Recent comments

I loved everything except the very last line....

Hello all...

There was some discussion in your review of Closing Time about Lynda Baron who portrayed Val in the episode, but as I recall nothing was said about her contributions to the Whoniverse, and if you did and I was asleep with my eyes wide open as I was listening on my iPod and working on my car, there's a scary thought, well then please forgive me for reiterating what everyone may already know.

Lynda Baron also appeared in Classic Who as Captain Wrack (no pun intended) in the 1983 story entitled Enlightenment, and years earlier, in 1966, she recorded the original song "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" for the soundtrack of the serial, The Gunfighters.

Always nice to see a familiar face in Doctor Who. What I mean by that is it is fun to see an actor return to the show, sometimes decades later, which is to say that the longevity of the program makes it possible for an actor to appear numerous times with different aspects of the Doctor. That's truly unique.

The same can be true in the reverse, when we discover that an actor appeared in an episode before the one in which we saw them for the first time. Sometimes it's a real challenge to place the face, as it were, which I make every effort to do without visiting sites like imdb.com/ 'cause that's like cheating, unless of course I'm totally stumped.

For me the most recent occurrence of this was realizing that the actor who portrayed Joinson Dastari in The Two Doctors and Morix in The Leisure Hive, also portrayed Johnny Ringo in The Gunfighters... none other than Laurence Payne.

Happy Travels!

32

      Liz and Roger. Roger calls David. Someone flubs with flishing fleet. There

      is a lot of talk about Bill Malloy and Matthew Morgan. Roger talks about

      David, calling him charming. Laura is mentioned. There's some talk about

      Roger being David's father in a very skeptical manner. David and Roger

      have been in Collinwood for two months. My notes say something about

      giving him the happiness and attention he deserves, so it's probably Liz

      defending David. There is also a deputy. My notes also have something

      about a Jonas going to the movies with his wife?

      33

      Shots of steps and scaffolding. Liz is brooding. Carolyn teleprompter. The

      last four eps seem to have been all the same night. Andy is the name of

      the bartender at the Blue Whale where there are two dancer. Joe's friend's

      wife is having a baby. Vicki and Carolyn or someone mentions Jack the

      Ripper. Liz lies. Roger may be flubbing. Two couples are dancing strange.

      "You're potted," Carolyn says to Joe. Someone says, maybe Joe to Vicki or

      Burke to Vicki, something like, "You stay here, you'll be as nuts as the

      rest of em." Liz is brooding.

      In one of these Carter questions Bill Malloy. There's more but my notes

      are awful on these two. Anyone want to post my originals if I ever did

      them?

34-35

      34

      Blah! Boring as all get go. We see a light on in the house as Vicki does

      her narration or maybe it's just a speck on the film. We get the first and

      maybe the last passionate kiss as we see lips lock between Carolyn and

      Joe. Carolyn nurses Joe into his hang over or from it. We hear Carolyn say

      her great great grandfather was a drinker. Vicki goes to have dinner with

      Burke but more wanting to find out more about her past....Burke's private

      detective may have more for her but does not. Joe goes to repay Burke who

      paid for his drinks at the Blue Whale and finds out Vicki is there. Later,

      he tells Carolyn, the wash woman that he is. This ep can cure insomnia.

      Burke once again warns Vicki to leave...

      35

      In the opening narration we see trees blowing as there is location footage

      and before that a smoking crew member holds up the chalkboard. This is the

      first time we hear something like this: "The character of Sam Evans will

      now be played by David Ford," who's much better, more likable, and

      pleasant enough...still, he has to look at the cue cards or teleprompter

      to get some of his lines.

      We see what might be Carolyn and David's first scene together and he's

      back to being a monster again. He's also back to crouching in a dark

      corner and emerging like some monster. David listens in on Carolyn's phone

      conversation to Joe and casually lies about it later to her and then later

      gives himself away. He also nudges Carolyn too far so she screeches at him

      and hurts my ears. We also get David threatening Vicki again.

      Burke is left eating two steaks when Vicki abandons him after Joe came in

      the last ep so he offers it to Sam, who enters. We learn that ...as Sam

      talks to Joe in the kitchen of the hotel...Maggie's mom proposed to Sam

      instead of the other way around!

      This is also the first ep that Carolyn is decidedly mean to Vicki and she

      realizes it...Carolyn that is, although Vicki takes it and David's renewed

      threats in stride. Carolyn almost apologizes but she's quite disturbed,

      too. She is very jealous of Burke asking Vicki to his room instead of

      Carolyn and she's a real nasty piece of work. I don't like Carolyn when

      she's like this, at all.

      A better ep than 34 but not by much. David also looks a bit older than he

      was, he's grown or something...

36-38

      36

      about 32 seconds in we hear a clicking sound and later some sounds that

      seem to be crewmen working but nothing overpowering as in later eps. Sam

      Evans calls Collinwood---and it should be noted that in these three eps

      everyone from Sam to Liz have choice words for the picked on house---"the

      dark and gloomy monument of pain." Liz later admits that without

      Vicki---who's threatening to leave AGAIN!---the house would go back to

      being one of torment and fear. She feels Vicki will allow Carolyn to leave

      (and leave Vicki a prisoner!) and bring love to David who's never had

      anything but hatred in his life from those that are supposed to protect

      him. Liz feels she can handle David (clue: she can’t really despite her

      lovely scene with him here). When Roger returns he asks, "Where's the rest

      of our happy group?" Also of note he says, "The past doesn't concern you

      Liz but it very much does concern me, for me it is here and now." When

      David proclaims some fear of going to bed, Roger insults him (again and

      again) saying something about the devil being afraid of the shadows.

      Ghosts and goblins are discussed, probably by Sam and Roger. Liz makes a

      call to Ned Calder who is in Portland, Maine and this bit gets up a

      mystery really. Vicki is still wearing her wallpaper dress.

      In soaps, esp this one, and DAYS OF OUR LIVES, sometimes a week represents

      just one day or one night and it certainly seems the case here. In the

      upper hand corner of the screen, a small square appears.

      37

      On the phone, Sam makes a quick flub with the words telling him or out or

      talk him out of it. I never noticed it but the portrait by the phone Roger

      is on in Collinwood is one creepy b&$#$. Before the credits, a musical cue

      repeats itself twice. I have to say it, although Maggie is a major part of

      DS, she's just annoying and her nosey body shtick here with Sam is

      annoying as is Sam's letter writing---and gosh, it takes forever for us to

      have to watch him write this letter, address it and seal it and give it to

      Maggie. This pair are very annoying and boring to be honest. We start to

      get more inklings that Sam did something to Burke when Burke was a boy.

      These days most audiences would wonder if it was some kind of abuse thing.

      Maggie expresses a desire---having deduced that her Pop is upset thanks to

      Collinwood---a desire to see the house burn to the ground!!! Sam talks

      about ghosts of the past living inside each man. Maggie talks of spooks.

      All this talk of ghosts and spooks, goblins and whatnot, lead up to a

      seriously scary bit where Vicki, at night, unable to sleep, hears sobbing

      and comes to investigate it in the cellar. I'm not sure if they meant this

      sobbing to be Liz sobbing over her dead husband...whom we THINK is dead

      and whom she thinks is dead but who isn't. BUT the crying sounds nothing

      like Joan Bennett or Liz to be honest. It is an atmospheric bit however.

      The credits appear, vanish, and then come on for about two seconds, just

      long enough for the narrator to say, "Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis

      production," and vanish again in what must be the shortest end credit

      sequence ever. Vicki takes a lot of abuse from all: here it is mostly

      Roger who apologizes almost Jekyll and Hyde-like but she also gets abuse

      from Carolyn and Liz and of course David over the course of these early

      days episodes...

      38

      Before the credits, we get to see Thayer David for the first time and yet

      no "The role of Matthew Morgan will be played by..." during the theme song

      happens. Vicki does call him Matthew Morgan or at least his first name so

      we know it's him. A gruffer (if you can believe that) more violent minded

      Matthew--who out and out tells Burke later in the hotel kitchen/restaurant

      that if he makes trouble for Mrs. Stoddard, he will kill him. Burke seems

      to need the teleprompter during that scene. Vicki in the cellar mentions

      looking for one of David's books about the Rover Boys---which Liz knows

      exactly where it is later on. Matthew mentions Josette Collins's ghost

      which hasn't been mentioned I don't believe since ep 5.

      Carolyn is annoying as she tries to woe Burke Devlin in the hotel cafe

      which is once again manned by Suzie AND has at least one customer other

      than Burke and Carolyn. Carolyn leaves her ring behind to get Burke to

      call her. She's fairly pathetic and then gets all happy when she thinks

      her stupid plan will work. Burke is reading the COUNT OF MONTE CRISCO

      about a man who plots revenge on those who sent him to prison

      wrongly...hmmmm. Later he tells Matthew that perhaps the Collins family

      should be punished or get revenged on...in a conversation with Matthew

      that seems like one giant flub...I mean HUH?

      Liz talks to Matthew and tells him that she wants Matthew to blame himself

      if anyone asks about Roger's accident. HUH? In an earlier episode didn't

      they (Roger and Liz) discuss that they told Matthew the truth? I mean he

      might have not believed them that David did it but here it seems as if he

      still believed that Burke Devlin did it? WHAT? During a short bit, we hear

      voices of the crew behind the scenes working.

      Liz finds Vicki in the basement and...this adds a mystery to Liz. She

      seems to be hiding something or someone in the locked basement room and

      challenges Vicki to test her by offering Vicki the key...and of course

      Vicki refuses and Liz looks relieved after Vicki leaves her. So what is

      she hiding there or who? I must say that ever since I saw a British movie

      about two old ladies who locked their brother in an attic room or a

      basement room...a savage monster of a brother I think...this kind of

      things has frightened me. Is Liz hiding a woman there? Or what? Vicki

      tells Carolyn or one of the others later on that there is no such thing as

      a ghost. Liz tells her that there are 40 rooms in Collinwood, most of them

      not used and that some windows may be open and cause the sounds. Only 40?

      To me it seems larger. Say, where is that Tower Room room supposed to be

      on the outside shots we see?

      Burke may be teasing Carolyn but he mentions a War Memorial and a New

      Housing Project in town. Again, before the credits, we see a small square

      mysteriously appear in the corner of the screen.

      These three episodes are variable. The cellar thing is good, the arrival

      of Thayer David is good, and David at his most sympathetic and pathetic

      and scary here again, the sobbing adding more of that spooky factor, the

      Liz thing another layer of mystery but on the other hand the Burke?Roger

      thing is annoying; Sam and Maggie are annoying and Carolyn's pursuit of

      Burke obvious and petty. Again, soaps are not supposed to be watched more

      than once a day and not in a row but also I think the makers don't always

      consider--nor should they I guess---the viewers who tune in every day but

      the viewers that tune in once or twice a week. Here we have reiteration of

      the entire Burke, Sam, Roger thing, the Josette thing, Matthew's meanness,

      the don't go in the cellar (possibly the title of that movie or don't go

      in the attic) thing, and the David/accident thing. It's not entirely

      boring but added to all the other stuff, it can get on one's nerves and

      try one's patience. I wonder how long I can take these episodes before I

      tire of the show at this stage of its life.

A silly note about 36: when Vicki comes in from outside, we see through

      the Collinwood doors to what looks like...another inside room. This

      actually fits in the real Collinwood, for there really is some kind of

      vestibule before you enter the main area(s). Either way it looks like the

      studio!

      39-40

      Gosh. I'm not gonna make it past these episodes. They are akin to watching

      paint dry. Of note is a flub right from the start as the narrator stating

      the date of videotaping, gets the date wrong instead of saying, "8-4-66."

      Another amusing moment comes when Burke, unaware that Sam is hiding Roger

      in the bedroom (actually Roger hid himself), says, "You're not hiding a

      lady love in the bedroom, are you Sam?" And...that's about it. I

      understand they are setting up Sam, Burke, and especially Roger for being

      the number one suspects for the upcoming death of Bill Malloy, who returns

      in 39, but really....slowly.

      One thing that comes to mind is how soaps were aimed at female

      audiences...only this storyline is squarely about three older men! And men

      seem to dominate DS right from the start. Another thing is that we've

      almost reached 50 episode and no one has died yet! In DS!

