Burke:  "Roger!  Jason insists it's my turn to bring the baloney-sandwich platter to the poker game tonight.  Is that true?"

Gerard

I'll certainly concede that the way the train sequence plays in the film can look like sloppy writing. And it may very well be. But at the same time I'm willing to give them a degree of benefit of the doubt that there might have been something in the script that gave the train sequence greater clarity - but it may have been cut. I'd only charge sloppy writing if it turns out that there isn't anything in the script that might have given it greater clarity.

For me, if it was sloppy writing, so what?  There never has been sloppy writing in any version of DS, from the boob-tube to the big-screen?  We've now had three television versions and three cinematic versions of DS.  Of the former five, we could probably make a list of a whole bunch of sloppy things that would overwhelm the bandwith of this, our beloved discussion board site.  Of the latter sixth, we've found one.  And, to me, a bit of slop is one of those things that makes DS so beloved.  MPI did a whole casette/DVD of whoopsa-daisies.  As for sloppy writing, how about the massive change in Josette croaking, at first, some time around 1830 and then shifting her demise to 35 years earlier.  And don't forget the whole family chronology mess in the 1840/41 storyline (that should've also screwed up the 1897 storyline that would've screwed up, well, you get the point).  But what it does is cause us to defend how the writers slopped everything up and find a way around it.  That's fun.  That's a big part of DS.  So let's have fun, even if it was sloppy writing, trying to figure out how Maggie Evans obviously filled in her application for governess at Collinwood using her real name and then changed her name to Victoria Winters on the train trip and yet somehow no one noticed.  We've already got some credible reasons posted.  Let's get some more.  It's fun.  I'll say that Elizabeth really didn't notice, because she had more on her mind and back then, in the ancient world of the seventies, employers won't so concerned over details like that (including if they were microsoft proficient) but only if they could get the job done.  Call her Maggie, call her Vicki, just don't call her late for supper and make sure she could educate those disturbed children and get them to memorize who served on President Nixon's cabinet.

Gerard

I also thought that the Vicki/Maggie twist was brilliant. In the original show, Maggie was Josette's look-alike. In the revival it was Victoria who was Josette's twin. The movie borrowed from both shows to mix in both characters into one as 'Magtoria' as others on here have dubbed.

I thought so, too.  For me, because it was the OS, Maggie will always be Josette.  In the '91 version, she became Vicki, primarily because the story was rushed right into Barnabas.  I also thought it was rather ridiculous, in '91, to have Vicki, the exact duplicate of Josette, to go in the past to be with her duplicate and their identical appearance basically brushed away with a few comments from the other characters.  They looked exactly the same - c'mon, now.  I imagine the '04 version also had Vicki as Josette, but I don't know since I didn't see it.

In DS-'12, it returned to the original.  The name "Victoria Winters" was simply the "Clark Kent" of Maggie Evans.

Gerard

I am shocked - shocked - that the film was downplayed at this festival.  Too bad some didn't like it.  I wasn't enamored of the '91 remake (palm trees, palm trees, palm trees!!!!!) and thought it was an overblown remake of HoDS, rather than being "true to the original" (a statement that has been oft used with regards to those who didn't like the Depp/Burton film).  But I watched it religiously and was very upset at its cancellation.  No one "down-played" those from that version who attended, with all glory, laud and honor, other DS festivals.  Then there was the 2004 version that never saw the light of day, and had plenty of critics, but it appears they had no problem showing the unfinished pilot at following festivals over and over and over again.

The Depp/Burton film should've been the who reason for this festival, held up high and honored (just as the other versions based upon the OS have been honored).  People involved in the movie should've been invited to attend (maybe they were, I don't know).  Again, so what if some in DS fandom didn't like it because it didn't stand up to their "ideal" of the original.  They didn't have to come.  They could've stayed home and sulked.  Nothing about any of the remakes (and that includes HoDS and NoDS) was true to the OS.  All had stuff that deviated from the OS and were blatantly stupid.  Heck, much in the OS was stupid.  I know this has been discussed before, but having Barnabas trying to figure out the world of 1972 in the Depp/Burton film made far more sense, even when done comedically (of course it would be comedic), than all the remakes that had him showing up at Collinwood a few days after being released, perfectly clothed by Birkenstock's (would Barnabas know and understand how to use a zipper?) and fitting right in.  That was stupid.  It was stupid when Jonathan Frid did it in the OS and HoDS, and it was stupid when Ben Cross did it in '91.  (I don't know how it was handled in the aborted '04 remake because I never saw it.)

