Gabriel and Edith's children - the missing generation?

[libshad84]

Hey all...

I'm about to start a fanfiction story set at Collinwood in 1870 focusing on Gabriel and Edith's children, i.e. Judith and company's parents.

What is known about this missing generation? According to what I have found out here and on the old darkshadows.com, the kids names were Geoffrey, Charles, and Caleb. Where did those names come from? Do we know which one was Judith and company's father?

Any help/discussion would be greatly appreciated! 

[Joeytrom]

Caleb is the Caleb Sayers Collins who owned the house that Vicky & Burke wanted to move into back in 1967.  Turned out he had a clause in his will stating no one could live in the house for 100 years after his death (1872).

Charles is named for the David Selby character on Night of Dark Shadows, who lived around 1805.

Geoffrey was named by Kathleen Resch in her long running Collins Story from The World of Dark Shadows zine.

[Taeylor Collins]

I have been thinking about all of this recently since I watched 1840. It's slightly mind boggling and I usually get a headache.  It lends itself to great fan fiction though.

[David]

I still want to know how Grandma Edith survived her death in 1840!

[arashi]

Man are we all connected or what? I was just running this over in my head the other night while I thought of character bios.

I'd like to assume Edith survived her strangulation, later came to and reformed herself just a bit, but probably not enough.

What ever happened to Tad? Didn't David (while exploring the west wing with Amy) find a portrait of Thaddeus Collins and explain he had fought in the Civil War? Maybe he was KIA. Would explain why Edith's kids inherited it all.

[Joeytrom]

When David & Amy went exploring the west wing, they came upon a portrait of a Thaddeus Collins, who David said was alive during the Civil War.

This couldn't be 1840 Tad as he died in 1840 in the original timeline.

I am thinking that perhaps the actions of Gabriel & Edith were manipulated by Judah Zachary to rid himself of the rest of the Collins family to coincide with Quientin's hanging.

[spoiler] Edith may have been unconscious after her strangulation, appearing that she was dead at the time to Gabriel.  As for Gabriel, he may have also ended up unconscious falling down the stairs, only this time he legs really became paralyzed.  He dies in 1863 as Edith said in 1897.  

As was stated in a previous post, this may have led to the both of them being reformed.  
[/spoiler]

The writers really should have had Edith & her husband (not Gabriel) on vacation or something so they couldn't mess things up.  Terry Crawford could have played another Collins wife married to Gabriel.

[libshad84]

I remember the beginning the "Mystery of Seaview" storyline with Vicki and Burke. So Caleb leaved there and died in 1872. I assume "1872" was actually stated on the show.

If Charles and Geoffrey weren't actually mentioned on the original series, then I won't probably use those names.

Was it stated on the show how many kids Edith and Gabriel had? What gender they were?

I'm gonna do my story from the perspective of the "new" timeline. Gabriel's kids, spouses, and their kids along with Tad, Daphne, and Desmond. And of course young Judith and Edward as teenagers and newborn Quentin!!

[Gothick]

Dear Library,

Given how cavalier the DS writers (or more specifically, Lela Swift, since it seems to have been largely herself dictating where the storyline went at this point in the game) were with the existing continuity when it came time to construct the plot of the 1840 storyline, I'd say you should feel that you can have a free hand when it comes to 1870.

My biggest frustration with 1840, apart from the big reconciliation towards the end which strained credulity to the breaking-point, was that all kinds of information and hints were given about Collinwood in 1840 during the preceding "Summer of 1970" storyline--and then the writers proceeded to ignore nearly every snippet and hint they had dropped in favor of a completely different story!  In part this was because the story that had been envisioned would have called for such things as shipboard scenes on Gerard's pirate vessel, and they probably realized rather late in the game that there was no way in Hell that they could stage this at all realistically on the threadbare budget they were given.

Hope you enjoy writing your story.  We're not allowed to post fan fiction here, btw--just to let you know.

G.

[Joeytrom]

When Elizabeth tells Burke about the 100 year provision, she says that it expires in 5 years.  It was 1967, in 1972 the provision expires.

[libshad84]

Thanks for you guys help. I wish there was a fan fiction forum here.

Well even Dark Shadows often times contradicted themselves, so I might as well too!

Thanks Joeytrom for the clarification about Caleb's death in 1872. Guess I can't kill him off in my story then, unless I
contradicted the show or change my story to 1872...

[arashi]

Well it's not like the show never contradicted itself.... 

[David]

I've always suspect that two things were going on with the poor writing towards the end of 1840:
they were burnt out, and didn't care as much as they had, and the sudden cancellation, coupled with Frid's refusal to continue playting Barnabas,  didn't give them enough time to properly conclude the story.

[Joeytrom]

Is it possible that this is another parallel time 1840?

[Gerard]

The main problem, of course, is that Barnabas, Julia and Eliot radically changed history.  Originally, Edith's (and, hence, Gabriel's) children were the heirs, but now it's Quentin I's son, Tad, who has become the heir and all future generations would be passed down through that lineage.  Therefore, no Elizabeth or Roger, Carolyn or David (at least living in Collinwood).  When I did my Charles-Delaware-Trollish version of continuing the series, I did just that:  when Barnabas, Julia and Eliot return to the present day (1971), they find an entirely different Collins family living there.  Whoopsadasie!  Now how do they get out of that pickle?  (And the subplot dealt with another problem:  Barnabas used the I-Ching to travel to the past, sending his astral-self to 1840 to possess his own body.  He returned to the present in that body.  So what happened to his body sitting in a comatose spell?  Won't there be two of them back in '71?  Another uh-oh.)  But in true DS spirit, I managed to get them out of another fine mess they got themselves into.

Gerard

[Gothick]

Yes, Gerard, it can be done.  With an ironclad determination to ignore any postulate of logic, reality, or attempts at coherent continuity with previously established plot developments.

That's the real reason why we just can't get enough of this show!

cheers,

GothEEEEK