      In 40 we learn the earth shattering info that Roger gave Carolyn the ring

      for her 16th birthday. I completely forgot about Carolyn's ring subplot

      and ...when reminded, wished that the writers had too but no such luck.

      I must admit that Louis Edmunds and Nancy Barrett portray an obvious

      affection for each other and thus, their characters also do that with

      Roger once more calling Carolyn, "Kitten." In some earlier ep, he called

      her Caroline.

      Stock footage alert: really nice scenes of Carolyn driving her car up to

      the front of the hotel, getting out of the car and going into it. Then

      later of her leaving the hotel and getting in her car and driving off. And

      honestly, that's the most exciting thing about these two episodes.

      Despite this being as slow as drying glue, this might be David Ford's

      finest moment as Sam Evans. When he gets drunk with Bill Malloy watching,

      he portrays a true tortured soul, complete with a comical shake off of his

      head. Burke once again calls Bronson (I think that's his name) and Liz and

      Malloy display some relationship moments.

      Also Ned finally reaches Liz by phone but not sure that this Ned thing

      went anywhere. For some reason, it felt as if they were trying to set up

      Ned as Vicki's father or as one of many suspects that Ned might have been

      Vicki's father or even later, Bill's murderer.

      Either way these two episodes were NOT fun to watch.

41-43

      41

      NOOOOOO! We start in the Evan's Cottage again! NOOOOOO! Roger calls Sam

      and asks, "Are you alone?" and Sam answers he is alone. Roger than asks,

      "Is Bill Malloy still there?" I think it's awfully funny that Sam puts the

      phone down while Roger is still talking and he goes and gets a drink as

      Roger witters on! Archie Bunker did the same thing to Edith once on ALL IN

      THE FAMILY. Sam then returns to the phone as Roger asks if Sam is

      listening and Sam hangs up the phone! Later we learn Roger may not be

      rich: he may have spent his entire inheritance. Liz hasn't. Liz stutters a

      bit in this episode, "Buy buy..." etc.

      I noticed the dialog seems sharper here. The writing tighter. Was there a

      new writer group? Or just one?

      This might be the first mention that Liz's husband's name was/is Paul.

      Gee, it seems that being Maggie Evans has its perks. She can leave work

      because she forgot a shopping list, go home (walk?), talk to Pop, and

      offer to make him coffee. I wish I could do that. Sam makes mention that

      women think coffee is a cure all. Maggie looks right at the screen

      --possibly for Katherine to read the teleprompter. We see a series of boom

      mike shadows, wire shadows, and camera shadows in these three

      episodes...well is called DARK SHADOWS.

      Part of the family's worry is where can Carolyn be but...I thought she

      told Vicki something about a date in an earlier ep.

      During a Liz/Vicki scene in the drawing room we hear strange clicks (from

      the camera or the mike?) and a loud humming noise (again, possibly from

      the moving camera or mike booms moving devices).

      Liz wants to say the Carolyn may not want the boy Joe is but a clever man

      (Burke?) but she says a clever boy and then corrects it to clever man.

      There are more noticeable shuffles and noises during this ep. What are the

      crew doing?

      For the first time (?) we see the Collins' family office or perhaps just

      where Joe works at it. I thought he was mostly on the ships?

      Sam calls Maggie's work place a fancy restaurant...perhaps establishing his

      role as a drunk. If that restaurant is a fancy one, what's a dump in

      Collinsport? Maggie under reacts in this ep (yeah, she doesn't in most

      later eps but here...?). I mean Sam grabs her, practically threatens to

      hit her, mentions that she probably signed his death warrant by calling

      Roger at Collinwood (who just hangs up on her!) and what does Maggie do?

      She brushes this all off and just leaves!

      If that isn't strange enough...Vicki decides to walk from Collinwood to

      Collinsport. Is she crazy? She says the exercise will do her good!

      Despite this ep being better than the last two or three, there is still no

      real sense of urgency.

      In addition, thank goodness that the DS music is great: I can listen to it

      over and over and it has atmosphere. Thank God I can listen to it over and

      over because I DO! In every ep, the musical cues are all the same!

      The end theme seems to be a harder organic version.

      42

      When we see the clapboard, we get a long shot of Joan Bennett preparing

      for a scene to start and a crewmember holding it! Vicky's narration

      mentions that 130 years ago the love of a man and woman built Collinwood.

      Sam comes to meet Liz for the first time in 18 years and they barely

      recognize each other.

      Now this is a first (I think, I haven't been noticing) and maybe a last:

      Liz actually locks the door after Sam enters! The front door!

      Sam mentions that he wants to save his soul, perhaps the first mention of

      such a thing on DS. He enters the drawing room and says he loves it. Liz

      tells him to stop it, it's dark and gloomy and he knows it. Their cordial

      meeting quickly becomes tense.

      For the first and last time: we see a normal place in Bangor's fancy

      restaurant and this one is a fancy one. There seems to be many extras:

      customers, a maitre de, a waiter, dining people or rather this is lunch.

      One James Blair meets with Burke there...now it's odd, one thing about DS

      is seeing lines that aren't there between unrelated episodes and stories

      and storylines...a lot like DOCTOR WHO in that regard. What if James Blair

      is somehow related to Nicholas Blair, Angelique's (I could never spell her

      name) demon brother? Just a thought. Bronson will not be joining them.

      This is the first and last normal place in DS. Blair mentions that no one

      would want to buy Collinwood except to turn it into a hotel resort---now

      there's a spin off if I ever heard one!

      He and Burke talk about a Harris at the bank. Burke must not have good

      vision: Carolyn is not spotted despite sitting not far from him. He

      doesn't see her until much, much later. At the same time, she must not

      have good hearing. Burke, LOUDLY pronounces he is going to take over the

      Collins family and all their ownings several times and Carolyn does not

      hear this!

      Liz worries that she cannot get Bill Malloy and he's not the office. This

      got me thinking he was already dead. When Liz summons Joe to the house,

      she tells him that there are drinks in the drawing room but Joe laughs,

      "Don’t' even suggest it."

      Burke calls Carolyn using her middle name of Collins? Huh? Do people take

      on their mother's maiden name as their middle name? I never heard of that.

      At the restaurant, there is another boom mike shadow or camera with wires.

      Burke gives Carolyn some advice, "Always tell the truth...it will be much

      better in the long run." Burke gives Carolyn a sterling silver pen...which

      figures into the episodes later on I think. Burke claims he never does

      anything in fun. He suggests Carolyn write in a diary.

      43

      We see outdoor footage of the hotel and a car driving by. I sigh as this

      means more Maggie. I don't remember that overhanging design over Maggie's

      grill and bar counter. Maggie as she talks to Bill, drops a bun off a cup

      and doesn't pick it up. She tells Bill that all the Evans family are born

      in trouble and get worse as they get older. Later, with Vicki she mentions

      a comic strip character with a permanent cloud over his head...sounds like

      everyone in this show. It also sounds like or made me think of Pig Pen

      from CHARLIE BROWN/PEANUTS. Bill calls Collinsport a township. He also

      tells Joe that 20 years ago, he had a problem at Collinwood (Vicki being

      born?) and didn't do anything about it and it was too late when Liz got

      Paul or at least that's implied strongly. Apparently, Bill knows something

      now---maybe Sam spilled the beans about his witnessing Roger driving a car

      that killed the man that Burke went to jail for killing!? Maybe Sam told

      him in a drunken stupor the night before? Joe also refers to his drunk

      night as last night but was it? I can't keep track. If so, why doesn't

      Bill do something about it right now? Why wait? Anyway, despite these

      three eps being better and having Vicki and Maggie get closer over coffee,

      it's still not very fast paced at all and still moving at the pace of an

      turtle farm.

Well just to show that this show gets better I watched episodes later on

      as in 528 and thereabouts: the dream curse, Angelique appearing in

      Maggie’s cottage to leave the cursed rose water; Vicki standing up to

      Nicholas Blair and Angelique; Adam...Compared to these episodes, those are

      absolutely FAST!

      but now it's back to the more mundane.

      44-47

      A lot of stuff happens but not packed into one ep, stretched out over four!

      In 44, Liz says something about Collinsport or Collinwood's phone number

      4099. A lot of people, especially Roger and Liz, spend time on the phone.

      A word about the original FIRST YEAR book: some of the summaries used the

      original synopsizes. And if you read into it, you'll find dialog in the

      scripts and synopsis’s that are not said on screen. On example if in 45

      where Carolyn and Roger talk; Carolyn first talks to herself about how

      Jeremiah or the house builders or someone in Collins family must have had

      a screw loose, then later Roger says he will be remembered for David if

      for nothing else. This does not occur in the ep. I haven't checked every

      synopsis nor compared them to the new version of the book THE FIRST YEAR

      but I'm sure there's more incidents like this. I don't know if the revised

      edition works from the actual episodes or from the synopsis’s or from the

      synopsis’s in the first book but I'm sure there's other stuff in there

      like this.

      In 44 John Harris arrives at Collinwood to talk to Liz, another old

      codger, this one a fair actor. He's her banker. Carolyn arrives and tells

      him she remembers when she opened a one dollar account in his bank. The

      opening credits are very dark in this ep. We learn that Ned asked Liz to

      marry him and she refused. Bill is a nice so he can't last as long as the

      liars in this show (not that last long either!) and he knows more about

      the boats than about running the entire company for Liz. We learn that Ned

      did that better than anyone could, Bill or Roger. Liz stumbles over a few

      lines but manages nicely. Carolyn at one point seems to have forgotten her

      lines and needs a look at the teleprompter: I think every one in this show

      has done that or will do that at one time or another.

      45: in the clapboard sequence, this time we hear talking about

      ...something small. Perhaps the clapboard because in the next ep or two,

      it gets an extreme close up. We learn Burke thinks Bill is an honest man

      and he is. 15-16 years ago Bill gave young boy Burke his first job and

      paid him a man's wages; Bill tells Burke he deserved it: he did a man's

      job. Burke does some odd thing to his waist and with his hand. It seems as

      if he's had a cue card hidden in his jacket or his belt or his hand or

      something.

      One thing about this whole Burke thing: I guess he's handsome enough and

      manly and macho and all that but really...they keep trying to hit us over

      the head with it. I don't really see his appeal against someone like Joe

      who doesn't YET have all the baggage. Carolyn is pathetic.

      We see Roger's office at the plant and his playing darts as Bill tells him

      the truth about his plans is...tense and an interesting way to do what

      could have been another exposition scene. It's a bit exciting in a

      foursome of unexciting eps. Earlier when Carolyn visits...and all the

      scenes Roger and Carolyn have together, even when they're at odds with

      each other or have a row as Carolyn says, there is obvious affection and

      charm between them. The actors carry off the relationship and caring they

      have for each other well.

      Roger mentions a worker named Handley in marketing in the company. Which

      is interesting. The actor who plays Nicholas Blair also played Evan

      Handley later on. Whom I always, even now (!) wrongly (?) suspected was

      Nicholas Blair in some other time or disguise or in a reincarnation mode

      even if he didn't know about it. So we had a Blair a few eps ago and now

      we have a Handley mentioned. It just seems...strange...Is Nicholas Blair

      checking in on the Collinses by coming from the future or knowing the

      future? Just another idea.

      Carolyn reads from the family book and the info we get gives credence to

      the fact that this PRESENT 1966 (end of summer now) is probably a parallel

      universe from the other parallel universe of the 1795-1796 storyline we

      later see. For thing Josette's last name is mentioned as something

      completely different. For another it is said that she existed, along with

      Jeremiah in the year 1830!!!

      A fan once wrote an extensive article about Vicki leaving the séance and

      crossing into a parallel 1795 universe and that when she returned she

      remained in that parallel universe without realizing it, returning to a

      parallel PRESENT of 1968. The problem with that GREAT theory is that the

      story changed BEFORE she left! The year, the last name, all of it was

      mentioned by Barnabus before that first trip back in time for Vicki. Of

      course it could be that someone changed the history book of the family...

      We see a camera crane shadow. Carolyn gives Roger the pen but somehow

      before he can return it to Burke in 47, he's lost it or misplaced it or

      left it home.

