I am a Fan of LEVITHANS. BUT how could have the story been better??

[Taeylor Collins]

I like the concept of the Leviathans. And I actually enjoy some of it.  It drags in some area's though.I really like the alter and I think this time peroid yielded some scarry ep's. To spice it up I would brought Quentin back without Amanda though. I would also not given him amnesia.  I would somehow linked him into the Levithans.  I would have allied him up with Julia and drew out a Levithans/Barney VS Julia/Quentin showdown. Could have been neat  I would also brought PETOFI in the mix.  IMAGINE having to deal with him and the Levithans.  He could have possibly become an ally with Julia and Quentin? Who knows?  Any other suggestions from people who liked the story or concept??

[Jackie]

Without changing the original story, I would delete the part where they bring in "the ghost of [spoiler]Peter Bradford" and the demise of Vicki Winters in 1795.[/spoiler] IMO, it was/is a totally useless subplot.  I think the ghost of Paul Stoddard haunting Jeb would have been much better!

[Taeylor Collins]

That was out of left field and totally ruined perfectly wrapped up storyline!!

[Garth Blackwood]

It would have been better if they hadn't forced Vicki and Peter back into the plot. That mini-story made beyond no sense to me!! It seemed like they just made it up on the spot ... Would've made considerably more sense if it was Paul Stoddard's ghost instead of [spoiler]Peter's...[/spoiler]

Oh crap I just realized after I posted that someone else already wrote this (almost verbatim)!! Unfortunately I dont have any other serious problems with the story to put in it's place. I do think that the way Jeb [spoiler]died was sort of siilly. If he was living by "sheer force of mind" after the box was destroyed, I don't see how drowning could kill him anymore than anything else could. The drowning thing seemed like it only applied to his leviathan form, which had already been permanently destroyed...[/spoiler]

[Taeylor Collins]

I found the fact that Megan fell in love with the "Child" she raised sort of SORDID and kind of controversial for it's time.  The Leviathan leader was one in the same.  The changed his diapers and then was kissing him.  PRETTY wild stuff!

[Gothick]

Some of what derailed it had to do with other projects that cast members left to pursue.  Both Thayer David and Dennis Patrick left halfway through to do movie projects.  It was because Dennis Patrick was unavailable that Dan Curtis (or whoever was guiding the plot at the time) came up with that stupid thing with that other ghost. 

The other thing that seriously messed it up is that they changed track abruptly twice during the storyline--first, in response to hate mail from fans, they began to make Barnabas more sympathetic and resistant to the Leviathans much earlier than originally planned.  And then, again because of hate mail but also, I suspect, because of the shooting schedule for the first movie, the storyline was hastily wrapped up a month or two earlier than originally planned.

I still find Leviathans perhaps the most fascinating storyline just because they really tried to do something different.  For all its faults, after Leviathans the stories basically re-hashed what had worked before--the Angelique thing in PT 1970 (which I do love because it was so stylish and had such great scenery-chewing opportunities once they brought the regulars back), the ghosts and possession and Satanism, etc. in Summer of 1970 and 1840. 

Nevertheless, I mustn't forget the brief sojourn in 1995.  *That* was really bizarre, even by DS standaards!  Sy Tomashoff and the crew deserved Emmies for what they did with the sets for those two weeks!

G.

[Lydia]

The Leviathan storyline was fantastic until the writers had to abandon their original plans in response to the hate mail.  So right now I'm wondering: how could they have done a better job of bringing Barnabas out from under Leviathan domination?  The explanation of Barnabas's evil actions - that he was told that Josette was being held captive - just doesn't hold water.  He was too unmitigatedly evil in the the beginning of the Leviathan era.  He showed not a trace of reluctance to advance the Leviathan plan.  I think a better route would to be have shown him having some very bad dreams in which he kills people he loves for the Leviathans while those people ask him sorrowfully, "Barnabas how can you do this?"  And slowly the memory of the dreams seeps into his waking life.  I suppose that would have been too gradual a change for the fans, however.

The one not-so-evil act that Barnabas committed before his great turnaround was, apparently, removing Quentin's memory instead of killing him outright.  (I say "apparently" because I don't remember Barnabas ever admitting that that was what he had done.)  I imagine that at that point the plan of the writers was to make Quentin the hero of the Leviathan storyline, so they couldn't allow Barnabas to kill him and they couldn't allow him to make Quentin a Leviathan follower - but Barnabas's act of mercy didn't fit the person that Barnabas was at the time.  I'm thinking that perhaps Barnabas could have been in the course of making Quentin into a Leviathan follower when he was interrupted, and that the interruption inflicted damage to Quentin's mind, causing the amnesia.  That's assuming that the powers that be insisted on amnesia for Quentin.

