i have a question about karma.

lately i've noticed that some brand new members already have thousands of points in their karmic totals.

how is this possible?

the potential for "irrelevancy" aside...

all this depends on what kathryn leigh scott's contract looked like.

holly is so genius in "trash"...the scene with the beer bottle...so tragic!

apparently there were comparisons to the great anna magnani and a write-in campaign to get holly put on the ballot for a best supporting actress nomination.

i also have a fondness for the eyebrow challenged jane forth.

i'm in two minds about a new d.s..while i'd welcome it,as retvez pointed out,the 1225 original episodes are more than satisfying.

i don't know much about other "cult" shows(like star trek)but i do know that versions spun-off from the original were populated with new characters.that doesn't appear to be the case as much as with d.s..i can't think of any other show that is so hidebound in which characters simply have to be there!

for instance i remember when the 2004 pilot was in production and there was alot of chatter about who was going to play quentin.now of course on the original series quentin didn't even appear until late in the show's third year and after nearly seven hundred episodes.so his inclusion was not so much that it would make any sense storywise in the first season(and it would take at least that to get barnabas' storyline off the ground)but because he's one of the hidebound characters that fans remember and were expecting.

a similar thing happens with liz when new versions are in discusion.elizabeth was an extremely important "presence" on the original for two key reasons.one being that she was the grand dame of this whole thing who was with the show from it's first episode.the second being that she was portrayed by silver screen legend joan bennett.the sad truth was that after the barnabas character took off and the show became increasingly supernatural liz got very little in terms of character develepment or her own storyline.so her inclusion in any future version would not be so much that they were going to give liz this huge platform but simply because you absolutely cannot tell this story without elizabeth collins stoddard.

as it was introducing victoria,barnabas,julia and angelique(who were all introduced on the original show over a period of several months in gradually unfolding storylines)in a one hour pilot was pushing it but those are the characters fans expect to see so they had to put them all in there right off the bat.

this is of course for "us" the fans more than anybody.the general public doesn't know who these characters are.even people who casually watched the show when it first aired remember very little of it.barnabas collins seems to be the one everyone recalls and of course he became the official "face" of the marketing juggernaught the show produced.

for a new version to succeed it would have to appeal to several million people and hearty bunch that we are we don't number in those volumes so it would be interesting to see how they approached it.

I wasn't aware that they were able to get Cobert's music for the project.  That certainly adds to the attractiveness of the recordings in my book.

gothick,

having the cobert themes really did enhance this production.it wouldn't have been "d.s." to me without this.they even included a couple of the early "blue whale" tunes.

midnite,

[spoiler]like you i got goosebumps when maggie and quentin were reunited.i wasn't trying to be negative because i did enjoy this audiodrama.but i just felt that with selby,parker and scott on board they could have come up with something interesting without re-casting the big "B".they did it once before when these three basically carried the 1970 parallel-time storyline when frid was often absent.[/spoiler]

these new audiodramas rekindle that old debate about what is official "canon" and what is not.especially with the go-ahead from dan curtis productions.i haven't read lara parker's new book yet but since it is being released simultaneously i wonder if there is some cross over between the two mediums or if they function as self-contained worlds?i thought about asking lara that during the fest but i'm a horrible public speaker so i chickened out.

that said i will be purchasing the second installment of this series.

contains major spoilers stop reading if you don't want to know...

[spoiler]i listened to the first audiodrama last night.once i got over the initial goosepimplyness of hearing the music and those iconic voices i had a few issues with it.

i won't go into it too much plotwise but i will say that mangus trask's fears came true as they did do a re-cast for barnabas.

that is so pointless and unecessary!i know that he is supposed to be the set piece character for this whole thing but if they couldn't get frid they should have omitted him as a character.with quentin and angelique on board they could have come up with an interesting story without him(although some reference was an inevitability).to me this re-cast did a tremendous discredit to the four original actors who participated.why not just say "you guys aren't good enough".i suppose this is just a set-up to this actor playing barnabas in the next three installments of this series.but like i said so unecessary.[/spoiler]

Who wants to start to take up a collection to buy and send a digital video camera to Alexandra Isles so she'd hopefully make a video/possible call for/to next year's Fest? 

mscbryk, is that you I see waving your hand?

mysterious,

i'm thinking of having a bake-sale...or a garage-sale...or donating an organ.