      46: in 46 it must be noted (and since his accident), Roger's head wound is

      still apparent. It looks very real and I wonder if somehow the actor

      really cut himself or had some accident doing that. A sympathetic long

      shot on Roger in the foyer of Collinwood on the phone or just getting off

      it reveals someone or something moving on the right side, probably a crew

      member or a camera. It is more a shadow than an actual thing. Roger calls

      Bill's house and gets his housekeeper Mrs. Johnson, first named here.

      Vicki enters looking for a picture David drew and which she took out of

      his room without his consent! Does she never learn? She says, "David will

      kill me if I lost this." Roger replies to that, "My son will probably kill

      you anyway," or something like that. The dialog is sharper than the

      earliest episodes. Vicki and Roger (who's brooding and feeling sorry for

      himself, even though he's the liar and perjurer here!) have a discussion

      about David and the state of the world and how you can't trust anyone.

      Roger tells Vicki he was a child full of joy and love and a zest for

      living...and he was wrong to feel that. He now knows the world is a

      hostile place. She disagrees. He tells her not to curtail David's

      instinctive grasp of the truth and that maybe his world view is correct.

      Roger calls Vicki a Pollyanna. David's picture is of Collinwood. Roger

      cares enough to look at it and says a famous quote, "Collinwood with all

      its Dark Shadows, he's captured all right." When Vicki mentions she wants

      to foster David's artistic talent...Roger tells her it is a fantasy but

      she has a plan and that involves having dinner with Sam and Maggie...which

      makes Roger try to stop her.

      Later an intense Bill Malloy demands Sam be at Roger's office to confess

      to Burke that he witnessed the accident and it was not Burke's fault but

      Roger's. Bill also visited Liz and told her the some of the same

      thing---Liz does not seem to know but suspects. Bill also hits Sam with

      his pointy finger and it really seems to hurt David Ford, playing Sam.

      Geeze, calm down as Bill later tells either Sam or Roger.

      A thing about the accident. Were the writers, as in DS it is almost always

      felt, making this up as the went along? I mean at times it seems as if

      Burke...really didn't know what happened himself. Yet in the reveal, he

      was in the car as a passenger...possibly in the back seat. Was he drunk?

      Passed out? Did he agree to cover for Roger? I first thought he agreed to

      cover for Roger but then why was he so made about it? Did he try to tell

      his side of the story? Did Laura lie for Roger? Where was Sam when he saw

      this? What exactly happened? It's really not that clear to me but maybe

      that's just me.

      Roger means to say, "...be there" but says, "..be here," when he's at

      Collinwood already and should be talking about his office. Where the

      admittedly tense meeting in ep 48 will take place...

      Vicki tells Roger she intends to talk to Sam...about her past. He might

      know something about it. Roger just laughs about that, having originally

      thought she meant to talk to him about the Burke thing. He's most uncaring

      about her past it seems or just self involved in his own problems.

      The grandfather clock ticks loudly for some reason. Did someone plant a

      bomb?

      47: Liz plays the piano nicely...at 11 pm. Carolyn likes it and comes

      downstairs, having heard it only as she approached the doors to the

      drawing room. Joan looks nicer with her hair long and down IMO. The

      grandfather clock rings its chimes at 11: 10 pm and then again at 11: 25

      or so. What kind of clock is that? Liz has an impending premonition of

      disaster. Despite this, she and Carolyn are ABSOLUTELY HAPPY AND LAUGHING

      at a past reference that happened on a past Halloween between Liz, Carolyn

      and her friends and something vague about her friends calling to talk to

      the witch or spook of Collinwood: meaning Liz. The two are laughing and

      joking and it's a joy to see, probably the ONLY time in DS that this

      happens! To anyone! And laughing for good reasons! And good memories.

      First and last? Carolyn calls her mother something of a kook and Liz

      laughs at that too!!!!

      The meeting between Burke and Bill; Sam and Roger does not take place.

      Bill never shows up and his car is at his house. The three men talk about

      sardines and the weather (as Burke later says) for about an hour. Burke

      thinks Bill is missing or dead. One wants to strangle Sam the big coward

      and he's most unsympathetic now, knowing what he knows and just willing to

      leave. Roger one can understand and hate anyway but Sam? Sam's a jerk

      here. Not sure what Burke is after but he's also a bit annoying but it is

      hard to hate him.

      I believe the original idea was to have Roger be the murderer of Bill but

      really it could have been almost any of them for any number of reasons,

      including Liz, Carolyn and even Vicki.

      These four eps are not boring not fast paced but a bit better than some of

      the others.

That character was Joe Biftik from the wonderful comic strip "Little

      Abner" by Al Capp. Joe always wore black and walked around hunchback. Many

      a time my husband will say he feels like Joe Biftik, nothing going right.

      Pig Pen was just dirty. He had a sunnier look on life

48-50

      48

      We see a zoom in on the house, close up on a window in what seems to be

      location shooting. While Vicki is tutoring David we see a full fledged

      camera to the right of the screen! Later, Joe meets David and has a scene

      with him for the first time I think. David not only rips his own picture

      thanks to Vicki having taken it and gotten a smudge on it but the brat

      also gets a crystal ball from Burke--not a gift that Burke seems likely to

      buy for anyone. Bill Malloy is officially missing and all are concerned.

      Liz talks to Mrs. Johnson on the phone but the character has not appeared

      yet. She's Bill's housekeeper. Near Vicki we see a boom mike, not a shadow

      of one but a full boom mike! David tells Joe he will not marry Carolyn but

      she will marry Burke. Right on one account, wrong on the other. Joe tells

      Vicki out of earshot of David to give David a swat for him. As the scene

      changes we hear a crackling sound and it sounds like someone passed gas.

      On the end theme the music gets all miscued or fast speeded or

      something...and that's about it. This ep is not bad but I can see why DS

      was almost cancelled. It moves too slow.

      49

      We have hit the air dates of September 1966. Maggie and Joe have a huge

      scene together or possibly the first time. Burke warns Joe to search for

      all the dead bodies if he plans to marry Carolyn and move into Collinwood,

      moving aside some cobwebs first. Maggie tells Sam that with him it seems

      to be the same old story: "You, Burke Devlin, and Roger Collins." Tell me

      about it, Maggie! She asks where they are all headed and leaves the

      Cottage. Sam says, "Towards Death." Again, not a bad ep but still moving

      like a turtle. The Carolyn-Joe thing needs to be put to bed already, too.

      Joe and she kiss again.

      50

      Outside footage as Vicki leaves huge doors from the house. At Widows'

      Hill, among other things, Carolyn tells Vicki that her mother knows Bill

      Malloy for more than 25 years. She also tells Vicki that Joe gave her the

      wristwatch for her 16th birthday. David tells Liz he can't sleep because

      there are things in his room that he can't see but he knows they are

      there. We hear a clicking sound as he leaves the Drawing Room and Liz

      follows. Liz tells Vicki that David has a family affliction: "David's

      been afflicted with a family disease---he's been seeing ghosts." Carolyn

      on the piano plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but realizes she's lost her

      watch. She plans to go back to the Hill to get it and asks Vicki to along.

      In the meantime, Vicki has found the word Death in David's handwriting on

      her mirror. She forces David to wipe it off but he insists the Widows did

      it. He also tells Liz that when Vicki goes back outside she will find

      Death. Earlier when Liz worries that Roger is missing, too, Vicki offers

      to make tea, telling Carolyn that everyone else always seems to be making

      tea so she thought she'd try her hand at it.

      Roger does turn up and is questioned by Liz. He tells her that he went to

      Bill's cousin's home to find out if they've heard from him. They haven't.

      Liz questions him about why he lied to her that he had seen Bill when he

      saw him at Collinwood last night. Roger knows she found out about this

      from Vicki. Also I thought there were three Widows that died, Carolyn even

      seems to say so in this episode but then wonders if Vicki will become

      number three. Liz tells Vicki that there were two widows who jumped off

      the cliff. We wonder if Vicki will be number three. Liz tells her that the

      legends of Collinwood seem too real sometimes.

      When Vicki and Carolyn return to the Hill, we see outdoor location work of

      Bill's body (although we're not supposed to know it's him yet) at the

      bottom floating on rocks but in the water face down. Vicki screams and

      proves that Alexandria Moltke cannot scream.

      I read about this scene long long before ever seeing it. It was in the

      first FIRST YEAR chronology put out by fans years ago (1990? or 1991). It

      was taken from the summaries. It said that both Carolyn and Vicki scream.

      In this cliffhanger they do not and to be honest, it should be make more

      of an impact than it does here visually or story wise. Not sure why but the

      text of this was more exciting, perhaps because my imagination filled in

      the details.

      In 1988 or so (before UHF got it or PBS) NBC in NY showed some early

      Barnabus stuff at 4:30 or so and it bombed and was never seen on network

      TV again. I saw some of it and thought it was boring. Just thought of

      that, not sure why.

      Anyway so did David write DEATH on the mirror or not? We may never know.

51-53

      51

      The narration starts out by saying melodramatically that the Widows' Hill

      has a long history of death and ....wait, there's only been two deaths

      there! Vicki hopes it was a stranger's body she and Carolyn saw as opposed

      to someone they know. Later on we find out she thinks it is Bill Malloy.

      Roger, while steadfast against the idea that there is a body down there,

      is quite funny in his sarcasm, it's easy to see why the makers of the show

      want to keep this actor and character. He jokes it might be Burke Devlin

      and he also mentions his good natured son. Matthew Morgan has checked the

      bottom of the hill for a body and deems it is only seaweed. When Carolyn

      and Vicki insist they've seen a body, Matthew sort of sides with them in

      saying it could be a ghost and says, "Around Collinwood, nothing's

      impossible." Roger talks to Sam and just hangs up on him and RTD of DOCTOR

      WHO fame complains in his books that that is one of his pet peeves, no one

      says good bye when they hang up on a phone. Liz goes to Widow's Hill for

      the first time in the series that we've seen...it won't be the last. Here,

      she goes with Matthew Morgan. There's a lot of talk about the newspapers

      and townspeople having talked about another ghost sighting at Collinwood.

      These three eps are rather atmospheric.

      52

      Carolyn wants to sleep in with Vicki due to their having seen a body at

      the bottom of Widows' Hill. Vicki buys that it might not have been a body

      but seaweed but not Carolyn. Vicki doesn't believe in ghosts...yet.

      Carolyn tells Vicki to lock her door and if she could, Carolyn would pull

      a dresser in front of it. She's been in the house longer than Vicki and

      knows what it is like here. We see the shadow of a boom mike. When Vicki

      asks if Collinwood has always been like this, Carolyn tells her no. At

      times people would drive by the house to see the haunted mansion and/or

      the witch that's never left in 18 years or yell or whatever. We hear a

      strange hum from a camera or boom mike.

      Carolyn admits that the really strange stuff hadn't started until Vicki

      and Burke arrived. Carolyn tells Vicki some more things: she's never been

      allowed to swim in the ocean near here because the tides and undertow are

      too strong...that's what could have washed Malloy's body...uhm, the body

      out to sea again. She refuses to believe it is Malloy because Bill's

      always been like a father to her, Whiskers Malloy.

      At Maggie's Cottage (NOOOO!), Maggie tells a brooding Sam that the

      atmosphere here is pure and that is why the summer people come here..to

      get away from the pollution in the city. Sam is talking of an evil in the

      air that can't be escaped and a pollution in the souls of men. Maggie

      tells him the letter is in a safe in the hotel and later when Maggie

      threatens to read it, he grabs her and wants her to swear on her mother's

      name she will not do that. Maggie doesn't swear but tells him she's never

      lied to him before.

      In the bedroom of Vicki, both girls hear what sounds like a shutter and

      other banging. Roger and Liz and apparently David, the little monster,

      have gone to sleep already. Vicki thinks it is David and goes to find out.

      "I’m going to find a live little ghost." Instead, she finds him fast

      asleep in his bed. "Poor David, he gets blamed for everything around

      here."

      Vicki flubs by saying, "They already think we're hearing things..." when

      she should have said, "They already think we're seeing things...now

      they'll think we're hearing things too."

      The two girls go to the drawing room and find the large window/doors open.

      They also find the family album on the floor, far away from the desk.

