Set-up:
JC: "And here she is, direct from... well here, she's a townie... Miss Maggie Evans and her fabulous and tuneful vocal cords!   Take it away Mags!"
ME: "_________________________!!"

I always feel now as if I'm carrying around in my head an image of Julia, as a great, classic TV character I knew from childhood, who has somehow leaked out of, or faded from, the master tapes on DS, only to be replaced by a poor copy who doesn't measure up to the original, and misses the point of the character.

I liked her as a smart, assured, original-thinking, inspired, magnetic, competent scientist and protagonist.   Nothing against displays of emotion, but I didn't see this great character dissolving into tears whenever threatened, or just getting carried away by events without any control over them, and I certainly never saw her trying to hand Vicki over to vampire Barnabas on a platter.

That great moment where she was lying in wait for Barnabas when he entered her bedroom to kill her, after she figured out his secret, was a defining moment.... for the Julia I knew.    Then she was redefined as a more average, tiresome cliche woman character, too often, playing the Maggie role of the terrified female who lets you know how scary everything is supposed to be... and neutral-personality helpmate and sidekick.

Most times that I see Julia, she seems wrong.    I want my Julia from childhood back again.

Anyone with tapes of pre-Barnabas stories (or 1969 and the first 20% of 1897), who is getting DVDs, I'd like to ask you not to throw the tapes away, but to let me make a deal with you for them, instead, please.   I'm on a very low fixed Disability income, but we can work something out.  It needn't cost you anything, and I may be able to give you a little something further.    I'm saying this because at this stage, people might have already thrown the tapes out, and if not, they will soon.   (Same for any interesting films you may be throwing out... 50s, 60s, and early 70s are most important to me, not so much huge hit films)   Even if I manage to get a DVD player, buying pre-recrded DVD sets is out of the question for me.    I'm on a bare subsistence income.   My tapes will go with me to the grave, I suppose.

Lydia's helped with 1968.  Thanks again.

Set-up:
Natalie would often while away an evening by _____, and _____ on Angelique's ______.

Just watching PT, and reached the point where it (DS) springs to life and gets good again.  I only noticed it this time around.   I think the turnaround began with the actors returning from the first film.    I've decided I hate the Rebecca/Jeckyl-Hyde storylines, and when they're safely out of the way, PT can "begin"... just in time to end.     (Then the good stuff continues with 1995-1970-1840 though.)    I've decided I hate what's going on at Collinwood, but like what goes on in the Old House.   Frankly, looking at Barnabas's chained coffin was more interesting than the rest of those earlier episodes, to me. 

The real point where DS snaps back into place as an adult drama is the scene(s) where Ang is pressuring Will to betray Barnabas, and then spoiler spoiler spoiler.    Karlen is great, Lara is great, the writing and thought behind it is great.   Before this, I was considering giving up and stopping the tapes. 

Does someone have a cool timetable, for when this or that producer, writers, whoever, were around or not around... who was or wasn't in charge, making creative decisions, at what point in this or that storyline?    That would be very interesting.     I imagine that whoever hung around telling people what to do, while other people were off making the film, was telling people to do that supposed trademark DS acting, or over-acting.    I get an impression that things changed when the film was done, and talented people came back to the TV show.

Some didn't listen... D Selby always takes anything he does and makes it real.    Even J Frid seemed to be acting ridiculously "earnest" though.

PT Carolyn's drunken, cynical grieving was very well thought out and well acted.    I am just so relieved, for intelligent adult writing to be coming back.    Someone (writers) took a long hard look at the situation at that point in the storyline, and explored all the ramifications and looked at it from all the different points of view.

I liked PT Stokes this time.   I noticed that he does a very subtle drunk act throughout the story.    Every single time we see him, he slurs his speech, just slightly.     Subtlety; there's one thing we didn't get in early PT.   His lines have more depth and are more thought-out than any in earlier PT, too.    The acting implies a backstory.... you are compelled to wonder how he ended up this way.   You want to peer inside him, and you almost feel as if you are.   More to him than RT Stokes, actually.

I loved Stokes asking BC if he has a girl hidden away someplace!  And Carolyn putting her face right into Ang's and asking if there was anything that could shock her!

Perspective on characters and situations, that's what we suddenly started getting.    Carolyn remarks that she is the only person to know all the secrets.    Before this, no one stopped to think about what was happening and what it meant, except Cyrus's inner stuff, which wasn't compelling... maybe it was the acting, writing, not sure.

Opinions please:

Notice when Stokes tries to use black magic again to keep Ang alive after they lose Roxanne?    Black magic involves begging the Devil for things, doesn't it?   I noticed that Satan wasn't referred to in the incantation, but vague powers which exist outside of time and space.

Is it possible that they sat down and thought about what Stokes could be contacting in PT, triggering theological debate amongst the writers, over whether the same God and Devil exist in PT?    Could that line have been the result of their deciding that PT couldn't have a second PT Devil (since Judeo/Christian/Muslims can't accept multiple gods, therefore no multiple devils)?   Could they have decided, Stokes is appealing to THE Devil, who isn't in PT but RT, therefore that Devil is "outside of (their) time and space"?   Or perhaps that one God and one Devil exist outside of either Universe?

SPOILER






Another thing... Carolyn encounters Quentin, hiding in the Tower Room, and Q says no, Ang is dead, he took care of that personally.    He means of course that he burned the body.    She is amazed, and drunk, and seems to think Q is admitting to having murdered Ang, which is what everyone's coming to think at this point.

Later, she goes on about how she now knows who the murderer was... presumably Quentin.    Roger overhears, goes to take care of her, she recognizes Roger, and says it was only a matter of time, asks why he killed Ang.    Then he raises the knife, she screams and says "NO"... after she acted as if she'd resigned herself to her impending murder, but never mind.

It seems as if some writer slipped up and had Carolyn knowing it was Roger when she was supposed to be thinking it was Quentin.  Did I miss something?

Liz is exactly the same in PT.  They just had too many characters to deal with, maybe.    She's not there much, either.

Just thought I'd say here that I plan on continuing to use the regular Caption This! board, as well as the Fill In The Blanks one, and I hope people will go there, even though it's a bit harder to find now.    When I come to DSF, I click on 'new posts' but maybe others here don't, and won't see posts on CT! unless they specifically go there.

Anyway, so few things are fun on your own.    "Fill In The Blanks" is a great idea, but I like the flexibility of CT! too.     Come by once in a while, why don't you....

BuzzH has been gone an awfully long time.    I'm not quite sure what action to take to remedy the situation.

(Why are Frid and Selby the same height?)


Moderator note: this is in regard to:

Episode #1067

on the "Caption This! - Year 5/Movies" board.