Discuss: '91 Series - Ep #07

For those who may have missed it the first time around, here's the montage for Ep #7 that we created in the forum's VantageNet days to celebrate the '91 series' 10th Anniversary:

And here's the recap/theme(with Lysette Anthony included):

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<a href="http://www.dsboards.com/1991/Recap-Theme_7.swf" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.dsboards.com/1991/Recap-Theme_7.swf</a>

(To control the play of the video, right-click on it and use the controls.)

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(This recap shows the scene between Vicki and Barnabas on the terrace from Ep #6 with the correct day-for-night filtering. Also, observant viewers will no doubt notice how it is possible to tell Collinwood from the Old House whenever the model is used.  )

(More to come...)

1790 – Well the first thing that struck me was that until now I’ve been under the impression that Collinsport was in Maine, however, Abigail clearly and distinctly places it in the “territory of Massachusetts.”  I often thought that was a continuity error on the part of the writers, but after a little Wikipedia search, I discovered that “The District of Maine was a legal designation for what is now the U.S. state of Maine from American independence until the Missouri Compromise on March 4, 1820, after which it gained its independence from Massachusetts and became the 23rd state in the Union.”  So it’s entirely possible that is why Abagail refers to Collinsport as being in Massachusetts.  Now the only confusion (for me anyway) as why Abigail refers to Massachusetts as a territory when it became the sixth state of the new Union in February of 1788.  Perhaps the only thing she reads is her Bible?

I thought it was interesting that they considered Victoria dressed strangely.  To me it looked like a pretty simple black dress and boots (barely seen) that far more modestly covered her than the dresses she was given by Angelique, which showed much more bosom.  Perhaps that’s what Barnabas meant.  Simply that she seemed out of fashion.  Thank goodness she wasn’t wearing anything more obviously 1980s or she’d have the bailiff called on her before she spoke a word! (grin)

The Rest of the Family –
I like Joshua, firm and harsh, but fair.  I love the bit where he checks Victoria’s teeth!  Though it makes me think a) Victoria has very good teeth indeed (no fillings, otherwise Joshua would surely have asked about the silvery substance on her molars) or b) she’s had her teeth capped (a rare thing for a girl raised in a orphanage).  Anyway, it was funny.

Abigail is creepy and barely tolerated it seems.  I don’t like her very much, but then even as nice Mrs. Johnson, I don’t really care for her.

Naomi, unfortunately, so far is just like Elizabeth, a cipher.  There really isn’t much in the way of script to differentiate the Elizabeth at the costume party from 1790 counterpart.  Unfortunate.  And just how old is she anyway?  She really looks far beyond an age when she could have given birth to Daniel and Sarah.

I LOL’d at the relationship between Barn and his younger brother Jeremiah, the long-suffering never taken seriously kid brother….

Millicent – I remember smiling a bit at her entrance.  Poor Jeremiah!

The Rest of the Characters -
Sigh – The Loomis family seems to have the same problem with their teeth no matter what century they live in and the same skin condition.  Ben at least seems more with it and thankfully not used as rather oversold comic relief.

Victoria – she seems to have already started to sow the seeds of her suspicion without realizing it.  Though as a teacher, I would have hoped that she would have thought a little before attempting to explain a laundry label and a zipper.  I keep thinking that if she’d been a little quicker on her feet, she could have made up some story about a kooky relative who worked metal and invented the metal stitchery.  And a little explanation of the symbols might have diverted some of Abigail’s suspicion for a time.  “The seamstress who made this for me sewed the cleaning instructions into the garment for fear I might forget.  She used pictures to represent words to save space.  This picture is the wash tub, and see that is an iron” and so on …

It’s a good thing she is pretty and the handsome Peter Bradford has “taken a shine to her.”  Otherwise it does seem as if she might have been hauled away as mad.  I can understand Barnabas’ curiosity.  Victoria knew his name and the name of his fiancée, coupled with the fact that she so strongly resembles Josette is an odd confluence of coincidences.  Under the circumstances, I can well understand Abigail’s concerns, even as I scoff at her extremist views.