      Vicki suggests a cat but Carolyn tells her she's never seen a cat in

      Collinwood or on the grounds. Cats are probably too smart to come near

      that house!

      After they leave and shut the doors, the windows now closed, the book

      opens by itself and opens to the page where it reads Josette Collins born

      1810, died 1835! The book mark also moves down. THIS is one of the first

      supernatural things in the show. NOT the first but one of the purest

      incidents of a real ghost. There's almost NO other explanation here than

      the supernatural. When Carolyn and Vicki return to the bedroom, there's a

      loud sound from the camera or mike that there's not supposed to be.

      A good, spooky episode...

      53

      We see David drinking milk in the kitchen and all throughout this ep he's

      obsessed with DEATH, Vicki's midnight scream, and the death of Malloy and

      that Roger killed him, and that he believes that. He hates Vicki and Roger

      because they're always making trouble for him so he makes it for them. We

      see a good old, GIANT fly in the kitchen...it hasn't been around for a

      bit.

      David talks about his mother, thinking Vicki tried to replace her. He

      tells her that someone stole the picture he had of her and he thinks it

      was his father. Liz comes in and in a good mood for once but lies to David

      about what happened last night. He finds out later by eavesdropping on Joe

      and Vicki and overhears the truth. When David lets Joe in, we see a new

      angle of the doors from the side view looking out.

      Vicki's tutoring session yields several things: David is smart and has a

      good memory but he's also, during the entire thing obsessing about

      Malloy's body's appearance. He also tells Vicki that if anyone ever tried

      to hurt his Aunt Elizabeth he'd kill them. Are they trying to make us

      think David killed Bill? He says he loves Liz almost as much as his

      mother. There's also, I think, a blooper as Vicki asks David the longest

      river and he answers or she does and then a few seconds later, she asks

      him what the longest river is again!

      Matthew tells Liz early on that maybe unnatural forces led the women to

      jump off Widows' Hill and that Liz should keep Carolyn away from the spot

      even though it was one of her favorite places to go as a child. Matthew

      has worked for Liz for 18 years and before that for her father on the

      boats. She knows Matthew has lied and he tells her the truth: the body was

      Malloy. Upset, Liz makes her second call to the Sheriff, whom she now

      names as George so there's a new Sheriff. I guess it's Sheriff Patterson.

      These three eps are rather well done, set the tone of supernatural stuff

      and focus on the main five characters: Roger, Liz, David, Vicki, and

      Carolyn. Yes, Maggie and Sam appear but not for long and we get no Burke

      (even though he comes off as a hero sometimes, he can also be tedious and

      petty). ANY ep with David and Vicki isn't bad and they're given a lot to

      do. The house comes off as genuinely unsafe and creepy here! A good trio

      of eps.

54-56

      54

      We see Roger outside at the docks waving to workers as he walks off the

      docks, past boats and WATER toward his exterior office wall! Then he goes

      inside and everything gets mundane again. Seriously if they did more

      outdoor location work to enliven stuff more and more and change the

      storylines more often, they'd have had a hit right away. As it is it's not

      hard to see why this show was about to be cancelled. It's really boring.

      Roger calls for --I'm thinking---a secretary named Miss Black to answer

      the ringing phone. And what a cliffhanger to go into the theme song...a

      ringing phone. Phew. Tedious.

      It must be noted that the stuff before the theme song is still original

      and not repeats of last ep's ending. Almost all of the time. Dana Elcar as

      George (not identified as Patterson until the end credits and on screen in

      ep 55. Bill Malloy it turned out was afraid of the water and couldn't

      swim. HUH? And loved working on the ships? Whaaa? Liz and Matthew claim

      the St Elmo's fire will return Bill but not the way everyone would think.

      Matthew tells Liz he's seen drowned men before and it's not pretty

      discussing the proof of how long Bill was dead. EWL and EKK.

      Dana is a great actor for TV and he adds a depth to DS of professionalism

      and care. He's that good. He appeared on MacGuyver I believe and also some

      of STARGATE. An unseen deputy is named Harry Shaw and he goes with Matthew

      to re look over the area. Liz tells Matthew to tell the truth: Matthew

      pushed the body back out to sea to protect her from the talk that another

      death happened at Collinwood.

      On the phone at work, Roger talks to what sounds like a man named Townsend

      and Roger tells Townsend about new ideas to run the business and not the

      way Bill did.

      This ep and the ones before it have some sound issues. This one in

      particular.

      Just as Liz explains something to George, we hear a person whispering

      something that sounds like "Close the door" or "stand over" or something

      like that. It's very disconcerting, and could be akin to the ghosts in the

      house. It's a strange whisper and then we hear something like a door

      opening.

      55

      Liz introduces Roger to George Patterson. Roger remembers him. Liz calls

      Collinwood COLLINSWOOD. Sam is seen smoking ALOT during this ep. A drunk

      and a drug addict. Mrs. Johnson is mentioned again--this time by Liz and/or

      George, who calls her a tea totaler.

      We get MORE Sam and Maggie here. NOOOOO! They irritate in almost every

      scene. Maggie makes us laugh as he jokes that Pop must have a married

      girlfriend he's keeping hidden. They talk about the letter again. And

      again.

      Earlier, Liz told Roger they were the only two in the house but Carolyn

      was upstairs sleeping! It’s amazing that Roger never confides in Liz at

      all. I guess he feels she'd do the right thing...and she would so he

      doesn't tell her the truth even while she knows she has to protect him or

      feels she has to.

      In the hotel restaurant which I think Maggie calls Collinsport Restaurant,

      George goes for cop cliché and asks for a donut but then gets a call..the

      coast guard has found Bill Malloy's body!

      56

      We're in a new studio for this one and the rest after it and...it doesn't

      really show or make a difference. In fact, there might be more bloopers.

      It's been 12 hours since Carolyn and Vicki saw Bill's body...so over six

      eps, only 12 hours pass. On the average one viewing week of DS adds up to

      maybe one or two days of the character time...if you’re e lucky! Carolyn

      hasn't slept this late for years. Liz returns her watch that Joe found

      earlier. Liz and Carolyn get news of Bill's body being found and it is all

      a bit too morbid and depressing.

      Carolyn tells Vicki who was just saying that she used to help the littler

      children get help with the beds, making the beds. She suspected some of

      them knew how to do it but just wanted the attention. Carolyn waxes on and

      on about how she hates the world and how she doesn't want life to like

      this and how Collinwood has a legend for every day of the year.

      Malloy's body was found two miles south. We get to see a water effect in

      the window of the Blue Whale, something I'm not sure was there before. It

      gives the feel that the bar is on or near the water. The bartender in the

      back is once more smoking.

      Carolyn tells Vicki that Bill's dream was to spend a month on a tropical

      island doing nothing (me, too) but he never got to fulfill that dream and

      she urges Vicki to try to fill her dreams: so Vicki decides to go find Sam

      Evans who might have some news about her parentage. In Vicki's room we see

      a giant camera on the right. In the drawing room we see a giant camera

      also. So the new studio doesn't just give us camera shadows but the

      cameras themselves.

      Honestly, this ep in particular is hopelessly hopeless and sad and a

      downer.

The original backstory is actually quite interesting, and it's bewildering

      to think why the writers decided to change it so radically. It could have

      easy been used to suit the 1795 flashback. From what we learn, Jeremiah

      Collins was an older man (who drank too much) who built Collinwood for his

      new bride, the much younger Josette la Frenière. Josette, who hailed from

      Paris, France, was never happy because she was different and the residents

      of Collinsport, as well as the rest of the Collins family hated her.

      Eventually, she jumped to her death at Widows' Hill.

      When Barnabas arrives on the scene, we learn a little more about his

      relationship with Josette (although still adhering to the original

      continuity). Josette could not speak a word of English, and it was up to

      Barnabas to teach her. He fell in love with her, but Josette only ever saw

      him as a good friend. He became a vampire (the circumstances at this point

      unknown) and tried to win Josette from Jeremiah, whom he would have killed

      if circumstances allowed. Barnabas and Josette became lovers, but she

      killed herself when she discovered his true nature.

57

      I have almost nothing to say about this one except that George Patterson

      calls Burke Malloy at one point and quickly corrects himself. Again, Eclar

      is an excellent actor. Other than that...Vicki and Maggie talk; Burke goes

      to the sheriff. Major plot points already covered are re-covered: Burke

      got his start from Malloy; Vicki wants to find her past blah blah blah! We

      do learn that Malloy used to tell Burke to climb up to the mast and if he

      fell, to get back up and climb again--it's just water! But he was afraid

      of the water himself! Bill was the most honest man, etc. It is not a bad

      ep just...well, there. The lighting is strange or maybe it's just this

      copy. It gets very dark in the restaurant and then as Maggie blah blahs on

      and on to Burke, it gets very very light. I couldn't even watch a second

      ep, perhaps I'm going too fast. This one almost put me to sleep!

58-62 (a whopping five of these stinkers!)

      58

      Anyway perhaps that's cruel. They're not all bad. No, really. In the Blue

      Whale, Joe calls the bar tender Pudgy (!) and Sam mispronounces Carolyn as

      Caroline. There's a new fly in the new studio. The Drawing Room looks

      different. I don't know if it is the floor, the new studio (and any

      changes made) or a new rug. I do think the couch and chairs are new. David

      lays and sits on it, using charts and timetables to figure out the wind

      and ocean currents to figure out where Bill Malloy's body landed in the

      ocean. He's sure it was his father who killed Bill and he's going to prove

      it. Now I’m partial to any ep with David in it so this one is a relief.

      He's hardly one of the HARDY BOYS though but I do like kid detectives,

      too. While Carolyn says she hates this house (another reaction to Bill's

      death), David calls it fun, "What other kid gets to live in a house with

      real ghosts?" David calls them his friends, the Widows and the ghosts in

      the closed off rooms. This illustrates the difference between Carolyn and

      David. He loves the house and mystery and adventure, he's also younger and

      he's also been here far less time than Carolyn, who's lived here her whole

      life. Even so, when Joe later comes calling, Carolyn threatens not to

      leave the house for an outing with him when Joe seemed intent on helping

      David solve his chart mystery...telling him to stay and play with David.

      She's so petulant here guess which one I'd chose to do?

      Sam is once again smoking and doesn't mind the smoke he later tells George

      Patterson, who is trying to get Sam to go with him outside or talk to him

      alone. George seems to be telling lies to get to the truth. Apparently,

      with Carolyn trying to get David to play outside (like Liz wanted him to

      do and she even told Vicki to cancel any lessons for today) and Patterson

      trying to get Joe to take his girl (Carolyn) out for a drive, it is

      apparently a nice day outside, a beautiful afternoon. Patterson tells Joe

      if he, in his day, had a girl as long as Joe has had Carolyn, he'd have

      hog tied her by now!

      I wonder if, later, Patterson is lying to Sam about his real reason for

      coming out today: two good friends having had a fight on the docks. Some

      of the conversation between Patterson and Sam seems...messed up or lines

      forgotten and made up or something. They seem to be talking about

      different things at one small point (something to do with the time Sam

      left his house and what he did or didn't do at 10:45--such as maybe kill

      Bill?).

      David doesn't know what the word morbid is but Carolyn calls him it. When

      Joe does arrive, she calls David a nine year old horror. Joe tells her,

      "He's not that bad." BTW, David has gone outside, to the Hill maybe, and

      he's dirty when he arrives back inside and he seems even dirtier when he

      comes back out of the drawing room. Also btw, it looks as if someone

      dropped a stamp on the floor of the Drawing Room. Oh and Carolyn's

      annoying already. Joe, just go and play with David and leave her already.

      59

      When we see the postcard of Collinwood this time it seems to be moving up

      and down during the narration which btw is still "My name is Victoria

      Winters...." Patterson arrives to question Roger and Liz again. He

      mentions a picture/painting of Roger's great uncle Benjamin Collins.

      Okay, let's get this going right now: just what is the genealogy of the

      Collins' family? Who are Roger and Liz's parents? Grandparents? Do they

      figure in any way in the closet timeline 1897?

