the b-list episodes

[michael c]

i've been watching 1897 and last night i watched an episode that struck me as odd(odder than usual given that it's 1897)...

it was episode 753 and about halfway through i started to feel like something was missing. that it was a bore.

then i realized that this episode was populated only by the storyline's secondary characters and focused largely on the lesser plots(mainly the worthington hall snoozefest). it was just beth,jamison,charity trask,tim shaw and the werewolf stuntman.

so i started wondering what went into the production of an episode like this. episodes where none of the protagonists of a given storyline are present. where the supporting characters are given the spotlight. that don't really push the plot along in any significant way.

there was no barnabas. no angelique. no judith. no laura. just some annoying stupid girl, a maid, a schoolteacher and a little boy. one could argue that "quentin" was there in spirit but since it was just the "stunt coordinator" and not david selby it lacked star power.

were none of the main actors available that day? did the writers decide to give this dull secondary plot a boost? every now and then there is an episode like this.

that said i haven't watched this storyline in several years and i had forgotten how prominently beth factored into things at least during the early months. my memory was of her as a minor character but she gets lots of screentime. she's quite lovely.

[Joeytrom]

One other episode I can think of is during the 1967 Laura story which has a scene set in Phoenix, Arizona.  I remember it featured Dr. Guthrie, Frank Garner, and the two Phoenix policemen.  Not sure who else is in it.

Another unusual 1897 episode has no women in it.

[michael c]

One other episode I can think of is during the 1967 Laura story which has a scene set in Phoenix, Arizona.  I remember it featured Dr. Guthrie, Frank Garner, and the two Phoenix policemen.  Not sure who else is in it.

Another unusual 1897 episode has no women in it.

if i recall there was more than one 1897 episode without any female characters. the storyline starts with lots of female characters...judith,rachel,beth,jenny,laura,magda...featured prominently but about midway through most of those characters are gone or the actresses who play them on extended hiatuses(joan bennett,kathryn leigh scott)and the storyline becomes something of a boy's club with quentin,barnabas,petofi and aristede dominating the proceedings.

i remember the infamous 1968 "fake carolyn" episode only featured the show's secondary characters as well.

[Lydia]

I checked the Watching Project Discussion of this episode (which has a link to the Robservations, of course), and thought: "Oh, golly, it's the tiresome locking-up-Jamison subplot."

Discuss - Ep #0753

I don't think of Nancy Barrett and David Henesy as secondary performers, but their characters weren't very interesting.  Jamison was young and innocent - far more so than David - and Charity was unpleasant.  What could have been done to make this subplot more interesting?  It always struck me as far-fetched: I didn't think Trask would abuse a student with rich and loving relatives.  It would have made more sense to bring in another kid to be locked up, and to have Jamison try to help.  They could even have killed off the kid!  (In that case I hope he would have been played by David Jay, who later played Alexander in the Leviathan storyline.)  But maybe that would have introduced more complications than they wanted.

I suppose the idea of this subplot was to make it clear that the Trasks were beyond the pale, but we knew that anyway, right?

[michael c]

yes lydia my other main observation about these episodes is that the trask characters are beyond ridiculous.

they're loathsome. we get it.

but the way they all waltz in and out of collinwood,ordering the family and servants around as if they owned the place,is absurd. i mean who the heck are they to run roughshod across everyone in collinsport and why does everyone cowtow to this ridiculous minister and his stupid family.

and yes,why on earth is jamison,heir apparent of the most prominent and wealthy family in town,being locked up and abused? especially after the school burns down and is relocated on the collins property where his relatives are within an arms reach? this type of treatment might have made sense with some impoverished orphan but not with a member of this family. this subplot makes absolutely no sense at all and that's saying something within a storyline as far-fetched and convoluted as this one.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I could be in the minority, but I've always seen Trask's treatment of Jamison as pointing to the fact that Trask didn't care who his charges were or where they came from - they all had to comply with his rules or suffer the consequences of his twisted wrath. And I also think that in Trask's mind he sees himself above everyone else by virtue of his perception that he's God representative on Earth - and by extension he's imparted that same sort of belief to his family simply because they are members of his family. Not a particularly Christian attitude to have, Though, sadly, it's one I think we've all seen examples of in real life. I mean, how many religious leaders throughout history have seen themselves not only above their flocks but above nobles and even kings simply by virtue of their belief that they were God's representatives on Earth? Far too many. 

