Will Zimmerman and Helen Magnus in “Revelations (Part 1)”

So you don't mean that your Dr. Watson really is Sherlock Holmes?

Not the literary figure, of course. But, yes, Conan Doyle did model the character after James' brilliant deductive mind.

So why did he get relegated to the sidekick in the stories?

At Watson's insistence; he preferred to let Holmes take center stage while he played the fawning acolyte in the wings.