DS Redux: Your Vision?

How many different re-tellings have there been to Dracula?  To The Turn of the Screw?  What about Prisoner of Zenda or Frankenstein or even The Four Feathers?  What makes the various adaptations of these stories worth checking out?  IMHO, two things only--the actual quality of the production, and the differences from other versions.

That is how I feel about DS.  I've actually seen four versions, if you count the movie HODS.  Apart from the original series, and the 1991 revival, there was also the Off Off Broadway play done in the 1980s when I lived in NYC.  Each was interesting, with its quirks and flaws and insights.

As far as my own notion (described above), please note I kept both elements Cousin_Barnabas so longed for.  My notes for this idea did have an odd "take" on Josette's story that I didn't include above but which I include here:

Back in 1795, Josette DuPres came to Collinwood as part of an arranged marriage between herself and Jeremiah Collins.  Trouble reared its head almost immediately because he met and almost instantly fell in love with Jeremiah's young nephew, Barnabas.  He felt the same way about her, but there was little either one of them could do against the combined wills of their families.  Finally--and unknown to Barnabas--Josette asked her maidservant Angelique if there was anything she could do.  Angelique, she knew, was a powerful wielder of magic but remained reluctant to do as Josette begged--to find a way for her and Barnabas to be together.  Finally, Angelique wove a spell to combine their destinies together in unbreakable bonds for all time.  But she warned Josette that magic is wild, untamed and will do as it wills.  The results are not to be predicted.  Josette didn't care.

Not long after this, Josette was attacked by a bat and fell deathly ill.  Her death sent the entire estate into mourning, but to Barnabas' shock she returned from the dead--as a vampire!  She claimed him, draining his blood night after night until he too succumbed.  However, by that time Joshua Collins had figured out some of what was going on.  He hid his son's coffin, chaining him within.  When Barnabas was rescued, all those years and decades later, he had no idea what became of Josette.  And he is looking for her still...

There was all sorts of other things, but I thought to address the question "What about Josette?" in my outlined idea.

Just chiming in to say I'm a huge fan of Blake's 7 and had seen something vague in Jacqueline Pearce's blog about a new version.  Perhaps if it is a hit, there will finally be an official release of the series on DVD here in North America.

I think many DS fans would enjoy Blake's 7 due to the theatricality and flamboyance of much of the series.  I mean of course the original series.  The new one is probably going to look a lot like Firefly, I would guess, which is kind of an interesting homage since I believe that Blake's 7 was an inspiration for Joss Whedon's original story on Firefly.  Blake's 7 definitely was a huge influence on Babylon 5.

G.

Zahir, I really like your take on a new series.  It's really fresh.  I was addressing more the notion of a next generation type series with my very long post. 

I do like your Josette angle.  Does it mean that Barnabas still blames Angelique for the death of Josette, and that he wants Josette to be his again? 

Oh, and Midnite, I know Jane Eyre is the main influence for this type of story, but I was referring to all of the goings-on at Collinwood along with Vicki's arrival, such as Liz's secret and Burke's revenge. 

I hadn't quite made up my mind about what Barnabas thought might have happened, or how much he knew.  But I suspected that Josette had probably been killed and her ghost haunted Collinwood, at least for now.

I like your ideas, Zahir, but I have to come down on the side of Cousins Magnus and Goober (wow, there's a sentence you don't read every day ).  I'd much prefer a "Next Generation" take on a new series, either daytime or prime time.

I've jotted notes for such a beast myself, beginning right after the funeral of Elizabeth, who find found some personal happiness and lived to a ripe old and peaceful age.  I think I may have used Sam Hall's TV Guide "epilogue" to the series as a starting point and then flashed forward to the modern time.  It's been a while since I dug up those notes...

That's fine.  "Different strokes..." and all that.  But I do think that any attempt at DS:TNG will have some inherent problems.  One is that the backstory is so complex, yet relatively unknown.  This leaves the producers with only a few realistic options.  First would be to ignore the backstory as much as feasible.  Another would be to create a new backstory--i.e. much like the novels and the first two movies were different timelines altogether from the television series.  Still another might be to go with a similar notion and simply set the series in Parallel Time!

Another problem would be the lack of many iconic characters and/or relationships.  Imagine Batman without Wayne Manor or Alfred.  Or Superman minus Lois Lane.  Suppose somebody made a new Star Trek and they simply decided not to even reference Vulcans or Klingons.