      Patterson wonders about the Collins family that built this town and this

      house and how ambitious they all were. He later reveals to David and Roger

      the came here to arrest Roger but was talked out of it. Roger, in the

      Drawing Room, calls---and he sounds sincere---Bill's death horrible. We do

      seem to see studio light shadows over the entrance to the drawing room

      doors to the left of the open door. We also see a camera shadow on the

      chair inside the room, moving.

      Bill's watch is discussed. It apparently stopped at the time of death when

      he hit rocks. The possibilities of Bill's death are gone over and over in

      these five ep: suicide, murder, accident. The sheriff flubs at least one

      word, something like alrice instead of advice or something.

      David is in a formal suit (for a funeral?) and tie and is in a good mood

      as Vicki points out. Her bedroom looks slightly different. David thinks

      his dad is going to prison and explains. Vicki smiles, "David, you're

      terrible." He tells her he is but at least he hasn't killed someone. He's

      consulted two things that never lie to him: the ghosts of the Widows and

      his crystal ball to figure that Roger is guilty and that Vicki might be

      next. At times, he seems genuinely interested in keeping her alive,

      figuring that if he can plot where the murder took place, he can advise

      her to stay away from that spot. Then he lapses back into hoping she'd die

      anyway. Vicki wonders if Roger is guilty. David tells her she would

      deserve it and he doesn't care if his father does kill her.

      Patterson was involved in the Burke trial and case. David gives him one of

      his charts and later we find out he was not too far off from what the

      experts figured was Bill's body voyage. When Liz and Roger talk in the

      Drawing Room we see the ceiling, for the first time maybe? Liz has lied

      for Roger. Liz states that she and Sam haven't seen each other for almost

      20 years. Roger makes a strong confession for lying at Burke's trial and

      for killing Bill...but it's a fake. David overhears it. Liz believes Roger

      is innocent of both.

      David is eavesdropping and this time, for the second, he's caught. This

      time he's caught by Vicki; last time it was Liz. We see a camera on the

      right.

      60

      Every ten ep or so something monument us seems to happen. No, this is not

      it but Vicki does find a painting Sam did about 25 years ago of a woman

      who looks a lot like Vicki. Sam later tells her the name is Betty

      Hanscomb, who left Collinsport six months after the painting was done and

      six months after that she died. He tells her that Betty's parents were

      both dead and there were no other relatives. Sam knew her well before he

      was married (and they seemed to have...well, maybe dated or more). Vicki

      wasn't born during all this so there might not be a connection.

      So what were they playing with here? Who was her mother? Liz? Furthermore,

      who was her father? I know they had a plan but I forgot it. Frankly in

      this ep, they were so determined to go with the Burke-Sam-Roger stuff,

      they left this subplot (minor to them) alone for the rest of this episode.

      Maggie and Vicki's banter is lively and fun and it seemed genuine. Frankly

      behind the scenes, I'd always imagined the two actresses having some kind

      of rivalry but from everything I've read and heard about them, they

      didn't.

      Sigh. Burke goes again to the sheriff's office and Patterson makes mention

      of it, "He's here again" and "We should give you you're own desk."

      And just when I was thinking, these ep may be tedious, just how more

      tedious they would be if I had to endure them with commercials, do we get

      on the dvds, the commercials! Ellen Burstyn of THE EXORCIST and THE TIME

      TUNNEL-CRACK OF DOOM (in 1966 no less) introduces Palmolive!

      Maggie mentions writing an autobiography which is odd as I think Kathryn

      Leigh Scott has. She will write Vicki is a terrific potato peeler. She

      asks Vicki about Collinwood and Vicki jokes. Maggie asks if the kitchen is

      spooky. Vicki tells her that you have to watch about the oven because a

      witch is usually behind you to push you in and that there are open fires

      to cook on and cauldrons. Maggie has never been there, she feels her own

      home has enough spooks.

      Patterson has figured out with his experts (?) that Bill's house is on the

      water, so he could have fallen in there or at Sim's Cove (two miles north

      of the cannery) or at Lookout Point. Burke mentions Truth of Consequences.

      Maggie mentions that when she heard Hanscomb she thought they mentioned

      Hanson, the man that was killed by the car Burke supposedly was driving.

      This leads Sam to tell Vicki the entire story--well, almost--of the

      accident. Roger and Burke used to run around together. Burke was boy

      friend of Laura, who not much later, married Roger. It was a hit and run:

      Burke, Laura, and Roger were at a tavern, all were probably drinking.

      Burke was too drunk to drive but insisted on driving and hit a man on the

      road.

      While Sam is telling the story, he wants to stop. Maggie says something

      that is probably out of date, something about take the shoe off the other

      foot? WHAT?

      Roger testified that Burke was driving; Burke says he was lying; Laura also

      testified against Burke. Soon after Roger and Laura married.

im still here.

and now past 206 shows!

I did know about the movie but this is the first real cast photo or photo I've seen from it: plus I went to the sort of dissapointing DS con in Brooklyn in August and saw nothing about it. The night before they showed the WB Unaired Pilot...which I missed. Thanks! This photo has me a bit worried as they all look a bit TOO ...uhm, camp. DS wasn't really so much camp...Depp looks sort of lost among the others really. Time will tell.

12

      This episode is much better, mostly due to Vicki being back. Sorry to say

      that Maggie, although another much loved character and actress is not my

      favorite. I think Kathryn is not very good throughout the series with some

      exceptions. At this time, the show became more like a stage play. The

      enlivening thing here is Widow's Hill scenes with great sound effects,

      great music, and good acting from Roger and Vicki. The Burke stuff is not

      downplayed but is not totally the focus. Roger's mentions of the Widow's

      is mostly grim and grisly. There are some real good outdoor scenes of

      Vicki on the hill and approaching. Other than that, there is not much

      more to this ep. There's more of Sam and Maggie, Sam not wanting to answer

      Roger's phone, Sam wanting to go lie down, Sam wanting to leave and

      truthfully Sam and the whole Burke thing drag the show down. It SHOULD

      have focused on the other mysteries and ghosts...but that is in hindsight.

      Even so this ep is much better than 10 and 11.

13-14

      A lot of interesting things to note in these two episodes. Let's get Burke

      out of the way. I wish the show thought like that. Burke seems to be a

      hero but then again in these two episodes he seems to be embracing this

      kind of nice menace. It gives an added difference to him and to his

      storyline...when Vicki finds him in the garage seemingly tinkering about

      Roger's car...he seems almost threatening but in a nice way, a subtle way

      and a way that seems like he almost isn't. Which of course he isn't as we

      find out MUCH later. David in 14 tells us that he thinks he could be good

      friends with Burke and this is foreshadowing. Yes, there is a large

      Collins' garage with a few cars in it and tires and what seems like a

      stereo and other things. It should be noted that this seems like it is

      both on film location and interior set...also of note is that Vicki walks

      across a great deal of Collinwood and moves to Matthew Morgan's cottage

      which seems attached to Collinwood. This might be Lyndhurst in upstate New

      York near Sleepy Hollow. Some of the exteriors for the Old House (not yet

      seen) were filmed there but this seems like part of it. It is either that

      or the house that they used for other exteriors in Rhode Island I think.

      Which was a girl's school at one point in the 1980s or 1990s. It's all

      very atmospheric. Matthew's door is HUGE, almost two people's length

      upward. Inside it is sort of...bare...the cupboards seems like they have

      cardboard over them from the inside.

      Matthew is a strange character and Liz is stranger for keeping someone on

      that can become as she says, violent. Everyone on DS lies, even Vicki and

      for some reason she tells Matthew that Liz knew of her being there. In any

      event, she doesn't tell Roger that Burke was in the garage and doesn't

      tell Liz either. Why?

      Carolyn: there's a nice person under there somewhere and I suppose in a

      long long time she comes out in the show later on...only to have it all

      switch to a parallel time or the past. Frankly, Joe Haskell (who here meet

      Vicki for the first time as she answers the door---in such a big house how

      do they hear the banging?) should dump her NOW as he does later. She

      treats him terribly, sets up their date to the Blue Whale instead of going

      to the movies...one of the first and only times someone in Collinwood

      mentions something normal and a normal activity...we also get Joe talking

      about spooks...in a few eps before Liz was admonishing someone about

      talking about goblins. Ghosts are almost always discussed and here they

      are too. David believes in them, Joe does not. We leave Carolyn and Joe in

      the Blue Whale with Devlin joining them at their table...as they await

      Roger!

      Roger: his loyalty to the family is a nice touch and makes him at least

      somewhat likable and less cowardly.

      Vicki finally gets to...it's only been about two days since she arrived in

      ep1!!!?!??!!!...get to bond with David somewhat. He seemed to be hiding a

      spark plug in her drawer but then he fakes that he was giving her a

      seashell as a gift and he's so strange in these two ep, he might just be.

      He's nice and he's not. He talks a lot about people hating each other and

      ghosts hating everyone in the house. Vicki, like Joe, does not believe in

      ghosts. She tells David so, feeling sorry for him. David also reads

      Mechano Magazine which is 35 cents! We see his room for the first time.

      Also for the first time, I think there is a thunder/lightning storm.

      The start of ep14 has the moon in it, either it's stock footage, location

      work or a studio light...it's hard to tell but it's effective. The

      openings are almost always stylish and effective. Vicki narrates each

      episode at this point in character.

      What else? Unless David is very good at magic or something else...there

      ARE ghosts in this episode. The locked door to the closed off part of the

      house (east wing? but not mentioned as such in this ep) opens by itself,

      makes noises from within, and then closes again by itself...! And David

      appears in the hall. Perhaps we find out later...I can't recall...that a

      secret passage from his room leads to the closed off wing...but I'm not

      sure about that.

      There's some really relaxing, nice music...no REALLY...in this stage of

      DS...and it and all the music have been released on various CDs and ALL OF

      THE MUSIC was re-released with stuff that was never released in one big

      pack a few years ago and it has everything on it. Some of it is really

      nice to listen to.

      We also have a closing credit blooper (the first?) as in ep 13 or 14, the

      screen goes black and then comes back on as the credits roll...eps 12-14

      are much better as things seem to move a bit more...and Vicki might start

      tutoring some time this century!

      What is with the dancing at the Blue Whale. I often don't think of DS as

      campy...certainly they weren't trying to be campy unlike BATMAN which was

      deliberately campy...but one look at the dance of the time (and Joe's

      calling Carolyn Cookie) makes it dated a bit and/or campy. Or at least

      very funny.

      On related unrelated notes: Either the pre Big Finish one off audio or the

      newer BIG FINISH audio series tells us that David (spoilers!)

      is missing in an avalanche or a ski mission or some such nonsense....and I

      hate that as much as Vicki's end...although I don't know if they redid a

      Vicki storyline. Frankly the first batch were a bit...disappointing so I

      haven't the heart to listen to the rest yet and have no real desire to

      listen to stories set in the Barnabus kidnaps Maggie storyline (didn't

      that go on long enough!!!!)

15--16

      In 16, we hear about Roger's doctor Reeves and Jim Hardy from the

      constable's office; also in 16 I have to say that Joan Bennett, despite

      having a hair out of place for most of the first half of the

      episode...does a terrific job of acting. I really believed Roger was on

      the other end of that phone as she talked. Despite some flubs from her,

      Bennett does a great acting job in this.

      In 15, David and Vicki share a number of scenes, some in her room, some in

      his as he is in his night robe. They DO have a great chemistry. I don't

      know but I felt the writers and producers of the show...again it could

      have been a ratings thing or maybe they all just got bored...but I don't

      feel the writers and producers of the show appreciated that core group of

      the family...somewhat cowardly Liz and Roger yet both being loyal and

      strong in their own ways, quirky Carolyn who could muster up some

      goodness in her when needed, creepy but troubled and somewhat naive David

      who later on was usually the one in on the REAL goings on in the plots,

      and sensitive and innocent Vicki and later to include Mrs. Johnson. These

      core cast of characters should have been given more respect as the stories

      took on a blatant supernatural tone and in a way they were given

      some...but almost completely forgotten about by the time the series went

      into the past so much and almost totally by the end plotline. We don't

      even see them in the last episode.

      At the same time, I have to admit that David is probably my favorite male

      character in the show. Yeah, I was his age about, maybe a bit younger when

      the show came on and that helps. Despite his being somewhat creepy in this

      ep and others and very troubled, David usually had an inside scoop on

      things that were going on. He and Vicki are probably my fav characters.

