DS Redux: Your Vision?

As for #5, Zahir, I'm not sure that Dark Shadows would be Dark Shadows without a few glaring inconsistencies for us to chew over.

If all you know about Frankenstein is what you know from movies you should read the book sometime. None of the movies come close to telling the story, and I have many of the movies including "Frankenstein; The True Story".

There are hundreds of books I would love to read.  Access to all that is very limited to me because of an eye condition.  Anyway, I love "Frankenstein: The True Story".  But then I love early 70s films and culture.  There always seemed to be something wrong with the Universal movie, such as a lack of a coherent moral sense.

You nailed it, Zahir. Couldn't agree more.

5. Nature  Okay this one is technical.  I want consistent rules, thank you very much, and the more they make some kind of internal sense the better.  Is it the symbol of the cross that repels, or the faith of the wielder? Do vampires sleep during the day, or are they dead?  Can vampires eat food or not?

This one's a little trickier. I like to see "rules" consistently adhered to as well, but I'd rather that the rules be slowly revealed over a long period of time. I prefer vampires to be a bit mysterious, especially in regards to stuff like this:

Is a vampire a specialized kind of demonic possession, the equivalent of a supernatural disease, or what?  And what are a vampire's powers?

I don't want to know, actually. In DS...

[spoiler]Barnabas's vampirism being the result of a witch's curse was fine with me because they didn't go too far into details or specifics[/spoiler]

...but too much information about the creation/evolution/nature of vampires turns me off. Anne Rice's novels are a perfect example. Too much information demystifies.

Next...what I want to see in the werewolves!  

Bring it!

As for #5, Zahir, I'm not sure that Dark Shadows would be Dark Shadows without a few glaring inconsistencies for us to chew over.

I respectfully disagree.  Sure there are gonna be bloopers and mistakes but one of the greatest things about Buffy, for example, is the fact that the show had a BIBLE that was laid out before hand and there are a minimal amount of inconsistencies on that show. I like that! It makes the world we are in more believable! That is just my opinion though, I am not saying mine is any better than yours GODDESS LYDIA whom I bow down and worship!!  There is one BLOOPER in Seasons Four (of Buffy) and I have no idea how they missed that one as it is just a BIG ASS BLOOPER staring you right in the face. The editor must have been on a 14 hour day work day and fell asleep. It is quite HIGHlarious because it is in a scene that is supposed to be just horrid, grotesque, and scerry! Scerry is when something is more that scarry.  It is just SCERRY!   I am feeling flip. Sorry.

I don’t how many of you are familiar with the Burning Man Festival.  It takes place in Black Rock, Nevada in the desert, where for a week leading up to Labor Day, a temporary intentional community springs up.  This community can be upwards of 20 to 30,000 people, who bring their own camping supplies, food and water.  The highlight of the event is the burning of a giant wooden human effigy (a la The Wicker Man only without the religious overtones and human barbecue).  As I understand it, and I don’t claim to completely understand it, it is an entirely secular ritual, done more for entertainment than as a religious rite.  The original Burning Man festival has inspired “regional burns”, Burning Man-like events on a smaller scale held around the country.  There is one such event held in North Carolina, held on a family owned tract of 940 acres of mountain wilderness.  There about 3,000 folks do in the woods what Burning Man does in the desert, a temporary intentional community where there is no monetary exchange for things.  It’s a gift ecomony, where anything anyone wants or needs is offered gratis.  There are artists of all kinds, bikers, musicians, deejays, Radical Faeries, hippies of the old school, Goths, satanists, pagans, and so on, and of course many many people who breathe, dance and perform with fire.

A friend was at one such event in Maine and it started me thinking about another possible story for a hypothetical Dark Shadows: The Next Generation.

The current head of the Collins family is the son of David Collins, who as we all know , as a child claimed to see and talk and play with ghosts, and gazed into crystal balls, and contemplated (and even attempted) murder.  He grew out of that eventually, grew up got married and was head of the Collins family empire for a long time before stepping down and putting his son in his place.  David’s stepping down was not entirely by choice as in his later years began to revert to claims of seeing ghosts and making frightening predictions.  Generally, it was thought he was going senile and was gently moved aside.  I confess that in my mind’s eye, I always see and elderly Louis Edmonds playing David (think Joshua Collins but in 2008).

