DVD collection 12

[michael c]

after viewing the final alexandra moltke vicki episodes a few months ago i took a "breather" from watching the show.now i'm moving foreward.

however i just couldn't bear to watch the betsy durkin vicki episodes.alexandra is vicki to me.and i just didn't care enough about adam's tedious saga to watch the conclusion of it.
so i skipped ahead(something i never did before)to dvd volume 12(beginning with ep.656).the start of the quentin storyline.also my first dvd(i always watched on vid.).

here maggie is ensconced as collinwood governess.she's just moved in.aside from everything else there are some hilarious continuity and prop gaffes here.when maggie goes to unpack "her" clothes in her new bedroom she pulls out of the suitcase vicki's red a-line dress with the purple sleeves.it was an oft worn fave of vic's...did they think no one would notice .then she goes to the wardrobe and nothing says victoria winters like a closet full of sleeveless dresses.later in the same episode "maggie's" blue suitcase is packed as amy jenning's for a trip to boston.could they really only spring for one suitcase?

it was interesting to see maggie in vicki's old "governess" persona since after the 1795 storyline they sort of dropped that part of the character and vicki's focus was almost exclusively on jeff.as much as i like maggie i still would love to see how vicki would have handled this new storyline.

these were also joe haskell's final episodes and it was so sad how they treated this character.

anywho since i skipped ahead several episodes i have a few questions.how was vicki's disappearance explained to everyone or was it at all?how did maggie end up at collinwood?

all that said so far i like what i see.no more adam and i simply cannot love that enough.and the david and amy stuff is cool too.david suffered a major slight after 1795 and here he's given a storyline again.

[ProfStokes]

after viewing the final alexandra moltke vicki episodes a few months ago i took a "breather" from watching the show.now i'm moving foreward.

anywho since i skipped ahead several episodes i have a few questions.how was vicki's disappearance explained to everyone or was it at all?how did maggie end up at collinwood?

I think that this was one of the few times when the Collins family did acknowledge the supernatural.  They admitted to Maggie that Vicki had disappeared (she faded back into the past when Peter called for her) but didn't dwell on the details.

Elizabeth was in the throes of her "I'm going to be buried alive" phobia and wanted to ensure that the children would be taken care of when she was gone, so she hired Maggie as the new governess post haste.  There's been a lot of discussion as to what Maggie's qualifications could possibly be apart from being Vicki's best friend.  Anyhow, she was the only actress who fit the ingenue profile so that's how she ended up at Collinwood.

The Quentin haunting sequence is one of the best.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

ProfStokes

[victoriawinters]

I further believe that they just didn't find a suitable actress to take Alexandra Moltke's place. 

[AndreDuPres]

Well, you're not done with the Vicki character yet...you'll soon see another brief 1795/1796 (I *refuse* to call it 1797--it's ridiculous how they just changed the date halfway through the show) flashback.  This one isn't too bad, and you'll be seeing the very last of Joel Crothers.  The replacement Vicki, Carolyn Groves, is MUCH better than Betsy Durkin--and much better on the eyes, too.

[michael c]

i've been watching this dvd all week and i'm really enjoying it.

i'm stunned at how different this storyline feels than the months that preceded it when everything took place within the shadow of the adam storyline.here that's all spept away like so many cobwebs.

during the preceding story much of the action took place at nicholas blair's house and the collins family wasn't that prominent much of the time.here collinwood is re-established as the main location and the family returned to front-burner status.it has a whole diffrent "feel".

with victoria gone and roger and elizabeth "away" for part of these episodes barnabas is now squarely the show's "moral center"(which is really bizzare if you think about it).he and julia almost seem to be the master and mistess of the house.

it was great to have elizabeth return(with a chic new pageboy hairdo)and finally be done with her tedious buried alive obssession.here she's imperious liz and i love it.mrs. johnson is also featured prominently in several episodes and i can't love that enough either.
even though david is under a "dark influence" it's interesting that he has the type of relationship with maggie here that he had with vicki early on.sort of playing nasty tricks on her and a very "i'll get even with you" attitude.although he does now seem a bit too old for a governess.

where as the adam/eve/nicholas storyline has a more scifi/camp( )feel this is much more rooted in the gothic tradition.

the only part of this collection of episodes that i didn't really care for was barnabas' return to the year 1796(or whatever the heck year they decided it was)to save vicki.it seemed sort of pointless.it didn't really change anything within the context of the rest of the story.vicki was tucked safely away in the past and if they couldn't get alexandra back i don't see why they bothered to do this with another actress.

i've met david selby and terryane crawford at the fests before but didn't really have a context to put them in.i thought beth was quite beautiful.

the longer i watch the show the more i realize that each storyline needs to be treated as it's own seperate entity and not look for too much connection to what happened before it because it just won't be there and you have to accept it on it's own terms.so far i think this is quite good.

[stefan]

the only part of this collection of episodes that i didn't really care for was barnabas' return to the year 1796(or whatever the heck year they decided it was)to save vicki.it seemed sort of pointless.it didn't really change anything within the context of the rest of the story.vicki was tucked safely away in the past and if they couldn't get alexandra back i don't see why they bothered to do this with another actress.

