I'd never seen this Sherlock Holmes episode before-

[lildreamer316]

"The Mazarin Stone"
It's a Mycroft one, but very well and dramatically done. Holmes appears in the smoke at the end, looking haggard. Weird, but cool.

[WCGreen]

1. He always looks like he has just shot up a bit of that

7% solution in the series on Biography...

[lildreamer316]

2. Yes,

he looked extremly strung out on that one. White-faced, in fact.
But that goes with the character-he did it so well.

[AmyDeLune]

3. Sadly, he was dying at the time...

hence the Mycroft & Watson stories. Medications were wreaking havoc with his system (Jeremy Brett joked that he rattled when he walked from all the pills he was taking)-- a drug interaction fatally damaged his heart.:(

[lildreamer316]

4. Oh- I didn't realize that was one of the later ones.

I thought maybe he just took some time off.
I also thought he gained a lot of weight right before he died. I dunno, though, you seem to be better informed than me.
Jeremey always holds a special kind of facination for me.