Looking Ahead to 1897

Originally posted by Vlad on the Dark Shadows: General Discussion Forum on January 31, 2002 at 19:48:59:

For those who are interested in some of the literary sources that DS drew on during its run, a recent British production of "Nicholas Nickleby" aired on Bravo this week and will be repeated on Sunday during the day (in two two-hour episodes).

DS borrowed from an early section of the novel in its depiction of Rev. Trask's school (Worthington Hall?). I thank whoever pointed this out on the old board during the last airing of DS's 1897 storyline. I had forgotten about this until I sat down to watch my tape of Nicholas Nickleby (it aired during the presidential address Tuesday night and I'm sure it got *great* ratings

). At first I thought, well maybe the DS writers said something like, "Hey, let's make this Rev. Trask's school like the one in Nicholas Nickleby," and I thought that might be the extent of it. As I watched, though, there were clear parallels between DS's Rachel Drummond and Tim Shaw (?) with Nicholas and his sister Kate Nickleby. It was interesting to see that, aside from the fact that it's a great production!

This was another reminder to me of how literate the DS writers often were, and how creative they could be in adapting material from a wide variety of sources and fitting it into a supernatural storyline. Not to mention that someone on the team had even read this early novel of Dickens, which wasn't widely known before the Tony Award-winning Broadway/Royal Shakespeare Company production in the late '70s.

- Vlad