret Thatcher.

Margaret Thatcher adopted in 1977 the torch as the logo for her party, which last until 2006, when it was replaced by an oak.







Here’s a quote from Thatcher on about the logo:



THATCHER: We did not know it at the time but the torch we lit in Britain, which transformed our country, the torch of freedom that is now the symbol of our Party, became the beacon that has shed its light across the Iron Curtain into the East.

Today that beacon shines more strongly than at any time this century.



And here there’s another quote from an article about Thatcher always bringing a torch with her:

“Well, it’s dark,” came the response. “Ah,” she replied, “but I have a torch in my handbag” (something she always carried after the Brighton bomb that October).







The other most prominent candidate for the password is Winston Churchill.

When his surname is written below the name, the word TORCH appears to forms around the middle.







There are also some other torches or torch-like symbols.

The fiery part of the HarperCollins logo, which is meant to represent a torch:



From Wikipedia:

[..] the logo for HarperCollins was derived from the torch logo for Harper and Row, and the fountain logo for Collins, which were combined into a stylized set of flames atop waves.

This military insigna:



This hazard symbol:







Furthermore, both Churchill and Rummel (also present among the major’s interests) are part of the background of Operation Torch, a military operation.





TIES WITH DOYLE’S NAME

Doyle’s second name was Ignatius (the full name is Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle).

From Behind the name:

From the Roman family name Egnatius, meaning unknown, of Etruscan origin. The spelling was later altered to resemble Latin ignis “fire”.

From Wikipedia:

Ignatius is a male given name of presumed Latin or Etruscan origin, believed to mean “fiery one”.



A torch is a stick on fire and the word comes etymologically from Latin as well.



Another point of interest is that Sherlock is the second of three names like Ignatius.





TIES WITH DOCTOR WHO

When Doctor Who was revived in 2005, in order to keep scripts from being leaked, Russel T Davies used “Torchwood”, an anagram of “Doctor Who”, as a working title.

The word later made it to the actual series as the name of the Torchwood Institute and the title of the relative spin-off.

So the word TORCH as already been used for a code in a show in which all Sherlock’s authors are involved.

Torches are also on at all times in Gatiss’ episode from Doctor Who’s Series 9 (which has a great amount of Sherlock references). See meta.





WHAT WOULD IT SOUND LIKE IF “UMQRA” WAS REPLACE BY “TORCH”?

Check the result here.





IN FAVOR OF THIS SOLUTION

I’ve used many techniques in order to solve the UMQRA problem and TORCH is the only complete existent word that I have found.

It would be quite a coincidence for the only word that I’ve found to be so involved with the UMQRA scenes.



Since it uses two keys - Sherlock and 1 - it would also fit with the possibility of “The Cross Keys” being a hint, as the real name of the location is “The Bush Inn” and it has been purposefully changed.





CONSIDERATIONS AND ISSUES WITH THIS SOLUTION

This solution was reached by trial and error.

There are no very obvious hints about:

The mixed alphabet key being SHERLOCK;

Though imagining that SHERLOCK, being the name of the show, could be the key it’s far from unthinkable.

Though imagining that SHERLOCK, being the name of the show, could be the key it’s far from unthinkable. The encryption technique being a combination of a Mixed Alphabet Cipher and a Caesar Cipher;

Even if in the show we get no hints about this, on The Science of Deduction website there are ciphers, one of which is a Caesar Cipher.

Even if in the show we get no hints about this, on The Science of Deduction website there are ciphers, one of which is a Caesar Cipher. The alphabet being rotated by 1 place.

They might have thought that by trial and error, if the solution was on ROT 1 it would have easily been encountered.

There are some references to the number 1, but they maybe coincidental since 1 is a very common number:



They might have thought that by trial and error, if the solution was on ROT 1 it would have easily been encountered. There are some references to the number 1, but they maybe coincidental since 1 is a very common number: Between discussing UMQRA in the cemetery and before calling John a conductor of light:



SHERLOCK: I don’t have friends, I’ve just got ONE.



This is a particular possibility because in London Spy (spoilers ahead!), in which Gatiss has a role, the key used to solve the main riddle of the show is 1 and was hidden in a line of Alex’s, while he and Danny are talking aboot soulmates:



ALEX: …that there’s only just ONE other person out there for you.



See the whole meta.

After visiting The Cross Keys inn, Sherlock and John go to the Baskerville military base.

At one point SHERLOCK uses a KEYcard and immediately after the -1 button of an elevator is pushed.

The text originated by the authorization request also contains a CCV1, which should be related to card verification, but could possibly also intentionally stand for Caesar Cipher Variation 1 as well.

Using the keycard starts the chain of calls that brings Mycroft to check his BlackBerry Torch.

I have also speculated the number 1 to be relevant to other theories:



57 STARS + 1 JOHN (+ Doctor Who, + London Spy)





11 is a pair of 1s





WHY UMQRA COULD BE A CODE

There is a good chance that, even if inside the show it was but a casual string of letters, UMQRA might have an actual meaning intended for the viewers.

When writer has the provide a casual string of letters for one of their plots, they might as well make use of the occasion and choose something meaningful, these letters are going to stay in their work for the time being after all.

In addition, UMQRA gets repeated quite a lot, both verbally and visually.

When something has such a prominent presence on screen, we’re probably supposed to pay attention to it.

Of course a writer might amuse himself generate random letters using a software or a dice or they might just pick up the first letters that come to their mind, but then this creates the problem of undelivered expectations.

Like for romantic tropes, when the satisfying resolution of a “Will They or Won’t They” storytelling is that they “Will”, if something looks like an encrypted message, but ultimately isn’t an encrypted message:

The writers loses an opportunity to astonish their public;

Those who firmly believed it to be an encrypted message would be disappointed after spending much time trying to solve it;

A sequence of letters without sense appears in the writer’s work forever.

This lines of dialogue from A Scandal in Belgravia could also be applied to the UMQRA letters.

SHERLOCK: This is your heart and you should never let it rule your head. You could have chosen any random number and walked out of here today with everything you’ve worked for but you just couldn’t resist it, could you?

ALSO ON THE TOPIC



REFERENCES

Ariane DeVere’s Sherlock Transcripts