      Barnabus wasn't very likable for a long time and even after Sarah sort of

      set him straight, he was intent on killing David and Maggie and sometimes

      even menacing Vicki and definitely being cruel to Julia. Quentin wasn't

      very likable either at the start of his storylines, thus I always felt

      David should have had more in the plots and that Vicki should have stayed

      on.

      In any event, there is location shooting galore in ep 15 as we see Roger

      leave Collinwood, get in his car and drive out of the large parking area

      and under an alcove of sorts into the roads! Then we see from inside the

      car, Roger at the wheel, and his POV from looking out of the windshield

      and a sort of crash imagined. Also David is seen as the camera pulls

      back...from outside we view David at the window of his room watching Roger

      pull away. Enjoy that then and there for there will be little of that in

      future. Amazing.

      Carolyn is a jerk in this episode (16) as she favors Burke over Joe. Joe

      leaves them to it but to Burke's credit, he takes Carolyn to go in search

      of Joe. The juke box music is interesting too.

      In 15, David is told a story by Vicki about hate and friends in what seems

      to be a message...from DS! David, of course, turns the message around to

      reveal that the girl in Vicki's story (Vicki herself, I imagine) should

      line up all those people that she thought hated her and pow pow pow...as

      he aims at the imaginary haters with is toy gun!

      All in all these are two good episodes and the interplay between everyone

      good and the tensions Liz faces (Carolyn not growing up to be a good

      person; allowing Roger to bring David to be raised in a creaky old mansion

      that is for the decaying and old; having Matthew hate Roger) well

      established. We see the kitchen area again and this time a great deal of

      it including a very old fashioned telephone on the wall. Speaking of

      phones, the one in the hallway entrance rings and rings and rings over and

      over and over! Then the one in the drawing room rings, too! We learn the

      Collins family is important to the newspapers...Vicki tries to get through

      to David and seems to have made some great headway.

      One thought about these days in DS...was Roger really David's father? In

      some ways, I wondered if they were going to present us with the fact that

      David was or might have been Burke's son due to an affair between David's

      mother and Burke...I believe I even read that this was on the back burner

      for a plan but didn't happen. There's no doubt that nowadays Roger is

      David's father but...is he? In any case, the event of the car crash adds

      another...and welcome mystery. There's also a tension between Matthew and

      Vicki that will come to a head some time in the future...and a giant fly

      in the drawing room or kitchen in a blooper or two. The credits to one of

      these eps (16) are off center at the end credits.

      Not much more to add except that these are faster paced than the others

      and a welcome relief.

17-18

      First thing to notice is that Liz is prominent in 17 and then in the middle

      of the Roger returns thing, she vanishes for 17. The reverse is true of

      Vicki...she's apparently asleep for 17 and then woken up by Roger in 18.

      In 17, the music for the dramatic shift scene continues well into the

      theme song credits in the opening. The narration for 18 continues well

      into the opening...in fact it stops and then recontinues about 40 seconds

      or so in. In 17 we meet one of many old codgers that apparently populate

      DARK SHADOWS and Collinwood...Dr Reeves...these old actors can't really

      act but that gives them part of their large charm. Parts of what he says

      sounds wrong in the dialog and somewhat...illogical. Bill Malloy walking

      up a hill? What's that got to do with killing him? Did he have a heart

      condition? And how does that relate to the man he treated years ago...I

      guess, knowing more...that I should not yet...that Roger must have hit a

      man who was walking up the hill. It's amazingly apparent that killing

      Roger off would have been a mistake. Louis Edmunds puts such charm into

      him and in his early scenes with Reeves and his later banter with Liz as

      he tries to make her feel less worried...his obvious charm and value as a

      character is apparent.

      In the doc's office, the doc talks about one Lucy Cameron being pregnant

      and he exits later on ..on his way to deliver the baby. This gives a

      feeling of life beyond Collinwood and in Collinsport, something that did

      not happen often enough later on the series. Nice that the Doc also

      mentions eastern folks always covering up their true feelings and

      conversations go south whenever anything worth mentioning is starting to

      be discussed...and oh, yeah, what doctor that you know keeps a half skull

      on his desk??? It's also amazing they even had a doctor's office appear.

      Bill Malloy is a much involved character and loyal to the Collins family

      and to be frank, he's quite good, a good nice man, so few in DS.

      David's at his creepiest and most disturbed here...hiding in the shadows,

      something that will be reserved later for Angelique and Quentin's ghost

      and David is most effective here even if at times in ep 18 it is apparent

      that David Hensey is reading off a teleprompter or cue cards or something.

      He just makes it work. Oh by the way, if you were Liz, just after you

      found David looking as if he is ready to jump from the window...would you

      leave him alone again so soon after? Despite that, both Liz in 17 and

      Vicki in 18 show real concern for the boy and the actresses make you

      believe it as much as Louie Edmunds makes you believe that Roger cares

      only a little for the boy's feelings at the moment. It's obvious that

      David tampered with the car.

      Did Vicki go to the car for time tables? I already forgot. One thing is

      that: why didn't she tell Roger about Burke being in the garage earlier?

      One noticeable error or maybe a ghost is that Vicki lays down in her

      bed...and we hear a knock on her door. Then we see Roger moving down the

      hallway, not yet knocking on any door. Then he knocks on the door!

      Something beat him to it! In 18 it seems Roger was or rather Louie was

      looking at the camera for his cue to start shouting at Vicki.

      I really love Louie's error in ep 17 when he's describing the car crash,

      "It was about 100 miles..." when it should have been 100 feet down the

      hill. He realizes his mistake and admonishes himself, sarcastically

      saying, "100 miles! It seemed like 100 miles," expertly covering his

      mistake. This also gives Louie and Roger their charm and obvious staying

      power. I think more about David's mother is discussed in ep 17 AND in ep

      18 there is a really prophetic shot of David sitting in the drawing room

      in front of the fireplace as a huge fire is in it and backlighting him.

      Really eerie in light of what will come.

      There's probably more I wanted to discuss about these two eps but I'm

      tired. I must admit these two went fast and were NOT boring at all, mostly

      due to the acting and David's strangeness. A mention about Liz: her not

      being out of the house in some 18 years or so is still a mentioned plot

      device. I knew but forgot when she eventually does leave it again and it's

      not too far off from this but not too close either. Oh and Vicki, knowing

      Roger, basically one of her bosses, has woken her up in the middle of the

      night (forgot the time but it was on the grandfather clock I think) takes

      time to get dressed..fair enough but later on we see her sitting and

      relaxing as she combs her hair! While Roger waits for her downstairs and

      then David comes in and keeps her LONGER!

      A mention about beds in DS. We rarely if ever see two people in one

      bed...I can't recall a single scene of that but maybe? The bed in DS seems

      to be a place of comfort and safety...mostly. A rare thing in DS. Of

      course, later on that would change as there is hardly any place safe and

      vampires would get you in bed and nightmares would literally kill you.

      THIS might be the first episode, ep 17, where a nightmare occurs and it is

      talked about in 18 as David feels guilty. IF he even really had a dream or

      was even asleep. It's almost a comedy routine as Liz watches over him and

      he keeps trying to go to sleep but keeps getting up and asking questions.

      Joan B is just as charming as the boy and Roger in these scenes with both

      of them.

      Despite, at times, there being some focusing issues, in general all of

      these episodes have some interesting use of camera angles, zooms, fade

      outs and encompassing characters, one such being the scene of David and

      Liz waiting in the drawing room with him in foreground and her in

      background.

19

      Your basic filler episode. This episode could be skipped almost completely

      and nothing would be missed. Of course Liz goes and confesses some of the

      issue to Carolyn: that Roger witnessed a car accident in which Burke hit a

      man who was walking and this is why Burke wants revenge. Liz thinks Burke

      is back for revenge and set up Roger's accident. Other stuff happens: Sam

      and Bill drink at the Blue Whale, Carolyn has caught up with Joe thanks to

      Burke (unseen Burke) and they go for a hamburger and cheeseburger at the

      hotel restaurant (Maggie has gone home sick, also unseen). Sam finds them

      and phones Bill. You see Sam and you kind of sigh, oh not him again. This

      Sam is a big man and kind of like someone you'd not want to meet in a dark

      alley. Bill phones Liz and tells her not to worry. Oh and earlier in an

      ep, someone, probably Liz, tells Vicki that Roger came back to Collinwood

      fairly recently...like six months ago. There is a fly in this episode and

      one great big giant camera crane or mike crane or something or the shadow

      of it rather...on the drawing room doors as Carolyn and Joe talk in the

      hallway at Collinwood. Liz pumps Joe (!) for info and gets some on

      Carolyn's Burke obsession. Really why does she favor him over Joe? Joe

      should dump her already. Again, despite Liz's revelation not much happens

      here. Carolyn does worry about her uncle Roger and finds him gone. NEXT!

      Oh and there is a new element to the theme song at the end of the show...a

      new tune or perhaps this was always part of the original music but never

      used until now, there's a deeper sound to a part of it. It sounds good.

20-21

      Faster paced episodes. I couldn't believe how fast. This is the first ep

      we see Maggie with very dark hair and longer than before. In fact, it

      might be the first that we see Carolyn, Liz, Vicki and Maggie in one ep.

      Louis Edmunds is particularly good in this episode, being both the hero

      and the villain it would seem; as is the actor playing Burke Devlin

      (Mitchell Ryan). What is he up to? a times, he is very pleasant.

      I was just thinking that Sam menacing Vicki in the hotel restaurant was

      just the way to use Sam but then they go and have a late night encounter

      between Maggie and he and it is tense yet...the two have obvious affection

      for each other as daughter and father and it shows. Sam even gets one good

      line ("Collinwood, a nice place filled with nice normal people...of

      horrors" or something like that) and one really funny flub (Roger...he's

      gone up there to see Roger ...hasn't...Burke, hasn't he?"). On the subject

      of flubs, I imagine the actors have been just trying to get through the

      work day like everyone else but they can be uproariously funny at times.

      We see more flies in both episodes.

      In 20, we get to see Roger and Vicki pull up to the outside of the hotel

      in his car and get out and go inside. I'm not sure Roger had his cast on

      in the location stuff but it is dark. It's annoyingly funny that Roger

      pulls Vicki out of Collinwood at almost 12 midnight and then ep 21 goes

      into the morning and we see the kitchen again.

      21's opening narration plays over a stock of the sea, something quite

      pleasantly jarring and attention getting. There's not much to 21 except

      that characters slated to die talk a lot, including, I think Sam but

      definitely Burke and Bill. Bill shows his loyalty, Burke seems to be lying

      but isn't or something...and he's pulling something, something down to

      mere desire to get Roger to confess the truth I guess. In one scene, Vicki

      talks to Liz and Carolyn and a light literally goes behind her head on the

      wall...chalk it down to Collinwood being haunted.

      Liz tells Carolyn about the times when kids taunted Carolyn calling Liz a

      witch. Burke mentions Logansport and wanting to buy a cannery there. And

      Liz is directly questioned by Vicki quite directly about her covering up

      something about her past at the orphanage and Liz denies it and walks out

      on she and Carolyn...and it is clear that she was covering something

      up...but what? I always just took it as the fact that Liz was Vicki's

      mother. Despite the fact that casual viewers wouldn't know if Burke were

      guilty or not...he sure looked guilty...the hit em on the head stuff with

      David (who is not in either ep20 or 21) really kind of gives it away.

      Still these two eps are rather good even if the plot of Burke is getting

      annoying, here, it kind of moves along and has the added dimension of the

      who sabotaged Roger's car plot tangled into it and is better for that.

