Let's Fire Up Those Neurons!

SOLUTION for #Identify the common thread that brings these disparate images together









On a golden bed he sat,
guarding the mountain's heart,

Image 4: Smaug the dragon from 'The Hobbit'. 'Golden bed' was the treasure inside Erebor, the dwarves' mountain kingdom. 'Mountain's heart' refers to the 'Arkenstone' (meaning the heart of the mountain) which Bilbo Baggins stole from Smaug.

For centuries suspended in time,
unleashing his wrath at the directive prime

Image 3: The insignia from the Star Trek uniforms. The answer is Khan Noonien Singh, the uber villian from the Star Trek universe who was suspended in a cryo-sleep until reanimated. 'Wrath' is a direct reference to arguably the most successful Star Trek movie of all time, 'Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan'. 'Directive prime' was a play on the star fleet's guiding principle, aka the prime directive, which prohibits humans from interfering in the development of nascent alien civilizations.

The bomb of bletchley,
the father of HAL,

Image 2: Alan Turing, the father of artificial intelligence and theoretical computer science. Computer chatting with a human was a reference to the Turing test, which is used as a benchmark for a truly successful AI. 'Bletchley park' was Britain's intelligence headquarters during WWII. While there, Alan Turing developed the 'Bombe' technique for breaking German ciphers. HAL is perhaps the most well known AI from the book/movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, that spoke the immortal words, "I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

The deerstalker chasing the game,
until his deadly fall.

Image 1: Reichenbach Falls, famous waterfalls in Switzerland. The answer is Sherlock Holmes. 'Deerstalker' is a type of hat made famous by Sherlock Holmes. 'Chasing the game' was a reference to Sherlock Holmes' famous dialogue, 'the game is afoot.' 'Deadly fall' was a dual clue referring to the falls themselves and to Sherlock Holmes' fall from the very same waterfall, which resulted in the (brief) death of his character. He was later resurrected due to overwhelming public demand.

The answers to the images were, Sherlock Holmes, Alan Turing, Khan and Smaug. All these characters have been played or voiced in recent tv/movie performances by BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, the common link between the images.

 

#Who is he?



Clue -

Two travelers set out on a singular excursion,
pioneers forging a path to an unknown destination

sailing past wanderers gripped in a sinuous dance,
bearing their lustrous cargo across the chilly expanse

a message in a bottle, a missive through time,
salutations encoded in rhythm and rhyme

Relentlessly they march, pushing into the dark,
heralds of our realm, leaving our farthest mark.

Difficulty Level - easy peasy

 

Aria, certain words might be misleading at first glance...

 

Someone is greatly inspired by the August company she keeps these days! :biggrin2:

 

They are, aren't they? further than anyone....