The "B" Team in Spring 1970

[Roland]

I'm currently watching the early episodes of the first "parallel time" storyline, the one set in 1970.  This was the period when most of the "A" players in the cast - Barnabas, Julia, Elizabeth, Roger, Carolyn, Maggie etc. - were off filming the first "Dark Shadows" movie.  As a result, the story is forced to rely on many of the second-stringers to take up the slack.  The only exceptions are Quentin and Angelique, who have prominent roles in this section.  Otherwise, Barnabas is locked in his coffin, Julia (the servant) has been sent away for a "vacation," Maggie has fled to her sister's, and Carolyn, Elizabeth and Roger make infrequent appearances if they show up at all.

Thanks to all this, I'm afraid this section contains what is, for me, the single worst plotline in all of "Dark Shadows" - the Jeckyl and Hyde ripoff involving the repulsive John Yaeger.  That story is sooooooo tedious and boring that I can barely get through the episodes.  I wonder if the show lost a significant percentage of its viewership during this arid period.

I can't wait for the key actors to make their way back and get the story rolling again.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I wonder if the show lost a significant percentage of its viewership during this arid period.

Nope. The ratings took a significant nosedive during Leviathans but began rebounding during 1970PT.

[AndreDuPres]

Wow, I love 1970PT!  I find it to be one of my favourite plots!  Lara Parker is in most of the episodes--maybe that's why I like it so much.  I actually like the Jekyll and Hyde plot better than I did before, now that I've seen it all again.  Elizabeth Eis is spectacular as Buffie, even though Sabrina is really irritating, as usual.

[PennyDreadful]

 Hmm.  I really loved the Longworth/Yaeger storyline and thought Chris Pennock made an excellent, vile and loathsome Hyde-based character.  Yaeger is supposed to be repulsive.  He embodies the essence of evil.  Pennock did an excellent job with Longworth too, who was fairly true to the Jekyll character in Stevenson's novella.  Part of Jekyll wants to be Hyde.  Through Hyde, he can live out his deepest, darkest desires but starts to lose control as the evil side becomes more powerful and more depraved.  I thought the DS version was done well, and stayed fairly true to the character/s in the book.  Like Hyde, Yaeger is truly a loathsome, evil fiend.  He has no redeeming features...other than his nose of course.     

[Julianka7]

I'm not crazy about either of the PT storylines.
1841 PT being my least liked storyline.
In the 1970 PT I Quentin was whiny and dull.
I did enjoy Yeager/Longworth plot. I thought that
was a hoot. The worst was Barnabas falling for Roxanne though.
Julianka

[Charles_Ellis]

The 1970 PT storyline was one of the better parts of the later DS- a much needed "return to glory" after the Leviathan mess.  Much has been made over the fact that for a couple of weeks the show revovled around David Selby, Lara Parker, Michael Stroka, Lisa Richards and Denise Nickerson while other cast members were filming HODS.  There's something I'd like to address.  There were actors on the film who had to juggle both the show and HODS, yet there were DS stars in the film who didn't appear in the PT storyline- why?  To bolster the show up a bit, Dan Curtis could have brought Roger Davis back to the show as a PT Ned Stuart for a few episodes and have him run up against John Yeager.  Also, what about Dennis Patrick, Terry Crawford and Paul Michael?  They were in HODS and could've been brought back to the series.  Better yet, this would've been a golden opportunity to get Alexandra Moltke back to DS in a different role- she always wanted to play a bad girl on the show, and having her in a different role in PT would've pleased her and brought longtime fans  who had left during Leviathan back to the show.  Talk about missed opportunities!!!  I've always wondered about a Vicki- Quentin pairing!

[MagnusTrask]

Worst things about PT... the fact that the alternate choices idea is completely bungled... they just use PT as yet another excuse to knock all the pieces off the chess board and start all over again, without giving thought to anything making any sense.    Apparently Quentin's different life choice was to be born in the 20th century, instead of the 19th.    If I'm wrong, and different choices could actually have led to what we saw in PT, please tell me.

Secondly...  the whole opportunity of PT was wasted by just doing Jeckyl and Hyde without a new twist, when it was a big cliche of 60s television already, and Hitchcock's "Rebecca", a movie I may not have seen as a kid, but I certainly had by the time I got the tapes in 2002.    It's a major old Cary Grant movie.   You can't build and build to a big climax that's exactly the same as in the movie you're stealing from.    (Hoffman taunting Maggie to jump out the window.)     Sure, with Barnabas we'd all seen Dracula, but did they redo that story?  No, they added original twists, most notably the business about medically treating the vampire, and eventually making him the protagonist.    That MADE the series.   If Barnabas's story had just been Dracula's, verbatim, who would have cared?

PT gets watchable once Rebecca and Jeckyl and Hyde get resolved.

[BuzzH]

Apparently Quentin's different life choice was to be born in the 20th century, instead of the 19th.    If I'm wrong, and different choices could actually have led to what we saw in PT, please tell me.   

