I am going to have to agree that by the time Alexandra left the series, the character of Vickie no longer truly fit into the direction of the show. It is however hard to think of the early stories without her. Alexandra brought a great deal of warmth and a genuine sincerity to Vickie's innocence that worked perfectly. She was indeed as someone said earlier, "the straight man" for all the eccentricities of Collinwood. In a way, its a little sad that Vickie will not be exactly that same character if or when we have a revival. I think we can tell Vickie 2003 would have been quite different. Alexandra even when she had scripts that made her painfully naive still rose above them and made us care for her. On the other hand, I am glad she may have been spared the indignity of a "Rosemary's Baby" story to exploit her own pregnancy. I think the odd "Dunwich horror" children worked better in the Leviathans, most especially with Michael Maitland. Before I digress, however, Vickie did get a major disservice by [spoiler]having the totally THROWAWAY line about her having been killed by Jeb Hawkes in his earlier incarnation! This was a terrble contrivance just to allow a ghost of a past DS character tie in! And not just because it was Peter Bradford either. Its just disrespectful of the legacy of Vickie's character as well as wiping away the one great post Alexandra moment for Vickie when Carolyn Groves does more with that one glance back at Barnabas than the poor Betsy Durkin was ever able to do with the poor use of Vickie in her short era. That was a more proper was of exiting Vickie. I guess this kind of poor plotting almost proves that Dan thought no one would be rewatching things 40 years later.[/spoiler]
Vickie never did seem to grow as a person, even such as say Roger did. I can understand Alexandra being frustrated near the end of her run. It did make for an awkward arc when Maggie comes in as governess. Lastly, I wonder what Alexandra or even KLS might have done as Samatha Collins, one of the juiciest female parts on the last year of DS. I don't mean this in any way as a slight on Virginia Vestoff. Shadows is very lucky to have been able to have her for the role. I just wonder what Alexandra or KLS might have been able to do with a stronger, better developed character like her.
And if anyone sees Alexandra, tell her how much we would all LOVE to have her at the 40th anniverary festival!
Michael