Well, add the apparent ability to time travel to the long list of things at which Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) is generally unmatched. Steven Moffat, co-creator of Sherlock, confirmed today to EW that the series’ anticipated Christmas special will be set in Victorian England, just ahead of the Sherlock SXSW conference. Details about the episode are scant, but we can now assume it will involve Holmes and Watson (Martin Freeman) investigating a major crime in the 19th century.

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Image via BBC

“The special is its own thing,” Moffat stressed, making clear that the world of the new Sherlock Christmas special signals no change of course for the show overall. Neither, for that matter, will the 90-minute episode tie into the series proper. As Moffat explained, “we wanted to do this, but it had to be a special, it had to be separate entity on its own. It’s kind of in its own little bubble.”

No air date is set for the special as of yet, but shooting on the episode is nearly completed, and Moffat has been very pleased with the results thus far. Cumberbatch is currently filming his role as Shere Khan in the upcoming Jungle Book adaptation, while post-production on Scott Cooper’s Black Mass, co-starring the Sherlock star and Johnny Depp as South Boston’s infamous Bulger brothers, recently wrapped. Meanwhile, Freeman will follow up his work in The Hobbit trilogy and FX’s Fargo with Fun House, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s modern warfare comedy, based on Kim Barker’s popular memoir and co-starring Margot Robbie, Tina Fey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Freeman’s Fargo co-star Billy Bob Thornton.

The fourth season of Sherlock is also currently filming and will likely premiere around the same time as the Christmas special.

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Image via PBS