Curious about the end of Vicki's journey in 1795...

[IluvBarnabas]

This will contain some SPOILERS:

When Vicki is hanged at the end of the 1795 storyline, she is magically transported back to her own time in 1967. Suppose her executioners had decided to burn her at the stake instead of hanging her? Would she have still have returned to her own time, or simply burn to death?

[Brandon Collins]

That is a good question. It probably would've turned out the same, because I think it was the intention of her trip to go and return, because the writers didn't yet want to kill her off. The only reason they probably used hanging was so that they could cover up her face, stop tape, get Wick up there, then start tape and take the bag off her head to reveal that it wasn't Vicki anymore.

If they had've burned her, they would've had to use special effects to make Phyllis Wick appear and Vicki disappear.

[Gothick]

Convicted "Witches" in the US were never burned; they were supposed to be hanged.  In the Salem hysteria two people died from "pressing," a form of interrogation under torture that is realistically re-created in the classic 1970 telefilm Crowhaven Farm (which I highly recommend to all DS fans).

I've never heard of decapitation, the punishment meted out to Judah Zachery in the DS 1840 storyline, being used as a form of capital punishment in the US.  I believe that death by decapitation was reserved for people commited of crimes of treason and sedition under old English law (hence Mary Queen of Scots, etc.).

Anyhow, I agree with Brandon Collins that the point of 1795 was for Victoria to witness the events of Barnabas' death and then return.  Presumably, she could not return until the moment of the death of Phyllis Wicke whose place she took when she was catapulted back through time.

G.

[arashi]

I read Giles Corey was pressed to death, who was the other?

[MagnusTrask]

Convicted "Witches" in the US were never burned; they were supposed to be hanged. 

I'm pretty sure you mean the American colonies, right?

[michael c]

speaking of the end of 1795...

i'm watching the tail end of it now and for a group of people who were constantly in a state of "mourning" weren't they rather gaily attired?wouldn't a respectable family of their day don black for a considerable period of time?did the costume department not have any black dresses?

and months after barnabas and josette's wedding was canceled why were characters like millicent and the countess dupres still staying at collinwood when the only reason they were there in the first place was the wedding?

and noah gifford'scostume looks like it was designed by jean paul gaultier.

[Lydia]

and months after barnabas and josette's wedding was canceled why were characters like millicent and the countess dupres still staying at collinwood when the only reason they were there in the first place was the wedding?

They must have been snowed in.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

   Oh, yeah - THAT was definitely it. 

[MagnusTrask]

At some point, they chose to shift the events in the late 1795 storyline from April? or so, to the end of the year, slopping over into 1796, which would make it winter, and i imagine that for long stretches of the year, such as winter, ships didn't sail.    Originally, though, it was supposed to be Spring, I think.     Look at Bradfords's grave.... I think it had an April (or so) 1795 death date, then later, someone has crudely altered it to "1796" with a felt-tip or something.   I'm not sure what the plan was, with shifting events forward a few months.