Is Joe a Collins?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Re: Tom and Chris - Are their any cast or writers who have gone on record as to what was intended?

Nope. But nowhere on the show is the often assumed relationship ever stated or even hinted. To the contrary, the writing seems to go out of its way NOT to imply it.

[jennifer]

as we have had this discussion before i think we found there is no mention [spoiler]of whether tom or chris were twins just brothers i have searched through my tapes and where i thought chris once said he was the older brother and could not find it so who knows but i agree MB the books Ds alamacs do say they are twins even though they are just guessing[/spoiler]also i always believed that joe wasn't a collins but a cousin from the jennings side. [spoiler]Lenore's daughter or grandaughter married a jennings who had the non twins and amy[/spoiler]but this is  just IMHO because i don't believe this was ever revealed on the show either. the family tree was also i believe just made up by fans and not the writers

jennifer
searching through the tapes of the jennings boys was fun though!
double eye candy

[DStoDA]

I think jen that you are right.

Lenore could have had a daughter who married a guy named Jennings. Jennings must have had a sister who married a guy named Haskell. So as you can see, Joe and Chris can be cousins without the collins relation.

[PennyDreadful]

  As Midnite discovered from the tombstone, Chris and Tom are not twins.  However, for the sake of argument, let's assume that they ARE twins.  Tom still doesn't have to suffer from the curse.  The curse affects the first-born son.  Obviously, even if they are twins, ONE of them has to come out first!  If Chris was born a few minutes before Tom, the magic would affect him and not his brother.

PennyDreadful

[Gerard]

Can you imagine what a nightmare probate must be in that family.

Gerard

[Nelson Collins]

  As Midnite discovered from the tombstone, Chris and Tom are not twins.  However, for the sake of argument, let's assume that they ARE twins.  Tom still doesn't have to suffer from the curse.  The curse affects the first-born son.  Obviously, even if they are twins, ONE of them has to come out first!  If Chris was born a few minutes before Tom, the magic would affect him and not his brother.

Well, as I point out in my comment above, tombstones are probably not the most accurate way of determining the birth or death of any DS character.   But consider this (and this is a big retcon), perhaps all the journeys back and forward (and even sideways) in time that we have seen (and even future trips we never saw), is responsible for all the altered backstories and wrong years quoted or seen.    Such a trip might be responsible for either a) a future attempt to change the timeline to prevent the curse from ever being visited on Chris, a knock on effect of which was somehow preventing tom and Chris to be born as twins, or b) (and I favor Occam's razor for this explanation) the tombstone maker was given the wrong year or simply made a mistake.

However, it's probably all moot, as MB says they it was never mentioned on the show that they were twins and there has been no public comment by either cast members or writers and also sadly Don Briscoe is no longer with us.

[jennifer]

  As Midnite discovered from the tombstone, Chris and Tom are not twins.  However, for the sake of argument, let's assume that they ARE twins.  Tom still doesn't have to suffer from the curse.  The curse affects the first-born son.  Obviously, even if they are twins, ONE of them has to come out first!  If Chris was born a few minutes before Tom, the magic would affect him and not his brother.

Well, as I point out in my comment above, tombstones are probably not the most accurate way of determining the birth or death of any DS character.   But consider this (and this is a big retcon), perhaps all the journeys back and forward (and even sideways) in time that we have seen (and even future trips we never saw), is responsible for all the altered backstories and wrong years quoted or seen.    Such a trip might be responsible for either a) a future attempt to change the timeline to prevent the curse from ever being visited on Chris, a knock on effect of which was somehow preventing tom and Chris to be born as twins, or b) (and I favor Occam's razor for this explanation) the tombstone maker was given the wrong year or simply made a mistake. 

However, it's probably all moot, as MB says they it was never mentioned on the show that they were twins and there has been no public comment by either cast members or writers and also sadly Don Briscoe is no longer with us.

what tombstones?
also  i think jon frid pointed out one time the actors are probaly the last ones to
ask about relationships between charactors. they were playing the roles but the
fans are the ones who remember it all! LOL

jennifer

[Amy Jennings Fan]

  As Midnite discovered from the tombstone, Chris and Tom are not twins.  However, for the sake of argument, let's assume that they ARE twins.  Tom still doesn't have to suffer from the curse.  The curse affects the first-born son.  Obviously, even if they are twins, ONE of them has to come out first!  If Chris was born a few minutes before Tom, the magic would affect him and not his brother.

That's what I was thinking. The name Thomas does mean twin.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The name Thomas does mean twin.

Naming the character Tom with twins in mind presupposes that they planned ahead to introduce Tom's look-alike brother Chris somewhere down the line - but that's not actually the case. It was the fan response to Don Briscoe that caused the DS PTB to bring him back in another role.