Faulty Childhood Memories of DS

[Philippe Cordier]

Someone had a thread about this topic a couple of years ago, and I was relieved to discover that I wasn't the only person who "remembered" scenes on DS watched in childhood that apparently never happened!

One such scene that I vividly remembered was a scene where a knife was found stabbed through the pages of an open Bible on the desk in the drawing room at Collinwood.  The knife pinpointed the verse "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." The reference was to Angelique or Cassandra, warning the family that she was a witch.

In re-viewing the show now, the closest thing I've found to that remembered scene was yesterday's episode when Judith discovered the knife in the Bible from the spirit of Minerva Trask.

Judith read the following verse from the Bible:

"The righteous perish; no man taketh it to heart; none considering the righteous are taken away, but the evil is still to come."

This seemed to mean that the righteous (Mrs. Trask) was killed, though none realize it ... and more evil is still to come.

I did a web-search on this Bible verse, and it seems to have been partly made up by the DS writers!  The original verse reads:

"The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come." (KJV).

Interesting, creative use of the Scriptures by the DS writers!

The scene I so vividly recalled made such an impression on me, that I eagerly listened in church hoping to hear the minister announce:  "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!"

Alas, I was never to hear such exciting proclamations from the pulpit.  (We attended a rather liberal church that wasn't too concerned about the evils of witches!)

If this scene never happened on DS, how is it that I remembered it?

[ProfStokes]

Perhaps your TV happened to pick up the parallel time broadcast with alternate footage.  Just out of curiosity, had you known about the quote ("Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.") before viewing the show?

I don't think my memory has ever fabricated a scene from DS, but I have combined parts of various scenes into one or remembered events in a different context.  

Very interesting about the revision of the Biblical passage.  Since the writers have manipulated so many historical details on other occasions, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by this either; apparently nothing is sacred.
 
ProfStokes

[Connie]

In re-viewing the show now, the closest thing I've found to that remembered scene was yesterday's episode when Judith discovered the knife in the Bible from the spirit of Minerva Trask.

Maybe you DID see it.  How different are the shows airing now than the ones originally broadcast?  Just wondering because in another thread the Collector Series is mentioned as containing things that don't appear elsewhere.  I'm not familiar with the differences between the 200 MPI volumes, Collector series/various compilations, and what Sci-Fi shows.

....The original verse reads:

"The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come." (KJV).

Interesting, creative use of the Scriptures by the DS writers!

I'll say!  LOL   I'd be willing to bet that one of the writers recalled a biblical passage they thought might fit the scenario, and when they looked it up, found it wasn't exactly what they remembered, and took the liberty of changing it to fit.  (This is known as "DS scriptural license")  ROFL  (No pun intended)

Actually, this practice is nothing new.  It's been going on for centuries.  Case in point:  King James version of The Bible.  

By the way, has anyone on here ever read The Egyptian Book of the Dead?  Remember a few weeks ago, the scene where Quentin and Angelique are performing that ceremony against Laura and he's reading those incantations or whatever??  Does that stuff really appear in the original scriptures?  I'm kind of interested 'cause I recently helped my son with a school project and we constructed a pyramid and put hieroglyphics on it that actually spelled out a message.  (Wonder if the teacher even bothered to translate it).  Anyway, what with that, and the recent Book of the Dead references on the show, I've become interested.  Have to go to the library tomorrow, so I figured I'd see what I can dig up.  (Again, no pun intended)  LOL

Oh...for the project my son had to form certain objects out of clay to place in the pyramid - representing things he would take with him to the afterlife.  So I've got all this leftover clay.  Figured I might as well make some voodoo dolls before the stuff dries out.  ROFL

See how DS just fits with "real life" so smoothly??

Sorry Vlad....I've sort of strayed from your topic.
(No wait...."I hath strayeth from thy topic.")

-CLC  

[Carol]

By the way, has anyone on here ever read The Egyptian Book of the Dead?

Go to:http://www.lysator.liu.se/~drokk/BoD/

I thought the quote "I'm yesterday - I know today" would fit Barnabas very well.

[Gerard]

Like so many others who watched the show while growing up, I, too, suffered from FDSMS (Faulty Dark Shadows Memory Syndrome).  One of my worst spells had to do with the movie House of Dark Shadows:  I was POSITIVE for years that I had seen the notorious David-hung-in-the-closet scene (which had been cut from the film before its final release, fearful that kids might try to imitate the "joke" and end up.....well, you know kids).  Of course, later, I realized that I had just thought I'd seen it; what I remembered were photographs of the edited cut, as well as the recounting in Marilyn Ross' novelization (or was it in the novel? - now I'll hafta go and pull it off the shelf and thumb through it just to be sure).

Gerard

[Raineypark]

For 35 years I carried what I thought was a perfect DS memory in my mind.  The last scenes John Karlen played as Willie Loomis....in the hospital, before he was shipped off to Wyndcliffe after being shot by the police outside Maggie's french doors.  

When it came around on this latest running on Sci Fi, I saw it again for the first time in 35 years.

Imagine my shock at discovering that while I remembered most of the dialogue almost perfectly, the visual images were all wrong.  People weren't standing where I thought they were, they weren't dressed the way I remembered and the entire hospital room didn't look the way I thought it did.

Evidently I had no problem with the writing, but thought I was a better director than whoever actually directed that episode.  I had altered almost every action and staging to suit myself and eventually forgot that it never really happened the way I imagined.