Enough backstory.  This would be an ongoing B or C plot for the last part of a season.  The organizers of a Burning Man-like regional burn approach the patriarch of the Collins Family to request permission to hold such an event on their vast estate.  David Collins goes completely nuts over the idea, and, as would frequently happen when he was a child, no attention is paid to the crazy coot.  It will bring a few thousands possible tourists to their “artist colony” community that might drop some dough into the local economy on the way to or from the event.  No harm is seen as being done, because with these kinds of temporary communities, while there are few rules, one of the most important is to leave the place in the same condition it was when you arrived.  Permission is granted.  The event happens.  Everything goes as planned.  The effigy, usually a man or at least gender neutral, is unusually fashioned specifically as a woman.  The night of the Burn is a festival party like atmosphere.  There is a wide swath of bare land around the effigy where only those in charge of the actually setting the fire and various fire performers are.  Now this is supposed to be a completely religion free “ritual” but the person speaking before setting effigy alight falters in his speech and suddenly alters it slightly (not enough to really sound like a religious invocation, but definitely in that direction).  He sets the effigy on fire and it’s a glorious party night for the revelers.  David’s son attended the burn (because despite his dismissal of his father’s rants) wanted to be sure that nothing “supernatural” took place.  Satisfied all is well, he returns to Collinwood.

The revels last way into the night.  By dawn, everyone has gone back to their campsites to sleep.  Of the effigy nothing remains but a pile of ashes.  In the woods at the edge of the clearing where the burn occurred, old David Collins peers intently at the ashes.  The pile breaks as if something is inside them.  While a horrified David watches, a beautiful naked woman stands and begins to brush herself off.

A terrified David whispers, “Mother.”

Fade to black.  End of season

Nelson--that was awesome!    Bravo!  Who would you cast as Laura?

Retzev--while I want the rules to be consistent, I don't as an audience member need to be told all of them.  The writers are the ones who need to know the rules, and to follow them.

Who would you cast as Laura?

I envision it as a temorary role a la Diana's turns in the original series, so I am not adverse to stunt casting a "name".

However, a good actress no matter how well known will be just as good.   What about Kristine Sutherland (Buffy's mom)?

Posters,

When submitting story suggestions, please avoid the descriptive language and dialogue that are indicative of narrative prose and instead stick to story outlines.  These final paragraphs, for example, traveled perilously into fan fic territory:

In the woods at the edge of the clearing where the burn occurred, old David Collins peers intently at the ashes.  The pile breaks as if something is inside them.  While a horrified David watches, a beautiful naked woman stands and begins to brush herself off.

A terrified David whispers, “Mother.”

Fade to black.  End of season

From the Forum Guidelines:

These forums also do not accept fan fiction and such works are subject to removal.

Thanks for the head's up.  I apologize and will keep that in mind.

Mea culpa.

Okay, werewolves.   

The problem with werewolves is finding some kind of variation that makes sense and isn't too stale.  Obviously, the most common story is that of a man who hates being such a creature and must somehow keep himself from destroying those around him when the moon is full.

Interestingly, the business about the full moon and silver is all made-up stuff from Hollywood.  No more in the actual folklore than bats are associated with vampires!  But by all means let us keep to those traditions--why not?  But at the same time, let us consider what genuinely makes for a good werewolf story and ask for those to be included in any DS series...

1  Some kind of treatment  Notice the word I used.  Not "cure" but "treatment."  Something that more-or-less keeps the wolf at bay on nights of the full moon.  Perhaps an amulet (which can be lost, stolen, given away, etc.), or a (presumably rare) herb, or perhaps an experimental drug.  Not a portrait that changes instead of you because, well, that 's been done.  But the reason for this is to create conflict, and something for the werewolf to do in response to his condition than a secret stone room.  Two excellent examples of this are the films Werewolf in Paris and Ginger Snaps 2 (the latter has the werewolf finding increasingly strong injections of wolfsbane growing less effective over time--while a male of the species keeps looking for her as a mate).