Speaking of extremist, OMFG, Trask is the scariest of fire and brimstone preachers.  A charletanesque carryover from the Inquisition and the Salem witch trials.  Is he even a real man of the cloth or is it an affectation? You want to scoff at him the way the Collins men do, but my heart goes out to Victoria.  She could be in deep trouble.

Peter – Handsome, kind, and apparently has access to a much better razor than his lookalike 200 years hence….

Last, and unfortunately, least, is Angelique.  It would seem to me that Angelique is an important character and big role and you want someone with the acting chops to get their teeth into.  I suppose she is pretty in an ordinary way but there is no spark whatsoever between her and Barn.  Even lit warmly by the candles and the fire, their was no heat or passion at all in their scenes.  Maybe others feel differently, but to me she has no presence at all.  Perhaps they were going for a blond attractive girl who didn’t look like she could be a witch, but IMO, Lysette Anthony is rather one note, almost as if as an actress she has the talent of an extra suddenly thrust onstage as the star.  I don’t sense any layers, or nuances to her performance, she is exactly the same when she is seducing Barnabas, talking with Victoria, bringing Willie under her power.  It’s a rather empty performance, however, given how much she has worked since, it must not be a lack of talent but perhaps the direction she gets here.  Oh, an’ zee cod Frauch accent eez making me crahzee, sacre bleu!

Likewise with Natalie.  The accent is very distracting and makes me think less of someone speaking English as a second language and more as if they are putting on airs.

A remark on the vagaries of Time Travel.  Barnabas remembers Phyllis Wick now because time is apparently in flux, but will his memories changed and he will remember Victoria when/if she returns?  Or will this create some kind of parallel timeline?

My mind works in mysterious ways and one of the things I was thinking about in this particular episode is all the stuff that we don't see vis a vis a 20th century girl suddenly thrust back in time 200 years.  How often did people typically bathe in those days.  How often did they wash clothes.? What does she do about make up?  I assume a girl of her station probably would not have the money to buy or wear such things, that is to day, if she's not monied and has money to buy make up she's probably a prositute?  How would the other women react to seeing Victoria with shaven armpits and legs?  Having grown up in the 20th century, how will she deal contemporary technology when her monthly friend arrives?

And a word about underwear.  While ladies in undergarments hold no thrill for me whatsoever, I did find that both Victoria and Angeligue both benefited from the adage "Less is more."  The times we see them in their underwear this episode they did both look rather sexy.  It also makes me wonder what the reaction was when Victoria was being helped to change into the dress Angeligue gave her, because the undertarment she would have been wearing would very likely have been a skimpy (by 1790 standards) panties and bra.

I don't think the "monthly friend" would be a problem.  Surely all women have experience in dealing with emergency situations in that area.  Primitive bathroom facilities were what I was thinking of.  I suppose Victoria would be given a chamber pot (standard issue, plain and unadorned for a tutor).  Maybe she would have to empty it herself, but I'm betting a servant would come around early in the morning.  And she would be told where she was on the bathtub schedule - once a week, Saturday night, like little Laura Ingalls in the next century, perhaps?  I like to imagine her fellow servants gasping in horror when Vicky asked, "Where's the shampoo?"

The French accents grated on me, too.  "C'est Angélique" was just done wrong!  And why do the Frenchwomen have to speak in such high voices?  I'd like to hear a woman speak in a deep voice for a French accent.  I think it has been done before.

Why on earth was Millicent so unutterably rude?  I realize she had just been bumped around in that coach as she had never been bumped around before in her life and she must have an unbelievable headache - but hasn't she ever learned anything about how to behave herself in public?  The whole scene strikes me as very strange.

I feel sorry for Phyllis Wick.  Vicky knows why she herself is in 1790.  She doesn't understand it, but she was at the séance.  Phyllis, on the other hand, wasn't at any séance (heaven forbid!), and she has no idea what happened.  It probably hasn't yet occurred to her that she has traveled in time.  Everybody around her knows what happened, which is an improvement over Vicky's situation - but Phyllis doesn't know anything about that, either.  She's just lost.

I don't think the "monthly friend" would be a problem.  Surely all women have experience in dealing with emergency situations in that area.

