25716
« on: April 11, 2008, 11:53:07 PM »
Unfortunately I can't see the intro of Barnabas properly, because I have the edited-highlights MPI tapes, mostly, and I must be missing a lot. I noticed that they managed to cut out every single mention of Willie draining cows!
Coherence and consistency in the "facts" of a storyline matter, but they aren't the most important thing, not to me anyway. Preferring the time-travel storylines isn't as arbitrary as you might think. I much prefer them because of atmosphere, visuals, most everything about them. Everything seems to matter more. I like the use and delivery of language in them.
There's 1967 (B&W) of course, and I've never seen 1966 and that may be great, but after that I don't think the stories in the "present" are that good. I'm sorry that I can't think of solid reasons right now. Anyway, I've never liked the times I've lived in and wanted escape from them somehow.
As for the past characters seeming less "real", I know what you mean, but with each passing year the past characters seem more and more real to me, and the "present" ones less and less real. I think PT undermined the reality of characters more than anything else. Anyway, the fact that characters could and would (some anyway) die makes their storyline more potent to me. They now seem more real to me, specifically for that reason.
The "present" characters are often oblivious to what's really going on, and don't take much of a direct part in the action. This makes them "cargo" to me, and not real characters. By that I mean that they just exist to be put in danger and saved, whether individually or as part of that "Collins family" that heaven and earth must be moved in order to save. The Collins family is collectively a great big (and often uninteresting) damsel-in-distress. First Vicki was reduced to that in late 1795, then the whole Collins family in 1968.
Whenever I get to see 1966, I expect to have a moment where I realize, oh THIS is why these characters were really created....