What did other writers want to do after 1897??

Hello Cousins...I have had this question on my mind for the last several days.  I know in one thread I believe it was confirmed that a lot of the writers were against The Leviathan storyline to follow up after 1897. I think it was MB (who seems to know all sorts of things I haven't learned in my almost 20 years in fandom) who spoke of this!  Do you guys know what some of the other writers idea's were? Also what do you think would have been a good follow up to the enthralling 1897 storyline?

I personally think it would have made perfect sense for Petofi to come to the present day and wreak all kinds of havoc. I actually like The Leviathans period I just think it was handled wrong after the hate mail started pouring in.

I did some searching.  I hope I haven't started a thread already devoted to this topic, if I have feel free to move this and delte the topic.

Taeylor

Well, we know they wanted to throw a mummy into the mix, but just not sure if it was immediately after 1897 or later.  They probably thought it was cheaper and easier to have Jeb Hawkes run around in a leather jacket in every episode than having to wrap some guy up in gauze.

Gerard

I saw a copy of a Soap Opera magazine from 1969 where it states that following 1897, DS was going to have a story involving a mummy.

We have confirmation....

Mummy? Hmmm, that would have been interesting...sort of...where would the mummy have come from?

I kinda liked the Leviathan storyline though those people at the alter were strange.

And I have to wonder at Carolyn's choice in men 

I am glad they didn't do a Mummy storyline....talk about cheese.  I personally love the Leviathan storyline..it was creeptastic, however I just would have preferred to have the whole 6 month story instead of the mess they turned it into when the hate mail came in.    ON Volume 4 of DS Collection, Sam commented on using Lovecraft and said that he wishes Stephen King was writing then and they could have stayed on 100 years.  I enjoyed his interview.  It's great that they have gotten these interviews as everyone involved is getting up there in years.....

I quite agree with you, Taeylor.  That would have been too much.

nancy

I would have liked to see Petofi at some point in the distant future, maybe after 1840, or maybe even in some other flashback to before he lost his hand. But, by the time 1897 was over, we had just had Petofi as the primary villain for around 80 episodes. I think 1897 was sort of growing too long and stale by its end (although I thought the episode where Garth Blackwood first appears is one of my favorite of all time-- tons of stuff happened there), and re-introducing Petofi would have been sort of a continuation of that.

What a magnificent character Count Petofi was!

When DS was on the air back in the 1980s, my father had retired and tuned in around 1897 out of curiousity as he had never seen the show.  He was quite taken with the character of Count Petofi (and Angelique) and became a regular viewer of the series.

Nancy

I wouldn't have minded a mummy - perhaps the mummy even could have been Count Petofi in one of his plots to escape the gypsies.  It would have been better than the leviathin kids marathon.

Hmm. Well, that's a good thought.  They could have just have him come back as a ghost or a more-cognitive enabled zombie.  I suppose I tend to think of mummies as being ancient and egyptian. 

nancy

I would've loved for Petofi to have come to the modern day.
I always thought it might have been more interesting if Barnabas had settled in 1897 for good. Imagine the Leviathans in 1897, with Judith , Edward, Kitty, Magda, Pansy etc. The 1897 cast is pretty fabulous after all!

1897 was a good storyline, IMO.  My father had a very short attention span and couldn't wait for the next episode.  That's one way to spend your retirement years! 

It's best they didn't stay in 1897.  Although Judith & Edward were more interesting, it was nice to see Liz, Roger, and the present time family again.

1897 was too long, it should have wound up after the Quentin death was resolved.

1897 is the one DS story that I can't think of a moment where the climax of the plot was.  It would have been the Quentin death resolution, but the story continued on for two more months.

They already (sort of) did The Mummy any way.  Barnabas was not a mummy, but the whole part of his early story that's not from Dracula is right out of the mummy.  The original film, with Boris Karloff, had the archaeologists (arguably tomb robbers) disturbing his rest. The mummy loses the bandages and pretends to be an archaeologist, a distant relative of the ancient Egyptians.  He lives peacefully enough until he sees the woman he fancies as the reincarnation of his lost love.  Then he turns violent and tries to recreate her through her modern counterpart. 

I forgot why he was mummified, but I think it had to to do with a forbidden love.