2.  Bestial influence  I think the most interesting werewolf stories often include a sense that the "wolf" is bleeding into the human.  Look at Jack Nicholson in the movie Wolf to see what I mean, or maybe the husband in The Howling in which a vegetarian enthusiastically devours meat.  Perhaps the effect would grow over time, especially near the full moon.  One might even imagine that the lupine form would become less and less anthropomorphic over time.  A really cool detail in an episode of Buffy was when Oz, even in his human form, could smell his girlfriend on someone else.

3.  Different reactions  Static characters are dull characters.  Identical characters are dull also.  Let us see either the Cursed One finding a way to live with their condition, or changing their mind, or in any case doing something other than just  mope-and-hide.  Perhaps they meet another werewolf whose personality is quite different, who may revel in their condition, maybe even longing to cast aside the human and enjoy the pure life of an animal.

4.  A Woman  C'mon, why should the guys have all the fun?  There is no reason in the world not to have stories about female werewolves.  In fact, there've been some excellent ones (probably the best was the Ginger Snaps trilogy).  Can you imagine, for example, what if Nancy Barrett's Carolyn had been a werewolf?  Wouldn't that have been fascinating?  Or what if instead of a vampire, Angelique had returned as a werewolf?  Can't you imagine her locking someone in a room with her just before sunset on the night of a full moon?  Heh heh.

5.  Good Makeup  Sorry, but the tendency is too often to create silly looking werewolf makeups.  Oz on Buffy looked like some kind of mongoose, while to be honest the old Lon Chaney design is kinda overdone.  Best werewolf designs I've ever seen were in the movie Underworld but those in Wolf were also excellent (and subtle).

6.  Consistency  Same as with vampires.  Write your rules and stick to them.  Don't have to tell us them all, but please know them yourselves.

Comments?

There have been werewolf stories where the "werewolf" can change at will. Maybe they could have one that has to change on a full moon but can change at other times as he/she wishes. Maybe a stranger arrives at Collinsport and is a werewolf. Then the family member decides to use his curse to fight the stranger werewolf. Of course the rule that a "werewolf must kill the on he loves best" would have to be changed but that could be done easy enough.

Wolvesbane was used as a cure as early as Werewolf Of London so that's nothing new and could be used here. In that film it was a very rare plant found in Tibet, I think they called the plant Wolvesbane. Whenever the wolf is needed the cursed one would just not take his shot. Now once he changes he must kill so this would be something that he wouldn't want to do, but would allow them to bring back the werewolf from time to time.

I really like the Burning Man scenario, Nelson, though calling David a "coot"...?!  I keep looking for a way to connect to the Burning Man thing somehow, by the way.   Their message board wasn't too interesting.    Anyway, there's something compelling about that scene, not sure what yet.   She's young, he's older.   She's literally rising from ashes in front of his eyes.   Did David ever have any sort of hippie-ish past himself?   

Zahir--- Today's films and TV are our contribution to the folklore of the future I think, though we don't know what bits will survive and which won't.

Retzev--while I want the rules to be consistent, I don't as an audience member need to be told all of them.  The writers are the ones who need to know the rules, and to follow them.

Good point, and I think that takes care of the Anne Rice objection, and Taeylor's (and my) need for consistency and continuity.

I should have mentioned also the idea of a werewolf who could (sometimes) control the change.  Good catch!

That suggests a storyline, even.  Let us say that (for example) David's daughter Nina hasn't been heard of since she dropped out of college a couple of years back.  Now she shows up again, and is very mysterious about what she's been up to.  Then this guy arrives looking for her--let us call him Blake.  Turns out Blake is a member of a pack of werewolves who, by giving in to the beast, are no longer at the mercy of the full moon.  They can control when the shift, and even retain some of their mind.  Nina fell in love with Blake and he initiated her, but although she cares for him she doesn't want to be a werewolf.  So now she's looking for some kind of antidote, because unlike Blake she cannot control it...

I like it.

After she finds the cure that pack arrives in Collinsport. They are against the cure because she knows about the pack, she know too much. Her only choices are to join the pack or turn against them and use her "power" to stop them. She must embrace her wolf or loose everything, and if she isn't careful she could loose herself to the wolf.

Sorry, the mere mention of "Blake" propels me into "Blake's Seven" territory, and I forget everything else....