Discuss - Ep #1199

[DarkLady]

Wow, I didn't know that about Mary Lamb--do you know more, Gothick? I do love how Nancy Barrett's portrayal of Melanie. One my favorite Melanie lines is in this episode. Catherine asks Melanie, You want Morgan and me to get married, don’t you? I want anyone to be happy who can, Melanie replies. It's so poignantly obvious she doesn't include herself in that category.

[Gothick]

A fairly decent entry on Mary Lamb:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Lamb

I honestly can't recall whether I read somewhere that the character of Melanie and her situation was based upon Mary Lamb, or whether I just assumed that the writers made use of this well-known episode of English literary history in constructing the PT 1841 storyline.

G.

[DarkLady]

Thanks, Gothick. I knew about Tales from Shakespeare, but had no idea Mary had such a sad story.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Lara Parker definitely considered Angelique to be the victim (My God - one can't get through reading Angelique's Descent without being hammered over the head with that notion over and over again!!), though one would be hard pressed to say that Angelique was ever the true heroine of any of the storiylines she appeared in. Well, except perhaps in Ang's and Parker's own minds.    But with Catherine, Parker really and truly got to play the heroine of the storyline.

And as for Bramwell possibly being one-note, I wouldn't say that. Yes, he can certainly be angry and self-absorbed, and he's both of those things much of the time - but there's also the side to him that he displays whenever he's around Melanie. He does see Melanie as a fellow outcast in the Collins family, but there's more to it than that because he also feels deeply sympathetic toward Melanie because of the way she gets treated by her "brothers". And whereas he tends to strike out at the other members of the family, his empathy for Melanie's plight brings out in him a need to support and comfort her. Though of course,[spoiler]there's much more to their relationship than meets the eye - and neither of them are even aware of it at this point -and to get into that now would be very premature.[/spoiler]

[MagnusTrask]

Wow.   I guess they really did find the right actress to throw herself into the part of Angelique and make us believe it, since she seems to have identified!

[Gothick]

I know it is OT to this thread, but I have been re-visiting Parallel Time and I personally think Parker was never better in the series than as Angelique Stokes Collins--totally out-of-control, round-the-twist, borderline-psychotic eee-vil for evil's sake.  Let us just say that there's a real sense of commitment from the actress in this role, and a full-blooded relish in how she enacts each crazed scene the scripts demand of her.  There's something inspiring about such unbridled lust for all-out pandemonium.

I do have to wonder just how Parker thought she could get away with saying she thought Grayson won the prize for extreme acting in the series... perhaps she had simply forgotten about large stretches of her own work on DS at that point (1986)?

cheers. G.

[Taeylor Collins]

Thank you Gothick! I adore Melanie and think that NB once again knocks it out of the park!    Love her in this time.  The actors did give it all they had. 

I agree that Keith was a bit wooden and when he needed to be over the top, he went OVER THE TOP! 

[MagnusTrask]

I've noticed that when Morgan shouts, he does it with no emotion in his voice.   It's just volume.

[Taeylor Collins]

Great point Magnus! That is exactly how I would describe him!

[MagnusTrask]

Thanks much Seven, I mean Taeylor!