If anyone wants a PDF file of this book, I can send it free of charge. Email me at quentincollinsii@aol.com

I've watched this movie with many non DS fans, and they always find it confusing. If the audience for the film were comprised of DS fans, the characters would need no introduction. Unfortunately many movie goers were uninitiated to the World of Dark Shadows. The show was on in the daytime. Many people were working. Unlike today, there was no timeshifting or Soap Net. So we open with Maggie. Who is she? We know she's looking for David, but that's it. We know that "he's not in Mrs. Stoddard's room". Who is she? David's mother? Well, we find out soon enough that Mr. Collins is David's father and Maggie is obviously his employee. She goes off looking for him. We are introduced to Elizabeth and Carolyn. If we are paying attention, we might connect that she's Mrs. Stoddard. In my experience with reasonably intelligent people watching the film, the last name goes out into the ether, unremembered the assumption is made that she's Roger's wife. She's a bit old to be David's mother, but not impossibly so. She's pushing 60 and he's about 13; she could have had a child that late in life. She looks more like his grandmother though. If that's the case, where is David's mother? We are never told. If we are paying very close attention, we might work out that Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, as she's eventually identified, MUST be Roger's sister. Carolyn is clearly her daughter, so we know she's his cousin. That's asking a great deal from you audience and would ordinarily earn a charge of "sloppy writing". However, if one reads the script in the Movie Book, most of these questions are answered! They only leave out the whereabouts of David's mother. The gutted theatrical version excises much of the necessary exposition, leaving the character's relationships a jumbled mess for the audience to decipher.

Essentially it is an audio drama. You have two actors who are reading together. But they often are playing other characters like Quentin, Judith, Edward, etc. In the full cast audio dramas, there's no doubling up of characters. It's pretty much as the show was. Each character is played by a different actor. You may have the occasional minor character who's portrayed by a member of the cast, but I'm not even sure if that's the case. I don't think you can go wrong with starting with Marie's and Terrayne's. It's the backstory for Jenny in 1897. 

There are two ranges of products. One are full-cast audio plays. Essentially, they are like old time radio plays.  The dramatic readings usually only have 2 readers, sometimes three. One actor reads most of the story and is aided by the second voice. The writers try to craft the story so that it fits the format by only having 2 main characters. Many of them are very close to being full audio dramas. For example, The Path of Fate has 4 characters, two played by Lara Parker and two by David Selby. Through skillful use of voice and technology, it sounds almost as if 4 actors were employed. Path of Fate is by far my favorite of all the dramatic readings. Kathryn Leigh Scott did an excellent portrayal of Julia in Clothes of Sand. I prefer the full cast stories on the whole. My daughter finds them a bit confusing. She tends towards the dramatic readings which have more description.  I always eagerly anticipate any release in either range.

I've listened to all of them. The audio dramas should be listened to in order. House of Despair sets up the new series and leads to a season cliffhanger in The Rage Beneath. This is resolved in the mini-series Kingdom of the Dead. The dramatic readings can be heard in random order. Most of them fill in gaps left in the original series. Most of the ones with Selby deal with the period after he left Collinwood in 1897 for example.  Some take place after the series ended.  I'm told by fans in England that they are able to follow these in spite of the fact that a number of them have not seen the show.  I'm a huge fan of both ranges.

Well, Barnabas was no saint, but he never made a bargain with Lucifer or Diablos, or whatever to take over the world. I'm sure that Diablos plans for humanitiy were pretty dire once he got his SUPER RACE going.  Still, you made me think about how dangerous Barnabas was even after he supposedly "reformed".

I think that's very likely. They might never have visualized the family tree. I listened to those 1897 eps several times and watched them at least twice before it dawned on me. DS was an "audio drama" for me at first. I had cassette tapes of large chunks of the story.

In Frankenstein, if I'm remembering correctly, Elizabeth is called a cousin but she was actually adopted by the family. I think she was a waif the parents found in their travels in a foreign country. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm remembering accurately. I suppose you could call that incest, but if Greg and Marcia Brady wanted to get married, I'd say congratulations. I don't think it's incest if close GENETIC relationships are not involved. I know I might be in the minority there, but that's how I see it.