I certainly don't pretend to be an expert in that area, I just wonder what would constitute an emergency situation for a woman from 1990 where resolving such a situation isn't the closest convenience store away?  A friend told me about a reality show she watched that aired on PBS in 2000, called 1900 House, where a modern family live in a house as it was built in 1900 and could not use technology or conveniences available after that year.  For the women in the family, it was particularly ardurous not only with the amount of work by hand that women had to do back then, but also it meant several days a month of wearing cotton pads attached to a belt, that had to be hand washed and reused.  I was imagining it wouldn't have been much different 110 years earlier.

Um...hmm...Nelson, I see you're not lying when you say your gender is male.

I've never pretended otherwise.  I apologize for causing you Lydia or anyone any offense and for my own confusion/ignorance.

Oh, dear me, you didn't cause me any offense.  Just some laughter.  And some perplexity as to how to respond without getting into details that nobody wants to read.

Fair enough. 

The thought of having to deal with, shall we say, "feminine hygiene issues" in an 18th century setting is one of the reasons that I would NEVER want to travel through time, but I digress. 

This episode was good - but did anyone else find it rather rushed? There was more story here than there was time to tell it.

I go back and forth about some of the acting. Lysette Anthony's Angelique is a little too sly and kittenish for me. I think it should be clear to one and all that she's up to no good from the first, but some of that is the fault of some fairly unsubtle writing.  And yeah, her French accent is pretty over the top, but to my ear it sounds fairly authentic.

Barbara Blackburn is sort of hilarious as Millicent, and I'm wondering what/if they're actually going to do anything with the character, but I agree that she's somewhat inexplicably rude. It's as if more back story for her character was left out.

Also hilarious is Roy Thinnes as Trask - you can tell that the actor was really having a good time playing this part, esp. after the somewhat more uptight Roger Collins. We already know that this "Reverend" is no good. Thinnes really chews the scenery.

Also on the holy roller front, you can tell right off that Abigail Collins is going to cause Vicki some problems.  Julianna McCarthy really does a lot with this character, IMHO.  It appears that the old biddy is sexually frustrated and is clinging to superstition in order to assuage her lack of lovin'.  Let's hope that Vicki will find some good friends with the menfolk of the Collins family and their immediate circle.  Peter Bradford certainly seems like he might be an attractive ally, no?

Vicki's really in a difficult situation, isn't she? Although she tries to keep most of what's going on with her a secret, I think in her place, I might have said just enough so that people wouldn't think I was nuts, and then just kept very quiet.  But it's going to be hard for her to stay in the background, especially since she looks EXACTLY like Barnabas's newly-arrived fiancee, Josette. To me, it's a little weird that the Collins family aren't way more freaked out at the resemblance.

I recall that when Lystte Anthony was interviewed on CNN's Showbiz Today just before the premiere of the '91 DS, she said that the new DS would have a lot of "deep breathing" - and not surprisingly they showed excerpts from the scene between Barnabas and Angelique at the end of Ep #7's 2nd Act. However, that scene played somewhat differently on NBC than it does on the MPI VHS and the Sony DVD. There's more deep breathing in the NBC version. And, well, more of something else on the VHS/DVD.    Check out each version:

NBC:

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<a href="http://www.dsboards.com/1991/0208_Act2_NBC.swf" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.dsboards.com/1991/0208_Act2_NBC.swf</a>

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VHS:

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<a href="http://www.dsboards.com/1991/0208_Act2_VHS.swf" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.dsboards.com/1991/0208_Act2_VHS.swf</a>

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(More to come...)

LOL - [spoiler]Pop go the boobies![/spoiler]

Well, now we know who gets to play Angelique in Depp's version:  Janet Jackson.

Gerard

Gosh where do I start? Ok...I must be in the minority when I say I love LA as Angelique. I feel she has great prescence and though the accent does get a bit grating, I don't think it's all that bad. Yes, the episode felt a tad bit rushed to me too. I wish they would have added more...particularly more Sarah and Barnabas scenes but that's just me.

I crack up during the part where Joshua checks Victoria's teeth too! hehe...I think out of all the past roles, I didn't care for Roy as Reverend Trask so much. Something was missing to me but I can't quite place it.

I love Joanna Going in the dual roles of Victoria and Josette. That was great!

Previews:

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<a href="http://www.dsboards.com/1991/Previews_7.swf" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.dsboards.com/1991/Previews_7.swf</a>

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