1968

[BuzzH]

I adore Frid most of the time but he's pretty darn awful in 1968.

ITA Stefan.  '68 was brutal and you have an excellant point that Frid was probably just FRIED after 1795!  Who could blame him?  He did his best work ever on DS in 1795, 2nd would be 1841 PT. 

[Midnite]

ya know what? as much as I LOVE the 1795 storyline & the 1897 storyline. i think with the success of THOSE Great stories. DC & the writers or WHOVER thought of this storyline or that storyline, they got TOO Carried away with the traveling through time & The Parrell time. did i spell that right? & also i agree repeating the same storyline. the kids got possed 2 or 3 times at LEAST! HOW many times can you do that? even so it's STILL a great show. & the last storyline that they did alwys felt to me when i 1st saw it on sci-fi a few years ago. i've been a fan since (1998) i think it was? anwys, it feels unfinished & rushed. they knew they got cancelled & i think ran out of ideas on HOW To end the show. so they said what the hell let's just do this & that & than just END IT! anyone disagree or agree with me?

It's good to see you on the boards at last, B.Collins!    You're welcome to begin a topic introducing yourself on the Calendar Announcements / Events '07 board, or to begin a discussion with your thoughts about other storylines here on Current Talk.  There are also several topics on the end of DS that you can discover while reading archived boards or using the Search feature.  Here's one such recent topic:

Who was upset that DS ended in 1840 PT?

However, this topic is about the 1968 storyline, so it's probably not the best place in which to pose your question.  Thanks!

[IluvBarnabas]

I don't know, I thought Jonathan was brilliant all throughout the show (not counting messing up on lines which is forgivable under the circumstances), but I agree the Barnabas/Adam angle was not one of the better stories they came up for him. I mean I did like Adam (when he wasn't threatening to kill people that was) but the whole storyline I definitely wouldn't put it high up there with Barnabas' arrival or the time travelling stories, which I absolutely adore each and every one of them.

[Raineypark]

Not to belittle Frid, 'cause I *do* think the guy's got talent, but he himself admits to being a 'slow-study' and frankly, he never seemed to be the kind of actor who could 'think on his feet' and recover from a flub like say, Louie Edmonds can.  I can't think of a single time where he just winged it and ad-libbed while staying in character.  Instead, he'd nervously wring his hands, search for the teleprompter and stutter.  Not really a flaw, just some actors can do it and some can't.  Frid seems to be the type that can't.  Just my 2 pesos... 

I don't think "talent" had anything to do with it.  Frid's extensive experience with classical theatre training and performances were not useful when it came to doing DS.  One doesn't "wing" Shakespeare, nor does one "ad lib" it.  If Barnabas had ever had occasion to quote long passages of the Bard, I'm sure Frid would have been brilliant!

[MagnusTrask]

From my notes again:

I wanted early Adam who can't speak to be next in line for the Dream.   He appears at someone's door, then tries to grunt his way through the poem...

Nice human point of view starting with 1968, not just with Adam's more sympathetic portrayal (than I remember from the Universal "monster movie" that didn't emphasize this quite as much did it?  I haven't seen it since I was a kid), that I must have identified with as a child mutant in suburbia, but also with the backstory of Ben Stokes becoming literate and his descendant becoming a professor, running circles around everyobody logically.    Very validating and empowering message built into the foundations of the program.  The outsiders really get it more than the powers that be.

Stokes in Ang's Dream... that's my kind of hero, right there!     Smiting with his wits and smartassedness!

E Stokes has Petofi's pinky thing.  I thought that was an acting choice, to make the Hand creepier.

I wrote this:  "I think Thayer David just walked into the credits!"   He should have stayed in character and just not given a damn.

The major life lesson of DS... you CAN tell a lie and get away with it forever!   (Stokes never finds out about BC.)

What's that huge bony fan coming out of Trask's elbow?

Elliot Stokes=Doctor Who?

Trask: "You are the witch I've been seeking!"   Cass should have said "Took you long enough bonehead!"  I did.

Interesting, if BC were to start a heartfelt conversation with ECS as Naomi.

Tower Room smaller inside than out.  Dr Who really is around.

Nicholas Blair!

I had to creep through NBs big entrance to find the Caption This! capture where Roger vomits into Nick's hat, or so I made it out to be.

"I don't have little vices, Mr. Collins!"

NB looking for sign of Ang's existence... then sudden Angelique theme music, loud... Blair or Astredo looks up in response... and it stops when NB names the wrong place to find her.    Only instance I know of, where the character can actually hear the background music!

In death, no one came along to disillusion Trask about his being a man of God... like, maybe.... God?!    Where does Trask hang out?   If not Heaven, has he stopped to think about why he's not there?

I'm missing a tape around this point, where NB interacts with Ang as Cassandra.    Adam's well spoken suddenly.   Tom Jennings pops into the story and gets bitten.    More later.

[Nancy]

He did a lot of plays that were not Shakespeare but, still, there are actors who do not ad-lib well if at all.  I've known plenty of them and have been left on stage looking at another actor who probably couldn't even remember his own name at different points.   Fortunately, I can ad-lib pretty well.

