Discuss - Ep #0492

[Watching Project]

Robservations #492

[Lydia]

I've started paying attention to the hand techniques of the Beckoners in the Dream.  So far I'd say the gals are beating out the guys.  I wasn't paying attention when Roger Davis Beckoned, so I guess he can't have been too bad.  Addison Powell's Beckoning was simply atrocious.  Back and forth as if he were waving a flag.  I couldn't tell if he wanted Julia to go backward or forward.  Both Grayson Hall and Clarice Blackburn were very good.  I believe it was Grayson Hall whose arm I noticed going backward more slowly than it beckoned forward, making it clear that the desired direction was forward.  Alas, I can't remember the details of Clarice Blackburn's Beckoning; all I remember is thinking to myself: "That is truly superior Beckoning."  And today we had David Henesy.  I regret to say that his Beckoning was only fair to middling.  Better than Addison Powell's, but definitely not as good as I would have expected out of him.
 
Today was the first day that the Dream took a shortcut: it dropped out Dr. Lang's headless creature.  I would have dropped out the skeleton bride instead, but that's a minor quibble.  My real preference would have been to keep all the doors throughout all the Dreams in the Curse, so that in the end Barnabas would have to open a dozen doors, but I suppose that would have broken the budget for doors.
 
New and noteworthy: Julia persuaded Barnabas to her way of thinking on an issue!  I.e. on not euthanizing Adam.  Incidentally, I liked the scornful look Julia gave when Barnabas told her to do as he said.  Granted, she did do as he said, but I don't think she felt particularly obliged to.

[MagnusTrask]

I guess Julia just didn't want to be at his beckon call.... I'm not sure, is that an entendre and a half?  It's not a double.

The things beyond doors in the Dream seemed embarrassingly nonsensical to me at first, but after just having seen the conclusion to the Dream Curse, I now think that the parts that didn't make sense really pertained only to Barnabas, not the previous dreamers.    Josette's music box theme really bothered me.   I thought it was randomly inserted, probably because it had been popular.   I took that as an indication that all rules and sanity were now out the window.    The Dream's meant for Barnabas, though, and that's Josette's skeleton, too.

Since it was 1968, they could have done a musical version of "product placement", and had Mama Cass appear in one of the doorways to promote her new single, "Dream A Little Dream Of Me", covered with cobwebs.   

LOL re all the Beckoning....!

[michael c]

due to the special effects capabilities of the time the dream itself is pure cheese-whiz...

but i think the storyline was really original and unique.for me it was a high-point in the wildly uneven 1968.
i liked that at a time when adam was taking over the series(and the original characters being marginalized)this plot utilized nearly the entire cast.

[MagnusTrask]

pure cheese-whiz...

An oxymoron....

[Lydia]

Josette's music box theme really bothered me.   I thought it was randomly inserted, probably because it had been popular.   I took that as an indication that all rules and sanity were now out the window.

I disagree.  It was Maggie who first heard Josette's music box in the dream, and her subconscious (which might be more conscious during a dream) would have told her that this sweet little tune was a harbinger of horror.

The Dream's meant for Barnabas, though, and that's Josette's skeleton, too.

It hadn't occurred to me that the skeleton might be Josette's, but I think you're wrong on that.  I have decided that when Julia was a young, impressionable first-year med student, her male classmates played a sadistic practical joke on her involving a skeleton in a wedding gown, which left her emotionally scarred for the rest of her life.

[MagnusTrask]

Josette's music box theme really bothered me.   I thought it was randomly inserted, probably because it had been popular.   I took that as an indication that all rules and sanity were now out the window.

I disagree.  It was Maggie who first heard Josette's music box in the dream, and her subconscious (which might be more conscious during a dream) would have told her that this sweet little tune was a harbinger of horror.

I disagree too.   I was saying that I thought that at first, and changed my mind.

It turned out that the poem was talking about Barnabas, specifically the "point of return" part, so then I looked back, and the Dream bits that made no sense to me could be made sense of, if they were about Barnabas.   I don't really know, though.

[EmeraldRose]

David may not have been a good beckoner, but I think his recitation of the poem was excellent! It sounded very spooky.  I loved  how he said, "the". Yes, indeed, Mrs. Johnson was an excellent screamer! 

I agree with Magnus -  I believe the skeleton bride was Josette. However, I do agree with you on another point,  Lydia - I also think it would have been great for Barnabas to have to open all twelve doors! 

----- Sally -----

[IluvBarnabas]

Cassandra has made David lose his memory of his seeing her and Tony together. I was wondering why she hadn't done that in the first place until I read other posts saying she wanted to avoid going on a honeymoon with Roger....that makes absolute sense. After all, even though Roger is a different person, he still resembles Joshua Collins, the father-in-law who treated her with disdain.

Yes, Mrs. Johnson was a great screamer.  She truly was frightened after the dream. It seems to me the women who have had the dream so far (her, Maggie, Julia) were more terrified out of their wits than the men (Dr. Lang, Jeff).

I'm glad Julia talked Barnabas out of killing Adam, even though it will have disasterous results later on. Now that they've brought Adam to life (right or wrong) they can't have just dispose of him because they made him mad and he threw a violent temper tantrum. I think this was very admirable of Julia, especially considering Adam had tried to strangle her the previous episode....but she understood he only did that because he did not understand anything about pain.