Of all the time-travelling stories on the show....

[IluvBarnabas]

what was your personal favorite?

Which era would you yourself would have liked to have lived through, or at least go back in time just to visit for a little while?

1840 would be my choice. 1795 was the colonial era, 1897 the Victorian age. 1840 was sort of in-between these two eras and this appealed to me very much.

[BuzzH]

1861-1865, only to OBSERVE (and be invisible doing it) the Cival War.

[Barnabas'sBride]

I loved both 1795 and 1897. I think 1795 was the better storyline and was overall better executed, but 1897 really fit the atmosphere of the show.

I've always been fascinated by the medieval period, so that would probably be my destination of choice.

[MagnusTrask]

I saw pictures of the Civil War, and that will hold me for the rest of my life.   Andersonville, was it?

DS eras?   How about 1967?    In previous eras I always think first about lack of medicines, and less tolerance for differences... though what the hell, they had less petrochemical pollution, unpesticided food.   It was harder to dress differently and get away with it, but what you had to wear was better (maybe only if you had money), and men got to have longer hair.

1897 is quirky and atmospheric along with having some modern conveniences, sort of a pause between the 'romantic' past and technological present, where lots of cool machines were around, but they still made them to look ornate or interesting.   I'd be too scared of eras before that.

[Lydia]

BuzzH, you live in the mid-Atlantic area, right?  So I assume you've seen the blowup of the Alexander Gardner photograph at the visitors center at Antietam.  (I trust it's still there; I saw it in 1999.)  Dead bodies, life-size .  That sort of puts me off seeing the Civil War up close and personal.

My maternal grandmother was born in 1897.  I'd like get a look at her as a newborn, and at my great-grandparents, who were interesting and amusing people from all I hear, and at the family farm, which was sold the year I was born - there's a Walmart there now.  So I'd probably opt for 1897, although I'm wondering:  Was there a Dark Shadows Fest in 1995?

As for my favorite Dark Shadows time-travelling story - I'm withholding judgment until I've seen more of 1840.

[Midnite]

Was there a Dark Shadows Fest in 1995?

Heh, heh.  Yes, in August, and the storyline aired in late July.  If Barn and Julia had only hung around longer, they could've attended the New York Fest.  I'm sure fans would have been more than happy to tell them how to defeat Gerard expeditiously.  

[Brandon Collins]

I would like to go back to early 1897. Most of the second half of 1897 wasn't as gripping as the early stuff. Gosh, what I would give to be there when Judith lets all that power go to her head.

[MagnusTrask]

According to someone's calculations, I haven't seen the first 19% of 1897 and I love 1897, so I have that to look forward to, maybe.   I keep waiting for it to pop up in a side-of-the-road tent sale, where I'm getting a lot of cool old obscure 50s-70s VHS movies i've never seen for $1.   (That's my end of the economy.)  Only one tape within that gap found so far.   Frustrating.  Petofi was the high point for me as a kid and I'm not thrilled with the tail end of Laura (straight line free of charge), but the writing seems to simplify as it goes along, through 1897.  I can easily see the peak being in that early 19%.

I think I may have said some of this over and over.  If so, sorry.

[Willie]

I agree with Magnus, I'd be a bit afraid of older time periods due to the lack of modern medicines and, for instance with Ben's situation, if you got an unlucky lot in life, man, you were just plain screwed.  At the same time, I would love to go to work by driving a horse-drawn carriage down a tree-lined trail, instead of hitting the 6 lane freeway at 75 mph.  People also tended to have morals and honor - they didn't just lie to each other for no reason, sleep with everybody just because it's fun, etc.  Well, at least in my idealized view of the time period they didn't - but it probably holds somewhat true.

That being said, I guess 1897 would have been a fair pick.  You didn't have indentured servitude, persecution of witches, etc. while you still had all the simplicity.

[MagnusTrask]

People married for life whether they stayed in love or not, and maybe they never were.    Maybe the parents arranged it.  And you raised bitter twisted kids out of that unhappy environment, who would spread the problems to the next generation.   All ages have different shallownesses and hypocrisies... they just take different forms.   And saying TV or books or movies may present an idealized version of things is a massive understatement. 

I like freedom and there wasn't that much in previous eras.  The problem is, millions can't handle freedom.   When they have it, they squander it on superficial pleasures like kids in a candy store.   The consumer culture encourages and even demands this of people... it fuels the economy.   Sex, snacks, cars, newer and newer formats for entertainment so you throw it all out and rebuy all your music and movies.... flashy toys....


[Discussion about upgrading collections continues in topic "Upgrading to DVD / was: Re: Of all the time-travelling stories on the show...."  --mod.]

[Gerard]

My favorite was actually 1995.  The best part was trying to figure out how Barnabas reacted to spending two weeks with Julia where, for all that time, she ate, slept, and sleuthed in that green woolen suit without once taking it to the dry-cleaners.

Gerard

[Josette]

Well, I wouldn't personally want to ACTUALLY go to one of those past periods, but as far as DS is concerned, I'd definitely take 1795 - the whole story was so good, and tightly put together.  While there are lots of wonderful things in 1897, and it amazes me how many extraneous subplots came along which they managed to weave into the story successfully, still--it became quite unwieldy.

[Alondra]

It would be fun to visit one of those time periods for a while. But not too long. It would be too hard to live without electricity and modern plumbing. Oh yeah and a computer, DVD player and my DS DVD's.

I sometimes wonder what they will say 100 or 200 years from now about how we lived in 2007, will they think our lifestyle was primative compared to theirs?

Alondra

[MagnusTrask]

I depend on a computer because I can't go out and do most things, but if I were well, I think I'd throw the computer into a dumpster.    not that they're bad things, but they abstract life strangely.    When I try to sleep, images of computer screens and clicking on things come up in my head, rather than images from the real physical world.

Without the electronics we might go outdoors more and go to performances of music, and read.     A hundred years from now we might not have all we have now, or our attitudes might be different.    We might have a perspective on consumer culture that we don't have now.

[adamsgirl]

My favorite was actually 1995.  The best part was trying to figure out how Barnabas reacted to spending two weeks with Julia where, for all that time, she ate, slept, and sleuthed in that green woolen suit without once taking it to the dry-cleaners.

I actually got a kick out of 1995. Here it was supposed to be the future, and of course, it was, but everything was the same. I mean, no one blinked at that famous green suit, which would be hopelessly out of date, and files were still in old-fashioned filing cabinets, etc. Sure, I realize the writers couldn't possibly imagine computers and such, but absolutely no effort was made to make anything look different with the exception of Collinwood in ruins.