Thoughts about Jeb Hawkes/Victoria Winters/Peter Bradford

I don't know about anybody else but when I watched for the first time and learned that [spoiler]instead of living happily ever after, Vicki was killed by Jeb Hawkes, I was mad as hell......Vicki deserved to be happy and to have the writers thrown in that instead she was killed and Peter hanged soon after for killing Jeb was insulting. It seemed like all the trouble Barnabas went to to go back in time and save her and Peter was all for nothing.[/spoiler]

But watching the this segment years later on DVD, I have a theory......[spoiler]when Angelique appears to Peter he doesn't recognize her but in 1796 he certainly did know her....she did appear to testify against Vicki at her witchcraft trial.[/spoiler] This did not make sense him not knowing Angelique...

But how about this.....Parallel Time comes on the heel of the end of the Parallel Time story....what if Vicki had been born and raised in the 18th century instead of the 20th in Parallel time? She meets Peter, they fall in love, about to get married and then [spoiler]Jeb or whoever he was in that period wounded up killing Vicki (accident or murder? The writers never did answer that one)? The Parallel Time Peter Bradford kills Jeb for revenge and it was THAT Peter Bradford who comes to kill Jeb in Regular time.[/spoiler]

Hey I know it's a bit far-fetched but this is Dark Shadows. I like to believe that Peter and Vicki did live their lives out happily and peacefully and lived to be in their 70's and 80's no matter what the writers had us believe.

edited by mod

Very interesting theory, one more plausible then the original segment.  I was actually enjoying the Leviathan story, the parts I understood, until they got to this part of the story.  I threw up my arms in disgust because I too thought the Vicki/Peter saga ended on a happy note, for once in DS.    It's always fun to think of ways to build on PT.

Iluvbarnabas, do a google search for Charles Delaware Troll.  He's done a wonderfully meticulous "final months" fan fiction that carries on the various plots of DS after it went off the air.  It makes wonderful reading and brings the series to a close with most strings tied and happy.  Even Vicki.

Iluvbarnabas, do a google search for Charles Delaware Troll.  He's done a wonderfully meticulous "final months" fan fiction that carries on the various plots of DS after it went off the air.  It makes wonderful reading and brings the series to a close with most strings tied and happy.  Even Vicki.

Thanks, Nelson. I think I will check it out.

i tried not to let the plot development under discusion here upset me too much because in truth i had already "mourned" the loss of vicki when alexandra left the show a year earlier.

but since the reappearance of peter bradford here is roger davis' final appearance(i believe)on the show i wonder if this was just a way to work out the end of his contract and they weren't really thinking about the implications of it all.

also since the fans were experiencing something of a "disconnect" during this part of the show i wonder if they thought that maybe by re-introducing characters the fans felt connected to was a way to involve the audience again?

at any rate this was probably the strangest and most annoying plot twist ever on the show.

I completely agree with you, Mscbryk. The first time I saw Vicki's final fate, I was very stunned, and once that wore off, very angry!  IMHO, they should have just let us believe that after Barnabas's trip back to 1796 in order to save Vicki from hanging, things ended happily ever after with Peter and Vicki. There was no need to elaborate further on a fate everyone thought had been decided.

[spoiler]The producers should have realized that killing off such a beloved and original character of the show wouldn't be well received.[/spoiler]

I completely agree with you, Mscbryk. The first time I saw Vicki's final fate, I was very stunned, and once that wore off, very angry!  IMHO, they should have just let us believe that after Barnabas's trip back to 1796 in order to save Vicki from hanging, things ended happily ever after with Peter and Vicki. There was no need to elaborate further on a fate everyone thought had been decided.

[spoiler]The producers should have realized that killing off such a beloved and original character of the show wouldn't be well received.[/spoiler]

Isn't that when the ratings started to decline, after the Leviathan Storyline?  I didn't know or realize that Roger Davis wasn't on the show anymore.  Guess I didn't miss him at all!  

That was an incredibly stupid plot development IMHO, and one that I can very easily ignore.

What happened was that the ghost was to have been Paul Stoddard, but Dennis Patrick was away working on the movie "Joe" and wasn't available to appear, so they changed it to the version we saw.

They copuld have had his ghost be invisible or cloaked but what they did was really bad writing.

[spoiler]They could have done what they did with Jeremiah's ghost in 1795 and have another actor play it in disguise or cloaked or even invisible[/spoiler]

They copuld have had his ghost be invisible or cloaked but what they did was really bad writing.

This is very true - and it probably would have been preferable in most DS fans' minds (certainly mine  ). But we all know how DC seemingly jumped at any opportunity to bring RD back on the show.

(Let's just be thankful that the idea to bring RD back in '70 as KLS' boyfriend (which she mentions in her hoDS diaries) never actually materialized.  )


As for the ratings, it's alway been my understanding that they remained fairly consistently high throughout the 1897 storyline and didn't really decline until a point after Leviathans had begun. However, after Leviathans, though they did begin to rebound, they never again reached the lofty heights they had attained during 1897.

In most of the books out there by and about DS performers, RD doesn't get a good light. 

What happened was that the ghost was to have been Paul Stoddard, but Dennis Patrick was away working on the movie "Joe" and wasn't available to appear, so they changed it to the version we saw.

They copuld have had his ghost be invisible or cloaked but what they did was really bad writing.

[spoiler]They could have done what they did with Jeremiah's ghost in 1795 and have another actor play it in disguise or cloaked or even invisible[/spoiler]

Substituting an actor for a stand-in isn't uncommon so they could have come up with something better, as your spoiler indicated.  I heard that they were planning to bring back Alexandra Moltke and her character Vicki.  Since she refused to play the dunce again, they wanted to write her out completely.  I thought they had so this attempt was lame, especially bringing back Peter's ghost.  I think they should have let AM play a bad girl!!  Everyone else did at least once.

at any rate this was probably the strangest and most annoying plot twist ever on the show.

I think everyone hates this scene, on all the lists I'm on everyone hates it. It bugs me no end since after seeing that it's hard to even watch Vicki in the earlier storylines without remembering that this is her ultimate fate. Though we don't like any of the RD characters, she deserved her happily ever after and they deprived her of that. It sucks big time IMO.

Alondra

With new DS stories being told with Big Finish audios I 'm hoping they do a special story to straighten out Vicky and Peter's fate . That would require Alexandra Moltke , Roger Davis and Chris Pennock to all return to do it right , although they could use new actors in some parts .
They also could just bring Vicky back . Say , like this :
While taking a late night walk on the beach , Maggie and Quentin  ( or whoever ) find Vicky washed up on the shores of the beach below Widow's Hill ,miraculously alive . Vicky could have been brought forward in time when Jeb pushed her off the cliff. The story could go on from there , with no need to immediately involve Peter or Jeb , although they could be brought on later. At the very least Vicky could get closure with Peter thru a seance , with Peter speaking thru another character.
I would love something like this to happen .

I would love something like this to happen.

Indeed! And it would be wonderful if Alexandra would consent to do it.