the parallel-time "tease"

[MagnusTrask]

My biggest PT gripe has been that they'd just drop PT versions of RT characters in, without thinking of whether it was possible for them to be there.   PT was supposed to be about different choices characters made... I always thought, then I guess Quentin decided to be born in the 20th century.

Quentin and Angelique could have been descendants of "our" Q and A, but since they don't address this, we might take that as evidence that they didn't care or didn't think about it.  Then again, DS is full of instances where it's left to the viewer to figure things out.

I think the biggest problem with PT and some other storylines was that they were concerned with the impact that something would make onscreen that day, and sense and fitting it into a larger story were considered irrelevant.   Look, another Quentin!  Look, another Angelique!

I agree that if you as a viewer are actually taken to a parallel universe, we should be able to expect more than Rebecca and Jeckyl and Hyde redone.   I'm now listening to the novel "Rebecca", so I'll probably have fresh complaints about PT later...

[michael c]

i actually like the "rebecca" redo. it's so blatantly derivative it's stunning but it's fun. it's hard to beat "hoffman".

the jeckyl and hyde plot i could have easily done without although elizabeth eis is alot of fun. and don't get me started on the liesure-suited snoozefest that is the damien edwards subplot. talk about filler.

if nothing else lara parker is really given the opportunity to shine and take center stage since she was not part of the movie shoot and was available to be fully showcased in this storyline. ang spent so much time in period costume she looked lovely in the parallel-time couture as outrageous as some of it was.

[michael c]

i'm really enjoying this rewatch...

one thing i like about this storyline is that, for lack of a better word and in terms of DS, it sort of feels "normal". i like the atmosphere at collinwood.

"normal" of course is a relative term but what i mean is that there are not monsters coming out of the woodwork. it is largely about people and on DS after 1968 that is saying something. it is told with a slightly more "adult" sensibility than some other storylines.

yes there is a vampire and a ghost and whatever exactly angelique is here(a witch? sort of?) but there is not some overarching theme about a race of demonic creatures trying to take over the entire earth like there was during the later part of the adam storyline or the leviathan plot.

it's just about the crazy folks in the house up on the hill in their hairpieces and psychedelic prints. that's it. i like that about it.

[MagnusTrask]

one thing i like about this storyline is that, for lack of a better word and in terms of DS, it sort of feels "normal". i like the atmosphere at collinwood.

"normal" of course is a relative term but what i mean is that there are not monsters coming out of the woodwork. it is largely about people and on DS after 1968 that is saying something. it is told with a slightly more "adult" sensibility than some other storylines.

yes there is a vampire and a ghost and whatever exactly angelique is here(a witch? sort of?) but there is not some overarching theme about a race of demonic creatures trying to take over the entire earth like there was during the later part of the adam storyline or the leviathan plot.

it's just about the crazy folks in the house up on the hill in their hairpieces and psychedelic prints. that's it. i like that about it.

I like an adult story, but an adult story with imagination.   Everything you said may be why I don't like PT.

[Uncle Roger]

There is a "tease" element to the 1840/41 PT as well. There are a couple of glimpses of Samantha Drew before the shift into parallel time but the character never appears again. Perhaps the justification was that after Justin's death, there was no longer a need for a nurse. Or perhaps Virginia Vestoff had simply left the show. And wasn't Julia called Mrs. Collins in the teasers? And, as long as I'm on the subject, shouldn't the parallel Gerard have been named Ivan Miller?

[michael c]

i actually find the storyline to be very imaginative. in fact i think it's the last truly original plot on the series before it starts to devolve into rehashes and retreads.

magnus i'd be willing to bet we come to DS for very, very different reasons and that's what's great about it. there's so much to take away.

for me the supernatural element is almost incidental. i'm not otherwise remotely interested in "the occult". i love the whole weird package. the sets. the music. the costuming. the actors.

for me DS is an atmosphere. an attitude. a mood. sometimes i care for the plot at hand more than others but i'm always sucked into the ambiance.

some of us come to the series for the vampires. others for the hairpieces and squat shoes. it's all fun.

