First of all, I love Star Trek and was a fan before I was even allowed to watch DS.  I turned 8 exactly 2 weeks after it went off the air.  I got into DS via the Marilyn Ross books and shortly after that by watching the reruns on WLVI 56 out of Boston.  I got my share of teasing for being a "trekkie". 

I think the reason that DS has not been as popular is the nature of the show.  It's much easier to syndicate 79 hour long episodes. In order for DS to succeed on TV, it has to hook a nonsoap opera audience into watching it.  Early Barnabas runs quite slowly compared to most of what is on in TV-Land.  It takes a special viewer to appreciate Trek.  It takes a special viewer with a lot of patience and a large attention span to really get into DS.  That's my two cents any way.

Big Finish has just posted some news items at their site.  I won't anyone's time or energy posting what's up there.  It's www.bigfinish.com  As of this moment, the Dark Shadows Reborn site does not have the updated info. 
I'm pretty excited, new DS for Christmas!

I enjoyed the first 65 episodes a great deal. My interest  waned at about episode 120 or so, but I'm not sure if that was because I was stressed out and had less time for TV or whatever.  I'm going to go back and finish the series, when I have less on my mind.  The story moves slower than DS, but it's definately worth checking out.  The nice thing about it also, is that the first 65 eps are more or less self contained.  A person can watch those and then make a decision to walk away or continue watching.  You don't get left hanging with many major plot points unresolved

trying to keep the flame of Blake's Seven alive is okay in my book.

Agreed.  I loved the Blake's Seven audio drama done by the Sci Fi CHannel UK, but I'm getting tired of waiting for the second season.  I'm wondering if it's even going to happen now.

There's a local legend that says that you can hear the sound of Mercy wailing at her grave.  When I was in college we decided to go to Exeter and see if we could hear it.  We took this kid from somewhere like Oregon, I don't remember for sure.  Any way, we got lost and never made it to the grave.  I think we were in the right cemetary, but we got cold and decided to head back.  On the way back, this part is OT by the way, we got super lost and ended up near the CT state line.  We decided to cross over and get some more beer.  CT had an age 18 drinking age. RI was transitioniing to 21.  When I turned 18 it went to 19, when I turned 20, it stayed 20.  At that time I was underage. We had to make a pitstop, and we were near a sign that said WELCOME TO WYOMING (RI of course). Our designated driver got the bright idea to wake up the kid from Oregon or wherever and show it to him.  He looked at it and just froze.  Then he used a string of language I can't repeat here and started crying I'm in *^()^ing WYOMING! I have an EXAM TOMORROW and I"m in ())*_(+WYOMING!  Ok, I know that was off topic, but I couldn't resist.  We never ventured out to Exeter again.  I did hear a recording of the supposed wailing, but I wasn't clear what was wind, what was tape hiss, and what was supposedly wailing. 

I'd like to give a heads up to all interested parties that AOL Hometown will be shutting down after Halloween.  Jean Graham, a fantastic writer, has a great deal of fanfic up there.  Long time readers of TWODS, ITOH, and others will remember her work.  In addition to DS, you'll find Classic Trek, Forever Knight, Galactica, Blake's & etc.  The last time I spoke to her (ie via email) she siad that she was planning to move, but could not be sure how long it would take to get all of her material up. I whole-heartedly recommend her work and the price is right.  http://members.aol.com/jeanb7/

If anyone is interested in a story in the Big Finish contintuity, I just wrote a totally unauthorized and unofficial tale that postulates what Barnabas might have been doing between Book of Temptation and The Christmas Presence.  If anyone would like to read it, contact me privately and I'll send it off. 

I'm really looking forward to The Path of Fate, the advance title for the next BF CD. 

I have acquired some very good copies of 35 of the Dark Shadows Sunday Comic Strips (the first 36 weeks, but I'm missing one week in July or Aug).  It works out to the first few arcs.  I've scanned these and with the kind permission of the Mysterious Benefactor and the Powers That Be. I'd like to offer them up to members of this board, and any other interested parties. 

I've scanned these as JPEG files and would like to form a distribution list for these.  I've been sending them out, one a week, to a few people.  I'm more than willing to send the first few out, this week or the next, and then continue with one a week. 

In the interest of time, I'll be doing this as one email to a large number of people, so if you don't want others to have access to your main address, you  might want to create an account for this.  I have an AOL screen name that I rarely use for this purpose, just to keep all the mail from this project separate from my other mail. 

I have a little disclaimer.  Ms. Scott put out a wonderful book on the comic strips.  I don't intend to infringe upon her rights to sell these materials.  This is intended as a supplement to that collection.  Her book has BW copies of the 6 panel versions of the strips.  These copies are the 7 panel versions in color.  I will not be sending out any of the BW daily strips.  If you don't have her book, I recommend it highly.  It can be found at her website.

Members of this list might also be sent other goodies as I find them. 

If anyone has the last third of the collection, please send them my way. 
The email address should be fairly easy to remember  quentincollinsii@aol.com