'Sherlock' season 4 spoilers: BBC teases fans with new images as filming set to begin January

Victorian-inspired Sherlock and Dr. Watson.Twitter

To mark the return of the dynamic investigative partners Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson on TV, the BBC network released the first image taken from the upcoming "Sherlock" TV special, showing that the characters are sporting Victorian-era fashion. 

The unusual image, which was first posted on the official BBC One Twitter account, is captioned "#221back #Sherlock #notkidding."

Because the photo shows actors Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as the detective's trusted partner Dr. Watson wearing attires that date back to the Victorian period, fans of the show are now speculating that the fourth season of the TV series will travel back in time.  But then again, the characters could just be wearing costumes. 

Also, producer Sue Vertue tweeted a picture of the script's cover page titled "Sherlock Special" written by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. She captioned it with "This is what we've been doing today! Later on a pic of Sherlock and John as they'll appear in the Special #221back."

Sherlock 4 scriptTwitter

Although fans are happy to see the latest production developments in their favorite BBC-produced detective series, some people could not help but criticize the production team's Photoshop skills. In the first photo posted by BBC, a portion of Cumberbatch's left shoulder was missing, while the fingers on his right hand were flattened off. The network eventually replaced the picture and posted a new one. 

The network announced back in July that Sherlock will return for its fourth season. The filming will begin in January, and it will air sometime next year.

Mark Gatiss described the upcoming season as "deeper and darker water than ever before... The Game is on -- again!"

The producers are also telling the fans to expect seeing the most surprising series of "Sherlock" ever, yet they have to wait until the Christmas special and its three-episode series have been aired in 2016.

"Sherlock" is being distributed in the U.S. by PBS while the U.K. release is provided by BBC One.