A few weeks ago I posted a message about finding an edit in the DS DVD set 7.  Well, now that I have about finished watching that set, I have now found 4 places in those episodes where the material was edited.  The places where the edits occurred were in spots where there was damage to the original materal and on the VHS version the screen would momentarily go black.  The latest edit I found dealt with a scene where Cassandra and Tony Petersen were in the study talking and it was a two shot with Tony back facing the camera,  Cassandra said "look into my eye" and suddenly it jumped to a closeup of Cassandra.  It was clear it was an edit.  Another edit took place in the scene where Lang was going to use Jeff Clark's head on his creation and Barnabas was debating whether he could go through with it.  I remember clearly that scene being damaged in the original VHS version and the screen going black for a moment or two.  Again on the DVD the edit is clearly visible because Barnabas is saying one thing and then is saying something totally different a second later.

It is clear now that with this set anyway the technical problems with the episdoes are definitely being edited out.  There is no question of it.  Once might be a mistake, but several times is someone, on some level, trying to clean up the series.  To me that is doing a disservice to the material and the fans alike.  If someone is embarrassed by the glitches that exist in the original DS material, I'm sorry, but that goes along with the charm of the show and is a part of the show.  Most fans understand and accept that.  Sometimes the glitches may be with the picture only and the sound still be there, but by editing that portion out, the sound material is lost as well.  To me this is like Joshua Collins rewriting history to suit himself and have history see what he wants it to see.  I'm sorry DS is not perfect but that is just part of it and trying to clean it up and take out all the blimishes may make it look better on the surface but is also taking away from the charm of the series, not to mention taking away some material as the edits don't seem to just take away the error but small bits proceeding the error as Midnite found was the case in the first edit I found.  This practice be it by Dan Curtis Productions, the place that is putting the show in digital format or MPI needs to stop or the material needs to stop being advertised as complete and unedited because even though entire scenes are not being cut, there are edits in the material which means it is not complete and not unedited.

Richard Holt

Just how old is Ben suppose to be as opposed to Daniel.  Now in 1795, Ben was a man, in his  mid 40's (according to what Professor Stokes says about him in 1968 after Vicki returns to the present) and Daniel is a boy of about 11 or 12.  Now, since 45 years have passed since 1795, that would make Daniel only 57 at the most, yet he is presented as being an old man.  57 is not really an old man.  This would make Ben in his mid 80's, which also goes against what Profressor Stokes says about Ben's fate when he first meets Vicki in 1968.  He says Ben worked his land and died in his 75 year.  I saw this episode recently on DVD and if Ben was in his mid 40's in 1795, he would not have lived to 1840.

In the 1840 story, you are given the impression that Daniel is a much older man than he would have been and that he is going senile.  57 is pretty young, even in those days to be going senile.  Also Ben seems better able to get around than Daniel, when it probably should be the other way around.

I like the 1840 storyline but there parts of it that really were not written with any logical thought put into it, with regard to time and events both past and future.

Raholt

We all know that DS DVD set 5 is about to come out next Tuesday and set 6 follows in June, but after that I have heard nothing definite about any future releases.  I remember back, last fall when 4, 5, and 6 were announced there was talk of releasing the sets more often, but since then nothing.  Has anyone heard anymore about releases after June release of set 6.  Amazon has nothing beyond that point listed and they usually have things up way in advance so I'm wondering are there going to be future releases?

Raholt

I noticed while looking for something else on Amazon tonight that they have now got the DS DVD set 4 listed for preorder.  The date given is Feb 25.  This is the first time I have seen any listing for it so I thought I would mention it.

Richard Holt

Question about the board.  I have always checked the notify me of replies to my messages, but I have yet to get any kind of notifcation of any reply to a message I have posted.  Does this function not work or is something wrong with my account?

When I check notificatons on the main menu, it states that I am setup to be notified of replies to several topics, but like I said before I have never gotten any notiification so that is why I am asking about this.

Richard Holt

I pre-ordered the new DS DVD set from Amazon back in March, when it was first posted on their website.  The price at the time was $52.49 and then in April the price dropped to $49.99 and then this weekend it dropped again to $44.99.  Now, I recieved an email on Saturday saying that it has been shipped but it stated I was charged the $49.99 price with shipping extra.  However, their website showed I had been billed the original price of $52.49 plus shipping.  I wrote Amazon and found that I had indeed been charged the original price and they are taking $7.50 off my credit card now.

This is not intended as any kind of knock against Amazon or criticism of them.  Their customer service was extremely prompt and helpful and took care of the problem without issue.  The reason I'm writing this is to give everyone who might have pre-ordered it there, a heads up warning to make sure and check what they are charged for the item.  Since the street date for the item is actually tomorrow, even if it has already shipped, like mine did on Saturday, the price charged for it should be the $44.99 price plus shipping, as that was what the price was at the time of shipment.  I just wanted to make everyone aware of this problem, in case it might happent to someone else.  

Richard Holt