22-23

      One word about the sharp clear focus in this episode: terrific. One word

      about the first few seconds: FOCUS! We see Burke in the cottage point to

      and refer to Maggie's mom's portrait. Another few words about the camera

      chart that is shown on these dvds: sometimes we see the background of the

      set and the actors readying to act, sometimes not, once we saw a man

      smoking. In actual ep bodies, we see Burke sometimes awkwardly smoking in

      the ep itself. I wonder if Ryan smoked for real. In this ep's camera chart

      I believe we see Mark Allen (Sam) holding the chart. It looks like his

      shirt, belt buckle and hairy arms. 22, is, I believe, Allen's last ep. Not

      sure how I feel about that, I was just warming up to him but he does jar

      with the rest of the cast. Here he goes to paint at Widow's Hill but we

      don't see it, darn it. One could almost imagine this Sam leaping off the

      hill or just as easily smilingly painting a picture of the sunrise. At one

      point, I thought they mentioned something about a sunset. Suzie, Maggie's

      fill in when she's not working, is seen working at the hotel restaurant.

      When we first see Maggie there doesn't appear to be any liquid in her cup

      of coffee but she's sipping and trying not to spill it. In the cottage we

      see a shadow of a camera or mike. Roger calls Carolyn Kitten many times in

      this ep, possibly for the first time. I can't recall but this might be one

      of the first times we see them together with just each other in the scene.

      He takes his sling off the puts it around Carolyn's neck but she later

      gives it back to him. Constable Carter is mentioned again and actually

      appears in 23. There's a strange portrait under Maggie's mum's (mum's is

      on the easel). Below the easel looks like a blond woman who could almost

      be either Laura or Angelique, I kid you not. There seem to be strange

      knocks and at least one cough during scenes in this ep.

      In 23, there's a lot to mention: David reads Night Crawler or Night

      Crawlers Magazine and we actually see a tutoring session. In the pre

      credits sequence, in David's room there is someone in the mirror that

      should not be there and then he or she (looks like it might be Vicky)

      moves and the mirror goes black...and Henesy is watching the person as well

      as the camera, waiting for the light to go on. Watch his eyes. As good as

      he is, he's still a kid.

      Carter actually appears and mentions a town county meeting, giving

      Collinsport some life beyond the house and cottage and hotel. Carter seems

      to flub about the missing bleeder valve, saying something about the mixed

      missing bleeder or something like that but it might not be a flub. Roger

      then tells him, when Liz leaves the room, "My sister has a whim of iron."

      Shouldn't that be will? Carter also has a deputy named Harry who calls NY

      to get info from a Frank Palmer, a policeman or detective in NY homicide.

      David is reading a novel to Victoria about a girl who ran away but is now

      with her father, one Mr. Johnson. He balks at this that the girl's story

      was not even elaborated on, "They don't even tell you what happened to

      her." I wonder what this book is. It's thick and if anyone knows, let me

      know. Vicki tries to teach him about the history of Maine, telling him

      that in 1604 the first Xmas Tree in the US was here.

      There's a huge host of Liz flubs: she stumbles over a few lines including

      something about the accused him of himself or something like that. Worst

      is this: Roger, Carter, and Vicki move out the doors and Liz seems to

      follow to the doors and begins to shut them. Roger turns and asks her,

      "Are you staying here?" Liz says, "No," and then Roger leaves and she

      closes the door, staying inside! And of course finding David, once again,

      once again David hiding in the hallway/vestibule area. She almost repeats

      her line to David, "You're not going to try to..." stops and says

      something else instead. There is a huge camera shape shadow on the walls

      briefly as David is skulking about.

      The credits: for some reason the credits for all the characters EXCEPT

      Carter's character are in lower case. His are in upper case all the way.

      More interestingly, the credits are of the excellent David room set and I

      don't recall seeing two windows but there are. But and this is funny...as

      the credits go on, someone walks past David's left hand window...but on

      the outside! We see his or her shadow from inside the room...and it was

      supposed to be on the second floor!

      All in all, these episodes are really not that great but there's been

      worse ones. They move fast and are entertaining enough but the whole thing

      seems bogged down. I can understand why people may not want to watch this

      without knowing that soon, the characters will be plunged into vampires,

      witches, flame creatures, demy gods, and time travel and parallel worlds.

      It's kinda...boring.

24-27

      24

      In general these episodes are much better and quite good. We hear Joe talk

      about a Jerry Gets ( a pal of his at work who married his love and wants

      to buy a boat with Joe or has bought his own boat already?) in ep 24 as he

      mentions once again to Carolyn that he wants to marry her but she puts him

      off. I really want him to leave her flat...totally. She just doesn't love

      him. At all. There are general flubs in all four episodes (Carter stumbles

      or stutters about committed). We see Burke eating in his hotel room and

      it's not a pretty sight. For God's sake, why did they allow that to go

      through to air? Speaking of eating, in these early episodes, there's more

      eating than in the last four years combined. In fact, I can't recall much

      eating going on once they went into the past. 24 also has the line from

      Burke to the Constable Carter, "Have you ever sat on a wrench?" Burke

      calls Carolyn in to verify that it was she that convinced him to go to

      Collinwood but Carolyn finally catches on that she was being used. Did

      Burke tell Carolyn the truth about his "short" visit? I don't think so but

      he seems so honest and truthful here. A Mr. Bronson calls Burke.

      25

      Okay there are flies and there are flies. TWO of the biggest ones menace

      Joan Bennett in this episode and like a trooper she carries on despite

      having to blink and having one land on her hair and belittle her eyelids!

      How annoying that must have been for her. Still, most of the stutters and

      flubs are for Roger and David this time out. While the production has the

      musical cues during the eps down pat, during the beginning theme and end

      theme, the music cuts out and then waits before going into the credit

      theme even as the waves silently crash...and a few times during this time

      and during this ep, the end credits start silently...and then the music

      comes on really low...

      26

      We see the police station for the first time and on the wall is a WANTED

      poster which looks like Wo Fat from HAWAII FIVE O or maybe it's Oddjob

      from GOLDFINGER. In any event, Roger comes to the Constable looking to

      spill out his anger that he hasn't arrested Burke yet and to chew out and

      threaten the job of Carter...who orders food to eat and when it arrives

      later, begins to eat it and complain about it not having any mustard or

      that he forgot to ask for it. He keeps ignoring Roger's taunts and

      criticisms and wants with comments about his food in what must have been

      seen and used by the writers of the Sly Stallone vehicle COPLAND. In that

      1990s movie, when Stallone's cop character finally decides to turn

      evidence against his fellow cops (murdering cops who murder cops and

      others) Robert Deniro's character, who practically begged him to do this

      earlier, ignores him to focus on his food, knowing the time has passed. A

      great scene in a so-so movie.

      Carter also gets a call from a Mrs. Turner about her lost dog returning

      home so Carter won't have to go look for it. Carter also coughs something

      fierce en route for some water. And stumbles for info about a Burke

      Deblin, then corrects the name.

      Of note, Liz has been outside. She has her coat on as she enters the

      Collinwood doors. It is not mentioned where she had been nor if she just

      walked the grounds or went to Widow's Hill or where. Thing is: she has now

      gone out of the house after 18 years. I thought later on in either the

      Laura storyline or the Barnabus sees the sun storyline a big deal was made

      of her going out of the house ...for the first time.

      The fight between David and Vicki is stunning in its intensity just after

      they had made friends and just after Vicki ignored his stealing of her

      letter and his taunts to fight with him, he calling her a liar and being

      paranoid. Then the fight. The bleeder valve, even if we knew David was

      guilty, being found is eye widening shocking. Truth is that this is before

      THE OMEN and other dozens of murderous little children movies that

      followed (most recently the disgusting kids kill animals and adults HOME

      MOVIES) in the 70s, 80s, 90s (MIKEY) and 2000s. David is at his most

      menacing here and most disturbing. And Hensey plays it for all it's worth.

      27

      Liz is annoyingly scary and menacing in these episodes. She seems to be

      almost villainous and wants to disbelieve and blame Vicki and to side with

      David and Roger for various reasons and in various events. She's almost

      formidable and scary as any DS villain later on minus the magic to back it

      up. As Roger says Liz can manage people quite well, including him, getting

      him to lie to Vicki about the person that recommended her and Liz is

      definitely keeping something secret. Truth is, in 2010 it is difficult to

      understand how and why Liz would want to keep an illegitimate daughter or a

      daughter born before marriage secret. but back in 1966 it was still very

      much a taboo. I just wish Liz would tell Vicki the truth but truth is that

      everyone, even Vicki, lies in DS.

      Seeing Carolyn once more talk about the "little monster" David and that if

      she saw David she's get on the other side road to avoid him made me

      realize that I don't think Carolyn has yet shared one scene with the boy

      at all. We also get the Bangor Pine Hotel where Burke meets MR. MERLIN

      himself, Bernard Hughes, who plays Bronson, a man hired to get financial

      info on the Collins family. They appear to own several other houses and

      streets and areas in Collinsport. It took Burke an hour to get from

      Collinsport Hotel to Bangor.

      Of note is that Louis Edmunds stated that he loved Roger during this

      storyline and loved playing a villain. He never felt that Roger was ever

      again used as well or as involved even though they tried different things

      in future. Vicki's story becomes harder and harder to believe and David

      grows more and more panicked, even sneaking out to Burke's hotel room...and

      stealing the bleeder valve using Carolyn's key!

      All in all four good episodes.

28 and 29

      Everything really seems to work in these two episodes.

      28

      David turns up in the hotel lobby so Maggie takes him in with her and

      befriends the boy, treating him nicely and giving him ice cream sundaes

      and even having him make one. In this and 29 David does some things that

      seem almost child like and like a normal boy. Yet Maggie betrays him and

      calls Roger at the office. I'm surprised they didn't...or maybe later on

      they do...make a fuss about David being betrayed by Maggie. In 29, he

      urges Burke not to call his family so Burke does not. David is terrifying

      in a way and his hiding in the telephone booth from Maggie as Roger comes

      in is quite creepy. Especially as he leaves it.

      One thing to notice is that at least 4 minutes before Roger enters the

      lobby door at the hotel and while Maggie and David are having a nice

      talk/relationship, we see Louis Edmunds as Roger standing outside the door

      waiting for his cue. He even jobs in place and jumps up and down, perhaps

      to get the jitters out! This must be the first time David and Maggie share

      any scenes.

      It's interesting to note that Roger isn't all that worried about "The

      little monster" and doesn't even look for him. If he had, he might have

      found him. He just...leaves and goes back to his office, and only with

      prompting from Maggie does he suggest she call him if she spots David,

      having previously hoped that David will find his own way back to

      Collinwood! Gosh!

      There's a great big shadow in this episode in the kitchen and one in the

      constable's office! Of note, the Constable is now called Sheriff Carter in

      the credits and it seems that his name (I think, I kind of forgot) is now

      having a capital letter and the rest is in lower case.

      29

      A good episode. One thing to notice is the camera angle from the window in

      the drawing room all the way to the doors out of Collinwood as Liz looks

      out the window (AGAIN!) and Carolyn comes into the doors. At one angle it

      looked as if the drawing room doors were closed (They may not have been it

      might just have been that angle) and that Carolyn approaches them and they

      are then just open OR it might have just been the angle changed. It's hard

      to tell but either way it's interesting angles and one that is not often

      repeated in later years. Liz is worried about David but Carolyn calls him

      a horror. Liz admits she loves David in what also must be a first and a

      last: someone declaring familial love and meaning it without any ulterior

      motive. Carolyn makes her see how unfair she's been to Vicki but agrees to

      go out and look over the grounds for him. As she leaves, another first and

      last happens: Liz seems to be praying to God for something sincerely,

      "Please God, let him be all right." Again, this did not happen often in

      future. We had charlatans like Trask or ministers to marry people but no

      one ever seemed to acknowledge that God might just help them if they

      prayed sincerely. I mean with all the supernatural stuff even hinted at,

      you would think someone would turn to the force of good but alas, this is

      a horror show...so Liz declares that she, David and Carolyn and the house

      itself will have no peace. She is a pessimist.

      In any event, Liz comes off well as she apologizes to Vicki in really well

      directed, written and acted sequence. We also see Carolyn and Vicki as her

      window and a storm comes up and Carolyn mentions that this is Vicki's

      first storm...only, I don't think it is.

      Liz stumbles over saying something about David hurting my father, his

      father, her brother. We also get a mention of Carolyn and how she feels

      about her father having left her mother in this big house and that if she

      could, she might just kill him! She also gives David some credit that at

      least David did something about it!