Early and live television is not a medium for those actors who can't ad lib or learn lines quickly.  You can be a brilliant actor but suck as an ad libber.   If you're experience in television is limited and you wind up being the lead actor on a daily show, I cannot even imagine what that must be like.

Nancy

I don't think "talent" had anything to do with it.  Frid's extensive experience with classical theatre training and performances were not useful when it came to doing DS.  One doesn't "wing" Shakespeare, nor does one "ad lib" it.  If Barnabas had ever had occasion to quote long passages of the Bard, I'm sure Frid would have been brilliant!

[Nancy]

I don't doubt that at all.  Peter Miner commented to me and in another interview that one of the reasons he found the DS set such a nightmare was the pressure to always come up with something bigger and every day have something "big" happen.  It was a chaotic set even though KLS tends to want to paint it like a day in DisneyWorld.  Lara Parker commented in a Q&A in 1986 and throughout the years that the directors pushed the actors to go over the top because the dialogue and situation was over the top.  She told this story in a funny way too.

Nancy

Well, as I've mentioned before, a possible explanation for Powell's performances could be that it's actually the way the DS directors wanted him to play the part. They could have certainly reigned him in if they'd wanted to, so I find it hard to believe that most of what all the actors were doing wasn't at least with the directors' blessings, if not their actual designs. Just think of how shocked some of us might be if we ever learned that Lela Swift and John Sedwick were actually in the rehearsal room telling Powell that his performance wasn't broad enough and to take it up a notch.   

[Nancy]

The popularity of DS in its day and the pressure on Frid to do publicity for the show and be the lead on the show too (and for a private person to lose almost all his privacy) was enough for him to never a repeat of it.  He's mentioned that several times he never wanted to go back to that kind of life.  It was a novelty for him at first but certain things got old very quickly.

Nancy

[MagnusTrask]

I'm starting to feel as if part of the actor's job may have been to ignore directors.   The actors with integrity, that is.

[Nancy]

I'm starting to feel as if part of the actor's job may have been to ignore directors.   The actors with integrity, that is.

You can MAYBE do that if you are established on a show and one of the reasons people watch it but not if you are journeyman actor type as Mr. Powell was. If he ignored the direction it was grounds for getting fired that even the union might not be able to help him with.

Nancy

[Midnite]

Interesting, Nancy!

Magnus, I am really (really!) enjoying your fresh perspective of the eps. 

Tower Room smaller inside than out.  Dr Who really is around.

Hee hee!  I'm so glad I got into the new series because I wouldn't have understood this before last year.

[MagnusTrask]

You can MAYBE do that if you are established on a show and one of the reasons people watch it but not if you are journeyman actor type as Mr. Powell was. If he ignored the direction it was grounds for getting fired that even the union might not be able to help him with.

I was thinking of Lara apparently having had to endure direction to go over the top because some directors seem (just from what was said on this thread)not to have DS so seriously.

I've heard that the actors on Star Trek: Voyager had to fight to keep their characters viable.

[Nancy]

I'm not sure what it was, Magnus.  I got the impression from production personnel who gave interviews and/or attended DS Fests that DC pushed and pushed for bigger, better and stronger stuff each day to the point where all logic went out the window.  Production people left because of it.   Lara Parker has said during Q&As directors - such as Henry Kaplan - would even scold her, directing her to make the dialogue "faster, stronger."

LP told the story that many actors came to DS believing in realistic acting and would say "Go back to your grave" in a very sincere, realistic way.  She said that no matter what acting school anyone came from, they wound up doing their role in the "DS style" which was "tense, wild eyed" and the line would then come out as 'GO BACK TO YOUR GRAVE."  You would see the white of the eyes.  The acting was good because the situations on the show frequently were so ridiculous and to say lines with a straight face was an achievement.  I often admired Frid watching BC talk about I-Ching, the supernatural and all the ins and outs of it all and now knowing that JF doesn't believe in anything supernatural and things anything relating to the occult is silly.  But he said those crazy lines about the supernatural with a straight face.

I was thinking of Lara apparently having had to endure direction to go over the top because some directors seem (just from what was said on this thread)not to have DS so seriously.

I've heard that the actors on Star Trek: Voyager had to fight to keep their characters viable.

[MagnusTrask]

Magnus, I am really (really!) enjoying your fresh perspective of the eps. 

...

Hee hee!  I'm so glad I got into the new series because I wouldn't have understood this before last year.

Midnite... you know, i might really believe you if you'd put a fourth or fifth "really" in there!   (j/k j/k)   Thanks!

Strange, I started with Dr Who fandom twenty years ago.

When I first started to be able to say I did this or that "twenty years ago", it was kind of cool.  Now.... not so much. 

*******

Thanks for that, Nancy.

[Lydia]

I'm missing a tape around this point, where NB interacts with Ang as Cassandra.

Apologies.  Maybe I'll come across it someday.