Vickie was already saved! She came back into the future and didn't die. Just why did Barnabas have to save her? If he was going to save someone back in 1795 it should have been Josette or Jeremiah!! Grrr...oh well, if one gets caught up in the ridiculous inconsistencies of the plots it gets hard to enjoy the show so that's why I pretend stuff didn't happen.
Another funny "suitecase" story is in 1795 when Josette, Angelique and Barnabas all pack up their stuff to go here and there in the same beat-up worn-out brown leather looking suitecase. It's pretty funny. Just why Josette, as coming from one of the richests families in Martinique, uses a beat-up looking brown suitecase as her (apparently that I could see) only piece of luggage is a riot.

[PennyDreadful]

If he was going to save someone back in 1795 it should have been Josette or Jeremiah!! .

 Technically, Barnabas could have made time-travel attempts in order to resolve any number of problems.  Of course, such attempts would have been dangerous, but Barnabas seemed to have a knack for time-travel.  If you think about it, he could have gone back and prevented himself from getting involved with Angelique in the first place, thus avoiding most subsequent problems.  Perhaps he never tried this because such an action would have eliminated his existence in the future.  I like to imagine it is possible that Barnabas attempted another time-travel experiment (offscreen) in order to escape the curse, but was prevented from doing so by unseen forces/fate, etc.  It seems there are certain things Barnabas simply cannot affect by going back in time.

  [spoiler]For example, he did attempt to save Josette at the conclusion of the 1897 storyline during the side-trip to 1795/6/7 (dates are a bit fluid in Collinsport  ).   Fate, however, seems determined to kill Josette off no matter what. I think Josette will die regardless of what Barnabas does, and Barnabas will have to re-live this tragedy each time he attempts to save her.  Realizing this, he may have avoided further attempts to prevent her death. [/spoiler]

~Penny Dreadful~

[stefan]

I think Josette will die regardless of what Barnabas does, and Barnabas will have to re-live this tragedy each time he attempts to save her.  Realizing this, he may have avoided further attempts to prevent her death. 

I didn't know that. Interesting. But, yes, whether the writers realized it or if the audience picked up on these issues - two of the most glaring bits of frustrating storytelling (for me anyway) were during 1795, Josette was not allowed to understand that Angelique was responsible for all that happened to her and, since Barnabas was able to timetravel at will, WHY he didn't travel back to 1795 or before to try to stop the curse. There was so much potential there! and the fact Josette was doomed to die anyway, would have made the storyline much more complex and tragic.

[michael c]

just a few more tid-bits to my collection 12 blow by blow.

what's up with the ned stuart character?he looks and acts exactly like jeff clark.they couldn't do anything to differentiate these two characters?and since jeff clark had only been out if the picture a few weeks at this point why the need to bring roger davis back?was he under contract?

and since the governess character is featured so prominently here you know i can't help but wish it was vicki.
i think her and david selby would have looked good opposite one another.obsessive...maybe just a little?

[victoriawinters]

what's up with the ned stuart character?he looks and acts exactly like jeff clark.

I feel he was even more obnoxious then Jeff Clark.  It was like Roger Davis in overdrive.

[MsCriseyde]

It was like Roger Davis in overdrive.

There is no other setting on the Roger Davis gearbox. 

[michael c]

a final word on this collection.

last night i finished watching this volume of episodes.i don't want to "spoil" anything but [spoiler]this concluded with the ghost of quentin collins driving the family from collinwood.the sound of his "theme" played over images of an abandoned collinwood was one of the most memorable d.s. moments for me.[/spoiler] it was so good!

i loved this storyline!

some images from the show gave me goosebumps.laura collins trying to lure david into the flames.the seance that sent vicki back to the year 1795.this episode joined thier ranks.

[Barnabas'sBride]

I enjoyed this time frame on the show. This is when my interest came back to life after it had died miserably during the Adam and Nicholas stuff, though this portion of the storyline (Quentin's haunting of Collinwood) seemed to drag a bit. I got a little tired of watching David and Amy run around Quentin's influence. Still, there were many good things about the storyline.

I detest Ned Stuart and dislike Maggie in Victoria's role, but those are minor issues in the grand scheme of things.

[michael c]

that's exactly how i felt about it barnabas' bride.

during the adam and nicholas stuff my attention definitely lagged.here it was renewed.
one thing that l liked about it was that like the laura collins story and the early barnabas story here it was a single threat(quentin)rather than a bunch of monsters that put the family in jeopardy.there was also chris jennings but that was sort of an extention of quentin.

as far as ned stuart goes i didn't dislike him any more than jeff clark.mercifully he wasn't that big a presence.
and i don't want to say that i disliked maggie in vicki's role but i definitely wish that alexandra moltke had stuck around a few more months and played this storyline.it would have been nice to see her relationship with david being renewed(however menacingly)after being abandoned during her final months on the show.

because maggie essentially becomes a substitution for vicki we sort of lose maggie as a seperate character.what would maggie have done her if she stayed her own character?would she be dealing with joe's hospitalization?would she be dating someone new?the writers would have had to create a whole seperate storyline for maggie had she not replaced vicki as collinwood governess.

[ProfStokes]

and i don't want to say that i disliked maggie in vicki's role but i definitely wish that alexandra moltke had stuck around a few more months and played this storyline.it would have been nice to see her relationship with david being renewed(however menacingly)after being abandoned during her final months on the show.

That's a valuable point, mscbryk.  I wonder if David would have been as vicious or as susceptible to Quentin's control if Vicki had still been around.  It's been suggested that the trauma of her disappearance and Maggie's arrival may have stirred up his old bratty instincts. It would have been nice to see how Vicki would have handled his possession and I'm sure Alexandra would have enjoyed having a more central part to play again.

ProfStokes