How does one have DS without Barnabas, Julia, Angelique, Josette, etc.?  There are, to be sure, ways of getting around this.  Simply recast and bring them back (although explaining how Julia could possibly still be alive is a bit of a puzzler--well, alive and active).  Reincarnate them in one way or another, which would also involve recasting.  Or you could simply re-invent the iconography of DS.  We might meet another Collins suffering under some kind of curse, with a physician of the opposite sex (or the same--this is 2008) trying to cure them, at least partially out of (unrequited?) love.  Entwined in this curse could be some other love triangle, including a powerful and dangerous individual with more lives than any dozen cats.   But the danger is in becoming nothing more than a retread, a formulaic story-telling with no surprises or real passion.

Still--it could be done.

But my point is, you can take BSG route just as well and I suspect would find it easier than the TNG one.  It would also, I suspect, be easier to sell (at least until and unless the new movie is some kind of gi-normous hit).

Either way, I think we all agree that if a new DS series were done well, then anything else  is entirely secondary.  Quality is not dependent on any particular "take" on how to re-do DS so long as it is workable and offers the opportunity to explore the characters and story.  However anyone did it, the idea is to do it well.

Meanwhile, I enjoy exercising my imagination.

I think we all agree that if a new DS series were done well, then anything else  is entirely secondary.  Quality is not dependent on any particular "take" on how to re-do DS so long as it is workable and offers the opportunity to explore the characters and story.  However anyone did it, the idea is to do it well.

Precisely.

Meanwhile, I enjoy exercising my imagination.

And that's exactly what topics like this are for. 

I found some notes and thought folks might enjoy seeing who I cast in my imagination.   

Barnabas Collins = Jonathan Rhys Myers (The Tudors, Gormenghast)
Roger Collins = James Spader (Boston Legal, The Secretary)
Elizabeth Collins Stoddard = Marcia Cross (Desperate Housewives)
Carolyn Stoddard = Rachel Bella (The Ring, The Crucible)
Daphne Collins = Ellen Page (X-Men 3, Juno)
Victoria Winters = Amber Benson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Maggie Evans = Elizabeth Harnois
Joe Haskell = Jared Padelecki (Supernatural)
Rev. Trask = Roy Doctice (Beauty and the Beast)
Angelique = Gina Torres (Firefly)
Laura Collins/Cassandra Blair = Rose McGowan (Charmed)
Burke Devlin = Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck)
Roxanne Drew = Neve Campbell (Party of Five)
Dr. Dave Woodard = Richard Schiff (West Wing)

Of that list, Zahir, I only recognize Amber Benson, James Spader, and Jonathan Rhys Myers.   Gods, I feel old...or maybe I am just too disconnected with current pop culture....

Just because I'm a show-off...

Roger Collins = James Spader (Boston Legal, The Secretary)

I like it!

Victoria Winters = Amber Benson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Yes, another excellent choice. Those eyes...

Just because I'm a show-off...

Very nice. Though you have JRM's look all wrong:

 

My vision?

There should be three movies.

The Release Of Barnabas, it would take place today.

The Beginning, it would take place 175 years ago.

The Cure, it would take place today.

Cast

Barnabas.............................Johnny Depp
Dr. Hoffman.........................Cate Blanchett
Carolyn Stoddard.................Charlize Theron
Willie Loomis........................Giovanni Ribisi
Professor Stokes..................Jeffery Combs
Roger Collins........................Kelsey Grammer
Sheriff Patterson..................Gary Cole
Rev. Trask............................Jerry Lacy   I think he can still play the part.
Mrs. Johnson........................Marsha Mason
Elizabeth Collins Stoddard....Kathryn Leigh Scott
Maggie Evans........................Kate Hudson
Angelique..............................Julianne Moore
Victoria Winters.....................Jennifer Connelly
Quentin Collins......................Keifer Sutherland

That's all I can come up with so far.

If I were making the now movie, before the credits, we would see members of the Collins family (the original cast in the TV show) looking into the at other people with their names. Pro. Stokes as played by Thayer David would explain parallel time as the credits roll. We would then pass into the other room and the original cast would disappear leaving us with the cast from the new movie. We would then be shown the title "Dark Shadows" and the new story would start.

Rose definately can play evil good so I can see her as Laura/Cassandra.    I just don't see Amber Benson as Victoria.    And trust me I am a HUGE Amber fan!  I just don't think she has the chops to play Victoria but that is just my humble opinion!