I generally think that in places the writing of the pilot (though credited to I think four writer's, including DC) has DCs fingerprints all over it, and shows DC's willingness to sacrifice character and exposition and suspense, to "hurry up and get his vampire freak on."
That's very perceptive of you. And according to Sam and Matt Hall, the series' writing team was split with DC and Steve Feke (the other writer for the pilot and the series' Supervising Producer) being all for emphasizing the the blood and gore and horror, whereas Matt, Linda Campanelli and Shelly Moore wanted the romantic elements to predominate. The contrast between the mini-series eps and the Friday eps (for lack of a better distinction) can be stark at times. Personally, while I steadfastly believe blood, gore and horror definitely have a place in vampire stories - and I particularly enjoy them in Hammer films - I prefer the Hall, Campanelli and Moore approach to the Curtis and Feke approach when it comes to DS.
Incidentally, Hall Powell and Bill Taub's only job was condensing storyline from existing DS source material. They added absolutely no new storyline ideas of their own - and they only worked on the mini-series eps.
David is a little monster. He's probably extremely lonely, if he's "been without his Father" for six years, where was Roger? Did he dump him off at Collinwood?
Wasn't David living with his mother, Laura, in England? I thought Liz went to get him and bring him back to Collinwood, but not sure here.
During the restored scene when Vicki questions Elizabeth about David and Vicki asks how long David has been without his father, Elizabeth replies for almost six years and that she went to England and brought David back to Collinwood shortly after his mother "took ill." However, according the concordance for the '91 series, the part about asking about David's father was a mistake in the script that didn't get corrected before it was shot. Vicki was supposed to have asked how long David had been without his
mother. The writers were actually happy that that goof had been cut from the mini-series.
It's been so long since I've watched the '91 series that I don't recall all the other bits of background we'll be getting concerning David and his parents - but it will be interesting to discover them again...