Lets talk about the dumbest things the writers ever did.

[loril54]

The slide show  and the Jeb, Vickie, and Peter incident. That was dumb. Can you think of anything that was dumber?  I may be a loner her but, Barnabas telling Angelique he loved her. When I first saw it I thought, what was the purpose of the whole show if that was true.

[IluvBarnabas]

You're not alone, Lori.

I too think that was the biggest boo-boo on the part of the writers....I could see Barnabas MAYBE forgiving her (and this is a big MAYBE considering all that she's done to him and his family) but loving her? Tsk, tsk, shame on whoever came up with that bright idea.

[michael c]

this topic always gets me thinking...

by rights this plot development should have upset me more than it actually did.yes it sucked.it was horrible writing and bad storytelling.

but the truth is i had already "mourned" the loss of vicki when alexandra moltke left the show a year earlier.
after that the name "victoria winters" just became a name typed into the script.it was alexandra's portrayal of the character i missed.

but i wonder what impact this plot twist actually had at the time it was originally aired?
we're all watching this thing on dvd so we can move foreward and backward through the series' run at will.a vicki and peter episode can be viewed simply by putting the disc into the player.so all of the characters from the show's entire run are in effect "current" for us because we can see them anytime we want.this makes a 1966 character as "current" to us as a 1840 character because we can see them anytime.

but when this first aired it was totally out of left field.alexandra(and the character victoria)had been gone for over a year.roger davis had played three characters since peter's departure including one within this particular storyline.since 1897 had been the show's most highly rated storyline(with leviathan immediately following it timewise)lots of viewers hadn't been watching during the vicki/peter era and probably didn't even know who they were.plus they did not otherwise factor into the leviathan storyline whatsoever.

so apart from this being horrible writing and continuity(and a dreadful thing to do to a beloved character)it probably didn't even have the desired "shock" effect it was intended to.

[MagnusTrask]

Spam from a shoe company just obliterated the longer post I worked hard on here.   Short version:   BC's moment with Ang before she died is very good and understandable as long as you don't buy BC's feelings as being exactly the way he says they are.    No one knows just what his/her love is or why it happens, or even if it is love, or what love is in the first place.

I think Peter was supposed to be Stoddard originally but Dennis Patrick was unavailable.   

There are too many writers' mistakes for me to want to dwell on them any more.   People tend to overlook the big ones, such as Barnabas failing to get back into the coffin at the end of 1897 and 1840.

[David]

Don't get me started on 1840, which I sincerely believe was a ploy by Curtis to kill a show he was getting tired of.

1. Killing Angelique.
no explanation as to how this affected 1897,  1968 & 1970 stories.

2. Killing Edith.
see above.

3. Killing Roxanne.
see above.

4. No explanation as to how Gerard got so involved with Tad & Carrie, or how the kids were supposed to have died.
Even though a big deal was made of this in 1995 & summer 1970.

Did Curtis & the writers even care at this point?
After the brilliance of 1795 & 1897, & the sheer terror of 1995, 1840 was a disgrace.
A slap in the face to long time viewers.

David

[michael c]

i know that paul stoddard was the ghost that was originally supposed to have haunted jeb and that dennis patrick became unavailable hence the character substitutions...

but if they had to wing it anyways almost anything would have made more sense than dragging vicki and peter out of mothballs and then "killing-off" two characters who were long since departed anyways.

it was just kitchen-sink storytelling that didn't add anything meaningful to the plot.

[David]

they couldn't recast Paul's ghost?

David

[Mysterious Benefactor]

it probably didn't even have the desired "shock" effect it was intended to.

I can speak from the experience of both myself and my friends that longtime viewers were definitely shocked - and we were but a handful of the show's longtime viewership. Also, recall that viewers abandoned DS in droves during Leviathans. And while there's no way at this point to know for sure just who those viewers were, it's highly likely that a good portion of them were ones who'd come to DS during 1897 because longtime viewers of soaps tend to be very loyal to their shows - and they're very willing to stick with their shows through thick, thin and the insanity of bizarre plotting. At least back in the '60s they certainly were.

As for the reveal itself, unfortunately, I suspect it was chosen less for shock value than merely as a device to tie Peter in - and to tie him in no matter how ludicrous a tie-in it was - and given all that we knew up to that point about the Leviathans and Vicki/Peter, it was EXTREMELY ludicrous! 

it was just kitchen-sink storytelling

Sadly, by that point Leviathans had long been completely reduced to kitchen-sink storytelling. 

they couldn't recast Paul's ghost?