Makes me wonder about ALL the things I think I remember!

rainey

[Joeytrom]

I too, suffer from FDSMS.

When I originally saw DS:

When Nicholas is destroyed by fire- I thought Adam threw the doors open at Collinwood and rushed up the stairs and tripped and then proceeded to the hallway.

Josette's suicide episode- I thought she saw herself as a skeleton from Angeliques vision.

Return to 1796- I thought Ben strangled Natalie intentionally.

I know there's more, I'll have to think about them.

[jennifer]

I too suffer from this but it was a long time between viewings as i saw the last show in 1971 and then returned to it in the 90s have to add i also suffer from DS amnesia(DSA) as i remember the scenes with chris j
and the werewolf story the best and watched from pretty much the begining but never remembered Adam at all maybe just blocked out a story line i hated! LOL

jennifer
how many movies though have you viewed as a child and when you see them years later as an adult they seem different!

[Patti Feinberg]

I sorta have this...
I guess I must have been home sick during the Judas storyline, cause when growing up, people would talk about Dark Shadows and I'd mention the 'headless guy'.
No one but no one knew what I was talking about (imagine my relief when not too long ago I actually saw it!!)
But I had 'switched' it to be more of an Icabod Crane thing, more like a headless BODY moving around; I distinctly remember Julia interacting w/said body (I can see the scene w/the head now).

patti

[VictoriaWintersRox]

Maybe you DID see it.  How different are the shows airing now than the ones originally broadcast?  Just wondering because in another thread the Collector Series is mentioned as containing things that don't appear elsewhere.  I'm not familiar with the differences between the 200 MPI volumes, Collector series/various compilations, and what Sci-Fi shows.

The only thing that I've heard that the Collector Series episodes w/ Barnabas have that the DVDs don't is the slates at the beginning.

Sci Fi, like just about every cable station, edits it's reruns. DS is pretty lucky: Since the show is only 22 minutes long at the most, not that much is edited down. However, shows from that era that were in prime time had more content - usually at least 25 minutes. These episodes have dialog/scenes edited out of them to make them 22/23 minutes. Usually DVD and VHS releases are the uncut versions. However, I believe they did edit the episode where Julia goes into Tom's crypt a little, with the picture of the sun appearing on screen then it did originally. This may have been done to other episodes.

[Dr. Eric Lang]

"The righteous perish; no man taketh it to heart; none considering the righteous are taken away, but the evil is still to come."

 The original verse reads:

"The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come." (KJV).

There are many versions of the bible; it's possible the writers were referencing from a newer version than the King James version.

[Birdie]

FDSM, of course I had it.  Funny, I re discovered DS right about where we are in the story line about three years ago.  I had not seen DS since its original run.  We finally got sci-fi, I think I have mentioned this before, and I showed my daughter when she was home sick.  I got hooked once again.  To be truthful I didn't remember a great deal of the story lines.  Of course I remember Barnabas, Josette, Angelique, and Quentin.  When every I saw John Karlen in another show I would also recall him as Willie.  The last few years it has been so much fun re visiting DS and the fun of finding this forum.   I was talking to my best friend the other day solving the problems of the world and we both said that when we ran home from school to watch DS, went to the store to buy the trading cards, and ran free and wild is one of the happiest memories of our childhood.  We didn't have many worries or problems than.  We were too young to worry about "boys".   It was a special time.  I feel sorry for my children because they never have had the fun of running home to watch something so crazy and they don't have the freedom I had.  

Birdie--Gerard I thought I saw the David hanging scene too.  

[Philippe Cordier]

There are many versions of the bible; it's possible the writers were referencing from a newer version than the King James version.

True, Dr. Lang, but the DS / Minerva Trask version completely changes the meaning, so I'm sure this is an example of the writers' creativity rather than simply a different translation.

Prof. Stokes:

This was the first time I had heard "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," as far as I know. However, maybe I saw some other occult-type movie that I confused it with; or maybe a Classics Illustrated version of "House of the Seven Gables" might have contained it ... My memory, though, was that this was on Dark Shadows, and specifically concerned Angelique or Cassandra.

Another vivid memory from the show is Julia poised with a stake and mallet ready to drive through Barnabas' heart as he lies in his coffin.  I remember her agony and inner struggle as she contemplated what she felt she had to do.

Now I'm not so sure that there was any such scene!

[ProfStokes]

Another vivid memory from the show is Julia poised with a stake and mallet ready to drive through Barnabas' heart as he lies in his coffin.  I remember her agony and inner struggle as she contemplated what she felt she had to do.

Now I'm not so sure that there was any such scene!

Well, there is a scene of parallel Julia Hoffman about to stake Barnabas, but the sense of indecision seems rather to belong to the end of the dream curse when Julia is reluctant to use the stake and decides to bury him instead.

ProfStokes

[Anubis]

I am always shocked at what I can remember with such vivid detail and what I have absolutely no memory of, even within the same episode.  The last time the 1897 storyline was shown I remembered so much of it from when it was orginally on, but when they showed the Laura Collins storyline, I did not remember it at all.  I kept saying to my husband, "I know what they're going to say in this scene, I just can't understand why I don't remember Laura at all.  There were other instances as well, like when Willie was shot.  But, I never did forget the feelings I would get when Barnabas or Quentin came on the screen.