In the 80's I bought a collection of synopsis' of the first year of DS.  I just realized something that I have never seen mentioned that was on them.  It is something minor really, but still worth mentioning anyway.

Apparently at the time the synopsis of the week and a half prior to the episode where Willie releases Barnabas from his coffin, the writers did not yet have a name for their future vampire.  Barnabas is referred to as "young Collins" or "the young man" when the summary refers to the part where Willie is looking at the portrait.

The lines read something like like:  "Willie is staring at the portrait of young Collins and notices the eyes glowing at him."  Another line states "Willie once again looks at the portrait of the young man and in addition to the glowing eyes, he hears a heartbeat from the portrait."

Edith may have had some say in the naming as Judith sounds like the female name for Judah....Judah Zachary!

1897 was probably a much simpler story in the original timeline.  Quentin kills Jenny, Magda finds out and places the curse on him.  Quentin becomes a werewolf and he killed Beth.  Judith and Edward discover his secret and kill him in his room with a silver bullet.  He dies on the chair and they seal up the room and state he went to Paris to live to the public.

I think that originally, the characters killed off due to Barnabas' meddling with history were also killed in the original timeline at the same time, through other circumstances.  Laura still could have driven Dirk insane and he killed Rachael, Carl, and Pansy and was in turn shot to death by Edward as he tried to kill Judith.

And it took 100 episodes to do it in.  This story began as a subplot to the main plot that ended a month before.  I never saw such a minor story dragged out so much as this...it could have taken a week to this in!

Unfortunately, this is basically Liz's last hurrah on DS...she is never given a story of her own anymore.  They could have given her one during Leviathian, it appeared like it at first, but they wasted so much potential there.

There are three different years stated for his death, but unlike Josette or Naomi, all of them can actaully be expained.

1.  His original year of death as stated by Prof. Stokes upon meeting Barnabas and Julia was in 1830.   He got a parcel of land and educated himself and he prospered, had a family and died peacefully.

2. In 1897, his headstone states he died in 1816.  His year of death changed becasue he had the deaths of nathan and Natalie on his conscious for the rest of his life.  While now he may not have been given his own land and prospered, he remained at Collinwood.  Though he still did marry and have a family of his own.  Joshua probably did reward him for his loyalty in some way.

3. Following the final 1796 flashback, Natalie is bit by Barnabas and under his spell.  Most likely, she never did bail out Nathan Forbes.  So, neither were ever killed by Ben Stokes.  He doesn't have any deaths on his conscious and now lives to 1840.  He still probably lived at Collinwood and without the stress of owning land he lived 10 years longer then he opriginally did.  Once again, he still married and had a family of his own and Joshua may have helped him out in someway.

Does anyone know if this has come out yet?

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It was never mentioned at all, however, Once Barnabas returns from 1897 and with Quentin's ghost never having existed, Madame Findlay (and Ezra Braitwaite) should still be alive and kicking.

I wonder what Dr. Woodard thought about Eric Lang.  The two must have know each other for many years.

Then again, Eric Lang was in town when Barnabas first around (though never meeting him then) and the attacks on women and cows drained of blood were found and the townspeople were all aware of them.  Plus, the marks on Maggie's neck and on Willie's wrist.  Perhaps Woodard had consulted Lang on the matter.  Lang at this time would have suspected a vampire but just didn't know who it was.

When Barnabas is in the hospital, it was the final piece to Lang's puzzle. Maybe the existence of a vampire in 1967 led Dr. Lang to think about finding it and using it for the experiment or even the thought of the experiment himself.