You know, after listening to the lastest installment I feel compelled to say that you should never apologize talking about the characters and their relationships like they're real people. We've done and we still do it all the time around here. And many other fans have done and still do it elsewhere. It's a perfectly natural outgrowth of discussing the show. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's one of the most interesting aspects of the show to discuss.
Thanks, MB! I shall never apologize for that again! I agree with you, 100%.
Someone I know recently had a good-natured snicker because I tend to get carried away with that sort of thing, and I guess I started feeling a little self conscious about it. Such discussions are a major part of the fun, and I've always loved talking about that world and its characters from the "secondary world"/in-universe perspective.
As for Barnabas needing therapy before he should ever be with anyone romantically, hell yes! And 200 years of therapy probably isn't even anywhere near long enough to iron out all of his issues!!
And I totally agree that only what happened on the show is canon. Some of the things in Sam Hall's article were things that were actually planned for the show (like Carolyn turning out to be the reincarnation of Leticia Faye - and sadly, supposedly Roger discovering Barnabas' secret and being killed off (because Louis Edmonds wanted to leave the show). But much of the rest is quite fanciful wishful thinking...
I remember hearing that about Carolyn turning out to be the reincarnation of Leticia and Roger being killed off because of Louis Edmonds planning to leave the show. The seeds for Carolyn being Leticia's reincarnation were planted in Summer of 1970, so I could definitely see that (and her interest in the paranormal) being the next step in the character's evolution. Actually, in an earlier episode of the podcast, our own Gothick pointed out that Carolyn, Quentin, David, and Hallie are most likely all reincarnations of their 1840 counterparts. It seems that Hallie was the final "piece" needed to jumpstart the return of Gerard/Judah and Daphne.
If there's just ONE reason I'm happy DS ended when it did, it's the fact that Roger didn't get killed off! I remember feeling really sad when I first read that in the Sam Hall article. I mean, yeah, nobody is safe at Collinwood but gosh, I really wouldn't want to see Liz, Roger, Carolyn, and David truly die. We wouldn've gotten some Roger as a ghost fun, but still. On a related note, unless they could've convinced David Henesy to come back, they would have lost BOTH Roger and David! Yikes. Maybe they would have recast him, although I suspect fans wouldn't have accepted a new actor in the role. I like to imagine a scenario where both actors would've been given raises and talked into staying on with the show. haha. And then there's everything that went down between Dan Curtis and Jonathan Frid over NoDS around Dec. 1970. Yikes!
Uncle Roger - During 1995 and Summer of 1970, I believe Louis really was on vacation in Europe. I think he went to the UK during that timeframe and then came back in time for the 1840 storyline.
Re: Canon - this is why I get frustrated when I see Big Finish material mixed in with show canon in the DS Fandom Wiki. Don't get me wrong, I think the Wiki is a GREAT resource and appreciate all the effort that goes into it, but a designation is needed when non-show-canon Big Finish audio material is woven into the entries. I think that blurs the lines. I've seen/heard people claiming certain plot points from Big Finish "were mentioned in the show" when they were certainly were not.