[Gerard]

One of the other things I enjoy about PT1970 is how different the Collins family, including with regards to the community around it, is from the NT Collins family.  The NT group is quite loaded, obviously, but it spends its time in seclusion, in a grand mansion where most of the rooms are shuttered.  No one else in Collinsport is apparently of the moneyed-set.  However, in PT1970, the Collins' are far more like Dynasty, flaunting their wealth, listed at the top of the Collinsport social register (which seems to have quite a few more affluent families than the NT counterpart).  Even Carolyn Stoddard Loomis has a far better wardrobe (she may have worn fashionable slacks more often, but at least she could afford sleeves and have her hair professionally teased high ala Jerseylicious).  I picture the PT Collinsport to being more like Bar Harbor, with palatial summer "cottages," over-priced resorts and millionaires' yachts docked in the harbor.

Gerard

[Taeylor Collins]

I love Parallel Time and I wish they would have stayed longer. Perhaps once Angie was destroyed a new threat could have emerged?  And if I am not mistaken; during this time they had asked Alexandra to come back to the show. However, she wanted to play a baddie. I think it would have been brilliant to have an evil Victoria show up after Angie died. Can you imagine how shocked and horrified Barney and Julia would have been??  Of course DC being DC wouldn't let her play anyone but Miss I Don't Understand, so it never came to fruition.  What a waste. Although, I do love 1995 but it could have been put on hold.  We also know that a lo of people started keeping journals during PT because it was bit confusing to people.

I think that was what truly destroyed DS. They changed stories too often. They should have moved a little this way and a little that way and mixed traditional soap stories in with the supernatural.  The show may have ran another 5-10 years....Alas....

[MagnusTrask]

I remember by the time of 1840/41PT, PT was just too confusing.   You only knew it was 1840/1 in a parallel reality if you'd been watching for a long time.    If you missed DS sometimes, you could feel so lost that it seemed hopeless trying to catch up.  Julia Collins?  What?!

[Uncle Roger]

And who's to say if the PT Angelique would have stayed dead? Death never stopped the RT Angelique from popping up in another storyline. What if she had crossed over from parallel time to get revenge on Julia and Barnabas? And had to fight her RT doppleganger in the process?

[Lydia]

What a wonderful idea, Uncle Roger!  I'm imagining a scene between our-time Angelique and parallel-time Angelique, with our-time Angelique utterly baffled by PT Angelique's obsession with Quentin, and PT Angelique utterly baffled by our-time Angelique's obsession with Barnabas.

[Gothick]

Huge fan of PT 1970 here.  I agree that it was the last of the really good storylines on the series. (1995 feels more like an idyll than a fullblown storyline.)  Nancy, Grayson and Louis in particular all had some really great material... Parker had great clothes and great opportunities to do what she did best. 

[spoiler] I personally failed to "get" the whole Yeagar-goes-after-Maggie Collins thing, and both Quentin and Maggie seemed wearisomely one-note to me ... others disagree which is a fan's prerogative of course ...[/spoiler]

I also LOVE Hannah and Tim Stokes...  great characters!  I wish Hannah had stayed on for awhile after Hoffman returned.

G.

[MagnusTrask]

At some point I decided that I liked what went on in the Old House in PT1970, but not PT Collinwood, until evil Tim Stokes comes along.

[Uncle Roger]

Thanks, Lydia! And, as long as I'm at it, ponder this. Although we saw the PT Angelique interact with the RT Julia, how would the RT Angelique have reacted to intense devotion of Hoffman the housekeeper?

[Uncle Roger]

One aspect of the parallel time story that has bugged me since I saw it back in 1970 concerns Chris and Amy. It's great that they are accepted by the family but shouldn't their last name still be Jennings? Is there a Tom in parallel time?