Stupid.

But we loved it all.  It's DS.  The Depp/Burton film is DS, just as much as is the OS, HoDS, NoDS, '91 and '04.  To try and "keep it on the down-low" at that "festival" so some fans wouldn't get upset and make a scene is simply shocking.  Millions were spent bringing it back to us and it has made $335 million dollars world wide.  That's not something to ignore, but to celebrate.

But I will say, that JP person trying to auction off huge cut-out billboards starting at a hundred smackers each, or else threatening to send them to the trash is also stupid.  I always wonder if the JP guy has his head screwed on tight.  I have thought for a long time that it's been time for the Curtis family and anyone else associated with DS to find some way to flush him.  The guy doesn't have an ounce of business sense inside his head.  He scowers youtube and other places to remove anything that doesn't make money for whatever he does regarding this franchise.  Having lots of DS stuff on youtube and elsewhere in cyberspace is free publicity and brings in more potential customers for the stuff he wants to sell to make more money.  He can't figure that out?  Call out the lawyers?

Now that's really, really stupid.

Gerard

Vicki:  "Car keys, car keys.  They've got to be here somewhere.  I don't understand how I could've misplaced my car keys!"

Gerard

When she sees the difference between the fine and how much the DVD is going to cost, she'll realize she didn't get a bargain.

Gerard

And, supposedly, in the '91 second season, Laura Collins (the character, not the actress who played Phoenix in the OS), the estranged wife of Roger and absent mother of David, returns to Collinsport from England, but as what?  A witch?  A phoenix?  The reincarnation of Angelique or Angelique herself?  Well, whatever, to add intrigue in a very Dallasesque way, Burke Devlin would also arrive and it turns out there was some very nasty business years ago involving him, Roger, Laura and maybe others with Burke seeking revenge, getting romantically involved with Vicki who Barnabas still has his eye on, with Laura playing them all against each other and Barnabas getting hostile with Laura, plus David acting weird and doing strange things because Mamma's come home and all sorts of Dynastyesque plot twists.  Meanwhile, as things start to reach the boiling point, Julia is dealing with a little girl named Amy Jennings in foster care who's obsessed over her older adult brother Chris who refuses to have anything to do with her until Julia tracks him down but in the meantime she asks Elizabeth to take Amy under her roof where she and David, with his residule strange abilities, using a Ouija board, make contact with a spirit named Quentin.....

Gerard

It's so sad that some fans extend their devotion into the root word of fan and fandom - fanatic.  They become so obsessed that they don't care about being rude, obnoxious and even dangerous.  Although I have no statistics to bear it out, but I would think that those who enjoy the genre from which DS sprang (and those in the same ballpark, such as Star Trek) can have a tendency of being well over the top in their "devotion" to the point of being bores.  I give kudos to all the DS celebrities who have had to put up with type of behavior time and again for decades, but still avail themselves to their fans.

The one good thing about doing a DS-themed cruise is that the problem can be easily nipped in the bud.  Warning can be given that anyone who harasses the stars (or anyone else) will be confined to their quarters until the ship reaches the next port where they will be summarily deposited, with bag and baggage, on the pier and told that they have to find their way home at their own expense.  Cruise lines do it all the time with boorish passengers and it's perfectly legal and beyond litigation; I've seen it done.  It works like a charm.  After just one incident of dumping an annoying passenger who now either angrily or with supplication asks how he/she is suppose to get home, especially from some foreign port, when his/her credit card is already almost maxed out (quite often from his/her on-ship bar-bill) and is left there in rage or tears as the ship sails away, I can tell you, it never happens again.  So, should some DS "fan" get too "up-close-and-personal" with any star, he/she can enjoy Martinique longer than Josette did.

Gerard