[michael c]

i hear what you're saying mysterious about trask's own delusional belief system regarding himself and his family.

but what strikes me as ridiculous...and totally unbelievable...is the way that most of the other characters defer to him.

all jamision needed to do was tell his aunt or father about his treatment at the school and the trasks would have been run out of town on rail. more importantly if he told his mother laura or distant cousin barnabas trask would have found himself six feet under. barnabas would NEVER allow a member of his family to be mistreated or abused by one of the trasks. so the whole plot is bogus to me.

it's just unbelievable(to me,at least)that these circumstances are allowed to continue.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I definitely agree that if Barn or Laura had gotten wind of what Trask did to Jamison, being sealed in Quentin's room to die would have seemed like a vacation compared to what either of them might have done. But given the circumstances of how Jamison got to Worthington Hall, I'm not all that surprised that he never told anyone. He was sent to Worthington Hall against his wishes and because Edward insisted - and even his uncle Quentin, whom he worshipped, couldn't prevent it. So, to Jamison's mind there probably wasn't anything any adult either would do or could do to stop Trask's abuse. I suspect Jamison felt completely alone and abandoned.

[MagnusTrask]

I agree generally with everything MB's said here.   Gregory's motivation isn't just to have rich bosses and to please them, by treating them nicely.   He's consumed with bringing down the high and mighty, who think they're so much better than he is.   At the point in the story, Trask has total control ober the heir to the family fortune, his competition, and the object of his rage, because Gregory needs and supposedly deserves the Collins fortune.  Since he's so humble and holy and everything.

Trask isn't going to operate according to sensible, detached, calculated plans.   He's a maniac.   He's not going to have someone like Jamison in his charge and not put him through hell.   He has gut level rage motivating him.

Child abusers often count on the lack of credibiliity of the child.   In 1897, a child may very well have had no credibility at all, when opposed to any kind of authority figure, especially a minister.   Abusers love acting vicious in private where only the abusee can see, then acting all sweetness and light when anyone else is around.   That's how they control the situation.

[IluvBarnabas]

I always thought that maybe Jamison DID tell Edward and Judith about Trask offscreen...and they simply didn't believe him. After all, Trask put on a really great show of being 'a man of the cloth' (snicker, snicker) for both of them, and at that point neither of them really had any reason to believe that Trask wasn't what he appeared to be. And since Quentin had Jamison wrapped around his finger, I think perhaps Edward and Judith may have believed that Quentin was possibly manipulating the boy to lie against Trask, so Quentin could 'finish ruining Jamison' as Judith put it..

[Sandor]

Glad to have stumbled onto this thread. Some extremely keen insights here - I never realized all the layers of subtext in the Reverend Trask character. I just knew he was one of the best-written characters on DS, and that Jerry Lacy played the role superbly.  As for Trask's abuse and Jamison's silence in reporting these deeds to his family - I can relate.
While Dark Shadows was still on the air in 1970, I was in the 3rd grade in Southern California - and my male teacher believed in corporal punishment, and would strike and spank the (mostly male) students for misbehaving - by bringing them up to the front of the class, telling them to "Bend over!", and then in front of all one's peers, swat the kid in the butt with an encyclopedia, dictionary or unsanded ping-pong paddle! I got swatted twice in that school year - and I never told my parents about it at the time. Good thing laws changed and kids in school had more protection going forward.

As for the b-episodes with no main characters, I actually don't mind those so much. They're infrequent, and the episodes that follow them are often chock-full-of main characters (episodes with a cast line-up of Jonathan Frid, Joan Bennett, Louis Edmonds, Grayson Hall, Thayer David and Nancy Barrett are choice) who push the story forward.