Apparently they didn't want to go that route. And besides, for whatever insane reason(s) that many of us will never understand, we know that DC just loved to bring back RD and did so whenever possible. And as we also know, when DC was determined to do something, it rarely mattered whether things made sense or not.    It was quite literally his way or the highway...

[David]

Curtis' "My Way or the Highway" harmed DS more often than not.
See my above 1840 post.

NBC asked him back after the Gulf War debacle in 91.
He said no.
Reportedly he was impossible to deal with during the shooting of the WB pilot.

I wonder what drove him to act this way?

David

[Joeytrom]

They also could have shown Paul's ghost as a dark figure and had someone do the voice.

DC apparently got worse as time went on, judging from the first year up to 1795, the writers seemed to be allowed for the story to flow slower and more natural.

[Brandon Collins]

I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet: ADAM! How about that entire character for one of the biggest writer's mistakes ever! Okay, so I won't completely degrade him--I'll add the fact that he did have good parts. But for the most part, that entire Frankensteign rip off (which seems to stick more to the book than the actual Frank. movie did) became extremely tired as it wore on (which is probably why the Frank. movie deviated so much).

I'm sorry to say that I'm am NOT one of those fans who thinks that the entire Barnabas telling Angelique that he loves her thing was bad. I actually can see how that makes sense. Not only does it tie up both of their storylines--after all, the entire series was based on the fact that Barnabas was wronged by Angelique because he refused to love her--and now that she's dying, he's either

A) Telling her he loves her because he wants her to die peacefully and feeling that she has accomplished something (no matter how torturous and murderous that accomplishment was)

or

B) Telling her he loves her because he really does love her, which, granted, is kind of hard to believe, but it is BELIEVEABLE. To me anyway. Because I think that it really speaks to Barnabas' overall character that he can forgive someone who wronged him so much throughout his 200+ years of living (or unliving, as the case may be). Not to mention the fact that the statement truly gives him a conscience and a sense of morals, which, let's face it, he didn't really put on display much of the time.

[Barnabas'sBride]

The first two that immediately come to mind are:  01) Barnabas telling Angelique he loves her) and 02) The mention of Victoria's death during Leviathans.

Those two things just drove me nuts - they're the kind of stuff that, had I loved the show a smidgen less than I did, would have turned me against it in a heartbeat; the kind of stuff that has the power to make me quit watching. The Victoria thing was pointless and an utter slap in the face to long term fans of the show and Victoria fans. The Barnabas/Angelique thing was OOC for Barnabas (character asassination in my eyes) and a slap in the face to fans of Barnabas/Josette, Barnabas/Julia, Sarah fans, and the original Collins family members like Naomi whose lives were ruined indirectly because of Angelique. Forgiving her so she could die in peace would have been character growth and could have been touching.

There were other things I thought were dumb - the entire Adam storyline for one, writing Victoria so clueless another, but nothing compares to my two picks above.

[loril54]

Yes the writers could have done something interesting with Adam and the connections between Barnabas and Adam. Adam never came back, what happened to Adam with Barnabas became a Vampire again?

They could have brought aback a different actor with the idea that Adam had plastic surgery.

How about Barnabas whet into to PT because he wanted to protect Maggie. If I remember correctly he
didn't attack Maggie during that period. I personally think he didn't want to attack another character.

[sallycollins]

I never knew Paul Stoddard's ghost was supposed to take that part taken by Peter Bradford. In either case, it was ridiculous to have Vicki killed off.

One plot line I didn't like, which no one has mentioned, was killing off Burke Devlin. He was one of my favorite characters. I'd have been happier if they had him leave on business after a breakup with Vicki.

Sally

[adamsgirl]

As far as Barnabas telling Angelique he loved her, no, I don't see that as ridiculous in any way. I, for one, always believed he did love her, and not Josette. He talked himself into thinking he loved Josette because that marriage made sense for him in the social position he was in. In 1795, we have Joshua and Andre discussing how the marriage of their two children is going to benefit both families financially. Also during that time, we have Barnabas visiting Angelique in her room and becoming embroiled in a passionate kiss. To me, that said he couldn't stay away from her, and it wasn't just sexual. His denials, too, were so unconvincing. Thus, when he finally tells Angelique it was she he always loved, well, it made perfect sense to me. What was maddening, though, was what took him so darn long!

Another thing to consider is, no matter what jam Barnabas found himself in, he always had to turn to Angelique for help. Sure, she extracted or demanded a price for it, but the way I see it, she deserved to be repaid!