      In another set of well done scenes, David sticks his foot into and gets

      invited into Burke's hotel room suite. There, the two relate well and have

      a real good relationship. David seems like more a boy than ever before, a

      normal one. Burke teases David about what everyone thought Burke really

      was: A or THE devil. David joins in on the fun, too. Burke promises not to

      call the family and in this episode he does not. He DOES smack David on

      the butt to get him to go wash up. That's when he finds the bleeder valve

      that David hid under Burke's couch seats!

      There are some minor flubs here, a shadow there, and "where we want"

      instead of "who we want" or something like that but none of it matter.

      This is a good episode. It's odd that Burke wants David to rush home

      before the storm even as thunder has already started but I think he then

      says he will take him.

30

      There are some minor sound issues in this episode. Now I don't scare

      easily from supernatural threats. They are so common place in movies and

      TV these days but even then...witches are kind of scary...ghost can

      be...but I tend to be scared more by natural disasters (TOWERING INFERNO

      terrified me, POSIDEN ADVENTURE made me nervous, DEEP IMPACT was scary as

      hell, and DANTE'S PEAK terrifying!) and somewhat by serial killers (I

      can't watch SAW and find the Hannibal Lectors more real than any Freddie,

      Jason and Michael, HOSTEL is a real life scare) and MILLENNIUM has to be

      the scariest show on TV (plagues and blood diseases scare me to heck),

      apocalyptic stuff scares me (2010, THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL,

      OMEGA MAN), anything that has a strong real content to it scares me. But

      vampires? Werewolves? I guess isolated they can scare in way but not me.

      That said, I think the scariest ep in DARK SHADOWS ever is when Maggie is

      being stalked by the ghost of Quentin while she's looking for the two

      kids, David and Amy...while they are possessed and taunting her. THIS

      episode, 30, has a small bit of that...and is probably the scariest thing

      up to this point...

      Vicki finds herself alone in the house during a storm and then locked in

      the drawing room and then the lights go out. She moves to a far wall and

      then the doors blow open by themselves and a shadowy figure stand

      there...to me it looked like Mrs. Johnson or maybe a Pilgrim...we can't see

      it but see some light from behind. THAT is scary or at least as scary as

      DS has been up to now. It all ends quickly when Vicki calls to it and then

      it is gone again...I can't recall but maybe the doors shut again and the

      figure is gone. Roger later says he was probably what Vicki saw and maybe

      it was his with his jacket open and spread out. But then I have the same

      question Vicki does, "Why didn't you answer me when I called out to you?"

      David gets his comeuppance and it's both easy and hard to feel sorry for

      him, at intermittent times. David Henesy does a marvelous job in this

      despite really forgetting his lines in the scenes in the drawing room. It

      seems he's being fed his lines or maybe he's feeding Louis Edmunds but I

      doubt that. The conversation like so many others in DS across its history

      seems...a bit strange. Lines are repeated, there are long pauses as they

      try to remember who says what, and the overall effect is that it doesn't

      make much sense but you get the gist of what they are or what they were

      trying to say. Which, of course is part of DS's charm.

      We see Burke and David in Burke's car and David, now firm friends with

      Burke, wanted to go back and get the steering piece he took from Roger's

      car so that Burke wouldn't get framed as he planned. Thing is Burke

      already has it and doesn't tell David...or Roger ...OR Vicki until next

ep.

      At this stage of the game there are no real reprises of last week's

      cliffhanger or at least no real repeated bits. The pre credits teaser is

      usually very different or at least new stuff. In the foyer, where come to

      think of it most DS stuff happens, Burke admires the grandfather clock,

      probably one of the first pieces of furniture put in the house. He says of

      it, "What strange sights it must have witnessed in its day."

      Another good ep and for that haunted Vicki scene, a great one.

      31

      During this ep, we hear voices when we should not. Back crew? Stage crew?

      Production people? In effect, later on, Roger basically throws Vicki out

      of her own room TWICE so he can talk to David. He really does seem to hate

      David. For his part, David does still long for his father's love though.

      Uhm, even though he tried to kill him! Late in the ep, Vicki looks up at

      the foyer landing toward upstairs as if she sees someone and indeed,

      someone is up there...it looks like Louis Edmunds again but we see a

      shadow of someone who shouldn't be there. Lots of repeating here: Burke

      urges Vicki to leave again; David tells Vicki he hates her. Still even for

      that, this ep was enjoyable. More David getting his comeuppance and Burke

      lying to protect David despite the fact that David tries to blame Vicki

      AGAIN! David, scary, vows to get even with Vicki...

What a disappointing bit of news.

This is indeed a end of an era for "Doctor Who". - to have the show and then not to have the confidential with it will seem strange, since it's been there since the show returned. I enjoy watching the behind-the-scenes stuff they did in making the show.

More updates for my show....

Ramble Extra - Road to Sanctuary

For this episode it's abnormals of all shapes andf sizes.  First up it's a trip inot the Disney Vault for my blu-ray review of DUMBO 70th Anniversary edition (courtesy of Walt Disney Home video) as a classic film gets a major makeover.  Then even things that go bump in the dark ned protedtion as I give my blu-ray review of Sanctuary The Complete Third Season (courtesy of eOne Entertainment) where a whole new world is discovered beneath our very feet starring Amanda Tapping, Ryan Robbins and Robin Dunne.  Killer car movies get an upgrade with the blu-ray review of Super Hybrid (courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment) starring Oded Fehr as mechanics get more than they bargained foir.  It is then a movie within a movie with the dvd review of Monte Hellman's Road to Nowhere (courtesy of eOne Films) as a film director gets in over his head over an actress.  I wrap things up with my long awaited movie review of Fright Night starring Colin Farrell & David Tennant as a teenager battles the vampire next door.  Music for this episode features the songs Elephant Romp by J Marie Anderson, Hybrid Moments (Misfits Cover) by energie finger, Hybird Car by The Socknockers & Theme from The Mean Season by Rench,  they can all be found at www.blackstackmusic.com. Other instrumental music is by the band Mr. Burns (www.mrburnsmusic.com). As always your comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Then it is Episode 269 - Bad Blood Delivery

For this episode it's  crazy postal workers, masked serial killers and a bitter UFC rivalry.  First up it's a journey to Dsicworld with the blu-ray review of Terry Pratchet's Going Postal (courtesy of eOne Entertainment) as a conman must make the postal service soar again or die trying.  The hardcased villian is at it again in Chromeskull : Laid to Rest 2 (courtesy of eONe Entertainment) as the silent killer stalks new prey in this blood drenched sequel starring Brian Austin Green & Danielle Harris.  It's a night of terror with the dvd review of Medium Raw : Night of The Wolf (courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment) as things go from bad to worse when revenge goes horribly wrong in an insane asylum for the crimminally insane starring William R. Davis (X-Files), Mercedes McNab (Buffy, Angel), John Rhys-Davises and Jay Reso (Christian from WWE).  I wrap things up with one of the greatest feuds in MMA with the blu-ray review of UFC's Bad Blood : Chuck Liddell vs Tito Ortiz (courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment) that chronicles the battles between these two warriors.  Music for this episode features the songs Killer by Redhouse, Killer Gorilla by Whoremoan and Wolfman by Dean & the Deadbeatsh, they can all be found at www.blackstackmusic.com. Other instrumental music is by the band Mr. Burns (www.mrburnsmusic.com). As always your comments and suggestions.

Both can be found here http://ramblingruss.libsyn.com

Cheers,

Russel

the main problem i have with this episode is that i find it hard to belive that any father would be happy to put their baby in so much danger by following the doctor around the shop at night. I know he likes and ows a lot to the doctor. But there is a limit to that when when a child is involved.

0/5 or 0/10, awful awful awful. Matt Smith is now the official worst Doctor ever. His delievery, his mumbling, his affective mannerisms, his hand waves, his silly tones, his sick looking countenance (really, I hope he's not ill, he looks ill), and his way of moving is just awful. He's awful as the Doctor. The script does not help...again.

DW is officially retarded now. Stupid, ridiculous and forced in every aspect. We don't know what to do with Sophie so let's get rid of her. We think we have gay fans so let's give them a laugh...all the way through the 54 minutes...only, they don't give it to us, it's not funny, if anything it's mildly worth one "ha" and then it gets offensive. The Doc wants to distract his pal so he admits his love for him. This isn't about love, it's about insults and it's about nothing really.

So the domestic that RTD did and did mostly well, cannot be done by this team and by Moffat...we have a baby, yeah, we have a mess of a house, yeah, sure, we have food and diapers and a mumuring Doctor who hasn't yet grown up at all. He's still just thinking about himself AND the human race again...as he's always...he doesn't really have anything new to say about himself or the human race...which leads me to...

DW isn't even trying anymore...the science, the real world aspects, the fictinal aspects, every bit of it is boring, tedious, stupidly explained if it even is explained...and dumb. So Craig was saved by love, was he? The CM were under the store under ground were they? Or were they on a ship? I still need subtitles to figure out this crap but who wants a dvd of this?

Remember other CM stories, flawed by exciting adventures. Let's take REVENGE OF THE CM and EARTHSHOCK. Okay, flawed but here we had two far flung adventures out in space with mostly kind people and some wonderful villains and threat of a disease or two...and the loss of a companion...tension, cyber mats that attack people with intent and reason...and a war, a spacestation, underground caves with a killer or two, murders, a ship headed for destruction...and in both it's exciting, a near crash landing, Cyber bombs, threats, the Doc counteracting the CM...that's when DW was a far flung adventure in space and time but the characters were still relateable and said things we might say...

...all of which this crap isn't. DW is just terrible now. It's come down and down and down every week. And if the main story isn't bad enough, dreging up a sort of domestic unease (badly...WHO is a good fatgher unless they've fought off Cyber conversion just thinking about their baby crying...sentimental twaddle that just doesn't work..just as Amy wishing the Doc back to life in last season didn't work), i'ts about worrying about the Doctor. No real adventure and when there is an action scene, it's because the Doctor locked himself out of the house...and has to plough through glass...just terrible. And did anyone think of the 8th Doctor getting through the glass when the 11th put his hand up to the flat glass. Just what was he doing besides setting up fans to think of that moment? Was he going to go through it?

And even in the toy store and the dept store and the house there was no real threat or shadowy menace. It just sits there and then to top it all off with more awfulness we get that crap at the end with the three children...just who were they? Why are we hearnig their thoughts? Just why are they im;portant? How were their thoughts recorded in the diary? Then we get that dumb villainess and the dumber River Song. Oh and the silly scene wiht Rory and Amy and was that little girl River? Dumb dumb dumb. They just happen to be in the same store?

Who wrote this? They should never write DW again. It's not even good bad. It's not even fan fic level. It's terrible. I hate this show now and it deserves to go off the air. Just awful. Negative numbers should be given to it.   

Watched this with my 12 year old niece who liked Sarah Jane Adv and loved David Tennant from the few DW she's seen. She also saw the ep of Sarah Jane iwht the 11th Doctor and didn't like him much but when she was the angels part one only story---she said she likes Matt better but still likes Tennant. Which is interesting. She watched last night's mess wiht me and I could tell that she didn't really like it but didn't want to say because I like the show so much. She's very very smart and figured out some of the stuff without my explaining and when I explained the arc stuff as best I could, she got it, thought some of it was absurd and figured out a theory about the little kids in the end.

Thing is: not that she's gonig to get anything educational from THIS DW but I didn't want her to learn about gay stuff this way. She already knows a lot but how much more rewarding could it have been if she saw a gay couple or gay stuff portrayed emotioinally strong and relationship oriented instead of being played for belly laughs...and it wasn't funny to her either. To me, it was wide eyed shocking to have the Doc suddenly grab Craig and delcare love and want to kiss him just to distract him. Appaling script, appaling acting. Just terrible. Did no one think this was stupid on the crew or cast?

After taking our poll above, be sure to share your thoughts on Doctor Who: Closing Time here.

The Cultdom Collective Podcast

Cultdom Commentary: The God Complex

Ian & Mike hope the Hotel will pass inspection from DaveAC in time for them all to get going on this weeks Commentary: The God Complex Dr Who Series 6 Episode 11

Direct link to mp3:-

http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-54821/TS-538256.mp3

Subscribe on iTunes

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=324932943

Cheers, Ian, Mike & daveac