I have a copy of "The Secret Room" zine that I bought at the 1995 Festival.  Would you like me to scan the article and paste it here?

For the record, I am "the gay guy" who wrote that essay about the appeal of DS to gay men that's 'floating around on the internet."  Unfortunately, the essay was a DRAFT that I sent to a fan I won't bother to name here as a POSSIBLE contrib to his short lived zine The Secret Room which was meant to be a mag for gay fans of DS.  Well, not only did this character use my DRAFT in his publication as a finished piece of work, he failed to respond to any of my letters, and never even sent me a copy of his bloody zine! And then he had the audacity to post my work on the internet without, of course, bothering to ask my permission!  If I ever run into this individual at a Festival, believe me, darlings, the bitch-slap Julia gave Cassandra is going to look like a little love-tap Miss Sally bestowed upon the Do-Bee of the week with her magic wand by comparison.

Anyhow, I'm glad that this very rough piece of work was deemed interesting reading by a student of literature and human character.  Thanks for the kind words.

If there was a solid reason for their feeling compelled to come up with an alternate explanation for the skeleton (rather than just time-travel naivety on the part of the writers or DC), then I suppose it was that they'd already thought of a cool and ironic means to end Gregory.

What is funny is that they even went so far as to explain away the brick wall Judith used to seal Gregory in (there wasn't one in the present, it was sealed with wood) by having her write a letter to Tim Shaw to remove the bricks and reseal the doorway with wood panels!

Can you picture Barnabas first arriving at Collinwood and exclaiming "Aunt Abigail! Why are you wearing such a revealing dress!?  Is this your way of haunting Collinwood"?

When I started in DS fandom in the early 80's, prior to DS on the New Jersey Network and being syndicated up thru Parallel Time 1970, I always read about Peter & Vicky having a "happy ending" with Barnabas saving them from getting hung at the gallows.  I read this in most of the fanzines out there like World of Dark Shadows.

Then wihen the episode where Peters ghost reveals what happened to them, during the Leviathan story, everyone was in shock about their final fate.

I was wondering about those of you who were watching the original 1966-1971 run.  Did you forget about these couple of Leviathan episodes or not see them?    Of course the happy ending that fans thought was now known to be gone, but its as if no one remembered this prior to the NJN airings in the mid 80's.

I would agree with this.  Maggie really wouldn't have played any part in either the Chris Jennings or Quentin storyline.    I think she would have been phased out by 1897 and KLS would have been gone from DS by then.

The one, in my opinion, who did clean up was TLATKLS.  If she didn't become the new governess, just what was left for her character?  Pop was gone; she didn't return to slinging hash at the diner, her boyfriend was history, she just sat at home doing what?  Watching As the World Turns?  Couldn't do much with that.  I'm just thinking that she might've ended up being the one dumped if New Vicki continued plodding on.

If DS did return to the present time 1971, David would either be away or recast.  If DS wasn't cancelled, eventually another actor would have to take over the part.

I doubt they would have used a governess anymore.

They should have made up a new family (with Kate Jackson & new actors) to play against the Collines.

The Thaddeus Collins in the portrait may have been a son of Gabriel & Edith.  David said to Amy this Thaddeus was alive during the Civil War, perhaps he was the father of Judith, Edward, Quentin, & Carl.