This isn't necessarily true.  Maybe the Quentin of 1897 PT was vastly different from 1897 RT Quentin, in that he married and had a son that survived, sans a werewolf curse, and this son had a son, who had a son etc...and at some point one of the descendants of the "original" 1897 PT Quentin named his son Quention after him.  Thus we have a 1970 PT man named Quentin after his ancestor and not under a werewolf curse.

Sound reasonable?  

[AndreDuPres]

I think I like 1970 PT so much, because I see an atmosphere--yes, atmosphere--far different than that of the Leviathan storyline (a plot which I really like, but I felt it went downhill once Jeb shows up).  With the Leviathans, you get a feeling of skin-crawling uneasiness.  That whole plot was so repulsive and almost grotesque especially in the latter half.  But with PT...everything is so superficially beautiful.  Collinwood is bright, flowery, and well-ordered.  The people lilving there are generally successful (or once successful) artistic types, and the queen bee, the deceased Angelique, is the very hub of a Renaissance-esque cultural centre.  It all *seems* so very nice and comforting and "normal," especially compared to the preceding Leviathan antics.  Angelique herself is gorgeous--she never looked more lovely than in spring/summer of 1970.

[Gerard]

I didn't care for the Jekyll/Hyde story, either (especially when Yaeger's nose was so huge in the first few episodes that it got its own billing), but it did have its moments, particularly the presense of the wonderful Buffy Harrington.  She has always remained one of my favorite "secondary" characters of any story or plotline.  Why, she was the only character in all of Dark Shadows who ever had a television set.  Not even one in all of Normal Time had a set.

There were many other vibrant and magnificent characters in PT1970.  I've gone on and one before about the dynamic, Tennessee Williamsesque Will and Carolyn Loomis.  Auntie Hannah was a wonderful hoot, always dressed in her Carol Brady pants-suit outfit.  And who would not want to have Hoffman as their housekeeper, having her answer the door when somebody on the other side is all set to say:  "Have you heard about the Watchtower....?"  Elizabeth Stoddard, as the poor relation, maintained a sense of dignity and gentleness.  Roger, also the other poor relation, remained Roger no matter what band of time he was in.

Gerard

[Charles_Ellis]

I don't mean to be critical, Magnus, but your ignorance is blazing through.  First, it's spelled Jekyll.  Second, Rebecca starred Laurence Olivier, not Cary Grant, and it so happens to be my favorite Hitchcock film, and the DS writers certainly did a good job in borrowing from the film for the 1970PT Angelique storyline.  In case you forgot (and you probably did!), in the film Rebecca stayed dead, whereas on DS Angelique came back to wreak all sorts of havoc, and she had a twin sister, something Rebecca DeWinter didn't have!    There were plenty of original twists to both of the "ripped-off" storylines you deplore.  Now that the episodes are on DVD, may I suggest you actually WATCH them, as well as Rebecca and any major film/TV version of Jekyll and Hyde you desire, including the fab Dan Curtis version starring Jack Palance!  The next time you post something so venal regarding the DS storyline, be sure to check your facts first!!!!!

[Darren Gross]

Secondly...  the whole opportunity of PT was wasted by just doing Jeckyl and Hyde without a new twist, when it was a big cliche of 60s television already, and Hitchcock's "Rebecca", a movie I may not have seen as a kid, but I certainly had by the time I got the tapes in 2002.    It's a major old Cary Grant movie.   

You mean Lawrence Olivier...Cary Grant isn't in REBECCA...

That'd be NOTORIOUS- the other Hitchcock film Dan Curtis stole from for NODS...

Jeez, Charles that's way beyond harsh...Take it down a notch, please. We're all friends here.

[Misa]

I'm not sure that Roger is exactly the same in PT, Gerard.

[spoiler]I just can't imagine our Roger murdering someone in cold blood, I can imagine him having an affair, but not murdering her. Nope, I can't see him murdering her. He let Burke go to prison for his manslaughter, but he never murdered anyone outright.[/spoiler]

Misa

[Joeytrom]

PT 1970 would have been a good place to set things up based on the original premise.  Have Elizabeth Collins Malloy as a widow.  Bring a PT Burke Devlin for Barnabas to deal with.  A PT Dr. Woodard making appearances when needed.  Let Roger be the one who spent five years in prision for manslaughter.  Have the first actor as caretaker Matthew Morgan.

The only character mentioned who had been gone from the series was Sam Evans who drowned on Jamison Collins' yacht.

[Roland]

I think I need to clarify something in my opening post.  I don't dislike the PT storyline per se.  I think the Angelique/Alexis stuff is fine.

I would also like to defend the Leviathon story somewhat.  I think the writers did a good job making Jeb a complex villain.  The fact that he wants so desperately to become a good person because of his love for Carolyn ends up making him a rather poignant figure.  I think that Jeb and Carolyn make one of the only truly "sexy" couples DS ever came up with, and much of that is due to the fact that Jeb is a "bad boy" trying to be good.  There is a real tension in that relationship that is often lacking in the other romances.