for about four years i had been watching the show sequentially from begining to end...but about a year or so ago i started to get burned out on the whole thing and stopped watching with the "summer of 1970" episodes.

i re-watched a few favorites(laura collins,1795)but i finally decided i was ready for something new and i just bought dvd collection 23 and thus will begin my "journey" to 1840 this weekend.i have always heard very mixed things about this storyline but i'm excited for a new group of sets and characters.

to get "reaquainted" with the storyline leading up to this i watched some of the summer of 1970 episodes this week and was reminded of why i stopped watching with these episodes.the writing was terrible and everyone seemed really worn out.grayson especially seemed exhausted here.

this has been said many times before but both david and hallie were much too old for the storyline.
i wonder why they needed to remain "children"?the storyline could easily have been written with adolescents or teenagers in mind.the business with the playroom,dollhouse and governess were much too babyish for kids that age.

still,as uneven as i'm told 1840 is i'm glad to have new stuff to watch.

gothick,

yes dear,according to the trusty d.s. almanac episode 1104 was indeed mrs.johnson's last appearance on the show and alas and alak clarice blackburn's final appearance as well as she was not cast in the 1840 storylines.

i greatly appreciate what ms.blackburn brought to the table as well and her diminishing screen time over the years was a big disappointment for me.

what the hell is going on?

there is a tremendous amount of artificiality on the forum today with "psueudo carolyn" in the slideshow and "faux jeremiah"in the watching project.does "fake vicki" appear anywhere in the d.s. universe today?

here's a thought.what if the original actor who portrays a character isn't the one who becomes most closely identified with the role?

can james hall acurately be callled "not willie"?mark allen imitation sam"?george mitchell "ersatz matthew morgan"? :-

what do you think?

i agree that one of the nice things about these episodes is how because there were so few characters at the begining they all interacted with each other on a daily basis.

later when the cast expands and the storylines become more fragmented the characters interact with only thoses other characters that happen to be involved in that particular plot at the moment.

for instance during the early episodes vicki and carolyn develop an interesting sister type relationship but after 1795 they share very few scenes and that relationship essentially becomes abandoned.most of vicki's scenes are played against jeff.the same thing happens with david(who disappears for much of 1968).she's at collinwood because she's david's governess but after 1795 i don't believe they share one scene ever again.

here everyone interacts with everyone else and i liked that.

i agree.

i love the quentin storyline and 1897 and am even quite fond of leviathan and 1970pt...my comments were specific to the adam storyline.there are just too many monsters and it's just too silly.

last night they aired the agatha christie classic "murder on the orient express" on tcm.

what if instead of a cruise it was a trip on a grand old fashioned train with sleeper cars and the requisite mystery on board?

they have a very nice one that leaves from new york,travels all the way up the new england coastline and ends at niagra falls...i've always wanted to do it but it's quite expensive.it could be glamorous and fun.

when i first watched these episodes a few years ago i was devastated by the overall change in tone and direction of the show.

now doing a secondary watch it was inevitable that i come to this again and watched several episodes over the weekend...and loathed it just as much as i remember.

there are some dream curse/cassandra/nicholas moments that i can get into but in general i hate 1968 across the boards.being a big fan of both joan and alexandra i agree that they are largely wasted here(although vicki does get some key moments during the dream curse).

i definitely overdose on barnabas and julia here and i hate that the writers let this dumb adam character hijack the entire show for nearly a year.

so does that mean that this never actually made it to air and it's just some sort of out take?