[Taeylor Collins]

I agree Goth and Lydia.  The 1995 sojourn may have been weird.  However, it's my favorite storyline in the final (full year)!

I too think I like the EP's because they were trying to do something "so different" than previously. To me.  Set wise, acting wise, story wise when it came back to the present I felt an excitement. NOT THAT 1987 wasn't exciting. I just wish this storyline would have done better and they would have not wrapped up Barney being evil so quick or the storyline in general.  ALAS.  I still wish Petofi would have somehow been worked in

[IluvBarnabas]

No question about it, the majority of us feel that tying Jeb in with Peter and Vicki was an unwanted and an unnecessary twist to the Leviathan story. 

Aside from that, I do enjoy the Leviathan storyline. It's not my favorite, but it does have enough interesting elements to keep me watching.

I just wish that we could have seen more of Paul Stoddard too. I would have loved to have seen how Elizabeth would have taken to him without the Leviathan influence (she'd still be quite hostile to him for quite awhile I imagine). But as already been mentioned, Dennis Patrick left the show for other projects.

[MagnusTrask]

I'm thinking that perhaps Barnabas could have been in the course of making Quentin into a Leviathan follower when he was interrupted, and that the interruption inflicted damage to Quentin's mind, causing the amnesia.

I like that one.   See, with a little thought, all these awkwardnesses could have been improved.    I never saw Barnabas as being under total control, though... I guess I thought of it as powerful hypnotic suggestion, where the subject is not supposed to be capable of acts he finds especially abhorrent (on a personal level in this case).   As for Josette, I thought of that as a subconscious threat that was there as a backup in case the primary control of Barnabas failed.

How about when we find out the Book says never to kill people?!   Let's make a list:

The Book says we play nice
[spoiler]Q not killed in hospital
Blair turns up
Peter Bradford and his wild story... I'm not convinced that Ned Stuart didn't get drunk and put a noose around his neck and make up the whole thing.
Jeb finds true love and gets nice
Josette/Kitty a prisoner[/spoiler]

[Taeylor Collins]

How about when we find out the Book says never to kill people?!

The book kind of seems like a page (if you will) to Wicca's BOOK OF SHADOWS and GRIMOIRE!  Probably not though.  I guess Wicca wasn't tallked about much then!

[Gothick]

"The Book" was inspired by Lovecraft's Necronomicon, particularly as used in the film version of The Dunwich Horror.

The idea of its being in a lost language that only David Collins had the power to read was one of the cleverer twists of the story, I thought.

G.

[ProfStokes]

The idea of its being in a lost language that only David Collins had the power to read was one of the cleverer twists of the story, I thought.

A few months ago, I saw an episode of the old sci-fi show "Tales of Tomorrow" called "The Children's Room".  In the story, gifted children from around the world who possess special genes are being trained to take over the world and make it a more enlightened place.  Una O'Connor plays the librarian in the Children's Room, a room that exists only for these special children, where they receive instruction books written in a language that only they can read.  When I saw this, I immediately thought of David reading the Leviathan bible.  I wonder if any DS writers were familiar with the program (it could have inspired the idea for Tad and Carrie's vanishing playroom too).

ProfStokes

[GooberCollins]

It's one thing when shows introduce elements of an unlikable character's backstory that make him or her sympathetic. But the way they made Jeb a "sympathetic" character was ridiculous. [spoiler]Oh, so now, all of a sudden, he's a good person, and we're supposed to be sorry for him? And then they tell us that, on top of everything else he did, he killed the series' first heroine, and they still expect us to feel sorry for him? What the heck were the writers thinking? It even continued into Beyond the Shadows, what with Carolyn turning Adam down because she had been truly in love with Jeb? This is writing that belongs on Nickelodeon, not Dark Shadows.

I actually think the way they gave Quentin amnesia was pretty good, especially considering the fact that now, both times we've seen Barnabas drive, he's run over someone! [/spoiler]

And I agree with Taeylor that the Megan and Jeb thing was just pervy and disturbing. But Roger married his grandmother, so stuff like this on DS is hardly uncommon.

[Taeylor Collins]

True.  EHH...I never thought about that. LOL  On that subject.  Carolyn and Chris, are they kin.  This always confuses me.